Romans-Related Topical Applications

The Death of Private Dee Jobe

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: New Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2001-03-18

Synopsis: John Weaver uses the story of Confederate scout DeWitt Smith Jobe, who was tortured and killed rather than betray his comrades, to illustrate that the righteous do not always prosper in this life, but God's vengeance and justice are certain, either in time or eternity. He draws parallels to Uriah the Hittite and emphasizes the need for courage and character in both living and dying.

[John Weaver] Well, let's open our Bibles today to 2 Samuel chapter 11, 2 Samuel chapter 11. And today I'm going to be preaching another unusual message rather than a normal exposition of Scripture. But I think one not only will be enlightening, but also one that will illustrate some principles from the Scripture. Listen very carefully. Here is the title of the message. There's a message on the death of Private DeWitt Smith Job, who was a Confederate Medal of Honor recipient. And I think you'll understand as I give you the scripture today. 2 Samuel chapter 11, beginning with verse 1.

[John Weaver] And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabba. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass at eventide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent in inquired after the woman.

[John Weaver] And one said, It's not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and sent unto old David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet, And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. When they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from my journey?

[John Weaver] Why didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents. And my Lord Joab in the service of my Lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul livest, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and tomorrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie in his bed with the servants of his Lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set you Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire ye from him that he may be smitten and die.

[John Weaver] It came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Urab the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approach ye so nigh unto the city, when ye did fight?

[John Weaver] Know you not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech, the son of Jerebisheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebes? Why went ye not to the wall? Then say thou, thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and went and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even at the entering of the gate. And the shooter shot from off the wall upon my servants, and some of the king's servants be dead, and my servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as the other. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him."

[John Weaver] One of the few good things that can be said for Hollywood movies is at least in a movie, you can make the good guy win every time. However, in real life, Good guys do not win every time. One of the most frequently asked questions is why do the righteous suffer? In fact, the entire book of Job centers around the righteous suffering. In 2 Samuel chapter 11 here, David, who normally is what you and I would call the good guy, is now the villain. Here is the one instance where David deviated from the clear, concise word and will of God. David had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, he had not only made Uriah drunk, which was a sin as well, but now he's definitely planning to murder Uriah. And he's doing so with the sword of the children of Ammon. I want you to note that in this story that we just read, in each and every instance, Uriah was the godly, obedient, and righteous individual. In fact, in this story, Uriah is more godly and more obedient and more righteous than David.

[John Weaver] And yet, it was Uriah who lost his life. Now, I want you to note carefully that it was Uriah who was willing to suffer with the people of God. When David called for Uriah and thought to cover his sin, instead of Uriah going home, Uriah slept at the door of the house of David. And when David asked him, he said, why in the world did you not go down and sleep in your own bed with your wife and eat your own food? I said, food down there?

[John Weaver] Why did you not go? He said, is the Lord living? The ark and the people of God. And Joab, my commander, they're suffering in the field. They're being deprived. And shall I go and enjoy myself while God's people are suffering? God forbid. He said, I'm not about to do this thing. So Uriah then was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the people of God. Uriah was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the good of the country. Uriah was the one willing to sacrifice for God's honor and God's glory. Uriah was courageous, bold, and brave, and righteous.

[John Weaver] And yet he died, killed by the enemy. Now, there's a truth that you and I need to understand, and that is this. Good guys do not always finish first. Sometimes they come in last according to the reckoning of the world. But the truth of the matter is this. There comes a time and a day when God will always set the record straight. I want you to look in your Bibles, hold 2 Samuel 11, but look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32, and let's begin reading there with verse 35. Deuteronomy 32, verse 35. Notice what the Word of God says.

[John Weaver] To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." Now look what God says, to me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Over and over in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Word of God declares, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. Vengeance belongs to God.

[John Weaver] And what does He say? Their foot shall slide in due time. You see, just because the wicked gets away with things temporarily, does not mean that the wicked has gotten away permanently. Their foot shall slide in due time. And then God says, the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them may taste. In other words, when God gets ready for payback time, It shall come quickly and suddenly upon them.

[John Weaver] Now skip down to verse 39. Look what he says. God says, See now that I, even I, am he. And there is no God with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up mine hand to heaven, and I say, I live forever. Now look what God declares. If I wet my glittering sword, that is, if I sharpen my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenge upon the enemy." Note what God declares, when I wet my glittering sword. He said, I'm going to make it devour much flesh. I'll make it drunk with blood.

[John Weaver] Now, the truth of the matter is this. Vengeance belongs to God. And just because God does not give an individual His pay on Friday, does not mean that that individual has escaped the judgment of God. God's paydays are not always on Friday.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to understand this. That God may, in His righteous judgment, Send forth His vengeance immediately, or He may delay it, or He may even wait unto eternity. But sooner or later, the vengeance and the judgment of God shall fall upon the wicked. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Timothy 5, and look what the Word of God says concerning this. 1 Timothy 5, and let's begin reading there with verse 24. 1 Timothy 5, verse 24. Look what the Bible says. Some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before the judgment, and some men they follow after. Likewise, also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.

[John Weaver] Now here you have a comparison. God says there are some people who are wicked. And everyone knows their sins. And their sins are judged. They're dealt with. But there are other people that are wicked that you don't know. And then he says, their sins follow after them. In other words, I will get them on judgment day. Likewise, said God, there are some folks whose good deeds are made known. And they get their reward. But there are some people who are good and godly and holy who never get a reward in this life, and God says likewise, their good deeds follow after, and I shall reward them as well. So God may either bless or curse in time and in history, or he may reserve it to eternity. But the truth of the matter that I'm trying to show you is this, that good guys do not always win in time. A lot of times we do, but not always. Uriah certainly did not win in time because he lost his life when he should never have lost his life.

[John Weaver] Now another good guy who did not win in time was a man by the name of Private DeWitt Smith Job, commonly referred to as D. D. Job. D. was one of the famous Coleman scouts. I hope you remember my message on the death of Sam Dapes. Sam Davis was the young man who was hanged at 21 years of age as a spy when he was not a spy.

[John Weaver] He was captured in military uniform which entitled him to be treated as a prisoner of war. But General G.M. Dodge wanted information from him and so he threatened to hang him as a spy if he did not give that information. And of course Sam Davis refused and Sam Davis was hanged until dead. So Dee then was one of these famous Coleman scouts. It was Captain Henry Shaw who was the head of the scouts.

[John Weaver] He had taken the name E. Coleman as an alias. And this Captain Henry Shaw, or alias E. Coleman, was the same man who traveled in and out among the northern camps posing as an itinerant herb doctor gathering information for the Confederate Army.

[John Weaver] Now, it was the purpose and duty of each scout to gather as much information as possible for the guidance of their superior officers. The scouts were known as the eyes and ears of the army. Please remember that the scouts were not spies. Because they usually stayed in full military uniform. They were just in enemy territory, scouting out, looking for information that they could give to their superior officer. Sometimes these scouts traveled in pairs. Sometimes there were more than two, but more than often they traveled alone. And usually they preferred to travel alone, and the scouts were well acquainted with danger.

[John Weaver] They understood that death lurked around every bend in the road, and yet they were willing to risk their lives for the advancement of the Confederate cause. Now, D. Job knew Sam Davis, the other Coleman scout who had given his life for the Confederacy. You remember that Sam, as I pointed out earlier, had been hanged as a spy by General Dodge. Well, Sam and Dee grew up together in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Sam grew up in Smyrna, and Dee grew up in Mechanicsville, and Mechanicsville is approximately eight miles from Smyrna, Tennessee. Now, in that area, most families were either related to each other, or at least they knew each other. In fact, many of the Coleman scouts knew each other. It may surprise you that Sam Davis had a half-brother by the name of John G. Davis who also was a Coleman Scout. Now when Tennessee seceded from the Union, Sam Davis joined the first Tennessee Volunteers and D. Job joined the 20th Tennessee Volunteers. Now, Dee had been captured by the Union and had spent seven months in prison at Camp Chase.

[John Weaver] But he was exchanged on August 25, 1862. So here was prisoner exchange. We'll give you back some Confederate soldiers, you give us back some Union soldiers. And so Dee was one of those who were exchanged.

[John Weaver] Now, men with intimate knowledge of Rutherford and Williamson counties were needed as scouts. And so by the spring of 1863, D. Job had been detached on service at the request of General William Hardy. Now when D. joined the Coleman Scouts, he found his cousin there, DeWitt Smith, and also a friend, Tom Joplin. Now, DeWitt Smith was the cousin of DeWitt Smith Job. So either Job was named after his cousin, Dewitt Smith, or both of them were named after another relative. But they were cousins.

[John Weaver] Now, Dee and of course the other scouts knew what had happened to Sam Davis. And undoubtedly, these young men wondered if they were ever captured, if they were ever tortured, would they have the courage to stand by their convictions and refuse to cooperate with the enemy? Would they be as bold and brave as young Sam? Well, by the spring of 1863, there were already many incidents of cruelty exhibited not only toward Confederate soldiers, but also toward civilians as well.

[John Weaver] Burnings, lootings, rapes, pillages, robbery, even hangings had become common by the northern troops who were wreaking havoc upon the south. Now Private D. Jove had just turned 24 in June and he was near Nashville, Tennessee probing for information speeding it southward. With him had come Tom Joplin and some of the other scouts and all of them were operating around College Grove, Triune, and Nolensville, Tennessee. On Monday August 29, 1863. General Sherman was tearing up 13 miles of Montgomery Line track around Atlanta.

[John Weaver] In Chicago, the Democrats were nominating McClellan then and hoping for a victory. In Tennessee, a former Tennessee governor, William B. Campbell, was addressing the Democrats, urging peace, warning the restoration of civilian property, warning Southern rights recognized, and by the way, denouncing Andrew Johnson as a tyrant and a despot. All these things were going on, but near Nolensville, Tennessee, time was running out for D. Jobe. Dee had been scouting alone between Triune and Nolensville, and he was in grave danger.

[John Weaver] He had been given a message to give to his superior officer. He had ridden all night long, and finally, winding his way through the back trails of the forest, toward sunrise he came to the farm of William Moss. Now William Moss had two sons. who had joined the 20th Senate Sea Volunteers, the same outfit that D. Jobe had joined. So D. knew Moss' sons. The farm of William Moss was about 200 yards west of the pike that ran from Triune to Nolensville. He had ridden all night, he came to the farm of William Moss, and he thought, undoubtedly, here's an opportunity for some breakfast, for a place to rest, and for a little fellowship. And so as the sun began to rise, he came to that farm and of course Mr. Moss then fed Joe breakfast.

