Something You Can Do That People Will Never Forget
This past Sunday evening I preached a sermon with the lesson text coming from 1 Kings 2. This is David’s charge to his son Solomon just before his death. I was using this passage as a jumping off place for a lesson for our graduates. The goal was to give them advice in order for them to lead successful, godly lives.
My second son, Daniel, who has this uncanny ability to look deeper into the text and point out something other people miss, made a comment to me afterward about the passage. He mentioned a man that I had somehow overlooked who was remembered along with his sons. If I were to tell you about Barzillai the Gileadite, would you admit to me that you have never heard of this person before in your life? Yeah, me neither.
Note what David says to Solomon in 1 Kings 2:7:
“But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and let them be among those who eat at your table, for so they came to me when I fled from Absalom your brother.”
A closer look at 2 Samuel provides information about the man named Barzillai. First, when David fled from his son Absalom into a place called Mahanaim, Barzillai was one of the men who provided for David and his men in the wilderness (2 Sam. 17:27-29). Second, when David was restored to his kingdom, desiring to repay a kindness, David invited Barzillai to come stay with him. But Barzillai was old, a man of eighty years, and he kept himself from being a burden to David. He decided to stay in his homeland and die there and send a servant to help David instead (2 Sam. 19:31-39).
The moral of this story is that God’s people will never forget a kindness we may do, especially when they are in desperate need. David was a man of God. He was not the type of man who would fail to remember a righteous act done on his behalf. When the time came for David to have the opportunity to pay Barzillai back for what he had done, David offered his very best to the person who had assisted him in one of the darkest moments of his life.
My favorite part of this account is not that Barzillai helped David. It is not that David attempted to pay him back. My favorite part is that Barzillai never helped David because he wanted to receive anything – and even when it was offered he unselfishly turned it down. It is enough that God sees what we are doing. It is enough that we are just doing what is right. It is enough that we make an impression on hearts by serving and assisting. It is enough to simply go home and lie down in our bed in peace without any thought of physical repayment until God takes us home to be with him forever.
We are blood-bought. We are beloved of God. We are children of the King. And by the grace of God we know that our reward came long before we ever did any good thing.
Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for telling me about Barzillai the Gileadite, the man David never forgot. I will never forget him either.
“So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’” – Luke 17:10.
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AUTHOR: Jeremiah Tatum
