D
D
Damaris (Acts 17:34)
Damaris was an Athenian woman who heard Paul’s message on Mars Hill, believed on Jesus, and, along with some believing men, joined with Paul. The accent in her name is on the first syllable. Because the name is not found in ancient documents, some students change it from Damaris (“gentle”) to Damalis (“a heifer”), a term that was applied to Greek courtesans who catered to the men of wealth, but we have absolutely no evidence that Damaris was that kind of woman. Perhaps she was among the aristocratic God-fearers who heard Paul in the synagogue (Acts 17:17) and followed him to Mars Hill. The fact that Luke mentions her by name suggests that she was a woman of rank who was known to the believers who would read his book and that her life had been exemplary. Important women had been converted to Christ in Philippi (Acts 16:13–15), Thessalonica (Acts 17:1–4), and Berea (Acts 17:10–12), and now in Athens. The varied responses to the Gospel that occurred in Athens still occur today: some laugh, some delay, and some believe. Damaris believed.
WWW
We get the impression that she had a mind naturally inclined to high things. Perhaps she had been baffled with life’s perplexities and disappointments…. It took courage and self-denial for her to come out on the side of Christ and of Paul…. How much the church of Christ owes to women like that! And how much it needs such women today! … Can any of those Stoics or Epicureans be named who invited Paul to preach to them that day on Mars Hill? Not one of them! But the name of Paul still lives, and the name of Damaris, who chose Christ and eternal life, still lives, and will live forever, because her name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
CEM, Chariots of Fire, pp. 24–25
Daniel
See Ezekiel 14:14, 20; 28:3.
The story of Daniel is fascinating because it reveals the possibilities of godliness in the midst of the circumstances of ungodliness.
GCM, 8:221
The one universal feature of the portrait is its answer to the question, “What is the quality most needed by a young man?” The Book of Daniel I regard as beyond all things the young man’s guide-book—the only book which has deliberately pointed out the quality which is essential to the formation of character…. What is it? It is courage—the spirit of daring…. The peculiarity of this man’s courage is that from beginning to end it was laid in an unpoetic scene…. It was hailed by no spectators, cheered by no plaudits, accompanied by no bands of music. No eye looked on but the eye of conscience, no voice said “Well done!” but the voice of duty.
GM-RMB, 2:333–35
To know God is courage, and it is peace; but above all, it is power.
James S. Stewart, The Gates of New Life, p. 73
According to Bishop J. C. Ryle, the secret of Daniel’s character was his steady walk with God, his habit of prayer and his confidence in God.
J. C. Ryle, The True Christian, pp. 247–51
Oh! that our prayers could get beyond praying, till they got to agonizing…. Not till it comes to travail—not till then—may we expect to see much done.
CHS, 61:521
Daniel was himself a prophet, but he studied the inspired prophecies of Jeremiah. If such a man need read Scripture, how much more ought we! [See Daniel 9:1–2.]
CHS, 61:528
Consequences! Never mind the consequences; there wasn’t any such word in his dictionary. When it came to a question of obeying the law of his God, he was going to obey, and let God take care of the consequences.
Moody, Words, Work, and Workers, p. 67
Oh, for a grand character to support one’s religious determination!
CHS, 39:40
Under all dispensations there have been men of the class to which Daniel belongs. The antediluvian period produced an Enoch who “walked with God and was not, for God took him,” and he, like Daniel, prophesied concerning the coming of the Lord. In the patriarchal period there was an Abraham who is called “the friend of God,” with whom the Lord communed in a most peculiar [distinctive from others] manner. In the after days, under the law, was there not a David, “a man after God’s own heart”? … I might say that Daniel was the John of the prophets, and that John was the Daniel of the evangelists.
CHS, 19:1–2
Though he had been made a president of the empire, yet he was still a Jew; he felt himself still one with the seed of Israel…. [He] would remember them and pray for them, and would plead that their desolation might yet be removed. [See Daniel 9:19.]