[John Weaver] He also probably communicated him what information he had concerning the movement of the Federal troops in that particular area. But Mr. Moss of course told Dee that he could not stay there because daylight was coming on strong and everyone knew that he was a Confederate sympathizer and undoubtedly the Yankee patrols would be checking his home. So, right after he ate his breakfast, he got on his horse and he headed west toward the Sam Waters farm. About a mile away from the Moss farm, Dee then tied his horse in a thicket, went into the cornfields of the Sam Waters farm, and lay down to rest.

[John Weaver] Now remember, he had been riding all night long, he had just eaten a big breakfast, And undoubtedly, by the time he hit the ground, he was probably asleep. It did not take him long at all. But it's reported that undoubtedly, as he rode along, someone was looking at him through a telescope. Someone had seen the lone horseman going toward Sandwater's Farm. Someone had seen him maybe riding along a fence road. But at any rate, by the time he had laid down, He was being tracked by a patrol of 15 soldiers from the 115th Ohio.

[John Weaver] As they came into the cornfield, which they knew he was, there, they surrounded him and began to close in on him. Probably, Dee did not hear the first sounds of danger, because he was probably sound asleep. But when he did awaken, he knew instantly that he is in danger. He evaluated his chances for escape, and he decided that they were too slim. By this time, he could hear the Yankees screaming and hollering as they were rushing through the corn to get a hold of him. He had information that he could not allow them to get. And so instead of him trying to escape, he took it out of his pocket, tore it into little bitty shreds, and then began to swallow as much of the message that he could. By the time the fifteen Yankees got around him, he had swallowed most of it, but just a few scraps had fallen on the ground, and they grabbed him, and as they grabbed him, he swallowed one last time.

[John Weaver] And here the sergeant of the 115th Ohio Regiment demanded to know what was in those papers. He demanded to know who his contacts were. He told him he had to tell or die. They took D. Job's hands and tied them behind his back. Now they demanded that he talk. Tell them right now what was in the message. Tell them where he got the message. Tell them where he was supposed to meet the other scouts.

[John Weaver] Give them the information or else. Job refused to talk. And since he refused to talk, there came brutal, slaps to the head and punches with a fist into the stomach. Still he would not talk. The men of the 115th Ohio were enraged. They quickly arranged for a leather strap, maybe a bribery, and they crisscrossed it around his throat instead of whipping him and crisscrossed it in the back where they could tug and with each tug it would choke him tighter and tighter. They even hanged him some, in other words, picked him up with a leather strap off the ground and would let him down, telling him he must talk or else. He refused to talk.

[John Weaver] This time a pistol butt came up and knocked out some of his front teeth. Now here's D. Joe, bound, disarmed, helpless, and bleeding, and yet he revealed absolutely nothing. They were dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life. Each time they questioned him, he refused to answer. This time, there was not just simply a tightening of the strap, but now they used rifle butts instead of fist and pistol butts.

[John Weaver] They were smashing his face. By now, he was so weak, he could not answer. And when they began to question him more, he just merely shook his head. From the rifle butts, from the fists, his eyes were now swollen and bulging out. His teeth knocked out, undoubtedly his jaw broken. It was probably at this point he began to realize that his captors were not going to kill him immediately. It was at this point that the torture gave way to monstrous cruelty.

[John Weaver] The 115th Ohio were so enraged. They were whooping and hollering and screaming so loudly that they were heard at a nearby farm. Because Job refused to talk, one of them then reached up and gouged out one of his eyes. By that time, others had drawn out a knife and they carved out his second eye. Now he's blind. He's being choked. His face is a bloody mess. And now they take him by the straps that are around his neck and drag him up and down through the cornrows trying to make him talk. Joke still refuses to talk. They stand him up. The sergeant of the 115th Ohio is so enraged. He says, you won't talk. You won't give us the information we want. We'll make sure that you never talk again. The sergeant calls for the knife. One man reaches up, forces open D. Jobe's mouth, while the sergeant reaches in, grabs his tongue, and cuts it out.

[John Weaver] Can you imagine what was going through D's mind? Probably he was remembering his friend Sam. Hanging, as awful as it was, would at least have been more dignified than what he was going through. They then took the strap that was around his neck and tied it to his horse's tail. And then one soldier hit the horse to speed him on his way. D. Job's agony was about to be over. Strangled, choked by his own horse. The horse ran and stopped when it got to the road. The 15 men of the 115th Ohio, at least when they reached the Nolensville Road, one of them had to admit that D. Job was the bravest man they'd ever seen. A woman friend who had ridden by and had seen Job lying on the ground, by this time he was loose from the horse's tail, she got down and took her handkerchief off out and put it over his face to keep the sun from broiling his face.

[John Weaver] Word of the crime now began to spread. For years after men would shudder as they reached that point in the road where D. Job died. Someone wrote a little poem and it went like this. Many good men who passed this spot would think of Job and the deal he got, or cross themselves like nuns, and say on nights when the dark clouds toss, can you hear the clatter of a running horse?

[John Weaver] Oh lordy, what's the matter? But nobody talks, the clatter stops, and the Ghost Horse Walks, it's the Yankees teaching D. Jobe, who's boss, at the point of 15 guns. The horrible news reached Jobe's parents, Mr. E.C. and Mary Smith Jobe. They were absolutely stunned and shocked. So overwhelming was their grief. that they could not even go after their own son. The only one who went was old Frank, who was D.

[John Weaver] Job's faithful servant and slave of a lifetime. The August sun was sinking, and a spring wagon was creaking down the road, and old Frank, the Negro slave who attended Job as a child, is driving. His cheeks are wet with tears as he lifted his young master's body into the wagon to bring it back to the old log house where D. Jobe was born on June 4, 1840.

[John Weaver] And there he was laid to rest. Today there is a roadside marker that speaks of Jobe on US Highway 31A in Williamson County near Triune and Nolensville. Here's what it says. The marker says Dewitt Smith Jobe. A member of the Coleman Scout CSA was captured in a cornfield about 1.5 miles west August 29, 1864 by patrol from the 115th Ohio Cavalry. Swallowing his dispatches, he was mutilated and tortured to make him reveal the contents.

[John Weaver] Refusing, he was dragged to death behind a galloping horse. He is buried in the family cemetery 6 miles northeast. Linda Lee has written a poem concerning Private D. Jobe, and I want to read that poem to you. Listen carefully. A young man of just 24, D. Jobe was in the ranks of Southern men to give their lives to fight against the Yanks. He did not know that fateful day the message that he bore would lead to crimes that man commits and blames upon a war. He hid the message in his shirt. And as he rode away, he had no thought of what could come before the end of day. Faintly first, he heard the sound of hoofbeats far behind. He took the message, tore it up, and hoped they wouldn't find. A piece of paper they could read, his silence for his life. Fifteen men watched this man, and one came from among, held D.

[John Weaver] Job's bloody mouth apart while they separated off his tongue. The Yanks then asked him one more time, what did the paper say? Bruised and bleeding almost dead, so still now D. Job lay. They kicked his side to see if life had seeped into the ground. They fashioned a rope around his neck and tied it round and round. To chestnut horse that Job had rode, then slapped it on its flanks. A gruesome death would follow soon by way of 15 Yanks.

[John Weaver] A Negro slave had lifted him. into a creaking dray, slowly mule and negro slave brought home the man in gray. A private, just a common man, had more than done his part. The secrets that he never told remained within his heart. And in the quiet evenings we remember what's been done. Torture, death on a lonely road, fifteen men to one.

[John Weaver] Now the story's not over. D. Job is dead. But a few days later, news would reach DeWitt Smith, Job's cousin and friend of the 45th Tennessee Regiment. They had been extremely close friends, and as I pointed out earlier, may have been namesakes. And when DeWitt Smith heard what the Yankees had done to his cousin and to his friends. I'm going to use the word that the history books use.

[John Weaver] They say he became unhinged. They say he became mad. Whether he did or not, I don't know. But I do know this. DeWitt Smith then broke away from Hood's army. He broke away from the 45th Tennessee Regiment. And he raised up the black flag. Now I don't know if you understand what a black flag is. But Quantrell and some of his men fought under a black flag. Other men fought under a black flag. And the black flag signified this. I give no quarter. I expect no quarter. I take no prisoners. I expect not to be taken as a prisoner. I will kill you if you don't kill me. And so DeWitt Smith raised up the black flag and he went back in the middle Tennessee as the Avenger. DeWitt Smith before he was killed took the Y of as many as 50 Yankees in revenge for what they had done to D. Job.

[John Weaver] He was like a wolf in the night hunting a pack of sheep, singling them out, dealing with them. Linda Lee has written another poem on the tale of DeWitt Smith. Here it is. Remember I told you at the beginning of this message, I'm going to make some applications. Remember I told you God may either execute his vengeance immediately or wait or even execute it in eternity. And by the way, lest I forget, it is reported that the sergeant of the 115th Ohio, after the incident with D. Job, lost his mind over the incident.

[John Weaver] It literally drove him crazy. But DeWitt Smith, who determines he is going to even the score, begins to hunt the Yankees with knives. Linda Lee wrote the poem, and here it is. I heard it said within a man a rage will quickly grow when head and heart collide with hate at things he should not know. When body parts and human flesh are carved from mortal form, when dignity has left mankind and treachery the norm. A man can only take so much, and D. Witt Smith was there.

[John Weaver] A cousin's tortured death would be the cause of this affair. D. Job was found a bloody mass. His eyes, his tongue cut out, and DeWitt Smith would even up, he'd teach them all about. The cost of war not played by rules, the Yanks had taught him well, and DeWitt Smith thought the time was right to send them all to hell. He saw their campfires burning late, far off into the night, and slipped around the sentries till only one man was in sight. So quick his blade was flashing, a gurgled dying breath, a throat was slit from side to side, and shadows claimed a death. I've heard it said that many nights there's oil in their lamps, a demon moved among the Yanks, and blood flowed in their camps. Who would it be this fateful night, whose throat would slowly bleed, and warm the southern ground for them, revenge for Yankee deed? The guilty men are in their graves, the cost of D. Job's life, It took fifteen to take his breath, but fifty felt the knife.

[John Weaver] When winds blow deep in Tennessee, I know the tales they tell. Phantom nigh from vengeful hand that opened gates of hell. They talk of all the frightful nights, the devil of the deep, when soldiers fought to stay awake, terrified of sleep. I've heard it said within a man, there's parts to fear admire, and heaven help the ones that feed the flames. that fuel the fire. Years after the war was over, the survivors of the Coleman Scouts gathered in Nashville, Tennessee to pay their respects to their comrades who had given their lives during the war. And when D. Job's name was invoked, the following resolution was adopted by the Living Scouts. Here's the resolution.

