Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 7:1
And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
Ch. 1Sa 7:1. into the house of Abinadab in the hill ] On the hill, some eminence in or near the town. In 2Sa 6:4-5, the E. V. wrongly takes the same word as a proper name, “ in Gibeah.”
Abinadab was probably (as Josephus says) a Levite: for the Israelites would scarcely have ventured to violate the law by entrusting the Ark to a layman after the late judgment.
sanctified Eleazar ] Consecrated him and set him apart for the special duty. “Nothing is said of Eleazar’s consecration as priest He was constituted not priest, bat watchman at the grave of the Ark, by its corpse, until its future joyful resurrection.”
The words of Psa 132:6, “We found it in the fields of the wood,” refer to this sojourn of the Ark at Kirjath-jearim. The word translated “wood” is jaar, which is the singular of jearim.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This verse belongs more properly to 1 Sam. 6. Abinadab and his sons were probably of the house of Levi. The catastrophe at Bethshemesh must inevitably have made the Israelites very careful to pay due honor to the ark in accordance with the Law: but to give the care of the ark to those who were not of the house of Levi would be a gross violation of the Law.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER VII
The men of Kirjah-jearim bring the ark from Beth-shemesh, and
consecrate Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, to keep it; and there
it continued twenty years, 1, 2.
Samuel reproves and exhorts the people, and gathers them
together at Mizpeh, where they fast and pray, and confess
their sins, 3-6.
The Philistines go up against them; the Israelites cry unto the
Lord for help; Samuel offers sacrifices; and the Lord confounds
the Philistines with thunder; Israel discomfits and pursues
them to Beth-car, 7-11.
Samuel erects a stone for a memorial, and calls it Eben-ezer,
12.
The Philistines are totally subdued, and Israel recovers all
its lost cities, 13, 14.
Samuel acts as an itinerant judge in Israel, 15-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII
Verse 1. Fetched up the ark] When these people received the message of the Beth-shemites, they probably consulted Samuel, with whom was the counsel of the Lord, and he had encouraged them to go and bring it up, else they might have expected such destruction as happened to the Beth-shemites.
Sanctified Eleazar] Perhaps this sanctifying signifies no more than setting this man apart, simply to take care of the ark.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The men of Kirjath-jearim gladly embraced the motion, as wisely considering that their great calamity was not to be charged upon the ark, but upon themselves, and their own carelessness, irreverence, and presumption, in looking into the ark. This place is elsewhere called Baalah, and Kirjath-baal, as is evident from Jos 15:9,60; 18:14; 1Ch 13:6,7.
Fetched up the ark, i.e. caused it to be brought up, to wit, by the priests appointed to that work, whom they could easily procure, and undoubtedly would do it, especially having been so lately warned of the great danger of violating Gods commands in those matters. In Scripture use, men are commonly said to do that which they order or cause others to do. They chose
the house of Abinadab in the hill,
because it was both a strong place, where it would be most safe; and a high place, and therefore visible at some distance, and to many persons, which was convenient for them, who were at that time to direct their prayers and faces towards the ark, 1Ki 8:29,30,35; Psa 28:2; 138:2; Dan 6:10. And for the same reason David afterwards placed it in the hill of Zion. Some translate the word in Gibeah. But that was in the tribe of Benjamin, Jos 18:28; Jdg 19:14, whereas this Kirjath-jearim was in the tribe of Judah, 1Ch 13:6,7.
Sanctified Eleazar; not that they made him either Levite or priest, as some would have it; for in Israel persons were not made, but born such; and since the institution of Levites and priests, none were made such that were born of other tribes or families: but that they devoted or set him apart (as this verb sometimes signifies) wholly to attend upon this work. They chose the son rather than his father, because he was younger and stronger, and probably freed from domestic cares, which might divert him from or disturb him in his work; or because he was more eminent for prudence or piety. To keep the ark of the Lord; to keep the place where it was clean and neat, and to guard it, that none might approach or touch it but such as God required or allowed to do so.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the men of Kirjath-jearim“thecity of woods,” also Kirjath-baal (Jos 15:60;Jos 18:14; 1Ch 13:5;1Ch 13:6). It was the nearesttown to Beth-shemesh and stood on a hill. This was the reason of themessage (1Sa 6:21), and why thiswas chosen for the convenience of people turning their faces to theark (1Ki 8:29-35; Psa 28:2;Dan 6:10).
brought it into the house ofAbinadab in the hillWhy it was not transported at once toShiloh where the tabernacle and sacred vessels were remaining, isdifficult to conjecture.
sanctified . . . his sonHewas not a Levite, and was therefore only set apart or appointed to bekeeper of the place.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the men of Kirjathjearim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord,…. From Bethshemesh, which was near unto them, as Josephus g says; they made no difficulty of fetching it, but gladly received it; for if they knew of what happened to the men of Bethshemesh, they knew it was not owing to the presence of the ark among them, but to their irreverent behaviour to it; and though Kirjathjearim was not a Levite city, and so the men of it could not bear the ark themselves, yet they might have proper persons from Bethshemesh to do this service:
and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill; which; hill was within the city of Kirjathjearim, and is mentioned either to distinguish this Abinadab that dwelt on it from another of the same name in the city, as Kimchi observes; or else to remark the propriety of the place, and the reason of the choice of it for the ark to be placed in; hills and high places being in those times accounted fittest for sacred services to be performed in, as well as places of safety; who this man was is not certain. Josephus h says he was a Levite, but if so he could only be a sojourner in this place; however he might be, as he suggests he was, a man of great esteem for religion and righteousness:
and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord; not only to watch it that it might not be taken away, but to keep persons from it, from touching it, or using it irreverently; and such as were not allowed to come nigh it; as well as to keep the place clean where it was put; and for this he was appointed by the priests, or the elders of the city; and was set apart for this service, and prepared for it by washings and sacrifices; and the rather he and not his father was invested with this office, because he was a young man, and his father might be old and decrepit; and this his son also a holy goodman, wise and prudent, and active and zealous for God, and true religion; and on all accounts a fit person for this post.
g Antiqu. l. 6. c. 1. sect. 4. h Ibid
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim complied with this request, and brought the ark into the house of Abinadab upon the height, and sanctified Abinadab’s son Eleazar to be the keeper of the ark. Kirjath-jearim, the present Kuryet el Enab (see at Jos 9:17), was neither a priestly nor a Levitical city. The reason why the ark was taken there, is to be sought for, therefore, in the situation of the town, i.e., in the fact that Kirjath-jearim was the nearest large town on the road from Bethshemesh to Shiloh. We have no definite information, however, as to the reason why it was not taken on to Shiloh, to be placed in the tabernacle, but was allowed to remain in the house of Abinadab at Kirjath-jearim, where a keeper was expressly appointed to take charge of it; so that we can only confine ourselves to conjectures. Ewald ‘s opinion ( Gesch. ii. 540), that the Philistines had conquered Shiloh after the victory described in 1 Samuel 4, and had destroyed the ancient sanctuary there, i.e., the tabernacle, is at variance with the accounts given in 1Sa 21:6; 1Ki 3:4; 2Ch 1:3, respecting the continuance of worship in the tabernacle at Nob and Gibeon. There is much more to be said in support of the conjecture, that the carrying away of the ark by the Philistines was regarded as a judgment upon the sanctuary, which had been desecrated by the reckless conduct of the sons of Eli, and consequently, that even when the ark itself was recovered, they would not take it back without an express declaration of the will of God, but were satisfied, as a temporary arrangement, to leave the ark in Kirjath-jearim, which was farther removed from the cities of the Philistines. And there it remained, because no declaration of the divine will followed respecting its removal into the tabernacle, and the tabernacle itself had to be removed from Shiloh to Nob, and eventually to Gibeon, until David had effected the conquest of the citadel of Zion, and chosen Jerusalem as his capital, when it was removed from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). It is not stated that Abinadab was a Levites; but this is very probable, because otherwise they would hardly have consecrated his son to be the keeper of the ark, but would have chosen a Levite for the office.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Ark at Kirjath-jearim. | B. C. 1099. |
1 And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. 2 And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
Here we must attend the ark to Kirjath-jearim, and then leave it there, to hear not a word more of it except once (ch. xiv. 18), till David fetched it thence, about forty years after, 1 Chron. xiii. 6.
I. We are very willing to attend it thither, for the men of Beth-shemesh have by their own folly made that a burden which might have been a blessing; and gladly would we see it among those to whom it will be a savour of life unto life, for in every place where it has been of late it has been a savour of death unto death. Now,
1. The men of Kirjath-jearim cheerfully bring it among them, v. 1. They came, at the first word, and fetched up the ark of the Lord. Their neighbours the Beth-shemites, were not more glad to get rid of it than they were to receive it, knowing very well that what slaughter the ark had made at Beth-shemesh was not an act of arbitrary power, but of necessary justice, and those that suffered by it must blame themselves, not the ark; we may depend upon the word which God hath said (Jer. xxv. 6), Provoke me not, and I will do you no hurt. Note, The judgments of God on those who profane his ordinances should not make us afraid of the ordinances, but of profaning them and making an ill use of them.
2. They carefully provided for its decent entertainment among them, as a welcome guest, with true affection, and, as an honourable guest, with respect and reverence.
(1.) They provided a proper place to receive it. They had no public building to adorn with it, but they lodged it in the house of Abinadab, which stood upon the highest ground, and, probably, was the best house in their city; or perhaps the master of it was the most eminent man they had for piety, and best affected to the ark. The men of Beth-shemesh left it exposed upon a stone in the open field, and, though it was a city of priests, none of them received it into his house; but the men of Kirjath-jearim, though common Israelites, gave it house-room, and no doubt the best-furnished room in the house to which it was brought. Note, [1.] God will find out a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust it from them, yet the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. [2.] It is no new thing for God’s ark to be thrust into a private house. Christ and his apostles preached from house to house when they could not have public places at command. [3.] Sometimes priests are shamed and out-done in religion by common Israelites.
(2.) They provided a proper person to attend it: They sanctified Eleazar his son to keep it; not the father, either because he was aged and infirm, or because he had the affairs of his house and family to attend, from which they would not take him off. But the son, who, it is probable, was a very pious devout young man, and zealously affected towards the best things. His business was to keep the ark, not only from being seized by malicious Philistines, but from being touched or looked into by too curious Israelites. He was to keep the room clean and decent in which the ark was, that, though it was in an obscure place, it might no look like a neglected thing, which no man looked after. It does not appear that this Eleazar was of the tribe of Levi, much less of the house of Aaron, nor was it needful that he should, for here was no altar either for sacrifice or incense, only we may suppose that some devout Israelites would come and pray before the ark, and those that did so he was there ready to attend and assist. For this purpose they sanctified him, that is, by his own consent, they obliged him to make this his business, and to give a constant attendance to it; they set him apart for it in the name of all their citizens. This was irregular, but was excusable because of the present distress. When the ark has but recently come out of captivity we cannot expect it to be on a sudden in its usual solemnity, but must take things as they are, and make the best of them.
II. Yet we are very loth to leave it here, wishing it well at Shiloh again, but that is made desolate (Jer. vii. 14), or at least wishing it at Nob, or Gibeon, or wherever the tabernacle and the altars are; but, it seems, it must lie by the way for want of some public-spirited men to bring it to its proper place. 1. The time of its continuance here was long, very long, above forty years it lay in these fields of the wood, a remote, obscure, private place, unfrequented and almost unregarded (v. 2): The time that the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim was long, even till David fetched it thence. It was very strange that all the time that Samuel governed the ark was never brought to its place in the holy of holies, an evidence of the decay of holy zeal among them. God suffered it to be so, to punish them for their neglect of the ark when it was in its place and to show that the great stress which the institution laid upon the ark was but typical of Christ, and those good things to come which cannot be moved,Heb 9:23; Heb 12:27. It was a just reproach to the priests that one not of their order was sanctified to keep the ark. 2. Twenty years of this time had passed before the house of Israel was sensible of the want of the ark. The Septuagint read it somewhat more clearly than we do; and it was twenty years, and (that is, when) the whole house of Israel looked up again after the Lord. So long the ark remained in obscurity, and the Israelites were not sensible of the inconvenience, nor ever made any enquiry after it, what has become of it; though, while it was absent from the tabernacle, the token of God’s special presence was wanting, nor could they keep the day of atonement as it should be kept. They were content with the altars without the ark; so easily can formal professors rest satisfied in a round of external performances, without any tokens of God’s presence or acceptance. But at length they bethought themselves, and began to lament after the lord, stirred up to it, it is probable, by the preaching of Samuel, with which an extraordinary working of the Spirit of God set in. A general disposition to repentance and reformation now appears throughout all Israel, and they begin to look unto him whom they had slighted, and to mourn, Zech. xii. 10. Dr. Lightfoot thinks this was a matter and time as remarkable as almost any we read of in scripture; and that the great conversion, Acts 2 and 3, is the only parallel to it. Note, (1.) Those that know how to value God’s ordinances cannot but reckon it a very lamentable thing to want them. (2.) True repentance and conversion begin in lamenting after the Lord; we must be sensible that by sin we have provoked him to withdraw and are undone if we continue in a state of distance from him, and be restless till we have recovered his favour and obtained his gracious returns. It was better with the Israelites when they wanted the ark, and were lamenting after it, than when they had the ark, and were prying into it, or priding themselves in it. Better see people longing in the scarcity of the means of grace than loathing in the abundance of them.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
First Samuel – Chapter 7
Samuel Calls for Revival, vs. 1-8
Some commentators think that Kirjath jearim, which was only about ten straight-line miles from Beth-shemesh, may have been chosen as the abiding place for the ark over Beth-shemesh, because it lay in the central highlands in undisputed territory from the Philistines. Abinadab was a Levite, it is assumed, for his son, Eleazar, was sanctified to keep the ark. It is improbable that the Israelites would have set any but a Levite to keep the ark, nor would the Lord have permitted it.
Twenty years passed with the ark abiding in the house of Abinadab and the Israelites suffering in subjugation to the Philistines. Nothing is said of Samuel’s activity during this time, but he would surely have been actively preaching to the people and giving them messages from the Lord. During these long years the people chafed, until they finally became repentant and sought the Lord in earnest.