CHS, 61:517
David
Two helpful books for studying the life of David are The Life of David as Reflected in His Psalms by Alexander Maclaren (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1888), and A Harmony of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles by William Day Crockett (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1964).
WWW
The man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14; Ps. 89:20; Acts 13:22). Note the “key of David” (Isa. 22:15–25; Rev. 3:7), the “root of David” (Rev. 5:5), and the “root and offspring of David” (Rev. 22:16). David was known for the skill of his hands and the integrity of his heart (Ps. 78:70–72). God’s gentleness made him great (Ps. 18:35).
WWW
David’s life illustrates the old adage, “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” Of course, David could “take it” because he trusted the Lord and obeyed Him.
WWW
One of the purposes of the book of Ruth is to explain how David came on the scene. He was related to a Moabitess (see Deut. 23:3), yet God graciously accepted Ruth (Ruth 2:21) and therefore accepted David. See Ruth 4:13–22.
WWW
God sought a man (1 Sam. 13:14), found him (Ps. 89:20), chose him (Ps. 78:70), and appointed him (1 Sam. 13:14), and thereby provided a king (1 Sam. 16:1).
WWW
Few have had so varied a career as he: shepherd and monarch; poet and soldier; champion of his people, and an outlaw in the caves of Judea; beloved of Jonathan and persecuted by Saul; vanquishing the Philistines one day, and accompanying them into battle on another …
F. B. Meyer, David: Shepherd, Psalmist, King, p. 17
It may be that Abraham excelled him in faith, and Moses in the power of concentrated fellowship with God, and Elijah in the fiery force of enthusiasm. But none of these was so many-sided as the richly-gifted son of Jesse.
Meyer, David, p. 17
Sometimes we have to march, sometimes to halt; now we are called to action, again to suffering; in the battle to rush forward like a torrent, in the next to glide stealthily to ambush and wait. We must admit nothing stereotyped in our methods.
Meyer, David, p. 155
A throne is God’s purpose for you; a cross is God’s path for you; faith is God’s plan for you.
Alan Redpath, The Making of a Man of God, p. 65
Goliath (1 Samuel 17)
I am sure that the top-brass Israelites spent every day discussing ways and means to deal with the giant and defeat the Philistines. Then, one day, little David came along and it was all over…. The answer was not in growing a Goliath but in developing a David, and that is exactly what God was doing in the solitudes around Bethlehem.
Vance Havner, Why Not Just Be Christians? p. 67
It was there that the victory over Goliath was really won. To have lost his temper in this unproductive assault would have broken the alliance of his soul with God, and drawn a veil over the sense of His presence. [On David’s self-control when his brother criticized him. See 1 Sam. 17:28–29.]
Meyer, David, p. 43
King Saul
But the moment the world discovers what you are, when the obvious evidence of heavenly reality rests upon you, they will begin to sling the javelins at you. Also, as in the case of David, you will discover that the place of rejection by others is the place of acceptance by God.
Redpath, Making of a Man, p. 18
This illustrates the fact that it often requires as much godly resolution to restrain the excesses of zealous but unspiritual friends as it does to stand firm against the rage of incensed enemies. [On the two occasions when David had the opportunity to kill King Saul and refused, even though some of his best men advised him to do it. See 1 Samuel 24, 26.]
Arthur W. Pink, The Life of David, 1:163
Nabal (1 Samuel 25)
David was patient with King Saul who tried to kill him, but he lost his temper over Nabal’s unkindness and would have murdered him were it not for Abigail. See Proverbs 15:1 and 25:11–12, and Psalm 141:5.
WWW
Three approaches to life are illustrated in the Nabal event: like Nabal, we can return evil for good; like David, we can return evil for evil; or like Abigail, we can return good for evil. See Romans 12:17–21.
WWW
However long I may have been on the Christian path, however often I may have overcome one temptation or another, however many times I have defeated sin in one area it can strike in another and crush me in a moment.