[John Weaver] resolved, that while we regret, with the sorrow of our inmost soul, his cruel fate, we can but recollect with pride how nobly he died, strangled, beaten, and abused. Yet he defied his persecutors and died rather than betray his comrade and others who had given him assistance. has history a brighter example of true patriotism, of true friendship, of a higher capacity to endure, suffer, and die rather than betray.

[John Weaver] Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, for now he lives in fame, though not in life." Now, D. Job was posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor, and here is the citation. Realizing that he was surrounded and about to be captured by the enemy, Private Job destroyed the valuable papers in his possession by tearing and eating them. Infuriated by this ploy, his captors bound and beat him, demanding that he tell them the contents. Refusing all their demands, Private Job was slowly strangled with a leather strap around his neck. While the enemy realized Private Job would never talk, they tortured him, kicking in his front teeth, cutting out his tongue, gouging his eyes from their sockets, all the while dragging him by the leather strap until he ultimately choked to death.

[John Weaver] Now, let me make a couple of applications. Turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 55 and look at verse 23. Here's the first one. Psalm 55, verse 23. Look at what the Bible says. Psalm 55, verse 23. The psalmist says, But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Here's the part I want. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee.

[John Weaver] Did you hear that phrase? Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. I want you to note what has even happened in our country to bloody and deceitful men. A lot of them are cut down in the prime of their life. You see, the truth is this, folks. God may exercise his judgment. He may exercise his vengeance in time and in history as well as in eternity. Vengeance belongs to God alone. And the wicked shall not escape God's judgment. Many will experience the judgment of God in this life, but all will experience it at the eternal judgment. This next application I've given you before, but I want you to see this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 14.

[John Weaver] Here is a clear illustration of this principle. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 14, if you would. Romans 14. And notice, if you would please, verse 7. For none of us liveth to himself, and no man doth to himself." Isn't that a simple verse? No man liveth to himself and no man doth to himself. What does that mean? It means this, that whatever we do always affects other people. Your sins do not just affect you, they always affect someone else. Your good deeds do not just affect you. They always affect someone else. No one lives to himself. No one dies to himself. And when a man comes around and says, it's my body.

[John Weaver] If I want to get drunk, I can get drunk. It hurts nobody but me. That's not true. It hurts the wife. It hurts the children. If he's drunk in a car, it may hurt and kill someone else. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Here, 15 men cruelly tortured and murdered one man. And yet 50 others who did not do that deed died because of what they did. You see folks, no man liveth to himself And no man dieth to himself. Whatever we do always affects others.

[John Weaver] Now there's another application and that is this. We need to learn courage.

[John Weaver] We not only need courage to die, we need courage to live. We need courage to do what's right at all times. We even need courage, are you listening, to keep our mouths shut when they need to be kept shut. What am I talking about? Well, let me give you an illustration. Gossip is a horrible sin. Just revealing things that no one needs to know. Do you remember? I've used this illustration before, but let me tell you about it again.

[John Weaver] When you hit a skunk with your car, that's bad. But you wait until three days later when another hundred cars have hit that skunk and the sun has had time to warm him up and you hit him again, it's worse. Do you realize the more you spread things, the worse they get?

[John Weaver] Now let me show you something. Let me show you. Here's a principle we need to learn. If we can't help be part of a solution, let's not be part of the problem. You follow me? Now let me show you something. Let's suppose I know something on Roy. Something has happened. Maybe it's embarrassing to Roy. Maybe he did something wrong. But let's suppose I know it. And I go over and tell Ed. Here's my question. What business is it of Ed's, even if I'm telling the truth? If Ed can't help resolve the problem, why does he even need to know about the problem? You follow me?

[John Weaver] Here was a man who had courage to keep his mouth shut. when it was vitally important. And you know something, folks? I really don't believe that we'll have courage to die right unless we have courage to live right. We won't have courage to do the right things at an inopportune time if we don't have the courage to do the right things when everything is normal. To get it to you in scriptural form, if walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses? In other words, if you want to do right in extreme situations, you need to be used to doing right before you get into those extreme situations.

[John Weaver] It amazes me that someone like young Sam Davis, 21, would have courage to be hanged rather than to point to someone and say, that's amazing. It amazes me that a young man, 24, like D. Job, could endure everything that he endured. What I'm pointing out, folks, is that this generation has lost an awful lot of character from the previous generations. We think we're smarter and we may be in one sense of the word but we certainly are more immoral and have not the courage and the convictions of those of the last century or two. We've got to remember, folks, if we're going to do right in extreme situations, we need to be used to doing right before we get in those situations.

[John Weaver] Good men do not always win in this life. But good men always win, either here or in eternity. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for your blessing, for your help. Encourage our hearts, Lord, with the story of D. Job. May it, Lord, enable us to say, I want that character I want that courage. Help us, Lord, to do that which is right and holy. In Thy name we pray. Amen.

The Death of Private Dee Jobe

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	150411931
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans-Related Topical Applications
Genre	Sermon
Date	2001-03-18
Dictation Name
Book	Book 138: Romans-Related Topical Applications — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	62

Formatted Transcript

Opening

Well, let's open our Bibles today to 2 Samuel chapter 11, 2 Samuel chapter 11. And today I'm going to be preaching another unusual message rather than a normal exposition of Scripture. But I think one not only will be enlightening, but also one that will illustrate some principles from the Scripture. Listen very carefully. Here is the title of the message. There's a message on the death of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe, who was a Confederate Medal of Honor recipient. And I think you'll understand as I give you the scripture today. 2 Samuel chapter 11, beginning with verse 1.

Scripture Reading — 2 Samuel 11:1-27

And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass at eventide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. When they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? Why didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul livest, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? Why went ye nigh the wall? Then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him.

Introduction: The Righteous Do Not Always Win

Weaver introduces the theme that good guys do not always finish first, using the biblical story of Uriah the Hittite as an example of a righteous man who suffered unjustly.

One of the few good things that can be said for Hollywood movies is at least in a movie, you can make the good guy win every time. However, in real life, good guys do not win every time. One of the most frequently asked questions is why do the righteous suffer? In fact, the entire book of Job centers around the righteous suffering. In 2 Samuel chapter 11 here, David, who normally is what you and I would call the good guy, is now the villain. Here is the one instance where David deviated from the clear, concise word and will of God. David had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, he had not only made Uriah drunk, which was a sin as well, but now he's definitely planning to murder Uriah. And he's doing so with the sword of the children of Ammon. I want you to note that in this story that we just read, in each and every instance, Uriah was the godly, obedient, and righteous individual. In fact, in this story, Uriah is more godly and more obedient and more righteous than David.

Uriah's Righteousness and Sacrifice

Uriah is portrayed as more godly than David, willing to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy comfort while they are at war.

And yet, it was Uriah who lost his life. Now, I want you to note carefully that it was Uriah who was willing to suffer with the people of God. When David called for Uriah and thought to cover his sin, instead of Uriah going home, Uriah slept at the door of the house of David. And when David asked him, he said, Why in the world did you not go down and sleep in your own bed with your wife and eat your own food? I said, food down there? Why did you not go? He said, Is the Lord living? The ark and the people of God, and Joab my commander, they're suffering in the field. They're being deprived. And shall I go and enjoy myself while God's people are suffering? God forbid. He said, I'm not about to do this thing. So Uriah then was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the people of God. Uriah was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the good of the country. Uriah was the one willing to sacrifice for God's honor and God's glory. Uriah was courageous, bold, and brave, and righteous.

God's Vengeance is Certain

Weaver cites Deuteronomy 32:35-43 to show that vengeance belongs to God, and the wicked will not escape judgment, though it may be delayed.

"To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." Now look what God says, "To me belongeth vengeance and recompense." Over and over in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Word of God declares, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay." Vengeance belongs to God. And what does He say? "Their foot shall slide in due time." You see, just because the wicked gets away with things temporarily, does not mean that the wicked has gotten away permanently. Their foot shall slide in due time. And then God says, "The day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." In other words, when God gets ready for payback time, it shall come quickly and suddenly upon them.

Now skip down to verse 39. Look what he says. God says, "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up mine hand to heaven, and say, I live forever." Now look what God declares. "If I whet my glittering sword, that is, if I sharpen my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy." Note what God declares, "When I whet my glittering sword." He said, "I'm going to make it devour much flesh. I'll make it drunk with blood."

Now, the truth of the matter is this. Vengeance belongs to God. And just because God does not give an individual His pay on Friday, does not mean that that individual has escaped the judgment of God. God's paydays are not always on Friday.

Judgment May Be Immediate or Delayed

Using 1 Timothy 5:24, Weaver explains that some sins are judged openly, while others follow after, but all will be dealt with by God.

Now here you have a comparison. God says there are some people who are wicked, and everyone knows their sins, and their sins are judged. They're dealt with. But there are other people that are wicked that you don't know. And then he says, their sins follow after them. In other words, I will get them on judgment day. Likewise, said God, there are some folks whose good deeds are made known, and they get their reward. But there are some people who are good and godly and holy who never get a reward in this life, and God says likewise, their good deeds follow after, and I shall reward them as well. So God may either bless or curse in time and in history, or he may reserve it to eternity. But the truth of the matter that I'm trying to show you is this, that good guys do not always win in time. A lot of times we do, but not always. Uriah certainly did not win in time because he lost his life when he should never have lost his life.

The Story of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe

Weaver recounts the life, capture, torture, and death of Confederate scout D. Jobe, who refused to reveal information despite brutal mutilation.

Now another good guy who did not win in time was a man by the name of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe, commonly referred to as D. Jobe. Dee was one of the famous Coleman scouts. I hope you remember my message on the death of Sam Davis. Sam Davis was the young man who was hanged at 21 years of age as a spy when he was not a spy. He was captured in military uniform which entitled him to be treated as a prisoner of war. But General G. M. Dodge wanted information from him and so he threatened to hang him as a spy if he did not give that information. And of course Sam Davis refused and Sam Davis was hanged until dead. So Dee then was one of these famous Coleman scouts. It was Captain Henry Shaw who was the head of the scouts.

He had taken the name E. Coleman as an alias. And this Captain Henry Shaw, or alias E. Coleman, was the same man who traveled in and out among the northern camps posing as an itinerant herb doctor gathering information for the Confederate Army.

Now, it was the purpose and duty of each scout to gather as much information as possible for the guidance of their superior officers. The scouts were known as the eyes and ears of the army. Please remember that the scouts were not spies, because they usually stayed in full military uniform. They were just in enemy territory, scouting out, looking for information that they could give to their superior officer. Sometimes these scouts traveled in pairs. Sometimes there were more than two, but more often they traveled alone. And usually they preferred to travel alone, and the scouts were well acquainted with danger.