When Israel repented toward the Lord they were ready to listen to Samuel and to acknowledge him as their God-appointed judge. This is the first reference to Samuel’s judging of Israel (verse 6). Samuel called on the Israelites to prove their repentance, that they had returned to the Lord with the whole heart, by putting away their pagan gods and by serving the Lord in truth.
He promised them that when they had done this the Lord would hear them and deliver them from the Philistines. So Israel put away the Baals and the Astartes, the male and female deities of the Canaanites, which most of them had been serving instead of the Lord. The fickle Israelites called themselves serving the Lord, but at the same time they were looking to the Canaanite gods of the land for “good luck.” This is little different from church people today who hypocritically go to church services regularly, but use the world to further their material welfare.
When the Israelites had truly proven their conversion Samuel called them to a revival service in Mizpeh, a town near his home, in the mountains of Benjamin. Their first act on assembling was to draw water, pour it out before the Lord, and begin a fast. The pouring out of the water symbolized their purification, by the putting away of their idols and rededication to the Lord.
The fasting showed their sincerity in seeking the Lord above all other things of life, even such necessities as food. Samuel had promised to pray for them; so they confessed their sin against the Lord, and Samuel judged them there on the lord’s behalf.
The Philistines heard of the gathering of Israel in Mizpeh, and their lords brought their armies to strike Israel before they could organize resistance. It was a considerable distance from Miipeh to the nearest Philistine city, Gath, so that the Israelites learned of their movement well before they arrived. They became very fearful, for they had nothing with which to oppose the enemy. It was shortly to be proved whether they would now rely on the Lord to intercede for them. They realized their helplessness without Him, however, and besought Samuel not to cease calling on the Lord to deliver them from the Philistines.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
1Sa. 7:1. The house of Abinadab, etc. Why the ark was not carried back to Shiloh is uncertain. The reason may be that the Philistines had conquered Shiloh, and now held it, as Ewald supposes; or it may be that, without a special revelation of the Divine will, they were unwilling to carry the ark back to the place whence it had been removed by a judgment of God, in consequence of the profanation of the Sanctuary by the sons of Eli (Keil); or simply that the purpose was first and provisionally to carry it safely to a large city as far off as possible, inasmuch as, in view of the sentence which had been passed on Shiloh, they did not dare to select on their own authority a new place for the Sanctuary (Erdmann). It is probable that Abinadab and his sons were of the house of Levi.
1. For the catastrophe at Bethshemesh must inevitably have made the Israelites very careful to pay due honour to the ark in accordance with the law.
2. The fact of there being a high place at Kirjath-jearim makes it highly probable that there were priests there.
3. The names Eleazar, Uzzah, and Ahio are all names in Levitical families, and Abinadab is nearly allied to Nadab and Amminadab, both Levitical names.
4. It is inconceivable that the breaches of the law in looking into the ark, and in Uzzah laying hold of it, should have been so severely punished, but the neglect to employ the sons of Levi according to the law should not be even adverted to. (Biblical Commentary.) To keep the ark. Not to minister before it; but only to defend it from such profane intrusions as had caused so much suffering to the Bethshemites. (Wordsworth.)
1Sa. 7:2. Twenty years, i.e., twenty years before the events occurred which are recorded in this chapter. It was a much longer time before David brought the ark again to the tabernacle (2Sa. 6:1-17), although it is not certain whether it remained in Kirjath-jearim until that time. During these twenty years it is obvious (from 1Sa. 7:3) that the Philistine domination continued. All the house of Israel lamented, etc. The image is that of a child that goes weeping after its father or mother, that it may be relieved of what hurts it., As, beside the constant pressure of the Philistine rule, no special calamity is mentioned, we must suppose a gradual preparation for this penitential temper of the people, which now, after the lapse of twenty years from the return of the ark, was become universal. The preparation came from within. By what means? By the prophetic labours of Samuel, from the summary description of which, according to their intensive power, their extensive manifestation, and their results in the whole nation (1Sa. 3:19-21), we may clearly see that Samuel, without ceasing, proclaimed to the people the Word of God. And as in 1Sa. 3:19 it is said that none of his words fell to the ground, we shall have occasion to recognise this penitential temper, and this following after God with sighing and lamentation, as the fruit of Samuels prophetic labours, which were directed to the relation of the innermost life of the people to their God. (Erdmann.)
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.1Sa. 7:1-2
CARE FOR THE ARK OF GOD
I. The judgments of God for contempt of His ordinances often make men more careful in the treatment of them. If the subject of a well-ordered state sets at nought its ordinances he finds himself visited with a penalty which generally leads him to be more careful of his future conduct. He must render honour where honour is due, whether it be to a person or to a law, or he will be visited with punishment which, if he do not profit by himself, will prove a salutary lesson to others. When a child has played with the fire until he has been burnt, he is not only more careful for the rest of his life how he trifles with it, but others learn a lesson from his sufferings and his scars. And when God punishes men for lightly esteeming that which He has commanded them to reverence, it is that those who suffer, and those who see them suffer, may fear to fall into the same sin. A fear which brings reverence is a motive power in the dispensation of the Gospel, as well as in that which preceded it. In the New Testament cases of judgment are recorded which were as swift and terrible as any found in Old Testament history. Men have needed, even in Gospel times, to be taught reverence for holy beings and holy ordinances by punishment which has worked fear. Ananias and Sapphira thought it a light matter to lie to the Holy Ghost, and their sudden death wrought great fear upon all the Church (Act. 5:11) which led to an increased reverence for the spirit of God. Elymas poured contempt upon the message of salvation as preached by Paul, and was struck with blindness by the man whose hearts desire and prayer to God for all his countrymen was that they should be saved. But the judgment which fell upon the Jew led to the salvation of the Gentile, and taught all who beheld it that God will not hold them guiltless who scoff at the name of His Son (Act. 13:6-12). In the case of the seven sons of Sceva (Act. 19:13-17) men learnt that they must not lightly use the name of the Lord Jesus, and the effect of the punishment of those who did so was that when it was known to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling at Ephesus that fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Men of every age have needed to be taught not only that God is love, but that He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), that it is indeed His love which leads Him to visit men with judgment for contempt of His holy name and ordinances, in order that others may see it and fear, as the visitation upon the men of Bethshemesh led those of Kirjath-jearim to be more reverent in their treatment of the ark of God. In all the after history of Israel we never hear of their being guilty of a similar act. The death of the Bethshemites was an effectual preventive of any more attempts of this kind.
II. Those who minister in holy things are especially bound to live holy lives. The men of Kirjath-jearim set apart a man for the special service of the ark. They sanctifieth Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. For every service in the world some qualification is needed, and men are not made custodians of mens lives, or even of their property, unless they are believed to possess the qualifications indispensable to the fulfilment of the duties of the office. The setting apart of men in the Old Testament dispensation to the service of the tabernacle sets forth the truth that those who minister in holy things under the Gospel dispensation are especially bound to come out from the world and be separate, in a spiritual sense, that whatever else they lack, a high moral character is indispensable. It also suggests the need that such men should remember the apostolic exhortation, and give themselves wholly to the special work, and not entangle themselves with the affairs of this life (1Ti. 4:15; 2Ti. 2:4).
III. Men learn the value of Divine ordinances when they are deprived of them. When men have abundance of bread and water they have very little sense of the value of these necessaries of life. But if they are wholly or even partially deprived of them they realise how precious they really are. Want makes us sensible of the blessing of abundance. Sickness teaches us to appreciate the blessing of health, and days of gloom make us sensible how good a gift of God is sunshine. And we never know the true value of religious ordinances until we are deprived of them. Those whom sickness has long kept from the house of God, or those who have sojourned in a land where there were no stated. Divine ordinances, testify to the truth of this. When the soul of a godly man is shut away from Gods house, and has no opportunity of meeting Him in His sanctuary, then the sigh goes up to Heaven How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the Living God. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be still praising Thee. For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness (Psa. 84:1-10). This was Davids experience, and thousands since he penned these words have used them to express their own feelings. Israel had for many years before this time had special religious privilegescompared with the rest of the nations they had had a plentiful supply of spiritual bread. But they had treated it as they had treated the manna in the wildernessfamiliarity had bred contempt, and they had despised the means of grace, because they had been always in their midst. But the absence of the ark from Shiloh had suspended all the usual tabernacle-service, and the long famine of Divine ordinances caused them to lament after the Lord.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa. 7:1. Shiloh was wont to be the place which was honoured with the presence of the ark. Ever since the wickedness of Elis sons, that was forlorn and desolate, and now Kirjath-jearim succeeds to this privilege. It did not stand with the royal liberty of God, no, not under the law, to tie himself unto places and persons. Unworthiness was ever a sufficient cause of exchange. It was not yet His time to stir from the Jews, yet He removed from one province to another. Less reason have we to think that so God will reside among us, that none of our provocations can drive Him from us.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 7:2. The time was long ere Samuel could bring them to this solemn conversion related in the verses following: so tough is the old Adam, and so difficult a thing it is to work upon such as are habituated and hardened in sinful practices. Samuels song had been, as was afterwards Jeremiahs (Jer. 13:27), Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? They refused to return until God stopped them with the cross, suffered the Philistines grievously to oppress them, and then all the house of Israel lamented after the law.Trapp.
There is no mention of their lamenting after the Lord while He was gone, but when He was returned and settled in Kirjath-jearim. The mercies of God draw more tears from His children than his judgments do from His enemies. There is no better sign of good nature or grace than to be won to repentance with kindness; not to think of God except we be beaten into it, is servile. Because God was come again to Israel, therefore Israel is returned to God; if God had not come first they had never come; if He, that came to them, had not made them come to Him, they had been ever parted; they were cloyed with God, while He was perpetually resident with them; now that His absence had made Him dainty, they cleave to Him fervently and penitently in His return. This was it that God meant in His departure, a better welcome at His coming back.Bp. Hall.
I. The persons lamenting. Gods peculiar people. These only love, and mind Gods presence; when the lords and cities of the Philistines are weary of Him, and send Him away, yea, and the inhabitants of Bethshemesh, though a city of Levites belonging to the Church of God, through their ill management of matters send to get a release, yet Gods Israel will look after their God.
II. The object they lament afternot peace, plenty, or victory over their enemies, but after the Lord. Jehovah is the object of their affections; it is He whom they love, and with whom they long for communion.
III. The universality of the number.all Israel. The whole house of Israel come; they that had woefully degenerated and had gone after their idols; what a wonderful act of Gods power and sovereignty was this upon their spirits. By this He manifests that He is the true God, and that Samuel was His servant Christians should lament after the God of ordinances, or God in ordinances.I. Because God is infinitely more worth than all ordinances; His presence is prizable for itself. This is the marrow of heaven, the want of this is hell, and this the child of God knows. II. God purposely withdraws that men may lament after Him. As when a mother steps out of a childs sight, and when she seems to be gone, the child raises a cry after her (Hos. 5:15). I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face; in their affliction they will seek me early. III. Bcause sincere lamenting after the Lord may occasion His return. He purposely hovers, waits, and expects, that His people may call Him back by their prayers, entreaties, humiliation; not as though God were moved, or changed by mens mournful complaints and outcries, but that such an earnest lamenting qualifies the subject, capacitates for mercy, and puts souls into the condition of the promise (Jer. 29:12).Oliver Heywood.
The blessing of national mourning in a time of universal distress.
(1) Penitent recognition of the national sin which has occasioned it.
(2) Painful experience of the mighty hand which has inflicted it.
(3) Sorrowful, penitent seeking after the Lords consolation and help, which ends in finding.Langes Commentary.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The Ark in the House of Abinadab. 1Sa. 7:1-2
And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
2 And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
1.
Who was Abinadab? 1Sa. 7:1
Abinadab was a very interesting name. It signified father of generosity. He was evidently a Levite of Kirjath-jearim. It was in his house that the Ark was deposited. Although the Israelites themselves did not gather together to anoint a new priest, the people of the community appointed Eleazar to take care of the Ark. This was not a change of the priesthood as prophesied by God (1Sa. 2:35), but it was the temporary arrangement made by the people to care for the Ark.
2.
Why did the people leave it there for such a long time? 1Sa. 7:2
The people of Israel were not very punctual about performing the Lords duties. The fact that they left the Ark in this strange location for 20 years is an indication of how they failed to do the Lords bidding. Such an arrangement left the tabernacle itself still at Shiloh, but the main part of the tabernacle furniture at this distant location. It was only when David came to the throne that he began to take care of such neglected matters.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) The ark of the Lord.Kirjath-jearim, the home of the Ark for nearly fifty years, was probably selected as the resting-place of the sacred emblem as being the nearest large city to Beth-shemesh then in the hands of the Israelites. It was neither a priestly nor a Levitical city, but it no doubt had preserved something of its ancient character of sanctity even among the children of Israel. In old days before the Hebrew invasion, it was a notable high place, and a seat of worship of Baal. This was also, no doubt, taken into account when it was resolved to locate the Ark there. The words in the hill remind us that the old high place was still marked, and was from its sacred associations looked on as a fitting temporary resting-place for the sacred treasure of Israel.
EleazarIt is most likely that this Abinadab was a Levite. The names Eleazar and Uzzah, and Ahio of the same family (2Sa. 6:3), are Levitical appellations. Samuelwho, though he is not named in this transaction, was, no doubt, the directorwould, of course, have endeavoured to find a man of the tribe of Levi for the sacred trust. This Eleazar was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the Ark by its corpse, till the future joyful resurrection.Hengstenberg, quoted in Lange. Here the Ark remained until King David brought it from the house on the hill, in the city of woods, first to the home of Obed-edom, and then to his own royal Zion. (2 Samuel 6. See too Psa. 132:6.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. This verse belongs to the narrative of the sixth chapter, and should not have been separated from it.
Brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill Why the ark was not taken back to Shiloh and placed in the tabernacle we are nowhere informed. Some have supposed that that place was destroyed by the Philistines after the capture of the ark, and others that it had been so profanely desecrated by the wickedness of Eli’s sons as to be no longer an appropriate place for it. Its location in the house of Abinadab, who was, perhaps, a Levite, and the consecration of Eleazar to keep it, were probably all done by the advice and direction of Samuel. Here the ark remained until David removed it to Jerusalem. 2 Samuel 6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 7:5 And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD.