Redpath, Making of a Man, p. 107
The Cup of Cold Water (2 Sam. 23:13–17; 1 Chron. 11:15–19)
How often we sigh for the waters of the well of Bethlehem! We go back on our past and dwell on never-to-be-forgotten memories.
Meyer, David, p. 164
Great services reveal our possibilities; small services reveal our consecration.
GHM, Return of the Angels, p. 113
When asked to write his memoirs of the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee refused and explained, “I should be trading on the blood of my men.”
Henry II, King of England from 1133 to 1189, had a running battle with the church, especially with Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. One day the king lamented, “What sluggish knaves I have brought up in my kingdom! Is there no one who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four of his gentlemen caught the message and rode to Canterbury, where they found the archbishop and killed him. Neither David nor Henry actually issued orders, but their men received the king’s desires as their commands. O that God’s people today would be that close to the Lord to discover the desires of His heart and fulfill them!
WWW
Bringing Up the Ark (2 Samuel 6)
Just as David borrowed his idea from the Philistines, the church today has borrowed from the world the vehicles of her ministry. We study the techniques of this age, the gadgetry of the business, social, and entertainment world, looking for new carts on which to carry the ark of our testimony. We hold a wet finger in the air to ascertain which way the popular wind is blowing; we set our sails to catch the latest breeze. Instead of asking, “How does God do it?” we ask, “How does the world do it?” We are religious copy-cats.
Vance Havner, Moments of Decision, pp. 46–47
The biggest business before the church today is to get the work of God off the new carts, and back on the shoulders of separated men and women. Too many Philistines run the church today…. God’s work must be done by God’s people in God’s way.
Havner, Moments of Decision, p. 51
Deep Disappointment (2 Samuel 7)
During his many wars, David regularly took a portion of the spoils to be placed in the treasury of the Lord. His plan was to use the treasure for building the temple, but God told him he was not to build it. This was a great disappointment in David’s life.
WWW
Some day we shall understand that God has a reason in every “no” which He speaks through the slow movement of life. He would reveal it to us if we could bear it; but it is better not to pry into the mystery of His providence.
Meyer, David, p. 183
David committed adultery with Bathsheba and married her, and from this union Solomon was born (2 Sam. 12:24–25). David became proud and numbered the people, and because of this sin, seventy thousand people died (2 Samuel 24). To stop the plague, David purchased a piece of property, erected an altar, and offered sacrifices to the Lord. One day, Solomon built the temple on that very piece of property! David didn’t build the temple, but out of David’s two worst sins God built a temple to His glory (see Rom. 5:20).
WWW
Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11–12)
The Bible never flatters its heroes. It tells us the truth about each one of them in order that against the background of human breakdown and failure we may magnify the grace of God and recognize that it is the delight of the Spirit of God to work upon the platform of human impossibilities.
Redpath, Making of a Man, p. 5
But the most deadly evils do not leap on us. The most deadly evils creep on us. And it is that slow and silent growth of all that at last is mighty to confound, which lulls men into the strange security which always is the associate of self-ignorance.
GHM, The Afterglow of God, p. 382
A great man cannot commit a small sin.
Alfonso “the Wise,” King of Castile and Leon (1252–84)
Let us beware of our light, unguarded hours. Moments of leisure are more to be dreaded than those at strenuous toil. Middle life—for David was above fifty years of age—has no immunity from temptations and perils which beset the young.
Meyer, David, p. 195
The better the man, the dearer he pays for a short season of sinful pleasure.
Meyer, David, p. 196
The wonder of all righteousness is this, that its tomorrow is brighter than yesterday. The certainty of sin is always this, that its tomorrow is a little worse.
GHM, Return of the Angels, p. 221
Sin is dark, dangerous, damnable; but it cannot stanch the love of God, it cannot change the love that is not of yesterday, but dates from eternity itself.
Meyer, David, p. 199
The good things in life we pay for in advance; the bad things, on the installment plan.