They understood that death lurked around every bend in the road, and yet they were willing to risk their lives for the advancement of the Confederate cause. Now, D. Jobe knew Sam Davis, the other Coleman scout who had given his life for the Confederacy. You remember that Sam, as I pointed out earlier, had been hanged as a spy by General Dodge. Well, Sam and Dee grew up together in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Sam grew up in Smyrna, and Dee grew up in Mechanicsville, and Mechanicsville is approximately eight miles from Smyrna, Tennessee. Now, in that area, most families were either related to each other, or at least they knew each other. In fact, many of the Coleman scouts knew each other. It may surprise you that Sam Davis had a half-brother by the name of John G. Davis who also was a Coleman Scout. Now when Tennessee seceded from the Union, Sam Davis joined the first Tennessee Volunteers and D. Jobe joined the 20th Tennessee Volunteers. Now, Dee had been captured by the Union and had spent seven months in prison at Camp Chase.

But he was exchanged on August 25, 1862. So here was prisoner exchange. We'll give you back some Confederate soldiers, you give us back some Union soldiers. And so Dee was one of those who were exchanged.

Now, men with intimate knowledge of Rutherford and Williamson counties were needed as scouts. And so by the spring of 1863, D. Jobe had been detached on service at the request of General William Hardy. Now when Dee joined the Coleman Scouts, he found his cousin there, DeWitt Smith, and also a friend, Tom Joplin. Now, DeWitt Smith was the cousin of DeWitt Smith Jobe. So either Jobe was named after his cousin, DeWitt Smith, or both of them were named after another relative. But they were cousins.

Now, Dee and of course the other scouts knew what had happened to Sam Davis. And undoubtedly, these young men wondered if they were ever captured, if they were ever tortured, would they have the courage to stand by their convictions and refuse to cooperate with the enemy? Would they be as bold and brave as young Sam? Well, by the spring of 1863, there were already many incidents of cruelty exhibited not only toward Confederate soldiers, but also toward civilians as well. Burnings, lootings, rapes, pillages, robbery, even hangings had become common by the northern troops who were wreaking havoc upon the south. Now Private D. Jobe had just turned 24 in June and he was near Nashville, Tennessee probing for information speeding it southward. With him had come Tom Joplin and some of the other scouts and all of them were operating around College Grove, Triune, and Nolensville, Tennessee. On Monday August 29, 1864, General Sherman was tearing up 13 miles of Montgomery Line track around Atlanta.

In Chicago, the Democrats were nominating McClellan then and hoping for a victory. In Tennessee, a former Tennessee governor, William B. Campbell, was addressing the Democrats, urging peace, warning the restoration of civilian property, warning Southern rights recognized, and by the way, denouncing Andrew Johnson as a tyrant and a despot. All these things were going on, but near Nolensville, Tennessee, time was running out for D. Jobe. Dee had been scouting alone between Triune and Nolensville, and he was in grave danger. He had been given a message to give to his superior officer. He had ridden all night long, and finally, winding his way through the back trails of the forest, toward sunrise he came to the farm of William Moss. Now William Moss had two sons who had joined the 20th Tennessee Volunteers, the same outfit that D. Jobe had joined. So Dee knew Moss' sons. The farm of William Moss was about 200 yards west of the pike that ran from Triune to Nolensville. He had ridden all night, he came to the farm of William Moss, and he thought, undoubtedly, here's an opportunity for some breakfast, for a place to rest, and for a little fellowship. And so as the sun began to rise, he came to that farm and of course Mr. Moss then fed Jobe breakfast.

He also probably communicated to him what information he had concerning the movement of the Federal troops in that particular area. But Mr. Moss of course told Dee that he could not stay there because daylight was coming on strong and everyone knew that he was a Confederate sympathizer and undoubtedly the Yankee patrols would be checking his home. So, right after he ate his breakfast, he got on his horse and he headed west toward the Sam Waters farm. About a mile away from the Moss farm, Dee then tied his horse in a thicket, went into the cornfields of the Sam Waters farm, and lay down to rest.

Now remember, he had been riding all night long, he had just eaten a big breakfast, and undoubtedly, by the time he hit the ground, he was probably asleep. It did not take him long at all. But it's reported that undoubtedly, as he rode along, someone was looking at him through a telescope. Someone had seen the lone horseman going toward Sam Waters' farm. Someone had seen him maybe riding along a fence road. But at any rate, by the time he had laid down, he was being tracked by a patrol of 15 soldiers from the 115th Ohio. As they came into the cornfield, which they knew he was in there, they surrounded him and began to close in on him. Probably, Dee did not hear the first sounds of danger, because he was probably sound asleep. But when he did awaken, he knew instantly that he was in danger. He evaluated his chances for escape, and he decided that they were too slim. By this time, he could hear the Yankees screaming and hollering as they were rushing through the corn to get a hold of him. He had information that he could not allow them to get. And so instead of him trying to escape, he took it out of his pocket, tore it into little bitty shreds, and then began to swallow as much of the message that he could. By the time the fifteen Yankees got around him, he had swallowed most of it, but just a few scraps had fallen on the ground, and they grabbed him, and as they grabbed him, he swallowed one last time.

And here the sergeant of the 115th Ohio Regiment demanded to know what was in those papers. He demanded to know who his contacts were. He told him he had to tell or die. They took D. Jobe's hands and tied them behind his back. Now they demanded that he talk. Tell them right now what was in the message. Tell them where he got the message. Tell them where he was supposed to meet the other scouts.

Give them the information or else. Jobe refused to talk. And since he refused to talk, there came brutal slaps to the head and punches with a fist into the stomach. Still he would not talk. The men of the 115th Ohio were enraged. They quickly arranged for a leather strap, maybe a bridle rein, and they crisscrossed it around his throat instead of whipping him and crisscrossed it in the back where they could tug and with each tug it would choke him tighter and tighter. They even hanged him some, in other words, picked him up with a leather strap off the ground and would let him down, telling him he must talk or else. He refused to talk.

This time a pistol butt came up and knocked out some of his front teeth. Now here's D. Jobe, bound, disarmed, helpless, and bleeding, and yet he revealed absolutely nothing. They were dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life. Each time they questioned him, he refused to answer. This time, there was not just simply a tightening of the strap, but now they used rifle butts instead of fist and pistol butts. They were smashing his face. By now, he was so weak, he could not answer. And when they began to question him more, he just merely shook his head. From the rifle butts, from the fists, his eyes were now swollen and bulging out. His teeth knocked out, undoubtedly his jaw broken. It was probably at this point he began to realize that his captors were not going to kill him immediately. It was at this point that the torture gave way to monstrous cruelty.

The 115th Ohio were so enraged. They were whooping and hollering and screaming so loudly that they were heard at a nearby farm. Because Jobe refused to talk, one of them then reached up and gouged out one of his eyes. By that time, others had drawn out a knife and they carved out his second eye. Now he's blind. He's being choked. His face is a bloody mess. And now they take him by the straps that are around his neck and drag him up and down through the cornrows trying to make him talk. Jobe still refuses to talk. They stand him up. The sergeant of the 115th Ohio is so enraged. He says, "You won't talk. You won't give us the information we want. We'll make sure that you never talk again." The sergeant calls for the knife. One man reaches up, forces open D. Jobe's mouth, while the sergeant reaches in, grabs his tongue, and cuts it out.

Can you imagine what was going through Dee's mind? Probably he was remembering his friend Sam. Hanging, as awful as it was, would at least have been more dignified than what he was going through. They then took the strap that was around his neck and tied it to his horse's tail. And then one soldier hit the horse to speed him on his way. D. Jobe's agony was about to be over. Strangled, choked by his own horse. The horse ran and stopped when it got to the road. The 15 men of the 115th Ohio, at least when they reached the Nolensville Road, one of them had to admit that D. Jobe was the bravest man they'd ever seen. A woman friend who had ridden by and had seen Jobe lying on the ground, by this time he was loose from the horse's tail, she got down and took her handkerchief off and put it over his face to keep the sun from broiling his face.

Word of the crime now began to spread. For years after men would shudder as they reached that point in the road where D. Jobe died. Someone wrote a little poem and it went like this. "Many good men who passed this spot would think of Jobe and the deal he got, or cross themselves like nuns, and say on nights when the dark clouds toss, can you hear the clatter of a running horse?"

Aftermath and Revenge

Jobe's cousin DeWitt Smith sought vengeance, killing up to 50 Union soldiers, illustrating that actions affect others and vengeance can spiral.

Now the story's not over. D. Jobe is dead. But a few days later, news would reach DeWitt Smith, Jobe's cousin and friend of the 45th Tennessee Regiment. They had been extremely close friends, and as I pointed out earlier, may have been namesakes. And when DeWitt Smith heard what the Yankees had done to his cousin and to his friend—I'm going to use the word that the history books use. They say he became unhinged. They say he became mad. Whether he did or not, I don't know. But I do know this. DeWitt Smith then broke away from Hood's army. He broke away from the 45th Tennessee Regiment. And he raised up the black flag. Now I don't know if you understand what a black flag is. But Quantrill and some of his men fought under a black flag. Other men fought under a black flag. And the black flag signified this: I give no quarter. I expect no quarter. I take no prisoners. I expect not to be taken as a prisoner. I will kill you if you don't kill me. And so DeWitt Smith raised up the black flag and he went back into middle Tennessee as the Avenger. DeWitt Smith before he was killed took the lives of as many as 50 Yankees in revenge for what they had done to D. Jobe.

He was like a wolf in the night hunting a pack of sheep, singling them out, dealing with them. Linda Lee has written another poem on the tale of DeWitt Smith. Here it is. Remember I told you at the beginning of this message, I'm going to make some applications. Remember I told you God may either execute his vengeance immediately or wait or even execute it in eternity. And by the way, lest I forget, it is reported that the sergeant of the 115th Ohio, after the incident with D. Jobe, lost his mind over the incident.

Applications: Courage and Character

Weaver applies the story to the need for courage to live righteously, keep confidences, and develop character before extreme trials.

Did you hear that phrase? "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." I want you to note what has even happened in our country to bloody and deceitful men. A lot of them are cut down in the prime of their life. You see, the truth is this, folks. God may exercise his judgment. He may exercise his vengeance in time and in history as well as in eternity. Vengeance belongs to God alone. And the wicked shall not escape God's judgment. Many will experience the judgment of God in this life, but all will experience it at the eternal judgment. This next application I've given you before, but I want you to see this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 14.