1Sa 7:5
1Sa 7:9 And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him.
1Sa 7:9
1Sa 7:13, “So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.”
1Sa 7:10 And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.
1Sa 7:10
1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
1Sa 7:12
1Sa 4:1, “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer : and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.”
1Sa 5:1, “And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.”
1Sa 7:17 And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the LORD.
1Sa 7:17
1Sa 1:1, “Now there was a certain man of Ramathaimzophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Reformation in Israel
v. 1. And the men of Kirjath-jearim, v. 2. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long, v. 3. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, v. 4. Then the children of Israel, v. 5. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, v. 6. And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, v. 7. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, v. 8. And the children of Israel said to Samuel,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
1Sa 7:1
At Kirjath-jearim the people reverently undertook the charge of the ark, and carried out their arrangements so carefully that no further calamity occurred. On its arrival they placed it in the house of Abinadab in the hill. More probably at Gibeah, as it is translated in 2Sa 6:3, 2Sa 6:4. In Jos 15:57 a village of this name is mentioned in the tribe of Judah not far from Kirjath-jearim (ibid. Jos 15:60), and probably Abinadab, who lived there, was a Levite, and so his house was chosen, and his son Eleazar sanctified to keep the ark. The names of both father and son are common in the Levitical genealogies, and none but a member of this tribe would have been selected for so holy a duty. If, however, the translation in the hill be preferred, we may suppose that it was because lofty heights were still considered fit places for Jehovah’s worship, or there may even have been a “high place” there, of which Abinadab was the keeper. What exactly were the duties of Eleazar we cannot tell, as the word to keep is very indefinite; but probably, after the fearful ruin at Shiloh, all regular services and sacrifices were in abeyance until the return of happier times. Even here it was the men of the city who sanctified Eleazar, and not a priest.
THE REFORMATION OF ISRAEL (Jos 15:2-6).
1Sa 7:2
While the ark, etc. The literal translation of this verse is, “And it came to pass, from the day that the ark rested at Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years.” The words dwell wearily upon the length of this mournful period, during which. Israel was in a state of subjection to the Philistines, with its national life crushed to the ground, and its strength wasted by unjust exactions and misrule. For though the Philistines gave up the ark, there was no restoration of the national worship, nor did they abandon the political fruits of their victory at Eben-ezer. But quietly and calmly Samuel was labouring to put all things right. It was the principle of the theocracy that Jehovah punished his subjects for their sins by withdrawing his protection, and that on their repentance he took again his place at their head as their king, and delivered them. Samuel’s whole effort, therefore, was directed to bringing the people to repentance. What means he used we are not told, nor what was his mode of life; but probably it was that of a fugitive, going stealthily from place to place that he might teach and preach, hiding in the caverns in the limestone range of Judaea, emerging thence to visit now one quarter of the country and now another, ever in danger, but gradually awakening, not merely those districts which were contiguous to the Philistines, but all Israel to a sense of the greatness of their sins, and the necessity of renewed trust and love to their God. And so a fresh spiritual life sprang up among the people, and with it came the certainty of the restoration of their national independence. All the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah. The word used here is rare, and the versions all differ in their translation of it. Really it is a happy one, embracing the two ideas of sorrow for sin, and also of re. turning to and gathering themselves round Jehovah. The Syriac alone retains this double meaning, by saying that “they all cast themselves down after Jehovah,” i.e. that they sought him with deep humility. Gradually, then, a change of heart came over the people; but the removal of the ark to a more fit place, and the restoration of Divine service with ministering priests and Levites, could take place only after the Philistine yoke had been broken. From 1Sa 13:19 – 22 we learn how vigilant and oppressive that tyranny was; and the heart of the writer, in inditing this verse, was full of sorrow at the thought that the repentance of Israel was so slow and unready, and that therefore it had to wait twenty years before deliverance came.
1Sa 7:3
If ye do return, etc. At length everything was ripe for a change, and the reformation wrought privately in their hearts was followed by public action. Samuel’s secret addresses had no doubt been watched with anger by the Philistines, but he now ventures upon open resistance; for this public summons to Israel to put away its idols by a national act was a summons also to an uprise against foreign domination. We must suppose that the people had often assured Samuel in his wanderings of the reality of their repentance, and of their readiness to stake everything upon the issue of war. As a statesman, he now judges that the time has come, and convenes a national assembly. But everything would depend upon their earnestness. They were virtually unarmed; they would have to deal with an enemy long victorious, and who held the most important posts in their country with garrisons. Terrible suffering would follow upon defeat. Was their faith strong enough, their courage desperate enough, for so fearful a risk? Especially as Samuel is never described to us as a warrior or military hero. He could inspire no confidence as a general. He himself makes everything depend upon theft faith, and all he can promise is, “I will pray for you unto Jehovah” (1Sa 7:5).
1Sa 7:4
Then the children of Israel did put away [the] Baalim and [the] Ashtaroth. This must have been done by a public act, by which at some time previously arranged the images of their Baals and Astartes were torn from their shrines, thrown down, and broken in pieces. Of course this was an overt act of rebellion, for these deities were especially Phoenician idols, and subsequently it was the Phoenician Jezebel who tried so fanatically to introduce their worship into Israel in Ahab’s time. To cast off the Philistine deities was equivalent to a rebellion generally against Philistine supremacy. Baal and Astarte, the husband and the wife, represented the reproductive powers of nature, and under various names were worshipped throughout the East, and usually with lewd and wanton orgies.
1Sa 7:5
Gather all Israel to Mizpeh. Mizpah, for so the place should be spelt, means a watch tower (Gen 31:49), and so is a not uncommon name for spots among the hills commanding an extensive outlook. This was probably the Mizpah in the tribe of Benjamin, distant about five miles from Jerusalem (see Conder, ‘Tent Work,’ 1Sa 1:25); and though Samuel may have partly chosen it as a holy place (Jdg 11:11; Jdg 20:1), yet the chief reason was probably its lofty situation, 500 feet above the neighbouring tableau, which itself was 2000 feet above the sea level. It was thus difficult to surprise, and admirably adapted for warlike purposes. The gathering of the people at Mizpah was the necessary result of the public insult offered to the Philistine gods, and virtually a declaration of war, as being an assertion of national independence.
1Sa 7:6
They drew water, and poured it out before Jehovah. While the drawing of water was a joyful act (Isa 12:3; Joh 7:37, Joh 7:38), as symbolising the winning from the depths below of the source of life and health, the pouring it out before Jehovah expressed sorrow for sin, and so it is explained by the Chaldee Paraphrast: “They poured out their heart in penitence like water before the Lord” (comp. Psa 22:14). It might here also signify weakness and powerlessness, the being “as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again” (2Sa 14:14). They further expressed their sorrow by fasting, enjoined “for the afflicting of their souls” upon the great day of atonement (Le 16:29, 31; 1Sa 23:27, 32; Num 29:7). And to these symbolical acts they joined the confession of the mouth, acknowledging that “they had sinned against Jehovah.
And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh. That is, he now became the acknowledged ruler of Israel in things temporal, both civil and military; as he had previously been in things spiritual by virtue of his office as prophet. This was, of course, the result of the decisive action he had taken in summoning this national convention; but the words strongly suggest that there was some direct appointment, or at the very least a national acknowledgment of Samuel’s authority, especially as they precede the history of the defeat of the Philistines. He had summoned the people together as Nabi, prophet, and when he said, “I will pray for you unto Jehovah,” there was the implied meaning that he would be with them only in that capacity. But when the time came to appoint a general, who would act under him as Barak had acted under Deborah, the great chiefs, probably, who saw in him the prime mover of all that was being done, urged him also to take the command,and upon his consent he became also Shophet or judge.
ISRAEL‘S DELIVERANCE FROM THE TYRANNY OF THE PHILISTINES (1Sa 7:7-14).
1Sa 7:7, 1Sa 7:8.
When the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. This was perfectly natural, and implied no intention on the part of the Israelites not to fight it out. No dominant nation would permit a subject race to hold such a meeting as Samuel’s at Mizpah without having recourse to arms; but the Philistines acted with such promptness and vigour as brought home to the assembled Israelites not merely the conviction that they would have to fight, but that they must do it at once, and with the combined forces of the enemy. In spite, nevertheless, of their fears, they determine to await the attack, and that this decision was taken in faith their own words prove. For they say, Cease not to cry unto Jehovah our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. The words literally are, “Be not silent from crying,” etc. Let him mediate for them with God, and they will await the onslaught of the foe.
1Sa 7:9
And Samuel took a sucking lamb. Samuel now appears as priest, and makes intercession and atonement for them. The lamb was at least seven days old, for so the law required (Le 22:27), but probably not much older; for the word, a rare one, occurring elsewhere only in Isa 65:25, means something small and tender: this then he offered for a burnt offering wholly unto Jehovah. The A.V. translates in this way because chalil, “whole,” is masculine, while ‘olah, “a burnt offering,” is feminine; but chalil had in course of time come to be used as a substantive (Le 6:23; Deu 13:16; Deu 33:10), and is really here in opposition to ‘olah, and so the two together signify “a whole burnt offering,” and clearly indicate that the lamb was entirely consumed by fire. ‘Olah means that which ascends, and symbolised devotion and consecration to God. Chalil intensified this signification, and showed that all was God’s, and no part whatsoever reserved for the priest or the offerer. And thus then Samuel’s burnt offering implied that the people gave themselves unreservedly to Jehovah. And Jehovah heard him. Really, “Jehovah answered him,” by the thunder mentioned in Isa 65:10. For thunder was regarded as God’s voice (1Sa 2:10), and in Psa 29:1-11. we have a poetic description of its majesty and power. Express mention is also made in Psa 99:6 of Jehovah having thus answered the prayers of Moses (Exo 19:19), and of Samuel.
1Sa 7:10, 1Sa 7:11
As Samuel was offering, etc. We have here a detailed and lively description of the whole event. The lamb is still burning upon the altar, and Samuel still kneeling before it, when the Philistine hosts appear upon the lofty plateau just below the hill of Mizpah, and marshal themselves for battle. It seemed as if Israel’s case were hopeless, and many a heart, no doubt, was bravely straggling against its fears, and scarcely could keep them down. But as the enemy drew near the electric cloud formed in the heavens, and Jehovah thundered with a great voice (so the Hebrew) on that day upon the Philistines. Alarmed at so unusual a phenomenon, the Philistines hesitate in their advance, and Samuel, seeing their consternation, gives the signal for the charge, and Israel, inspirited by the voice of Jehovah, rushes down the hill upon the foe. Full of enthusiasm, they forget the poorness of their weapons, and the weight of their impetuous rush breaks through the opposing line. And now a panic seizes the Philistines; they attempt no further resistance, but flee in dismay from the pursuing Israelites. Their course would lead them down a huge valley 1000 feet deep, at the bottom of which was a torrent rushing over a rocky bed; nor was their flight stayed until they came under Beth-car. Of this place we know nothing, but probably it was a fastness where the Philistines could protect themselves from further attack.
1Sa 7:12
Then Samuel took a stone, and called the name of it Eben-ezer. We saw on 1Sa 4:1-22. I that the place where Israel then suffered defeat, but which now received a more happy name, was an open plain, over which the people now chased their then victorious enemies. Here, then, Samuel set up a memorial, according to Jewish custom, and called its name Help stone. In giving his reason for it, hitherto hath Jehovah helped us, there is a plain indication of the need of further assistance. There was a long struggle before them, and Jehovah, who had aided them so mightily at its beginning, would also help them unto the end. The memorial stood halfway between Mizpeh and Shen, both which names have the article in Hebrew, because one signifies the watchtower, the other the tooth. It was a steep, pointed rock, but is not mentioned elsewhere. Dent, the French for tooth, is a common name for mountains in the Alps and Pyrenees.
1Sa 7:13
So the Philistines were subdued. Not completely, for we find that they had garrisons in Israel when Saul was made king; but it was a thorough victory for the time, and was followed up, moreover, by an invasion of Philistia, in which Samuel recovered the towns which had been wrested from Israel upon the western borders of Judah and Benjamin. Moreover, the enemy came no more into the coast of Israel. That is, all invasions ceased. And the hand of Jehovah was against the philistines all the days of Samuel. This, of course, includes the reign of Saul, till within four years of his death; for Samuel continued to he prophet, and to a certain extent shophet, even when Saul was king. The words, moreover, imply a struggle, during which there was a gradual growth in strength on Israel’s part, and a gradual enfeeblement on the part of the Philistines, until David completely vanquished them, though they appear again as powerful enemies in the days of King Jehoram (2Ch 21:16). It is certain, however, that fifteen or twenty years after this battle the Philistines were again in the ascendant (1Sa 13:19-23), and it was this which made the Israelites demand a king (1Sa 9:16). But it is the method of the Divine historians to include the ultimate results, however distant, in their account of an event (see on 1Sa 16:21; 1Sa 17:55-58); and Israel’s freedom and the final subjugation of the Philistines were both contained in Samuel’s victory at Mizpah.
1Sa 7:14
From Ekron even unto Gath. Not that Israel captured these two towns, but they mark the limits upon the borders, within which the Philistines had previously seized towns and villages belonging to Israel, and which Samuel now recovered. There was peace between Israel and the Amorites. In Israel’s weakness the remains of this once powerful Canaanitish stock had probably made many a marauding expedition into the land, and carried off cattle and other plunder; now they sue for peace, and unite with Israel against the Philistines.
SAMUEL‘S CONDUCT AS JUDGE (1Sa 7:15-17).
1Sa 7:15, 1Sa 7:16.