David, a “Salvation Army Cadet”
General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, used to preach a sermon to new recruits in which he compared David to a Salvation Army cadet. David was a volunteer, “unskilled and undrilled” in the rules of war, but he became a successful soldier and leader. He was despised, chaffed, and sneered at, yet he did his job and honored the Lord. He had confidence in himself and in his Lord. He is an example of what the “Christian soldier” ought to be (2 Tim. 2:1–4).
Deborah
She is the only woman in the Bible who is placed at the height of political power by the common consent of her people. Other females have reigned besides Deborah—but not by the suffrages of the people. Jezebel reigned, Athaliah reigned; but their empire was regarded with hatred by the community…. But Deborah had no royal lineage. She was the wife of an obscure man. She was the head of a humble household unknown to the people of Israel.
GM-RWB, 151
Demas
Three texts tell the whole story, and a sad one it is. “Demas … [one of] my fellow laborers” (Philem. 24); “Demas” (Col. 4:14); and “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world [age]” (2 Tim. 4:10). Jesus has delivered us from “the present evil age” (Gal. 1:4), and yet it exerts a strong pull and captures many professed believers. First there is friendship with the world (James 4:4), then we are spotted by the world (James 1:27), then we love the world (1 John 2:15–17) and start conforming to the world (Rom. 12:2). The result? We are condemned with the world (1 Cor. 11:32), as was Lot, who lost everything (Gen. 19).
WWW
He was not a monster, but just a man like the rest of us; and he came to his bad eminence by a well-trodden and familiar path.
Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Scripture (2 Tim. 4:10–11)
Then I saw in my dream, that a little off the road, over against the silver mine, stood Demas (gentleman-like) to call to passengers [travelers] to come and see; who said to Christian and his fellow, Ho! Turn aside hither, and I will show you a thing.
CHRISTIAN: What thing so deserving as to turn us out of the way to see it?
DEMAS: Here is a silver mine, and some digging in it for treasure. If you will come, with a little pains you may richly provide for yourselves.
Then said Hopeful, Let us go see.
CHRISTIAN: Not I, said Christian, I have heard of this place before now; and how many have there been slain; and besides that, treasure is a snare to those who seek it; for it hindereth them in their pilgrimage….
Then Christian roundly answered, saying, Demas, thou art an enemy to the right ways of the Lord of this way, and hast already been condemned for thine own turning aside by one of His Majesty’s judges (2 Tim. 4:10).…
DEMAS: Yes, my name is Demas; I am the son of Abraham.
CHRISTIAN: I know you; Gehazi was your great-grandfather, and Judas your father; and you have trod in their steps [2 Kings 5:20; Matt. 26:14–15; 27:1–5]. It is but a devilish prank that thou usest; thy father was hanged for a traitor, and thou deservest no better reward…. Thus they went their way.
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress
Some preachers are forsaking Paul today, forsaking what he stood for and the standard he raised: the Pauline theology, manner of life, and view of the future. They tell us that Jesus came simply to teach a Gospel of love, but Paul built a complicated system of doctrine, including ecclesiology, ethics and eschatology that are out of date today. His views on the inspiration of the Scriptures, sin, blood atonement, salvation, separation from the world, Christian conduct and the future do not fit the image of clergymen who wear mod attire, use Madison Avenue techniques, hobnob with Sodom and Gomorrah, chatter gaily in the new language of the avant-garde, and are more like the happiness boys on television than holy men of God.
Havner, Moments of Decision, p. 119
Doeg (1 Samuel 21–22; Psalm 52)
When we come to this man Doeg, we feel like leaving out the “e” and letting it stand as just plain “dog.”
CEM, Chariots of Fire, p. 82
Doeg was a past master of the art of defamation of character by slander…. Everything that Doeg reported was true … but it was told in such a way and told at such a time, as to leave the impression in the mind of Saul that Ahimelech was in conspiracy against him.
CEM, Chariots of Fire, pp. 84–85
The slanderer is the submarine of human society, prowhng submerged in darkness and discharging his missile at those who go up and down the paths of life on errands of peace and good will.
CEM, Chariots of Fire, p. 85