Here is a clear illustration of this principle. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 14, if you would. Romans 14. And notice, if you would please, verse 7.

Scripture Reading — Romans 14:7

"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself."

Isn't that a simple verse? No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. What does that mean? It means this, that whatever we do always affects other people. Your sins do not just affect you, they always affect someone else. Your good deeds do not just affect you. They always affect someone else. No one lives to himself. No one dies to himself. And when a man comes around and says, "It's my body.

If I want to get drunk, I can get drunk. It hurts nobody but me." That's not true. It hurts the wife. It hurts the children. If he's drunk in a car, it may hurt and kill someone else. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Here, 15 men cruelly tortured and murdered one man. And yet 50 others who did not do that deed died because of what they did. You see folks, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. Whatever we do always affects others.

Now there's another application and that is this. We need to learn courage.

We not only need courage to die, we need courage to live. We need courage to do what's right at all times. We even need courage, are you listening, to keep our mouths shut when they need to be kept shut. What am I talking about? Well, let me give you an illustration. Gossip is a horrible sin. Just revealing things that no one needs to know. Do you remember? I've used this illustration before, but let me tell you about it again.

When you hit a skunk with your car, that's bad. But you wait until three days later when another hundred cars have hit that skunk and the sun has had time to warm him up and you hit him again, it's worse. Do you realize the more you spread things, the worse they get? Now let me show you something. Let me show you. Here's a principle we need to learn. If we can't help be part of a solution, let's not be part of the problem. You follow me? Now let me show you something. Let's suppose I know something on Roy. Something has happened. Maybe it's embarrassing to Roy. Maybe he did something wrong. But let's suppose I know it. And I go over and tell Ed. Here's my question. What business is it of Ed's, even if I'm telling the truth? If Ed can't help resolve the problem, why does he even need to know about the problem? You follow me?

Here was a man who had courage to keep his mouth shut when it was vitally important. And you know something, folks? I really don't believe that we'll have courage to die right unless we have courage to live right. We won't have courage to do the right things at an inopportune time if we don't have the courage to do the right things when everything is normal. To get it to you in scriptural form, if walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses? In other words, if you want to do right in extreme situations, you need to be used to doing right before you get into those extreme situations.

Conclusion: Good Men Ultimately Win

The sermon closes with a prayer for character and courage, affirming that good men always win, either in this life or eternity.

Good men do not always win in this life. But good men always win, either here or in eternity. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for your blessing, for your help. Encourage our hearts, Lord, with the story of D. Jobe. May it, Lord, enable us to say, I want that character, I want that courage. Help us, Lord, to do that which is right and holy. In Thy name we pray. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The Suffering of the Righteous

Summary: The righteous do not always prosper in this life; godly people like Uriah and D. Jobe may suffer and die unjustly.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Good guys do not always finish first. Sometimes they come in last according to the reckoning of the world.'

Divine Vengeance and Justice

Summary: God will ultimately repay the wicked; vengeance belongs to Him, and His judgment is certain, whether in time or eternity.

Evidence: Weaver quotes Deuteronomy 32:35, 'To me belongeth vengeance and recompense,' and emphasizes that God's paydays are not always immediate.

Courage and Conviction Under Trial

Summary: True courage is demonstrated by refusing to betray principles or comrades, even under extreme torture, as seen in D. Jobe.

Evidence: Weaver describes Jobe's torture and says, 'He was dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life.'

The Interconnectedness of Human Actions

Summary: No one lives or dies to himself; our actions, whether good or evil, always affect others, as seen in the revenge killings.

Evidence: Weaver cites Romans 14:7 and says, 'Whatever we do always affects other people.'

The Need for Character in Daily Life

Summary: Courage in extreme situations is built by practicing righteousness in normal times; we must learn to do right consistently.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'We won't have courage to do the right things at an inopportune time if we don't have the courage to do the right things when everything is normal.'

Key Arguments

Uriah was more righteous than David

Summary: In the story of David and Bathsheba, Uriah is the godly, obedient, and righteous individual, yet he is the one who dies.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'In each and every instance, Uriah was the godly, obedient, and righteous individual... And yet, it was Uriah who lost his life.'

God's vengeance is inevitable

Summary: The wicked may seem to escape, but God's judgment will come suddenly and completely, as declared in Deuteronomy 32.

Evidence: Weaver reads Deuteronomy 32:35-43 and comments, 'When God gets ready for payback time, it shall come quickly and suddenly upon them.'

Judgment can be immediate or delayed

Summary: Some sins are judged openly in this life, while others are reserved for the final judgment, but none escape.

Evidence: Weaver explains 1 Timothy 5:24: 'Some men's sins are open beforehand... and some men they follow after.'

D. Jobe's death exemplifies righteous suffering

Summary: Jobe's torture and death, while refusing to betray his cause, mirrors the unjust suffering of the righteous.

Evidence: Weaver details Jobe's mutilation and says, 'He was dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life.'

Revenge perpetuates violence

Summary: DeWitt Smith's revenge killings show that one act of evil can lead to many more, illustrating Romans 14:7.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Fifteen men cruelly tortured and murdered one man. And yet 50 others who did not do that deed died because of what they did.'

Courage must be cultivated daily

Summary: We cannot expect to have courage in extreme trials if we do not practice doing right in everyday situations.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses?'

Scripture References

2 Samuel 11:1-27

Context: The story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah, read at the beginning to illustrate the suffering of the righteous.

Deuteronomy 32:35

Context: Quoted to show that vengeance belongs to God and the wicked will be judged.

Deuteronomy 32:39-43

Context: Read to emphasize God's power to execute vengeance and judgment.

1 Timothy 5:24

Context: Used to explain that some sins are judged openly while others follow after, but all are dealt with.

Psalm 55:23

Context: Cited to show that bloody and deceitful men will not live out half their days.

Romans 14:7

Context: Quoted to illustrate that no one lives or dies to himself; actions affect others.

Historical References

Sam Davis

Context: A Coleman scout hanged as a spy at age 21; his story is referenced as an example of courage.

Captain Henry Shaw (alias E. Coleman)

Context: Head of the Coleman scouts who posed as an herb doctor to gather intelligence.

General G. M. Dodge

Context: Union general who threatened to hang Sam Davis as a spy.

General William Hardy

Context: Confederate general who requested scouts with knowledge of Rutherford and Williamson counties.

115th Ohio Cavalry

Context: Union patrol that captured, tortured, and killed D. Jobe.

DeWitt Smith

Context: Cousin of D. Jobe who sought revenge, killing up to 50 Union soldiers.

Confederate Medal of Honor

Context: Posthumously awarded to D. Jobe for his bravery.

Important Quotes

Good guys do not always finish first. Sometimes they come in last according to the reckoning of the world.

Significance: Summarizes the central theme that the righteous may suffer in this life.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Significance: Key scripture asserting God's ultimate justice.

Vengeance belongs to God. And just because God does not give an individual His pay on Friday, does not mean that that individual has escaped the judgment of God.

Significance: Emphasizes the certainty of divine judgment despite apparent delays.

No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself.

Significance: Romans 14:7 quoted to show the interconnectedness of human actions.

If walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses?

Significance: Illustrates the need to build character in small things to withstand great trials.

Discussion Questions

How does the story of Uriah challenge our expectations that God always protects the righteous from suffering?

Context: Weaver contrasts Uriah's righteousness with David's sin and Uriah's death.

In what ways might we be tempted to take vengeance into our own hands, and how does Deuteronomy 32 address that?

Context: Weaver emphasizes that vengeance belongs to God alone.

What does 1 Timothy 5:24 teach us about the timing of God's judgment on hidden sins?

Context: Weaver explains that some sins are judged openly while others follow after.

How does D. Jobe's refusal to talk under torture exemplify the kind of courage Christians might need in persecution?

Context: Weaver details Jobe's torture and his commitment to his cause.

What are the dangers of revenge, as illustrated by DeWitt Smith's actions?

Context: Weaver describes the cycle of violence that followed Jobe's death.

How can we cultivate the courage to keep our mouths shut when gossip or unnecessary disclosure would harm others?

Context: Weaver applies the principle of discretion to everyday life.

Applications

Trust God's justice rather than seeking personal revenge

Summary: Believers should leave vengeance to God, who will repay the wicked in His time.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Vengeance belongs to God alone. And the wicked shall not escape God's judgment.'

Recognize that our actions affect others

Summary: We must consider how our sins and good deeds impact those around us, as no one lives or dies to himself.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Whatever we do always affects other people.'

Develop courage through daily obedience

Summary: To have courage in extreme trials, we must practice doing right in normal circumstances.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'We won't have courage to do the right things at an inopportune time if we don't have the courage to do the right things when everything is normal.'

Guard your tongue and keep confidences

Summary: We should learn to keep our mouths shut when revealing information would cause harm or is unnecessary.

Evidence: Weaver illustrates with gossip: 'If Ed can't help resolve the problem, why does he even need to know about the problem?'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T17:17:44Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-05T20:07:06Z