And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. As long as Samuel lived there was no clear]imitation of his powers as shophet compared with those of Saul as king. In putting Agag to death (1Sa 15:33) he even claimed a higher authority, and though he voluntarily left as a rule all civil and military matters to the king, yet he never actually resigned the supreme control, and on fitting occasions even exercised it. It was, however, practically within narrow limits that he personally exercised his functions as judge in settling the causes of the people; for Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh were all situated in the tribe of Benjamin. Both Bethel and Mizpah were holy spots, and so also, probably, was Gilgal; and therefore we may conclude that it was the famous sanctuary of that name (see 1Sa 11:14), and not the Gilgal mentioned, in 2Ki 2:1; 2Ki 4:38. For this latter, situated to the southwest of Shiloh, near the road to Jerusalem, had no religious importance, and would not, therefore, attract so many people to it as one that was frequented for sacrifice. Probably, too, it was upon the occasion of religious solemnities that Samuel visited these places, and heard the people’s suits.
1Sa 7:17
His return was to Ramah. We have seen that Elkanah was a large landholder there, and Samuel had now apparently succeeded to his father’s place. And there he built an altar unto Jehovah. This old patriarchal custom (Gen 12:7) long continued, and it was only gradually that local shrines and worship on high places were superseded by attendance upon the temple services at Jerusalem. At this time there was especial need for such altars. The established worship at Shiloh had been swept away, the town destroyed, the priests put to the sword, and the ark, though restored, was resting in a private dwelling. Probably Samuel had saved the sacred vessels, and much even of the tabernacle, but no mention of them is here made. We see, however, both in the erection of this altar and all through Samuel’s life, that the Aaronic priesthood was in abeyance, and that he was not only prophet and judge, but also priest. In thus restoring the priesthood in his own person he was justified not merely by his powers as prophet, but by necessity. Gradually, with more prosperous times, matters returned to their regular channel; but even when Ahiah, the grandson of Eli, was with Saul (1Sa 14:3), he was employed not for the offering of sacrifice, but for divining with the Urim and Thummim. On a most important occasion the offering of sacrifice is spoken of as undoubtedly Samuel’s right, and when he delayed his coming no mention is made of a priest, but Saul is said to have offered the victim himself (1Sa 13:9). It is plain, therefore, that we must not tie down the priesthood too tightly to the house of Aaron; for throughout there lies in the background the idea of a higher priesthood, and with this Samuel was invested, as being a type of him who is a Priest forever after the order of Melchisedek.
HOMILETICS
1Sa 7:1, 1Sa 7:2
Fitness for service.
The facts are
1. At the request of the terrified men of Beth-shemesh the men of Kirjath-jearim bring the ark to their high place.
2. Arrangements are made in the house of Abinadab for the due care of the ark.
3. The time of the sojourn Of the ark in this place, up to the date of Samuel’s test of repentance, was twenty years.
4. Towards the close of this period the people long for the full restoration of the Divine favour. A new stage was being entered on in the process of restoration to full privileges, and God must have men fitted to the occasion. The ark could not go to Shiloh for evident reasons; so far as the Divine will could be gathered from the controlled action of the kine, Beth-shemesh was the place for it in which to rest. But the profane conduct of the officials proved that the privilege must be forfeited, and the unmitigated terror of the survivors indicated that they possessed not the spiritual qualifications for the respectful, loving guardianship of Israel’s glory. For some reason the men of Kirjath-jearim had a reputation which justified the belief that they dared and could safely convey and keep what their neighbours dare not touch. Their actions justified this belief.
I. NEW FORMS OF SERVICE ARE CONSTANTLY ARISING IN THE UNFOLDING OF GOD‘S PURPOSES. There was once a need of workmen to build the ark, of men to bear it, of kine to bring it back, and now of men to carry and keep it in all decency and order. Emergencies are inherent in the outworking of the Church’s mission. Ages bring their demands. Education, national affairs, assaults on truth, openings for the gospel in foreign lands, and many other things, call for new lines of action or modifications of old. And thus it will be till the world is brought to Christ.
II. THERE ARE ALWAYS IN RESERVE THE MEN FITTED FOR THE WORK GOD HAS TO RE DONE. If Beth-shemesh cannot supply the men who know how to behave properly towards the sacred symbol, there are others elsewhere. The qualities are being acquired parallel with the providential processes that evolve the new demand. God takes care of all sides of his holy cause. Those disqualified must yield the privilege of new and important service to the qualified, and God knows where these are. In every age he has his chosen, secret methods of laying hold of ability, learning, strength of purpose, and whatsoever else may be required to do his will.
III. THE FUNDAMENTAL FITNESS FOR GOD‘S SERVICE ON NEW OCCASIONS IS TRUE REVERENCE AND INTEREST. Many minor qualities were requisite to the bringing and caring for the ark, but the primary was that of proper reverence for the ark of God and due interest in its sanctity and use The men of Beth-shemesh lacked this; for they lost true reverence in terror and dread, and they were distrustful of their ability to keep the ark with due honour to it and benefit to themselves. Here we have in incidental contrast a religion characterised by dread, and a religion of true reverence.
1. The religion of dread is a sense of infinite holiness and power unrelieved by a recognition of other Divine attributes. The men of Beth-shemesh had been struck with the awful holiness of Jehovah, and of his mighty power expressing holiness in acts of swift judgment. Thus, generally, when religion consists mainly in this there is a shrinking from God’s presence; attention to ordinances under the sheer force of conscience. In so far as Christian menso calledknow only such a religion they approximate towards paganism. The religion of true reverence is a sense of infinite holiness and power toned by a trustful love. The men of Kirjath-jearim were not perfect, but they had as correct views as their neighbours of the holiness and power of Jehovah; and yet it is obvious, from the quiet, interested manner in which they received and provided for the ark, that they in some degree loved and trusted their God. In true reverence the awe created by ineffable holiness and almighty power is mitigated by the remembrance that HE is merciful and gracious, and cares for his people, even in their self-brought sorrows. When this reverence is perfected in Christian life by a due appreciation of the august majesty and love seen in the sacrificial work of Christ, the heart rests in God with all the reverential love of a child. Duty and privilege then are coincident.
General lessons:
1. We should be on the look out for any new work God may have for us to do.
2. Never despair of God finding agents for the various enterprises opened up by his own providence.
3. Cultivate every possible quality, and hold it in readiness for any use which God may make clear.
4. Court the honour and bliss of welcoming to city or home the treasures dear to God, be they ordinances of worship or those commissioned to do his will; for such bring blessings with them”angels unawares.”
Divine reserve.
The return of the ark was an outward sign of the returning favour of God, and was so understood by the men of Beth-shemesh. But the full service of the tabernacle, with the ark as its centre and glory, was not established. Nor were the Philistines deprived of their hold on Israel. The Divine power was held in reserve. The set time to favour Zion in plenitude had not arrived. The reasons for this are clear. The people were too degraded to enjoy the full benefit of the services and festivals. A degenerate priesthood, steeped in vice, cannot at once pass on to the holy duties of Jehovah’s worship. A regenerative process requires time, and twenty years was not too long for the old generation of priests to die off and give way to men brought up under better influences. The general truth here set forth is, that it is in the heart of God to do great things for his people, but that for good reasons he holds himself, so to speak, in reserveveiling his glory, bestowing his blessing sparsely. Indeed, there is even a wider application of the truth than in relation to the Church. Take a few illustrations.
I. CREATION. The material and spiritual universe is the outcome of the power and wisdom of God. But vast and intricate as it is, no one can suppose that it is coextensive with all that is in his nature.. There are not two infinites. The power and wisdom of God are in excess of what are traceable in the works he has formed. There is a vast reserve, which for aught we know may some time come out in an order of things not now conceived or deemed possible. It is a crude philosophy which teaches that God has done all he intends to do in the way of positive creation. Every new spirit that comes into being is an evidence of the Divine reserve.
II. REVELATION. There is a varied revelation of God, but in each case it may be said that, supposing we have learnt all they teach, we “know only in part.” For as there is more in God than in his works and word, there is a reserve of truth which may yet be drawn upon. In the gradual bestowment of revelation we see how God keeps back from one age what he gives to another. Christ had many things to say once which his disciples could not then bear to hear. There must be deep and far reaching principles of the Divine government which underlie the at present revealed facts of the Trinity, atonement, human responsibility, and future punishment; and these are kept out of full view till, perhaps, we become free from the flesh.
III. NATIONAL PROSPERITY. All true national prosperity is of God. If it comes not to men, it is because he withholds the blessings desired. The absence of prosperity has a practical side; it means that God reserves good because conduct and motive are not what he approves. There was nigh at hand all the power and wisdom by which Israel should cease to depend on Philistines for axes and coulters, but it came not forth. Had Israel in earlier or later times been more true to God, he would have “fed them also with the finest of the wheat” (Psa 81:13-16).
IV. CHURCH PRIVILEGES AND USEFULNESS. “Glorious things” are spoken of Zion. The Church inherits a wondrous destiny. She is to be the envy of the world. Her “feet” are to be “beautiful;” her garments “white;” her influence as the “light” and “salt.” And all this not by virtue of what may be in the Church of herself, but because of the power and grace of God within her. If she is “in the dust,” we ask the cause; the first answer is, because God stays his hand, keeps the residue of the Spirit, holds himself in reserve. The second answer is, that this Divine reserve is in consequence of the Church having backslidden from her God and disqualified herself from being a vehicle for the full flow of the blessing that is to enrich mankind. the Divine light is to shine from “golden candlesticks.”
V. PERSONAL RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. Personal religion is, in one sense, the passing into and dwelling within the soul of the power and love of Godby the Holy Spirit. It is the proper heritage of a believer to enjoy a sense of the Divine favour not known to the unbelieving. A vision of God sweet and blessed comes to the pure in heart. Christ manifests himself as he does not to the world. But the backsliding soul does not share in the full bliss. “Why art thou cast down?” is often asked. The answer is, there is not the spiritual fitness for perfect fellowship. Some “idols” have been cherished. Divine reserve is a discipline to cause the heart to lament after God.
General lessons:
1. There is ample ground for believing that all things shall be subdued unto Christ. His great power is yet to be put forth.
2. Inquiry should be made as to the existence of anything in motive, conduct, or spirit which keeps the Church from enjoying the full exercise of the power of God.
3. We may profitably reflect on what might be ours in private life if by our devotedness to God we secured more of the “residue of the Spirit.”
1Sa 7:3-12
Ebenezer.
The facts are
1. Samuel calls on the people to prove their desire to return to God by putting away idols and preparing their hearts for a blessing.
2. A response to the call is followed by a summons to Mizpah for prayer and humiliation.
3. A rumoured approach of the Philistines excites fear, and an urgent request for Samuel’s intercession with God.
4. While Samuel is engaged in worship God discomfits the assailing Philistines by thunder.
5. The victory is commemorated by raising the stone Ebenezer. This paragraph is to be considered in relation to Israel’s true goal in lifeto fulfil the Messianic purposes of their existence as a chosen people. Associated with this ulterior object, and subservient to it, was the full favour and blessing of God. This, again, was to be indicated by the restoration in developed form of the holy services and festivals connected with the ark and the sanctuary. The turning point in the degeneracy had come in a sense of desolation and misery consequent on the recent defeat and the capture of the ark. The return of the ark gently fanned the flickering flame of hope, but as yet the goal was far distant, and the conditions of attaining to it were very unsatisfactory. The narrative sketc.hes, in the instance of Israel, an outline of true effort towards the goal of life, and the encouragements to persevere in the effort. The Christian Church and the individual soul have each an issue of life to attain to. It is also true of them that they start from a relatively low and unsatisfactory position, and will succeed in their endeavour only as they observe conditions inseparable from their position.
I. The MEANS AND CONDITIONS OF REALISING LIFE‘S PURPOSE. Confining attention to those involved in this portion of history, we find them to be
1. A hearty renunciation of all that is alien to the mind of God. Idols had to be put aside. Man is attached to idols. They may be feelings entertained, passions gratified, favourite motives cherished, customs cultivated, aims kept in view, objects unduly loved. The “covetousness” which clings to forbidden things is “idolatry.” In so far as these things absorb our feeling and receive our attention after that God has indicated that they ought not, so far do we set them up as deserving regard and love in preference to himself. The Church and the individual must search and cast aside all that is alien to the mind of God.
2. Confession of sin and humiliation of spirit. No soul can attain to its goal, no Church can do its work and acquire purity and freedom, apart from sincere confession and deep humiliation for what is past. Israel’s gathering at Mizpah to acknowledge their guilt and bow before God, as though they were “like water spilt on the ground” (1Sa 7:6; cf. 2Sa 14:14), was a great step towards recovery of strength and joy. Seasons may arise when special services shall alone give due expression to the sense of shame and sorrow for the past; but daily sin needs to be confessed and the spirit to be chastened before the holy One whom we serve. Power for holy deeds grows out of true penitence.
3. Adaptation of the mind to a better course in the future. The “preparing” of “the heart” unto the Lord implies a self-control, a searching of the seat of feeling, a cleansing process by such spiritual helps as God may give, a fitting one’s self internally for a higher mode of life than yet has been known. Internal, carefully sought reformation is a guarantee of improved external acts. Most of us are not in a mood adapted to the grand future which God has in reserve. We are to seek it. Fellowship with God more pure, and close, and constant is not the result of accident, but is the issue of an earnest endeavour.
4. Special prayer for power to live a better life. The cry of Israel’s heart was a prayer for more than human aid to help them to perfect the renunciation of false gods and the contrition due for sin. And the aid of the prophet’s powerful intercession was to give more effect to their own cry. Life, to be blessed in issue, must be one of prayeran incessant cry for help to live. And, also, recourse must be had to the true Intercessor, who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The Church has not duly appreciated this means of accomplishing its purpose in the world. In so far as the individual Christian is a man of prayer, and looks daily to the Intercessor, wilt he press on till he attains to “the mark and prize of his high calling.”
5. A due recognition of the atonement of Christ. Not without reason was the “sucking lamb” offered when Israel sought the Lord. The “way to God” was clearly recognised. And the life of man will be right and will press on to a safe and blessed issue only so far as the Lamb of God is recognised as the “way.” The Church can fulfil her mission in the world only by faithfully exhibiting the cross of Christ to the guilty and desponding.
6. Determined conflict with the natural enemies of God and man. Israel had to fight Philistines. Only on condition of supplementary acts of confession and worship, by earnest conflict with the foe, could they secure peace in their borders, and finally answer their Messianic purpose of existence. In like manner the Church and the individual must “war a good warfare.” The militant character should be maintained as long as there is an enemy to Christ in the heart as in the world.