Clean Transcript

The Death of Private Dee Jobe

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Well, let's open our Bibles today to 2 Samuel chapter 11, 2 Samuel chapter 11. And today I'm going to be preaching another unusual message rather than a normal exposition of Scripture. But I think one not only will be enlightening, but also one that will illustrate some principles from the Scripture. Listen very carefully. Here is the title of the message. There's a message on the death of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe, who was a Confederate Medal of Honor recipient. And I think you'll understand as I give you the scripture today. 2 Samuel chapter 11, beginning with verse 1.
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And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass at eventide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman.
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And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. When they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey?
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Why didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul livest, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die.
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And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight?
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Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? Why went ye nigh the wall? Then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him.
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One of the few good things that can be said for Hollywood movies is at least in a movie, you can make the good guy win every time. However, in real life, good guys do not win every time. One of the most frequently asked questions is why do the righteous suffer? In fact, the entire book of Job centers around the righteous suffering. In 2 Samuel chapter 11 here, David, who normally is what you and I would call the good guy, is now the villain. Here is the one instance where David deviated from the clear, concise word and will of God. David had not only committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, he had not only made Uriah drunk, which was a sin as well, but now he's definitely planning to murder Uriah. And he's doing so with the sword of the children of Ammon. I want you to note that in this story that we just read, in each and every instance, Uriah was the godly, obedient, and righteous individual. In fact, in this story, Uriah is more godly and more obedient and more righteous than David.
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And yet, it was Uriah who lost his life. Now, I want you to note carefully that it was Uriah who was willing to suffer with the people of God. When David called for Uriah and thought to cover his sin, instead of Uriah going home, Uriah slept at the door of the house of David. And when David asked him, he said, Why in the world did you not go down and sleep in your own bed with your wife and eat your own food? I said, food down there?
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Why did you not go? He said, Is the Lord living? The ark and the people of God, and Joab my commander, they're suffering in the field. They're being deprived. And shall I go and enjoy myself while God's people are suffering? God forbid. He said, I'm not about to do this thing. So Uriah then was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the people of God. Uriah was the one who was willing to sacrifice for the good of the country. Uriah was the one willing to sacrifice for God's honor and God's glory. Uriah was courageous, bold, and brave, and righteous.
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And yet he died, killed by the enemy. Now, there's a truth that you and I need to understand, and that is this. Good guys do not always finish first. Sometimes they come in last according to the reckoning of the world. But the truth of the matter is this. There comes a time and a day when God will always set the record straight. I want you to look in your Bibles, hold 2 Samuel 11, but look in your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32, and let's begin reading there with verse 35. Deuteronomy 32, verse 35. Notice what the Word of God says.
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"To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." Now look what God says, "To me belongeth vengeance and recompense." Over and over in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the Word of God declares, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay." Vengeance belongs to God.
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And what does He say? "Their foot shall slide in due time." You see, just because the wicked gets away with things temporarily, does not mean that the wicked has gotten away permanently. Their foot shall slide in due time. And then God says, "The day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." In other words, when God gets ready for payback time, it shall come quickly and suddenly upon them.
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Now skip down to verse 39. Look what he says. God says, "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up mine hand to heaven, and say, I live forever." Now look what God declares. "If I whet my glittering sword, that is, if I sharpen my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy." Note what God declares, "When I whet my glittering sword." He said, "I'm going to make it devour much flesh. I'll make it drunk with blood."
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Now, the truth of the matter is this. Vengeance belongs to God. And just because God does not give an individual His pay on Friday, does not mean that that individual has escaped the judgment of God. God's paydays are not always on Friday.
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Now, I want you to understand this. That God may, in His righteous judgment, send forth His vengeance immediately, or He may delay it, or He may even wait unto eternity. But sooner or later, the vengeance and the judgment of God shall fall upon the wicked. Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 1 Timothy 5, and look what the Word of God says concerning this. 1 Timothy 5, and let's begin reading there with verse 24. 1 Timothy 5, verse 24. Look what the Bible says. "Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after. Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid."
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Now here you have a comparison. God says there are some people who are wicked, and everyone knows their sins, and their sins are judged. They're dealt with. But there are other people that are wicked that you don't know. And then he says, their sins follow after them. In other words, I will get them on judgment day. Likewise, said God, there are some folks whose good deeds are made known, and they get their reward. But there are some people who are good and godly and holy who never get a reward in this life, and God says likewise, their good deeds follow after, and I shall reward them as well. So God may either bless or curse in time and in history, or he may reserve it to eternity. But the truth of the matter that I'm trying to show you is this, that good guys do not always win in time. A lot of times we do, but not always. Uriah certainly did not win in time because he lost his life when he should never have lost his life.
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Now another good guy who did not win in time was a man by the name of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe, commonly referred to as D. Jobe. Dee was one of the famous Coleman scouts. I hope you remember my message on the death of Sam Davis. Sam Davis was the young man who was hanged at 21 years of age as a spy when he was not a spy.
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He was captured in military uniform which entitled him to be treated as a prisoner of war. But General G. M. Dodge wanted information from him and so he threatened to hang him as a spy if he did not give that information. And of course Sam Davis refused and Sam Davis was hanged until dead. So Dee then was one of these famous Coleman scouts. It was Captain Henry Shaw who was the head of the scouts.
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He had taken the name E. Coleman as an alias. And this Captain Henry Shaw, or alias E. Coleman, was the same man who traveled in and out among the northern camps posing as an itinerant herb doctor gathering information for the Confederate Army.
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Now, it was the purpose and duty of each scout to gather as much information as possible for the guidance of their superior officers. The scouts were known as the eyes and ears of the army. Please remember that the scouts were not spies, because they usually stayed in full military uniform. They were just in enemy territory, scouting out, looking for information that they could give to their superior officer. Sometimes these scouts traveled in pairs. Sometimes there were more than two, but more often they traveled alone. And usually they preferred to travel alone, and the scouts were well acquainted with danger.
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They understood that death lurked around every bend in the road, and yet they were willing to risk their lives for the advancement of the Confederate cause. Now, D. Jobe knew Sam Davis, the other Coleman scout who had given his life for the Confederacy. You remember that Sam, as I pointed out earlier, had been hanged as a spy by General Dodge. Well, Sam and Dee grew up together in Rutherford County, Tennessee. Sam grew up in Smyrna, and Dee grew up in Mechanicsville, and Mechanicsville is approximately eight miles from Smyrna, Tennessee. Now, in that area, most families were either related to each other, or at least they knew each other. In fact, many of the Coleman scouts knew each other. It may surprise you that Sam Davis had a half-brother by the name of John G. Davis who also was a Coleman Scout. Now when Tennessee seceded from the Union, Sam Davis joined the first Tennessee Volunteers and D. Jobe joined the 20th Tennessee Volunteers. Now, Dee had been captured by the Union and had spent seven months in prison at Camp Chase.
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But he was exchanged on August 25, 1862. So here was prisoner exchange. We'll give you back some Confederate soldiers, you give us back some Union soldiers. And so Dee was one of those who were exchanged.
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Now, men with intimate knowledge of Rutherford and Williamson counties were needed as scouts. And so by the spring of 1863, D. Jobe had been detached on service at the request of General William Hardy. Now when Dee joined the Coleman Scouts, he found his cousin there, DeWitt Smith, and also a friend, Tom Joplin. Now, DeWitt Smith was the cousin of DeWitt Smith Jobe. So either Jobe was named after his cousin, DeWitt Smith, or both of them were named after another relative. But they were cousins.
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Now, Dee and of course the other scouts knew what had happened to Sam Davis. And undoubtedly, these young men wondered if they were ever captured, if they were ever tortured, would they have the courage to stand by their convictions and refuse to cooperate with the enemy? Would they be as bold and brave as young Sam? Well, by the spring of 1863, there were already many incidents of cruelty exhibited not only toward Confederate soldiers, but also toward civilians as well.
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Burnings, lootings, rapes, pillages, robbery, even hangings had become common by the northern troops who were wreaking havoc upon the south. Now Private D. Jobe had just turned 24 in June and he was near Nashville, Tennessee probing for information speeding it southward. With him had come Tom Joplin and some of the other scouts and all of them were operating around College Grove, Triune, and Nolensville, Tennessee. On Monday August 29, 1864, General Sherman was tearing up 13 miles of Montgomery Line track around Atlanta.
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In Chicago, the Democrats were nominating McClellan then and hoping for a victory. In Tennessee, a former Tennessee governor, William B. Campbell, was addressing the Democrats, urging peace, warning the restoration of civilian property, warning Southern rights recognized, and by the way, denouncing Andrew Johnson as a tyrant and a despot. All these things were going on, but near Nolensville, Tennessee, time was running out for D. Jobe. Dee had been scouting alone between Triune and Nolensville, and he was in grave danger.
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He had been given a message to give to his superior officer. He had ridden all night long, and finally, winding his way through the back trails of the forest, toward sunrise he came to the farm of William Moss. Now William Moss had two sons who had joined the 20th Tennessee Volunteers, the same outfit that D. Jobe had joined. So Dee knew Moss' sons. The farm of William Moss was about 200 yards west of the pike that ran from Triune to Nolensville. He had ridden all night, he came to the farm of William Moss, and he thought, undoubtedly, here's an opportunity for some breakfast, for a place to rest, and for a little fellowship. And so as the sun began to rise, he came to that farm and of course Mr. Moss then fed Jobe breakfast.
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He also probably communicated to him what information he had concerning the movement of the Federal troops in that particular area. But Mr. Moss of course told Dee that he could not stay there because daylight was coming on strong and everyone knew that he was a Confederate sympathizer and undoubtedly the Yankee patrols would be checking his home. So, right after he ate his breakfast, he got on his horse and he headed west toward the Sam Waters farm. About a mile away from the Moss farm, Dee then tied his horse in a thicket, went into the cornfields of the Sam Waters farm, and lay down to rest.
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Now remember, he had been riding all night long, he had just eaten a big breakfast, and undoubtedly, by the time he hit the ground, he was probably asleep. It did not take him long at all. But it's reported that undoubtedly, as he rode along, someone was looking at him through a telescope. Someone had seen the lone horseman going toward Sam Waters' farm. Someone had seen him maybe riding along a fence road. But at any rate, by the time he had laid down, he was being tracked by a patrol of 15 soldiers from the 115th Ohio.
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As they came into the cornfield, which they knew he was in there, they surrounded him and began to close in on him. Probably, Dee did not hear the first sounds of danger, because he was probably sound asleep. But when he did awaken, he knew instantly that he was in danger. He evaluated his chances for escape, and he decided that they were too slim. By this time, he could hear the Yankees screaming and hollering as they were rushing through the corn to get a hold of him. He had information that he could not allow them to get. And so instead of him trying to escape, he took it out of his pocket, tore it into little bitty shreds, and then began to swallow as much of the message that he could. By the time the fifteen Yankees got around him, he had swallowed most of it, but just a few scraps had fallen on the ground, and they grabbed him, and as they grabbed him, he swallowed one last time.
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And here the sergeant of the 115th Ohio Regiment demanded to know what was in those papers. He demanded to know who his contacts were. He told him he had to tell or die. They took D. Jobe's hands and tied them behind his back. Now they demanded that he talk. Tell them right now what was in the message. Tell them where he got the message. Tell them where he was supposed to meet the other scouts.
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Give them the information or else. Jobe refused to talk. And since he refused to talk, there came brutal slaps to the head and punches with a fist into the stomach. Still he would not talk. The men of the 115th Ohio were enraged. They quickly arranged for a leather strap, maybe a bridle rein, and they crisscrossed it around his throat instead of whipping him and crisscrossed it in the back where they could tug and with each tug it would choke him tighter and tighter. They even hanged him some, in other words, picked him up with a leather strap off the ground and would let him down, telling him he must talk or else. He refused to talk.
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This time a pistol butt came up and knocked out some of his front teeth. Now here's D. Jobe, bound, disarmed, helpless, and bleeding, and yet he revealed absolutely nothing. They were dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life. Each time they questioned him, he refused to answer. This time, there was not just simply a tightening of the strap, but now they used rifle butts instead of fist and pistol butts.
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They were smashing his face. By now, he was so weak, he could not answer. And when they began to question him more, he just merely shook his head. From the rifle butts, from the fists, his eyes were now swollen and bulging out. His teeth knocked out, undoubtedly his jaw broken. It was probably at this point he began to realize that his captors were not going to kill him immediately. It was at this point that the torture gave way to monstrous cruelty.
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The 115th Ohio were so enraged. They were whooping and hollering and screaming so loudly that they were heard at a nearby farm. Because Jobe refused to talk, one of them then reached up and gouged out one of his eyes. By that time, others had drawn out a knife and they carved out his second eye. Now he's blind. He's being choked. His face is a bloody mess. And now they take him by the straps that are around his neck and drag him up and down through the cornrows trying to make him talk. Jobe still refuses to talk. They stand him up. The sergeant of the 115th Ohio is so enraged. He says, "You won't talk. You won't give us the information we want. We'll make sure that you never talk again." The sergeant calls for the knife. One man reaches up, forces open D. Jobe's mouth, while the sergeant reaches in, grabs his tongue, and cuts it out.
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Can you imagine what was going through Dee's mind? Probably he was remembering his friend Sam. Hanging, as awful as it was, would at least have been more dignified than what he was going through. They then took the strap that was around his neck and tied it to his horse's tail. And then one soldier hit the horse to speed him on his way. D. Jobe's agony was about to be over. Strangled, choked by his own horse. The horse ran and stopped when it got to the road. The 15 men of the 115th Ohio, at least when they reached the Nolensville Road, one of them had to admit that D. Jobe was the bravest man they'd ever seen. A woman friend who had ridden by and had seen Jobe lying on the ground, by this time he was loose from the horse's tail, she got down and took her handkerchief off and put it over his face to keep the sun from broiling his face.
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Word of the crime now began to spread. For years after men would shudder as they reached that point in the road where D. Jobe died. Someone wrote a little poem and it went like this. "Many good men who passed this spot would think of Jobe and the deal he got, or cross themselves like nuns, and say on nights when the dark clouds toss, can you hear the clatter of a running horse?"
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"Oh lordy, what's the matter? But nobody talks, the clatter stops, and the Ghost Horse Walks, it's the Yankees teaching D. Jobe, who's boss, at the point of 15 guns." The horrible news reached Jobe's parents, Mr. E. C. and Mary Smith Jobe. They were absolutely stunned and shocked. So overwhelming was their grief that they could not even go after their own son. The only one who went was old Frank, who was D.
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Jobe's faithful servant and slave of a lifetime. The August sun was sinking, and a spring wagon was creaking down the road, and old Frank, the Negro slave who attended Jobe as a child, is driving. His cheeks are wet with tears as he lifted his young master's body into the wagon to bring it back to the old log house where D. Jobe was born on June 4, 1840.
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And there he was laid to rest. Today there is a roadside marker that speaks of Jobe on US Highway 31A in Williamson County near Triune and Nolensville. Here's what it says. The marker says "Dewitt Smith Jobe. A member of the Coleman Scout CSA was captured in a cornfield about 1.5 miles west August 29, 1864 by patrol from the 115th Ohio Cavalry. Swallowing his dispatches, he was mutilated and tortured to make him reveal the contents."
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"Refusing, he was dragged to death behind a galloping horse. He is buried in the family cemetery 6 miles northeast." Linda Lee has written a poem concerning Private D. Jobe, and I want to read that poem to you. Listen carefully. "A young man of just 24, D. Jobe was in the ranks of Southern men to give their lives to fight against the Yanks. He did not know that fateful day the message that he bore would lead to crimes that man commits and blames upon a war. He hid the message in his shirt. And as he rode away, he had no thought of what could come before the end of day. Faintly first, he heard the sound of hoofbeats far behind. He took the message, tore it up, and hoped they wouldn't find. A piece of paper they could read, his silence for his life. Fifteen men watched this man, and one came from among, held D.
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Jobe's bloody mouth apart while they separated off his tongue. The Yanks then asked him one more time, what did the paper say? Bruised and bleeding almost dead, so still now D. Jobe lay. They kicked his side to see if life had seeped into the ground. They fashioned a rope around his neck and tied it round and round. To chestnut horse that Jobe had rode, then slapped it on its flanks. A gruesome death would follow soon by way of 15 Yanks."
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"A Negro slave had lifted him into a creaking dray, slowly mule and Negro slave brought home the man in gray. A private, just a common man, had more than done his part. The secrets that he never told remained within his heart. And in the quiet evenings we remember what's been done. Torture, death on a lonely road, fifteen men to one."
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Now the story's not over. D. Jobe is dead. But a few days later, news would reach DeWitt Smith, Jobe's cousin and friend of the 45th Tennessee Regiment. They had been extremely close friends, and as I pointed out earlier, may have been namesakes. And when DeWitt Smith heard what the Yankees had done to his cousin and to his friend—I'm going to use the word that the history books use.
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They say he became unhinged. They say he became mad. Whether he did or not, I don't know. But I do know this. DeWitt Smith then broke away from Hood's army. He broke away from the 45th Tennessee Regiment. And he raised up the black flag. Now I don't know if you understand what a black flag is. But Quantrill and some of his men fought under a black flag. Other men fought under a black flag. And the black flag signified this: I give no quarter. I expect no quarter. I take no prisoners. I expect not to be taken as a prisoner. I will kill you if you don't kill me. And so DeWitt Smith raised up the black flag and he went back into middle Tennessee as the Avenger. DeWitt Smith before he was killed took the lives of as many as 50 Yankees in revenge for what they had done to D. Jobe.
#45 | 34:31 to 35:59 | cleaned
He was like a wolf in the night hunting a pack of sheep, singling them out, dealing with them. Linda Lee has written another poem on the tale of DeWitt Smith. Here it is. Remember I told you at the beginning of this message, I'm going to make some applications. Remember I told you God may either execute his vengeance immediately or wait or even execute it in eternity. And by the way, lest I forget, it is reported that the sergeant of the 115th Ohio, after the incident with D. Jobe, lost his mind over the incident.
#46 | 36:01 to 37:01 | cleaned
It literally drove him crazy. But DeWitt Smith, who determines he is going to even the score, begins to hunt the Yankees with knives. Linda Lee wrote the poem, and here it is. "I heard it said within a man a rage will quickly grow when head and heart collide with hate at things he should not know. When body parts and human flesh are carved from mortal form, when dignity has left mankind and treachery the norm. A man can only take so much, and DeWitt Smith was there."
#47 | 37:02 to 37:37 | cleaned
"A cousin's tortured death would be the cause of this affair. D. Jobe was found a bloody mass. His eyes, his tongue cut out, and DeWitt Smith would even up, he'd teach them all about. The cost of war not played by rules, the Yanks had taught him well, and DeWitt Smith thought the time was right to send them all to hell. He saw their campfires burning late, far off into the night, and slipped around the sentries till only one man was in sight. So quick his blade was flashing, a gurgled dying breath, a throat was slit from side to side, and shadows claimed a death. I've heard it said that many nights there's oil in their lamps, a demon moved among the Yanks, and blood flowed in their camps. Who would it be this fateful night, whose throat would slowly bleed, and warm the southern ground for them, revenge for Yankee deed? The guilty men are in their graves, the cost of D. Jobe's life, It took fifteen to take his breath, but fifty felt the knife."
#48 | 37:38 to 38:48 | cleaned
"When winds blow deep in Tennessee, I know the tales they tell. Phantom nigh from vengeful hand that opened gates of hell. They talk of all the frightful nights, the devil of the deep, when soldiers fought to stay awake, terrified of sleep. I've heard it said within a man, there's parts to fear admire, and heaven help the ones that feed the flames that fuel the fire." Years after the war was over, the survivors of the Coleman Scouts gathered in Nashville, Tennessee to pay their respects to their comrades who had given their lives during the war. And when D. Jobe's name was invoked, the following resolution was adopted by the Living Scouts. Here's the resolution.
#49 | 38:50 to 39:42 | cleaned
"Resolved, that while we regret, with the sorrow of our inmost soul, his cruel fate, we can but recollect with pride how nobly he died, strangled, beaten, and abused. Yet he defied his persecutors and died rather than betray his comrade and others who had given him assistance. Has history a brighter example of true patriotism, of true friendship, of a higher capacity to endure, suffer, and die rather than betray."
#50 | 39:43 to 40:14 | cleaned
"Death makes no conquest of this conqueror, for now he lives in fame, though not in life." Now, D. Jobe was posthumously awarded the Confederate Medal of Honor, and here is the citation. "Realizing that he was surrounded and about to be captured by the enemy, Private Jobe destroyed the valuable papers in his possession by tearing and eating them. Infuriated by this ploy, his captors bound and beat him, demanding that he tell them the contents. Refusing all their demands, Private Jobe was slowly strangled with a leather strap around his neck. While the enemy realized Private Jobe would never talk, they tortured him, kicking in his front teeth, cutting out his tongue, gouging his eyes from their sockets, all the while dragging him by the leather strap until he ultimately choked to death."
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Now, let me make a couple of applications. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 55 and look at verse 23. Here's the first one. Psalm 55, verse 23. Look at what the Bible says. Psalm 55, verse 23. The psalmist says, "But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction." Here's the part I want. "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee."
#52 | 41:12 to 41:55 | cleaned
Did you hear that phrase? "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." I want you to note what has even happened in our country to bloody and deceitful men. A lot of them are cut down in the prime of their life. You see, the truth is this, folks. God may exercise his judgment. He may exercise his vengeance in time and in history as well as in eternity. Vengeance belongs to God alone. And the wicked shall not escape God's judgment. Many will experience the judgment of God in this life, but all will experience it at the eternal judgment. This next application I've given you before, but I want you to see this. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 14.
#53 | 41:57 to 43:05 | cleaned
Here is a clear illustration of this principle. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 14, if you would. Romans 14. And notice, if you would please, verse 7. "For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." Isn't that a simple verse? No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. What does that mean? It means this, that whatever we do always affects other people. Your sins do not just affect you, they always affect someone else. Your good deeds do not just affect you. They always affect someone else. No one lives to himself. No one dies to himself. And when a man comes around and says, "It's my body.
#54 | 43:05 to 44:05 | cleaned
If I want to get drunk, I can get drunk. It hurts nobody but me." That's not true. It hurts the wife. It hurts the children. If he's drunk in a car, it may hurt and kill someone else. No man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. Here, 15 men cruelly tortured and murdered one man. And yet 50 others who did not do that deed died because of what they did. You see folks, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. Whatever we do always affects others.
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Now there's another application and that is this. We need to learn courage.
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We not only need courage to die, we need courage to live. We need courage to do what's right at all times. We even need courage, are you listening, to keep our mouths shut when they need to be kept shut. What am I talking about? Well, let me give you an illustration. Gossip is a horrible sin. Just revealing things that no one needs to know. Do you remember? I've used this illustration before, but let me tell you about it again.
#57 | 45:28 to 46:19 | cleaned
When you hit a skunk with your car, that's bad. But you wait until three days later when another hundred cars have hit that skunk and the sun has had time to warm him up and you hit him again, it's worse. Do you realize the more you spread things, the worse they get?
#58 | 46:21 to 46:48 | cleaned
Now let me show you something. Let me show you. Here's a principle we need to learn. If we can't help be part of a solution, let's not be part of the problem. You follow me? Now let me show you something. Let's suppose I know something on Roy. Something has happened. Maybe it's embarrassing to Roy. Maybe he did something wrong. But let's suppose I know it. And I go over and tell Ed. Here's my question. What business is it of Ed's, even if I'm telling the truth? If Ed can't help resolve the problem, why does he even need to know about the problem? You follow me?
#59 | 46:49 to 47:40 | cleaned
Here was a man who had courage to keep his mouth shut when it was vitally important. And you know something, folks? I really don't believe that we'll have courage to die right unless we have courage to live right. We won't have courage to do the right things at an inopportune time if we don't have the courage to do the right things when everything is normal. To get it to you in scriptural form, if walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses? In other words, if you want to do right in extreme situations, you need to be used to doing right before you get into those extreme situations.
#60 | 47:48 to 48:56 | cleaned
It amazes me that someone like young Sam Davis, 21, would have courage to be hanged rather than to point to someone and say, that's amazing. It amazes me that a young man, 24, like D. Jobe, could endure everything that he endured. What I'm pointing out, folks, is that this generation has lost an awful lot of character from the previous generations. We think we're smarter and we may be in one sense of the word but we certainly are more immoral and have not the courage and the convictions of those of the last century or two. We've got to remember, folks, if we're going to do right in extreme situations, we need to be used to doing right before we get in those situations.
#61 | 48:59 to 50:22 | cleaned
Good men do not always win in this life. But good men always win, either here or in eternity. Let's pray. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for your blessing, for your help. Encourage our hearts, Lord, with the story of D. Jobe. May it, Lord, enable us to say, I want that character, I want that courage. Help us, Lord, to do that which is right and holy. In Thy name we pray. Amen.
#62 | 50:25 to 51:10 | cleaned