II. The ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRESEVERE TO THE END. The raising of the stone “Ebenezer” was an act retrospective and prospective. The hopes inspired in the mind of Samuel when first he undertook the work of reformation were being justified by events, and he desired the people to share in his expectations. In so far as fidelity has been shown by the Christian Church or by the individual in complying with the requirements of life’s true issue, so far is there in every instance a ground of confident expectation. For consider
1. The primary basis of confidence. In Israel’s case the return of the ark within their borders was a pledge of mercy for the penitent. They were not lost without remedy. And in the more glorious manifestation of God in Christ we have the pledge that there is mercy for all, and that all energy spent conformably to the object of his presence among men will be crowned with success.
2. The consciousness of being on the side of right. There is in even the fallen a remnant of the original sense of right which furnishes a ground of appeal, and assures of responsibility. The guiltiest man in Israel knew that to forsake Jehovah was wrong. In turning unto the Lord and seeking his favour the people were sustained by the deep conviction of right in hope of attaining the desired good. The moral support of such a consciousness is great to every one. The soul that seeks holiness and eternal life may look on with hope. A voice within declares that, being on the side of eternal right, we must, so far, win. The struggling Church of Christ feels the force of the same conviction which gives the foretaste of victory.
3. The manifest improvement in one’s condition proportionate to desire and effort. In so far as Israel’s desire and effort were sincere and carried through, to that degree did the personal, domestic, and national life rise above the baneful circumstances resulting from former sins. Every good feeling, every tear of penitence, every casting away of idols, left its mark on the surface of society, and indicated what might be expected if only the reformation be carried through. God gives according to our work. Likewise all Christian desire and effort succeed so far as they are genuine. The acquired results of fidelity to God confirm the truth that everything promised shall in due time be realised. Each step in the ascent heavenwards is to a clearer view of the summit of our ambition.
4. The assured sympathy of the great Intercessor. Perhaps nothing gave downcast Israel so much encouragement of final restoration to God, with its ulterior consequences, as the effort of Samuel, the chosen prophet, to assure them of his full sympathy. He was their friend, and in him they found solace and hope. As a prefigurement of the one true Intercessor, we see here what reason we have for boldness. The pains which Christ has taken to assure every earnest soul personally, and the Church collectively, of his deep sympathy are most extraordinary. By word, deed, tears, sorrow, death, yes, by resumed life and outpouring of the Spirit, he would have us know that we are not alone. The past may be black and full of sadness, but with him as Helper and Friend who may not hope on?
5. The cooperation of Providence. Providence works for men in forms adapted to their mental and spiritual condition. Whether the thunder which discomfited the Philistines was a special exertion of Divine power out of the ordinary course of atmospheric changes, or a coincidence brought about by him who, in the primary settlement of nature, foresees his own relations to his people, and harmonises physical and moral lines, the result abides. God fights for those who fight for righteousness. Providence does not always favour the search after wealth, or pleasure, or ease, but it does always favour the Christian in his conflict with sin. A “besom of destruction” is being formed for use against the forces of evil. Never in the history of the world has a case arisen in which defeat has come on any soul that has sincerely trusted in God and conformed to his requirements. They that “trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.” The battle is not to the strong, but to those who are under the cover of the Almighty hand.
III. The GROUNDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT, WHEN FAIRLY BROUGHT BEFORE THE MIND, OPERATE IN TWO WAYS.
1. Retrospectively. The retrospective survey, which brings the mind in view of facts bearing on the future, also awakens gratitude for what has been already accomplished. It was with no formal thankfulness that Samuel inscribed “Ebenezer;” and the poor wayward people, whose sins had borne such bitter fruit, caught his spirit as they reflected on the mercy that was proved, by recent events, not to be clean gone forever. Sinful hearts, when penitent, love to look back on even the slightest sign of God’s love and care. The development of gratitude itself is the introduction of a new and helpful power in the sore conflict with sin and sorrow. If only men would consider, by careful retrospection, what God has done for them! Men too often dwell on their own deeds and failings, and so nourish despondency. “Be ye thankful” is apostolic exhortation. And, despite all defections, blunders, and disasters of the Church, how tenderly and wisely he has led, chastened, and worked with the people called after his holy name. Powerful reasons still exist for the contending hosts to raise their cheerful, grateful “Ebenezer.”
2. Prospectively. “Hitherto” is relative. There is a future term in the thought; and its use, as the result of a survey of grounds of encouragement, means that the heart is bracing itself for new exertions. Samuel would work on, devising in cheerful spirit new means of further raising the people, while they would avail themselves of his assistance to regain lost joys and honours. A higher tone, a more vigorous effort, would mark the coming years.
Practical lessons:
1. It is very useful in private, domestic, and Church life occasionally to take a solemn review, with appropriate religious exercise, of progress made, and of what God has done for us.
2. We should study more carefully the formative power of a frequent consideration of the mercies of God.
3. When engaged in actual religious work and worship to which God has clearly called us, we may be certain that our general interests will not be allowed to suffer from the hand of enemies, seen or unseen.
4. If we honour God to the extent of our spiritual attainments, power will come for doing him still greater honour.
1Sa 7:13-17
First fruits of repentance.
The facts are
1. Israel enjoy freedom from the oppression of the Philistines and regain lost cities.
2. Their restless ancestral enemy the Amorite is quiet.
3. Samuel quietly and happily attends to his civil functions.
4. Ramah, the home of Samuel, is blessed with an altar to Jehovah. The mention of these suggestive facts immediately after the reference to the call to repentance and its response exhibit the natural results of the efforts of prophet and people. A fruitful theme is given.
I. In RELATION TO ISRAEL THESE FRUITS WERE MOST IMPORTANT; just such as a nation might well prize. An active, powerful foe was held in restraint. Territory and cities were restored to the government and general influence of a true man of God. Their fathers’ foe, who disputed the march of Joshua, and ever lay as a savage beast by their side, was controlled by an unseen hand. An orderly and beneficent civil administration, diligently maintained on religious principles, was enjoyed by the various districts, and the residence of the ruler of the people was conspicuously a centre of religious influence. Blessed fruits of national repentance! When will nations learn the clear lessons of this precious book of God?
II. In RELATION TO THE RELIGIOUS LIFE OF CHRISTIANS THESE FACTS ARE FULL OF SIGNIFICANCE. It is not wise to seek out spiritual meanings from every simple historic fact in the Old Testament. Plain history is not given as a religious enigma to be solved by some transcendental insight. Yet there are analogies between national and individual life, and principles of holiness and righteousness work in the same directions in both. As there is a Babylon both spiritual and historical, so there is the Philistine and Amorite of our great warfare. As treasures change hands in Israel’s conflict, so there are valuable possessions in man which may be dominated by opposing powers. Thus, then, we may consider some of the firstfruits of repentance in Christian life.
1. The great world power is largely subdued and cast off. The man who in his life has passed through what Israel did in answer to Samuel’s call finds that the evil influences of the world around have less hold on him. They are repressed. Their force has been weakened, if not annihilated.
2. Faculties once governed by unhallowed tendencies are restored to the rightful ruler. There are, so to speak, citiesseats of power and resourcein every man’s nature. While in a sinful course of life these are dominated largely by principles alien to God, and adverse to true self-interest: true repentance brings every faculty, thought, and desire into a willing subordination to him whose right it is to reign. The soul is a “holy land” in which Christ is King.
3. Deep seated, corrupt passions are quieted. There are ancient, very corrupt passions of a fleshly character embedded in human nature. These Amorites of our experience are unusually powerful during a life of sinful indulgence. They grow fat and flourish. One of the first consequences of the new life is to tone them down. The causes of their extreme activity and restlessness are partially removed. A strong hand holds them down in comparative quietude. Their destiny, like that of Israel’s cruel foe, is to be utterly destroyed; but even now, compared with former almost irresistible aggressions, there is peace with them.
4. A considerable degree of prosperity anal order is maintained. The reformed soul has law administered within itself. Every interest, every claim of striving powers and tendencies, is considered and decided in harmony with the law of Christ. The intellect does not absorb the time and energy due to the culture of the emotions, and vice versa. To some degree the inner man is in an orderly, prosperous condition. He is an improved being.
5. The holy, elevating power of devotion is cherished at the centre of influence. Samuel’s home was the centre of influence in Israel, and it was made by express arrangement conspicuously devout. There is in our nature a seat of supreme influence. The faculties and tendencies of the soul act in subordination to the commanding affection of life. True repentance issues in the heart becoming the seat of a powerful influence dominating all else. There is an altar there on which the inextinguishable fire burns, filling with its heavenly, glory the entire man. “Old things have passed away; all things are become new.” Are these fruits found in all lives called Christian? They ought to be, and are, if “Christian” is more than a name.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1Sa 7:1-12
Steps of return to God.
The whole interest of this passage is moral. No stress is laid on the forms, or even the authorised appurtenances, of religion. The ark, of which we have heard so much, and which had been treated with a singular mixture of superstition and profanity, plays no part in the history. It is left for years in a quiet retreat. Israel had backslidden from the Lord. The steps of their return have a meaning and a moral lesson for all generations.
I. THE FEELING OF A GREAT MORAL AND SPIRITUAL WANT. (“The house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” For twenty years the ark had been withdrawn, and under the yoke of the Philistines the spirit of Israel seemed to be quelled and stupefied. Even Samuel appears to have held himself in reserve till a time should arrive more favourable for the moral suasion and admonition of a prophet. And heathen worship crept over the land. But at last conscience began to stir, the soul of the people was weary, and there rose a wistful, sorrowful cry after the God of their fathers. This surely is always the beginning of a backslider’s restoration, he wearies, and is ashamed of his own ways; feels his folly and wickedness, and then sighs after a forfeited blessednesslaments after the Lord.
II. REPENTANCE PREACHED AND PRACTISED. When the time came for the people to hear him with an awakened conscience, Samuel addressed all the tribes with a voice of moral authority that recalls the admonitions of Moses and the last words of Joshua (verse 3). And the people obeyed his word, showing their repentance in the most thorough and practical way by “putting away Baalim and Ashtaroth.” So must every true prophet or preacher of righteousness summon men to repentance, and testify to them that God will not take their part while their hearts are disloyal to him. It is useless to lament after the Lord and still retain false gods. Our God is not mocked, nor can his favour be gained by mere words and empty sighs.
III. A NEW ORDER BEGUN. At Mizpah, after solemn public confession of sin against Jehovah, “Samuel judged the people of Israel.” He seized the opportunity to institute a more authoritative and vigorous administration of public affairs. He knew well the need of establishing order and discipline under the sacred law. And the people consented. So when there is sincere repentance a new order begins. The authority of the law of the Lord over conscience and life is acknowledged, and there is evinced a new obedience.
IV. A FIGHT FOR HOLY LIBERTY. The Philistines had no objection to the Israelite worship of Baal and Astarte; but so soon as they heard of their return to the service of Jehovah and of the increased authority of Samuel, they mustered their forces to attack them. And the faith of the penitent tribes was not yet sufficiently established or assured to prevent their being “afraid of the Philistines.” They stood their ground, however, and asked Samuel to pray for them to the Lord. So they got the victory. When a backslider returns to God, endeavouring to regain his self-respect, and to resume his place as a well doer, he finds that evil rises up within him and fights hard for the mastery. As Pharaoh would not let the people go and the Philistines would not let them restore religion or regain national independence without a struggle to keep them down, so does sin strive to retain under its yoke the sinner who is escaping through repentance. But let faith appeal to God along with the burnt offering of entire consecration to him. He gives the victory to the weak.
V. GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HELP FROM GOD. Samuel knew the value to a nation of inspiriting recollections, and therefore set up a stone or pillar to commemorate the great victory. But he was careful to make it a witness not to Israel’s . prowess, but to Jehovah’s timely help. It was Ebenezer, the stone of help. It said “Te Deum Landamus.” The spiritual life has its Ebenezers,many of them. Nations are ready enough to raise proud pillars and triumphal arches to celebrate their feats in war. Europe has ever so many columns, streets, squares, and boulevards, and bridges named after battles. Let us remember the battles of principle, the fights with temptation through which we have passed. When we have failed, ours is the shame. When we have overcome, to God be the glory. We recommend not remembrance only, but some stone of remembrance. It is a true and wise impulse which has often led Christians to commemorate a great deliverance or consolation vouchsafed to themselves by building a church, an hospital, or an almshouse, or by founding a mission, or some institution of learning or benevolence. Such a stone of remembrance helps him who rears it to resist the tendency to let religious impressions and memories fade from the mind, and it proclaims to others that some men, at all events, have proved God as the Hearer of prayer and the Helper of the needy.F.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
1Sa 7:2-6. (MIZPAH.)
A national revival.
The history of religion in the world is largely a history of a series of declensions and revivals; the former being due to the downward tendency of human nature, the latter to the gracious interposition of God. Of this fact the period of the judges affords an illustration. The revival which took place at its commencement (Jdg 2:1-5) is specially worthy of notice; another, and more important, occurring toward its close, is here described. It was
1. Needed on account of the condition of the people of Israel. The great defeat which they suffered twenty years before (1Sa 7:1; 1Sa 4:1; 1Sa 6:1) checked their prevailing sin, especially as manifested in sacerdotalism, formalism, superstition, and presumption; but it by no means cured it. Superstitious veneration for sacred objects passed rapidly, as commonly happens, into unbelieving irreverence (1Sa 6:19) and spiritual indifference; whilst participation in the false worship and corrupt practices of the heathen continued, and even increased (1Sa 7:4). The law of God was made void. and his presence withdrawn.
2. Effected, under God, by the influence of one manSamuel. Nothing is expressly said concerning him during these twenty years; but he appears to have retired from Shiloh to Ramah, his native place, and it is not likely that he remained there altogether inactive for so long a time. The statement of 1Sa 3:20, 1Sa 3:21; 1Sa 4:1, must be considered as, to some extent, prospective. The oppression of the Philistines was not such as to interfere with him, nor was his activity of such a kind as to cause them much concern. His holy example and quiet labours doubtless contributed greatly to the keeping alive of true piety in the hearts of a faithful few; and when the time came for more public effort he stood readyin the full maturity of his powers, above forty years of ageto utter the word of the Lord, and to take the leadership of the nation. “During the long oppression of a stormy time the nation at last gathered more and more unanimously around Samuel, like terrified chickens around the parent hen” (Ewald).
3. Marked by features of a peculiar nature. Every great religious revival that has been recorded in sacred history or has occurred in the Christian Church has had a character of its own, determined by the wants of the age. And this revival was characterised by the restoration of the moral law to commanding influence on the conscience of the people by means of the prophetic ministry. The office of hereditary priest became secondary to that of inspired prophet, and was even absorbed in it for a while; for Samuel, although not a priest, acted constantly as such in offering sacrifice; and the Levitical law lay in abeyance, or was modified in practice under his direction. “As Moses established the theocracy, Samuel restored its fundamental principles to the supreme place in the national life, and thus in a true and noble sense was its second founder.” The revival he was the chief instrument in effecting involved a more complete separation from idolatry, laid the basis of higher internal unity, and was followed by prosperity and independence. In the description of it we observe –
I. A GENERAL CONCERN ABOUT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD. “And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord” (1Sa 4:2).
1. Occasioned by the experience of the long and bitter effects of transgression.
2. Implying a sense of misery in the absence of God. The idols to which men give their affections cannot satisfy the heart (Hos 2:7, Hos 2:8; Hos 5:15, Hos 6:1). “It is well to feel worn and fatigued with the fruitless search after happiness, that we may welcome our Deliverer” (Pascal).
3. Consisting of an intense longing after his favour and fellowship. The phrase, lamented after the Lord,’ is taken from human affairs, when one fellows after another and entreats him with lamentations until he assents. An example of this is the Syrophenician woman” Mat 15:1-39. (S. Schmid). The sorrow thus felt was a “godly sorrow;” a sorrow which comes from God, is felt for God, and tends to God, and which works genuine repentance, effectual deliverance, and lasting satisfaction (2Co 7:10).
4. Felt by the nation as a whole. “All the house of Israel.” And wherever such concern is felt it is a sure sign of God’s returning favour. “They inclined after the Lord; they groaned, complained, bemoaned themselves in their following the Lord, as a child followeth his departing parent; they called, cried, and lifted up their voice after the Lord by earnest prayer and supplication. Why?
(1) Because God is infinitely more worthy than all ordinances; his presence is valuable in itself.
(2) God purposely withdraws, that men may lament after him; as when a mother steps out of a child’s sight, and when she seems to be gone the child raises a cry after her.
(3) Because sincere lamenting after the Lord may occasion his return” (O. Heywood, 3:419).
II. AN EARNEST ATTENTION TO THE WORD or THE LORD (Mat 15:3). The word was
1. Revealed in former days, and included in the law of Moses (Deu 6:14). There is not generally so much need of new truth as that the old should be vitalised. How much of dead truth lies in the mind of every man I
2. Spoken with new power; opportunely, faithfully, and with holy zeal, by the prophet who had been commissioned to utter it. The preaching of the word is necessary and important in every genuine revival of religion. That word is a fire, a hammer, and a two-edged sword (Heb 4:12).
3. Adapted to the condition of the people.
(1) To test the sincerity of their desires and purposes. “If,” etc.
(2) To instruct them in their duty. “Put away the strange gods, etc. Prepare your hearts = “Fix your hearts towards, or in trust in, God” (Heb 13:9).
(3) To encourage them to hope for deliverance. “And he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
4. listened to in a right spirit; with fresh interest, reverence, self-application, and a determination to put it into practice. When the heart is prepared the truth is invested with new meaning and power; as words written on paper with invisible ink are clearly perceived when held to the fire. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17).
III. A SINCERE RENUNCIATION OF SIN AGAINST THE LORD (Mat 15:4), which was
1. A proof of their genuine repentance; “a heart broken for sin, and from sin.”
2. Shown with respect to the transgressions to which they were specially addictedthe worship of Baalim (images or modifications of Baal, the principal male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nationsthe sun god) and Ashtaroth (images of their supreme female divinity, “the queen of heaven,” the Syrian VenusAstarte), and the corrupt practices connected therewith (Jdg 2:11, Jdg 2:13).
3. Combined with positive acts of obedience and piety. They not only ceased to worship false gods, but also “served the Lord alone” (Mat 6:24). Sin is most effectually broken off “by righteousness” (Dan 4:27); an old affection most effectually expelled by a new one. The heart cannot rest without some object of love and trust. And if, “when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man,” it be not immediately replaced by a pure spirit, it is sure to return “with seven other spirits more wicked than himself” (Matthew In. 43).
4. Made by men individually and in private; whereby they become prepared to make a national profession, and to receive the Divine blessing. God can bless men only by “turning every one of them from his iniquities” (Act 3:26).
IV. A PUBLIC CONSECRATION TO THE SERVICE OF THE LORD (Mat 15:5, Mat 15:6). At the word of Samuel a national assembly was gathered together at Mizpah for the purpose of openly expressing and confirming the general feeling; and there under the open sky they “yielded themselves to the Lord” (2Ch 30:8) with
1. Solemn vows of obedience to the law of their God. “They drew water and poured it out before the Lord.” “We take this act to have been a sign and symbol, or rather confirmation of an oatha solemn vow. To pour out water on the ground is in the East an ancient way of taking a solemn oaththe words and promises that had gone forth from their mouth being as water spilt upon the ground that cannot be gathered up again” (Kitto).
2. Sincere humiliation on account of former disobedience. The symbol just mentioned is interpreted by some as denoting the pouring out of their hearts in penitence. They also “fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.”
3. Prayers and supplications for Divine mercy and help. “I will pray for you.” “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us,” implying that Samuel had already prayed for them. He gave expression to their desires, and made intercession on their behalf. “So Moses prayed for the people at Rephidim and for Miriam, so Elijah prayed at Carmel, so Ezra prayed at the evening sacrifice, so the high priest prayed for the house of Israel on the day of atonement, and so does our Lord Jesus Christ ever live at God’s right hand to make intercession for us” (‘Sp. Com.’).
4. Devout acknowledgment of the prophet of the Lord as their leader and judge. “And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.” On that day he commenced his public labours as judge, and a great moral and spiritual reformation was inaugurated. It was a day long remembered (2Ch 35:18 : “There was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet”), and such a day as every godly man desires to see in this land (Psa 85:6; Hos 14:1-3; Hab 3:2).D.
1Sa 7:6. (MIZPAH.)
Confession of sin.
“We have sinned against the Lord.” When any one has done wrong to another he ought to make acknowledgment and reparation to him (Mat 5:23, Mat 5:24). We are directed to “confess our faults one to another” (Jas 5:16); and there are cases in which we may derive benefit from confessing our sins against the Lord to a godly man. The passage just referred to, however, affords no ground for “auricular confession” to a priest; nor does the commission given to the apostles (Joh 20:23), since (in addition to other reasons) it simply conferred authority to declare the ordinances of the kingdom of heaven, and especially the terms or conditions according to which sins are remitted or retained; and the practice of such confession is most injurious. But we ought all to confess our sins to God. Every wrong done to men is a sin against God, and there are multitudes of sins against him that do not directly affect our fellow men. “In many things we all offend.” And the word of God often enjoins the confession of all our offences before him, and declares it to be the necessary condition of obtaining forgiveness. Consider
I. WHAT IT IMPLIES.
1. That we see the essential evil of sin. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1Jn 3:4). More generally, it is whatever is contrary to the character and will of God. As he is the only perfect Being, and deserves and claims the supreme love of men, so the root of sin consists in the absence of such love, and the departure of the heart from its true rest; and whenever man departs from God he falls into selfishness, vanity, and misery. Sin is aversion to God and devotion to self (see Tulloch, ‘Christian Doctrine of Sin’). “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,” etc. (Psa 51:4).
2. That we are convinced of the just desert of sin. “Howbeit, thou art just in all that is brought upon us,” etc. (Neh 9:33).
3. That we are resolved upon an entire renunciation of sin. This determination springs from a real hatred towards it, and is associated with “hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Confession is of the nature of a solemn oath of abjuration. “Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall find mercy” (Pro 28:13).
II. HOW IT SHOULD BE MADE.
1. Under a due impression of the greatness of our sin.
(1) In order to this we must contemplate the holy love of God, his just requirements, his merciful blessings and boundless claims; above all, we must stand before the cross and behold that great sight (Luk 23:48). “There is no better way to obtain the gift of tears for having offended God than meditation on the greatness of God’s goodness and of his love which he has shown to man.”
(2) We must, in the light that shines upon us, consider the particular transgressions we have committed in thought, word, and deed against God, our neighbour, and ourselves,sins of omission and commission,and the sinful disposition revealed by them and pervading our whole life (Luk 18:13). General confessions of sin without personal and particular application are of little worth. “Usually, the more particular we are in the confession of sin, the more comfort we have in the sense of pardon” (M. Henry).
(3) In this manner we shall, by Divine grace, be filled with self-abasement, godly sorrow, and true repentance. “That which makes manifest is light;” and in proportion to the brightness with which the light of truth shines upon us will it manifest our sin (1Jn 1:8); just as a sunbeam darting across a room shows us the floating dust that was not seen before (Job 42:5, Job 42:6).
2. In sincere, frank, and unreserved acknowledgment of our sin; without any attempt to cover, excuse, or palliate it. “Pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (Psa 25:11; Psa 32:3-5).
3. With a turning of the heart to God in faith and prayer and acts of obedience. “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee” (Psa 86:5).
“Repentance is heart’s sorrow
And a clear life ensuing”
(Shakespeare).
III. BY WHOM.
1. Each individual (Luk 15:21). “God be merciful to me a sinner” (Luk 18:13).
2. Each family. “Every family apart” (Zec 12:14).
3. The whole people. Those who have united in sinning must unite in confessing their sin (1Sa 12:19; Ezr 9:6-15; Dan 9:4-19). “We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
IV. WHY IT IS NECESSARY.
1. That we may give glory to God. By it we act in accordance with his will, justify him in his dealings with us, and give to him the honour which is his due. “Give glory to God, and make confession unto him” (Jos 7:19).
2. That we may be prepared to receive pardon, peace, and salvation. Until we open our hearts to God he will not open his heart to us. We must cease to have fellowship with idols in order that we may have fellowship with the holy One, and become the habitation of his Spirit (2Co 6:16).
3. That we may have confidence in the fulfilment of his promises. This is conditioned by. our fulfilment of his requirements, without which our confidence is vain. “If we confess our sins,” etc. (1Jn 1:9). “And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jn 2:1).D.
1Sa 7:7-14. (EBENEZER.)
The victory of Ebenezer.
Whenever a people is set right in its relation to God and purified from its sin, it is certain to obtain victory over its enemies and enjoy prosperity and peace. Israel was now restored from its apostasy, and on the very spot where it experienced an overwhelming defeat twenty years before it gained a signal triumph. We have here
I. THE GATHERING OF THE ENEMY (1Sa 7:7).
1. So long as the yoke of the ungodly is patiently borne they remain quiet, and do not deem it needful to harass the victims of their oppression.
2. The revival of piety and activity seldom fails to call forth the fierce opposition of evil men. The spirit of good and the spirit of evil are contrary the one to the other, and the more intense the former becomes, the more intense also becomes the latter. The “prince of this world” dislikes to be deprived of his captives, and therefore seeks to prevent sinners from coming to the Lord (Luk 9:42), and hinders saints from working for him (1Th 2:18).
3. The purpose for which the pious assemble is not always understood by their enemies; their meeting for prayer is sometimes mistaken for an organising of a political or military attack upon them; and their union for any purpose whatever is instinctively felt to bode them no good, and regarded as a sufficient ground for their dispersion. “Now we see here
(1) How evil sometimes seems to come out of good.
(2) How good is sometimes brought out of that evil. Israel could never be threatened more seasonably than at this time, when they were repenting and praying; nor could the Philistines have acted more impoliticly for themselves than to make war upon Israel at this time, when they were making their peace with God” (Matthew Henry).
II. THE PREPARATION FOR THE CONFLICT (1Sa 7:7, 1Sa 7:8, 1Sa 7:9).
1. Mistrust of self. “They were afraid of the Philistines.” Their experience of defeat and oppression had taught them their own weakness and cured their presumption. The consciousness of human weakness is the condition of receiving Divine strength (2Co 12:10; Heb 11:34).
2. Trust in God. “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us,” etc. (1Sa 7:8). Their need impelled them to look to God, whom they called their God, with reference to his covenant, and from whom they expected deliverance according to the promise previously given to them (1Sa 7:3). “They have found their God again, after whom they had till now sighed and mourned” (Erdmann). Their urgent request of Samuel was an evidence of their reliance on Jehovah and the proper way of seeking his aid, for Samuel was not only a spokesman for God to men, but also a spokesman for men to God, and he proceeded to exercise the priestly function of mediation by offering sacrifice and making intercession.
3. Self-dedication, of which the whole burnt offering was the expression and appointed means, the sign of complete consecration of the whole man, and here of the whole people;” the sucking lamb being a symbol of their new life now freely devoted to God. Samuel acted as priest at Mizpah and elsewhere by Divine commission under peculiar circumstances; the regular priesthood being in abeyance, the ark separated from the tabernacle, Shiloh desolate, and no other place chosen by God “to put his name there;” and as preparatory to the time “when in every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a pure offering” (Mal 1:11). “A most important part of the prophetic office was to maintain the spiritual character of the Hebrew worship, and to prevent the degeneracy of the people into such ritualism as they had fallen into at the time our Lord appeared” (Kitto). “Let, then, thy oblation be without earthly affection or self-will of any kind. Look neither to earthly nor heavenly blessings, but only to the will and order of God, to which thou shouldst submit and sacrifice thyself wholly as a perpetual burnt offering, and, forgetting all created things, say, ‘Behold, my Lord and Creator, each and all of my desires I give into the hand of thy will and thine eternal providence. Do with me as seemeth good to thee in life and death, and after death; as in time, so in eternity'” (Scupoli).