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T17:17:44Z

The Death of Private Dee Jobe

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver uses the story of Confederate scout DeWitt Smith Jobe, who was tortured and killed rather than betray his comrades, to illustrate that the righteous do not always prosper in this life, but God's vengeance and justice are certain, either in time or eternity. He draws parallels to Uriah the Hittite and emphasizes the need for courage and character in both living and dying.

Opening

Scripture Reading — 2 Samuel 11:1-27

And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass at eventide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came in unto him, and he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness, and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house. When they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down into his house, David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? Why didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said unto David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah abide in tents. And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields. Shall I then go into mine house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul livest, I will not do this thing. And David said to Uriah, Tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk. And at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying, Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some of the people of the servants of David, and Uriah the Hittite died also. Then Joab sent and told David all things concerning the war, and charged the messenger, saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of the war unto the king, if so be that the king's wrath arise, and he say unto thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the city when ye did fight? Knew ye not that they would shoot from the wall? Who smote Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him from the wall, that he died in Thebez? Why went ye nigh the wall? Then say thou, Thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and encourage thou him.

Introduction: The Righteous Do Not Always Win

Weaver introduces the theme that good guys do not always finish first, using the biblical story of Uriah the Hittite as an example of a righteous man who suffered unjustly.

Uriah's Righteousness and Sacrifice

Uriah is portrayed as more godly than David, willing to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy comfort while they are at war.

God's Vengeance is Certain

Weaver cites Deuteronomy 32:35-43 to show that vengeance belongs to God, and the wicked will not escape judgment, though it may be delayed.

Judgment May Be Immediate or Delayed

Using 1 Timothy 5:24, Weaver explains that some sins are judged openly, while others follow after, but all will be dealt with by God.

The Story of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe

Weaver recounts the life, capture, torture, and death of Confederate scout D. Jobe, who refused to reveal information despite brutal mutilation.

Aftermath and Revenge

Jobe's cousin DeWitt Smith sought vengeance, killing up to 50 Union soldiers, illustrating that actions affect others and vengeance can spiral.

Applications: Courage and Character

Weaver applies the story to the need for courage to live righteously, keep confidences, and develop character before extreme trials.

Here is a clear illustration of this principle. Look in the book of Romans, chapter 14, if you would. Romans 14. And notice, if you would please, verse 7.

Scripture Reading — Romans 14:7

"For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself."

Now there's another application and that is this. We need to learn courage.

Conclusion: Good Men Ultimately Win

The sermon closes with a prayer for character and courage, affirming that good men always win, either in this life or eternity.

The Death of Private Dee Jobe

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	150411931
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans-Related Topical Applications
Genre	Sermon
Date	2001-03-18
Dictation Name
Book	Book 138: Romans-Related Topical Applications — Chapter 1
Source Timed Segments	62

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Righteous Do Not Always Win: Weaver introduces the theme that good guys do not always finish first, using the biblical story of Uriah the Hittite as an example of a righteous man who suffered unjustly.
Uriah's Righteousness and Sacrifice: Uriah is portrayed as more godly than David, willing to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy comfort while they are at war.
God's Vengeance is Certain: Weaver cites Deuteronomy 32:35-43 to show that vengeance belongs to God, and the wicked will not escape judgment, though it may be delayed.
Judgment May Be Immediate or Delayed: Using 1 Timothy 5:24, Weaver explains that some sins are judged openly, while others follow after, but all will be dealt with by God.
The Story of Private DeWitt Smith Jobe: Weaver recounts the life, capture, torture, and death of Confederate scout D. Jobe, who refused to reveal information despite brutal mutilation.
Aftermath and Revenge: Jobe's cousin DeWitt Smith sought vengeance, killing up to 50 Union soldiers, illustrating that actions affect others and vengeance can spiral.
Applications: Courage and Character: Weaver applies the story to the need for courage to live righteously, keep confidences, and develop character before extreme trials.
Conclusion: Good Men Ultimately Win: The sermon closes with a prayer for character and courage, affirming that good men always win, either in this life or eternity.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Uriah was more righteous than David

In the story of David and Bathsheba, Uriah is the godly, obedient, and righteous individual, yet he is the one who dies.

Weaver says, 'In each and every instance, Uriah was the godly, obedient, and righteous individual... And yet, it was Uriah who lost his life.'

God's vengeance is inevitable

The wicked may seem to escape, but God's judgment will come suddenly and completely, as declared in Deuteronomy 32.

Weaver reads Deuteronomy 32:35-43 and comments, 'When God gets ready for payback time, it shall come quickly and suddenly upon them.'

Judgment can be immediate or delayed

Some sins are judged openly in this life, while others are reserved for the final judgment, but none escape.

Weaver explains 1 Timothy 5:24: 'Some men's sins are open beforehand... and some men they follow after.'

D. Jobe's death exemplifies righteous suffering

Jobe's torture and death, while refusing to betray his cause, mirrors the unjust suffering of the righteous.

Weaver details Jobe's mutilation and says, 'He was dealing with a man in gray who put the welfare of the Confederacy above his life.'

Revenge perpetuates violence

DeWitt Smith's revenge killings show that one act of evil can lead to many more, illustrating Romans 14:7.

Weaver says, 'Fifteen men cruelly tortured and murdered one man. And yet 50 others who did not do that deed died because of what they did.'

Courage must be cultivated daily

We cannot expect to have courage in extreme trials if we do not practice doing right in everyday situations.

Weaver says, 'If walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses?'

Scripture References

2 Samuel 11:1-27: The story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah, read at the beginning to illustrate the suffering of the righteous.
Deuteronomy 32:35: Quoted to show that vengeance belongs to God and the wicked will be judged.
Deuteronomy 32:39-43: Read to emphasize God's power to execute vengeance and judgment.
1 Timothy 5:24: Used to explain that some sins are judged openly while others follow after, but all are dealt with.
Psalm 55:23: Cited to show that bloody and deceitful men will not live out half their days.
Romans 14:7: Quoted to illustrate that no one lives or dies to himself; actions affect others.

Historical References

Sam Davis: A Coleman scout hanged as a spy at age 21; his story is referenced as an example of courage.
Captain Henry Shaw (alias E. Coleman): Head of the Coleman scouts who posed as an herb doctor to gather intelligence.
General G. M. Dodge: Union general who threatened to hang Sam Davis as a spy.
General William Hardy: Confederate general who requested scouts with knowledge of Rutherford and Williamson counties.
115th Ohio Cavalry: Union patrol that captured, tortured, and killed D. Jobe.
DeWitt Smith: Cousin of D. Jobe who sought revenge, killing up to 50 Union soldiers.
Confederate Medal of Honor: Posthumously awarded to D. Jobe for his bravery.

Important Quotes

Good guys do not always finish first. Sometimes they come in last according to the reckoning of the world.

Summarizes the central theme that the righteous may suffer in this life.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

Key scripture asserting God's ultimate justice.

Vengeance belongs to God. And just because God does not give an individual His pay on Friday, does not mean that that individual has escaped the judgment of God.

Emphasizes the certainty of divine judgment despite apparent delays.

No man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself.

Romans 14:7 quoted to show the interconnectedness of human actions.

If walking makes you weary, what will you do when you try to run with the horses?

Illustrates the need to build character in small things to withstand great trials.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

How does the story of Uriah challenge our expectations that God always protects the righteous from suffering?

[Context]

Weaver contrasts Uriah's righteousness with David's sin and Uriah's death.

[Question]

In what ways might we be tempted to take vengeance into our own hands, and how does Deuteronomy 32 address that?

[Context]

Weaver emphasizes that vengeance belongs to God alone.

[Question]

What does 1 Timothy 5:24 teach us about the timing of God's judgment on hidden sins?

[Context]

Weaver explains that some sins are judged openly while others follow after.

[Question]

How does D. Jobe's refusal to talk under torture exemplify the kind of courage Christians might need in persecution?

[Context]

Weaver details Jobe's torture and his commitment to his cause.

[Question]

What are the dangers of revenge, as illustrated by DeWitt Smith's actions?

[Context]

Weaver describes the cycle of violence that followed Jobe's death.

[Question]

How can we cultivate the courage to keep our mouths shut when gossip or unnecessary disclosure would harm others?

[Context]

Weaver applies the principle of discretion to everyday life.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-05T20:07:06Z