4. Prayer. “And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel” with a piercing and prolonged cry. And with his prayer their own rose up to heaven. “By prayer (if thou use it well) thou wilt put a sword into the hand of God, that he may fight and conquer for thee.” A praying army is irresistible. What victories have been achieved by prayer! “The forty years’ domination of the Philistines over Israel (Jdg 13:1) could not be overthrown by the supernatural strength of Samson, but was terminated by the prayers of Samuel” (Wordsworth). Samson only began to deliver Israel (Jdg 13:5); Samuel completed the work.
III. THE RECEPTION OF HELP (1Sa 7:9, 1Sa 7:10).
1. It came in answer to prayer. “And the Lord answered him.”
2. It came at the moment of their greatest extremity. “And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.” But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity (Gen 22:11-14).
3. It came in an extraordinary manner. “The Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day.” It was, as it were, his voice in answer to prayer. The ordinary forces of nature operated in such a manner as to make it plainly appear that they were directed by his hand (1Sa 2:10).
4. It was most effectual. “They were discomfited and smitten before Israel” (Job 40:9; Psa 77:18).
IV. THE PURSUIT OF THE FOE (1Sa 7:11).
1. The sense of the presence of God inspires his people with fresh confidence and courage, and without it they can do nothing.
2. The help of God does not render their cooperation unnecessary. It rather calls for the putting forth of their Strength. He gives them strength that it may be employed against the enemy, and in the faithful and zealous use of it he gives them more strength, and crowns their efforts with success.
3. Victory over the enemy should be followed up to the utmost (Jdg 8:4). “They smote them until they came to Beth-car.” How often from not following up a victory are its advantages lost!
V. THE MEMORIAL OF THE VICTORY (1Sa 7:12).
1. The help which is derived from God should be gratefully ascribed to him.
2. Thanksgiving to God should be expressed in a definite and permanent form.
3. One deliverance is an earnest of another.
4. The memorial of past deliverance should incite to future confidence, and the continued use of the means in connection with which it was achieved. “Hitherto; for all Jehovah’s help is only hithertofrom day to day, and from place to place; not unconditionally, not wholly, not once for all, irrespective of our bearing” (Edersheim). More conflicts have to be waged, and it is only in mistrust of self, trust in God, self-dedication, and prayer that they can be waged successfully. “The life of man is nothing else but a continual warfare with temptation. And this is a battle from which, as it ends only with life, there is no escape; and he who fights not in it is of necessity either taken captive or slain. Because of this warfare thou must watch always, and keep a guard upon thy heart, so that it be ever peaceful and quiet” (Scupoli).
VI. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE RESULT (1Sa 7:13, 1Sa 7:14). A true revival is always followed by beneficial and lasting effects.
1. The power of the enemy is broken. “The Philistines were subdued, and came no more into the coasts of Israel.”
2. A sure defence is afforded against every attempt they may make to regain their dominion. “The hand of the Lord was against them all the days of Samuel.”
3. Lost territory is restored (1Sa 7:14). Along the whole line, extending north and south, from Ekron to Gath.
4. Far reaching peace is established. “And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.” “When a man’s ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Pro 16:7). The battle of Ebenezer may be considered one of the decisive battles of the world, inasmuch as it introduced a new order of things in Israel. and contributed in an eminent degree to its subsequent prosperity and power. “The revival of religion has ever had a most important bearing on social and moral improvement. The return of man to God restores him to his brother. Restoration to the earnest and hearty performance of religious duties towards God leads to a corresponding reformation in relative and political duties. Those countries in Europe which have had the greatest religious reforms have advanced most in liberty, civilisation, and commerce. They are not trodden by the iron heel of despotism, and they possess the greatest amount of domestic quiet. It was the revival of religion which secured the Protestant succession to England, and many of the liberties which we now enjoy. It was the revival of religion that gave such a martyr roll to the Scottish Covenanters, and led to the revolution settlement of 1688. In Israel every revival of religion was succeeded by national prosperity and political independence” (R. Steel).D.
1Sa 7:12. (Between MIZPAH and SHEN-the tooth or crag.)
The stone of help.
The setting up of memorial stones was one of the earliest methods adopted for the purpose of recording interesting and important events. These memorials consisted of a single block or of a heap of stones; they generally received some significant name, or were marked with a brief inscription, and they sometimes became centres around which the people gathered, and were replaced by more imposing structures. The earliest instance mentioned in the Bible was at Bethel (Gen 28:8). Other instances, Gen 31:45; Exo 17:15; Jos 4:9, Jos 4:21, Jos 4:22; Jos 24:26. This memorial was set up
I. ON THE OPPORTUNE RECEPTION OF DIVINE HELP. Looking backward on the past, let us remember
1. How much that help has been needed by usin sorrow, labour, conflict, danger, which our own strength was wholly inadequate to meet.
2. How often it has been afforded when we were at the point of despair. But why, it may be asked, should God have allowed us to arrive at such a point?
(1) To teach us the very truth concerning ourselves, and deliver us from a vain confidence in ourselves. “This unfortunate self-reliance forms within us a little favourite sanctuary, which our jealous pride keeps closed against God, whom we receive as our last resource. But when we become really weak and despair of ourselves, the power of God expands itself through all our inner man, even to the most secret recesses, filling us with all the fulness of God” (A. Monod).
(2) To produce in us humility and submission, to excite us to fervent prayer, and to strengthen and perfect our faith.
(3) To afford occasion for a more impressive manifestation of his power and grace.
3. How completely it has been adapted to our need and accomplished our deliverance. Here we are this day, after the trouble and conflict, ourselves monuments of his mercy! “We went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (Deu 8:2; Psa 66:12; Psa 77:10; Act 26:22).
II. IN GRATEFUL RECOGNITION OF DIVINE HELP. Looking upward to heaven, let us reflect
1. How plainly the Source of our deliverance now appears. “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” “Not with thy sword, nor with thy bow” (Jos 24:12). His arm alone has brought salvation nigh. We see it now more clearly than we did before, and as we meditate upon it our hearts overflow with thankfulness. We have not always recognised the Source of our mercies, and therefore often omitted to be thankful; but who can fail to see these signal tokens of his power? “Not unto us,” etc. (Psa 115:1).
2. How much we owe to the God of our salvation. Everything.
3. How we can best testify the gratitude of our hearts. “What shall I render unto the Lord?” (Psa 116:12). Loud songs of praise. Renewed vows of consecration. Earnest written or spoken words for God. Large gifts of what he has given. Fresh acts of piety and beneficence. These shall be the memorial we now set up.
III. AS A PERMANENT RECORD OF DIVINE HELP. Looking forward to the future, let us considered. How helpful the record may be to ourselves in times of conflict and trial. For such times will come; we are liable to forget what has occurred; and it will remind us of him who changes not, and incite us to faith and prayer.
2. How useful it may be to others in similar circumstances. What he has done for us he can do for them, and seeing it they “may take heart again.”
3. How conducive it may be to the glory of God. As often as we behold it we shall be stirred to fresh thanksgiving. When we are gone it will still endure. Others will gather around it, and ask the meaning of the “great stone which remaineth unto this day” (1Sa 6:18), and, on being told, will give glory to God. So his praise shall be perpetuated from generation to generation, until it merge into the anthem of heaven.
Conclusion.
1. Let us be thankful for the memorials of Divine help which others have left for our benefit. They are among the greatest treasures the earth contains, and meet our view wherever we turn.
2. Let us do something to add to these treasures, and further enrich the earth.
3. Above all, let us seek to be ourselves the everlasting monuments of the Divine power and grace.D.
1Sa 7:15-17. (RAMAH, BETHEL, GILGAL, MIZPAH.)
Samuel the judge.
The “judges” of Israel were deliverers from oppression, leaders in war, perpetual dictators in national affairs, and supreme arbiters in judicial matters. “All that was greatest in those times was certainly due to them, and some of their names shine eternally like bright stars in the long night of a troubled age” (Ewald, ‘History’). Of these judges Samuel was the last and greatest. His superiority appears in
1. The character he possessed. He was free from the vices into which some of the most distinguished amongst them fell, and surpassed them in the virtues they exhibited. He had higher conceptions of God and his law, held more intimate communion with him, and was altogether of a nobler type of human excellence. His constant aim was to do the will of God; he was upright in heart and life, humble, patient, generous, and full of disinterested zeal and holy energy in seeking the true welfare of men. In these respects he approached as nearly, perhaps, as any of the servants of God under the old covenant the perfection of him who was “without sin.”
2. The method he pursued. As he effected the deliverance of Israel not by the sword, but by “the word of God and prayer,” so he continued to make use of the same means as the most effective in preserving their liberty and increasing their strength and happiness. His method was moral rather than physical. He taught them “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God” (Mic 6:8). His policy was one of peace, and he relied on God to restrain the aggression of surrounding nations, and afford protection against their attacks. Nor was his trust misplaced.
3. The work he accomplished. Idolatry, which was rebellion against the Divine King, was banished. The principles of the theocracy were confirmed. Order, justice, and peace were established; and closer unity prevailed among the tribes, based upon their common loyalty to their King. “This was the great achievement and crowning point of his service to Israel and the God of Israel; the scattered and disunited tribes became again a nation. The rival tribes Ephraim and Judah make common cause against the common enemy, and the more distant tribes do not seem to withhold their allegiance” (Milman). The labours of Samuel as judge are here summed up in a few sentences, suggestive of some things wherein he was an instructive example to rulers, statesmen, magistrates, and “all that are in authority.” Notice
I. HIS SUPREME CONCERN FOR RELIGION. Samuel was first a prophet, then a “faithful priest,” finally a ruler and judge. “His judicial work not only proceeded from the prophetical, but was constantly guided by it. For we may presume not only that he gave legal decisions with prophetical wisdom, but also that, in general, he conducted the affairs of the people as a man who had the Spirit of the Lord” (Nagelsbach). At the different places to which “he went from year to year in circuit”Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpahhe probably taught the word of God and offered sacrifice, combining his prophetic and priestly with his judicial work. At Ramah he built an altar to the Lord, “testifying thereby the power from which alone be could receive either the authority or wisdom to judge.” The position of Samuel was peculiar, and his work unusually comprehensive; but it may be observed of every good civil magistrate that
1. He is qualified for his office by his possession of reverence for God. “He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God” (2Sa 23:3). He feels his responsibility to the supreme King and Judge, by whose providence he has been placed in authority, and has constant regard to his will.
2. His personal piety pervades his public activity. The one is not separated from the other, but is its animating spirit, and thereby he seeks to afford in his judgments a reflection of the perfect judgments of God.
3. His highest desire, knowing that “righteousness exalteth a nation,” is to see the people all righteous. That end, he is persuaded, cannot be attained by force; but, as a godly man, he ever seeks it by moral means; and, in his public capacity, he endeavours to do something towards it by restraining the violence of the wicked and protecting the good in their labours “unto the kingdom of God.”
II. HIS FAITHFUL ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. In the theocracy the laws were already given, and Samuel’s judicial work consisted in arranging for their proper administration, in which he doubtless availed himself of the method formerly appointed (Deu 16:18-20), reserving to himself the proper interpretation and application of them in more difficult and important cases. For this purpose he went to different centres of the land at stated thnes, and “judged Israel in all those places.” He has been not inappropriately called the Hebrew Aristides. Like him, the]faithful magistrate
1. Strives to bring justice within easy reach of every man.
2. Administers it wisely, impartially, fearlessly, without respect of persons (Exo 18:21, Exo 18:22; 2Ch 19:5-7; Jer 22:3).
3. Devotes himself disinterestedly and diligently to the common weal (1Sa 12:3). “The Hebrew judges were not only simple in their manners, moderate in their desires, and free from avarice and ambition, but they were noble and magnanimous men, who felt that whatever they did for their country was above all reward, and could not be recompensed; who desired merely to be public benefactors, and chose rather to deserve well of their country than to be enriched by its wealth” (Jahn, ‘Hebrews Com.,’ sect. 22).
III. HIS WISE PROVISION FOR EDUCATION. During the period of his judgeship Samuel appears to have established one or more “schools of the prophets,” in which he taught young men sacred knowledge, and, in connection with it, reading, writing, and music, thus preparing them to give instruction to the people, which the Levites had failed to do (1Sa 10:10; 1Sa 19:20). So a wise statesman, seeing that “for the soul to be without knowledge is not good,” and that “the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” adopts proper means for the education of the young, the diffusion of knowledge, and the advancement of the race (Psa 78:5-8). “Education is the debt which one generation owes to another” (J.S. Mill). The schools of the prophets “were hearths of spiritual life to Israel. Their aim was not to encourage a contemplative life (like the cloisters), but to arouse the nation to activity. Every prophetic disciple was a missionary” (Hengstenberg).
IV. HIS CONSISTENT CONDUCT AT HOME. “And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he built an altar unto the Lord” (1Sa 7:17). There, also, he continued his judicial labours. The faithful magistrate, whilst he does not allow his public duty to interfere with proper attention to his duty to his own household, seeks to make the latter helpful to the former. He exemplifies in his private life the conduct he openly commends to others, and “walks in his house with a perfect heart” (Psa 101:2). Though he be not a Nazarite, he is simple, self-denying, and unostentatious in his habits; and though he be not wealthy, he is kind to the poor, hospitable to friends (1Sa 9:24), and liberal towards the Lord (1Ch 26:28 : “all that Samuel the seer had dedicated”). He recognises the presence and claims of God in his home, sanctifies it by prayer (Job 1:5), endeavours to make it a centre whence holy influences emanate to all, and does all things to the glory of God (1Co 10:31). “The indispensable basis afforded by the home and its eternal sanctity no superior religion and legislation should seek to destroy, or even to disturb; and, on a comprehensive survey, we cannot fail to recognise that there is no other ancient nation in which, during the days of external power, domestic life remained for a long period so vigorous; and, secondly, during the gradual decline of the external power, became so little weakened and corrupted as was the case with Israel” (Ewald, ‘Antiquities’).
V. HIS LONG CONTINUANCE IN OFFICE. “And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life” (1Sa 7:15). “Simple words, but what a volume of tried faithfulness is unrolled by them!” He pursued his course till he was “old and gray headed” (1Sa 12:2)nearly twenty years from the victory of Ebenezer. The appointment of a king relieved him of a portion of the burden; but he still continued to exercise his prophetic office, and, “as last judge, he held in his hands the highest control of the theocracy and the kingdom.” He devoted his last years to the training of youthful disciples for future service; and when at length he died, “all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah” (1Sa 25:1). His protracted labour was an evidence of his public spirit, indomitable energy, and efficient service, and the principal means of raising the nation to its subsequent power and glory.D.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
2. Restoration of the Ark with Expiatory Gifts. 1Sa 6:1-11
1And the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] was in the country of the Philistines seven 2months. And the Philistines called for [together1] the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to [with] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]? Tell us 3wherewith2 we shall send it to his [its] place. And they said, If ye3 send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty, but in any wise [om. in any wise4] return him5 a trespass-offering; then ye shall be healed,6 and it shall be known7 to 4you why his hand is not removed from you. Then said they [And they said], What shall be [is] the trespass-offering which we shall return to him? [Ins. And] they answered [said], Five golden emerods [boils] and five golden mice,8 according9 to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for one plague was [is] on you10 all 5and on your lords. Wherefore [And] ye shall make images of your emerods [boils], and images of your mice that mar [devastate] the laud; and ye shall give glory to the God of Israel; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, 6and from off your gods, and from off your land. [Ins. And] wherefore then [om. then] do [will] ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? [ins. Did they not], when he had [om. had11] wrought wonderfully among them, did they not [om. did they not] let the people go, and they departed? 7Now therefore [And now] make12 a new cart, and take12 two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie [yoke] the kine to the cart, and bring their calves 8home from them. And take the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and lay it upon the cart, and put the jewels of gold [golden figures13], which ye return him5 for a trespass-offering, in a [the14] coffer by the side thereof, and send it away, that it may 9go. And see, if it goeth [go] up by the way of his [its] own coast to Beth-Shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not 10his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us. And the men did so, and took two milch kine, and tied [yoked] them to the cart, and shut up their 11calves at home; And they [om. they] laid the ark of the Lord [Jehovah] upon the cart, and the coffer with [and] the mice of gold [golden mice] and the images of their emerods [boils].15
3. Reception and Quartering of the Ark in Israel. 1Sa 6:12 to 1Sa 7:1
12And the kine took the straight way [went straight forward16] to the way of [on the road to] Bethshemesh, and [om. and] went along the highway [on one highway they went], lowing17 as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh. 13And they18of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley; 14and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see19 it. And the cart came into the field of Joshua a Bethshemite [the Bethshemeshite], and stood there, where [and there] there was a great stone; and they clave the wood of the 15cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and the coffer that was with it, wherein [ins. were] the jewels of gold [golden figures] were [om. were], and put them on the great stone; and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt-offerings, and 16sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And when [om. when] the five lords of the Philistines had seen [saw] it, they [and] returned to Ekron 17the same day. And these are the golden emerods [boils] which the Philistines returned for [as] a trespass-offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]: for Ashdod one, for 18Gaza one, for Askelon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. And the golden mice [ins. were] according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages,20even unto the great stone of Abel whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemite [And21 the great stone, on which they set down the ark of Jehovah, remaineth to this day in the field of Joshua the Bethshemeshite].
19And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had [om. had] looked into [at22] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], even [and] he smote of the people fifty thousand and three-score and ten men [70 men, 50,000 men23]; and the people lamented, because the Lord [Jehovah] had smitten [smote] many of [om. many of] the people 20with a great slaughter. And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before [ins. Jehovah], this holy Lord [om. Lord] God? and to whom shall he go 21up from us? And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim, saying, The Philistines have brought again [back] the ark of the Lord [Jehovah]; come ye down, and fetch it up to you.
1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord [Jehovah], and brought it into the house of Abinadab in [on] the hill, and sanctified [consecrated] Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord [Jehovah].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
I. 1Sa 6:1-11. The ark is sent back with expiatory gifts. The designation of place: in the field is here to be taken in the wider sense of territory, country, as in Rth 1:2.The seven months, during which the ark was in the country of the Philistines, was a time of uninterrupted plagues. In addition to the disease of boils came the plague of the devastation of the fields by mice. That the plague of mice was something over and above the disease is plain from 1Sa 6:5; 1Sa 6:11; 1Sa 6:18; in 1Sa 6:1 the Sept. adds, and their land swarmed with mice, which the narrator has not expressly mentioned. Thenius supposition that, from similarity of final syllables ((), a clause has fallen out of the Heb. text, is too bold a one. Maurer remarks correctly: it is generally agreed that the Hebrew writers not infrequently omit things essential, and then afterwards mention them briefly in succession.
1Sa 6:2. After it had been determined in the council of the princes to send back the ark to the Israelites, the priests and soothsayers are now to tell how it shall be sent back. Alongside of an honorable priestly class appear here the soothsayers [diviners] (that is, the organs of the deity, who reveal his counsel and will through the mantic art) as authorities, whose decision is final. The princes had to consider the political-national and social side, these the religious side of the question.,24 Inasmuch as it has already been determined to send the ark back, the question what shall we do in respect to the ark of God? is only introductory to the succeeding question, wherewith or how shall we send it to its place? The may mean either, but the rendering how, in what way (Vulg. quomodo) is favored by the connection, since the priests would else not have answered that the ark was not to be sent back without gifts.
1Sa 6:3, We must here not supply the pronoun ye to the Particip. (), but must render (as in 1Sa 2:24) impersonally,1 Samuel 25 : if one sends, if they send. The ark must be restored, not empty, but with gifts. These gifts are to be an asham (), a debt-offering or expiatory offering; the gift is thus designated, because it is a question of the payment of a debt.26 Satisfaction must be made to the angered God of the people of Israel for the contempt put on Him by the abduction of the ark. The word return, make compensation () refers to the unlawful appropriation; it is a matter of compensation. Vulg.: quod debetis, reddite ei pro peccato. [to him, to it] is to be referred not to the ark (Sept.), but to God. Send Him a gift, by which His anger shall be appeased, lest He torment you more (Cleric). According to Exo 23:15 no one was allowed to appear empty-handed () before God. Whether, as Clericus supposes, this was known to the Philistine priests, is uncertain. The words may be taken either as conditional or as assertory. The latter rendering then you shall be healed would suit the connection and the whole situation, but that these priests expressly declare it to be possible (1Sa 6:9) that this plague was to be ascribed not to the God of Israel, but to a chance. The hypothetical rendering is therefore to be preferred, which is grammatically allowable, though the conditional particle is wanting. (Comp. Ew. Gr., 357 b). We must therefore translate: and if ye shall be healed.,27 In the words and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you the present tense offers no difficulty, the sense being: you shall then by the cure learn why His hand now smites you; His hand is not removed from you, because the expiation for your guilt, which will be followed by cure, is not yet made.
Bunsen: It was a universal custom of ancient nations to dedicate to the deity to whom a sickness was ascribed, or from whom cure was desired, likenesses of the diseased parts. This was true also of the cause of the plagues. The Philistines therefore (1Sa 6:4 sq.), when they inquired what they should send along as trespass or expiatory offering, received the answer: five golden boils and five golden mice. The number five is expressly fixed on with reference to the five princes of the Philistines, who represent the whole people ( is Acc. of exact determination according to, in relation to, with adverbial signification. Ges. Gr., 118, 3). The change of person in the words one plague is on them all and on your princes has occasioned the reading you all, which is for this reason to be rejected.28 People and princes are here regarded as a unit, the latter representing the former, and therefore the number of the gifts to be offered for the whole is determined by the number (five) of the princes. 1Sa 6:5 makes in a supplementary way express mention of the devastation which the mice made in the land. This plague is often far greater in southern lands than with us; so that the Egyptians use the figure of a fieldmouse to denote destruction; there are many examples, it is said, of the whole harvest in a field having been destroyed by them in one night (1 Samuel 5 : Gerl.). Comp. Boch. Hieroz. II., 429 ed. Ros.; Plin. Hist. Nat. X. c. 65. By the presentation of the likenesses in gold they were to give honor to the God of Israel. These words of the Philistine priests explain the expression pay or return a trespass-offering. By the removal of the ark, the seat of the glory of the God of Israel, His honor is violated; hence the punishment in this two-fold plague; by these gifts they are to attempt to make compensation for the violation of honor, and the wrath of the God who is wounded in His honor is to be turned aside. By bringing precisely the instrument of their chastisement as a gift to God, they confess that He Himself has punished them, and do homage to His might, hoping therefore all the more by paying their debt to be made or to remain free, (v. Gerlach). The expression perhaps He will lighten His hand from off you agrees with that in 1Sa 6:3, if ye be healed, and with 1Sa 6:9.
[It is not clear that the Philistines were visited with a plague of mice. In spite of Maurers remark (on 1Sa 6:1) endorsed by Erdmann, it is strange that no mention is made of the mice in chap. 5. Philippson (who translates akbar not mouse but boil) further objects that the assumption of a mouse-plague different from the boil-disease is incompatible with the assertion in 1Sa 6:4, one plague is on you and on your lords, which supposes a bodily infliction (on which, however, see the discussion of the Sept. text of 1Sa 6:4-5, in note to 1Sa 6:18). Nor does the Heb. text expressly state that there was such a plague. In 1Sa 6:5 nothing more is necessarily said (so Wellhausen) than that they were exposed to land devastations by mice, and that the whole land had suffered, and 1Sa 6:18 (however interpreted) adds nothing to the statement in 1Sa 6:4. We may on critical grounds keep the present Masoretic text (discarding the Sept. addition to 1Sa 6:1) without finding in it the mouse-plague. On the other hand, the figure of a mouse was in Egypt a symbol of destruction, and so might have been chosen here as a fitting expiatory offering. Possibly, as there was a Baal-zebub, lord of flies ( ), worshipped at Ekron, so there was a Baal-akbar, lord of mice, and this animal may have been connected with religious worship.Others explain the figures of the boils and mice as telesms or talismans. So Maimonides, quoted in Pooles Synopsis, in which are cited many illustrations of the wide use of talismans (figures made under planetary and astral conjunctions in the likeness of the injurious object or of the part affected) among the ancients (expanded by Kitto, Daily Bible Illust., Saul and David, p. 86 sq.). But, supposing there was a plague of mice, these figures were prepared, not by their own virtue to avert the plague (which the talismans were supposed to do), but to appease the wrath of the God of Israel.Tr.].Lighten from off you, etc., is a pregnant expression for lighten and turn away from you, so that the burden of the punishment shall be removed from you. In 1Sa 6:6 the case of the Egyptians is referred to in order to strengthen the exhortation. We have already seen in 1Sa 4:8 the mark of the deep impression made on the neighboring heathen nations by the judgments of the God of Israel on the Egyptians. The Philistine priests see in these plagues judgments like those inflicted on the Egyptians, and set forth the universal and comprehensive significance of this revelation of the heavy hand of God in the words on [rather from] you, and your god [better, perhaps, gods, as in Eng. A. V.], and your land. They thus refer this general calamity not only to its highest cause in the God of Israel and His violated honor, but also to its deepest ground in the Philistines hardening of the heart against Him after the manner of Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and so show exact acquaintance with the pragmatism of the history of Gods revelations towards Egypt and its king. Comp. Exo 7:13 sqq. with Exo 8:32. It is evident from the connection that the words of the priests are to be referred only to the obligation to give honor to the God of Israel by expiatory presents, not to the restoration of the ark, which was already determined on. The hardening or obduration of the heart is the stubborn and persistent refusal to give to the God of Israel His due honor, after His honor had been violated. The word [ wrought] points to Gods mighty deeds against Pharaoh and the Egyptians; it is found in the same sense work, exercise power [work ones will on] in Exo 10:2 and 1Sa 31:4. In view of these exhibitions of Gods power, they are warned against such a persistent stiff-necked opposition to it. 1Sa 6:6 is not inconsistent with the doubt expressed in 1Sa 6:9, whether the plagues come from the God of Israel or from a chance, since it is (in 1Sa 6:9) at any rate regarded as possible that the God of Israel has thus exhibited His anger. The mere possibility of this makes it seem advisable to do every thing to appease the wrath of the God of the Israelites, which the heathen, from their fear of the gods, dreaded under the circumstances not less, yea, more than the anger of their own gods (Keil).
1Sa 6:7-9. The arrangements respecting the mode of sending back the ark. In 1Sa 6:7 the arrangements are made for a restoration of the ark worthy of and proportionate to the honor of the God of Israel. The Philistines are not, for this purpose, to have a new cart made, but, as the preceding shows, to take,29 one already made, in order to fit it up and prepare it for this end; this is shown by the [and make]. A new cart and two hitherto unyoked milch cows (comp. Deu 21:3) are to carry back the ark with the presents; only what had not been used, what was still undesecrated, was an appropriate means for the honor destined to be shown to the dreaded God of Israel. , properly the rolling thing, means the transport-wagon, which, according to this, was in use in Philistia, and was usually yoked with oxen. The calves were to be taken along, but afterwards to be carried from behind the drawing cows, back into the housethat is, into the stall. In reference to the cows the Masc. is thrice used in 1Sa 6:7 for the Fem., because the writer thinks of the cows as oxen (Thenius); and so in 1Sa 6:10; 1Sa 6:12. In 1Sa 6:8 a minute description is given of the manner of loading the cart with the ark and with the coffer (, found only here and 1Sa 6:11; 1Sa 6:15) in which the golden expiatory gifts were to be carried. And send it away, that it may go. From the connection it appears that the cart, with the ark, is left to the cows to draw; the direction which they take without being led or driven is decisive of the question whether the plagues are from the God of Israel or not.
1Sa 6:9. This is stated more precisely by the priests. If the cows went straight to its (the arks) territory, this would be the sign that the plagues were from the God of Israel; if not, it would show that it was only a matter of chance. From their stand-point the heathen distinguished with perfect logical consistency between the providence of the God of Israel and a mere chance. Its territory or coast () is the land of Israel as its home. Bethshemesh is one of the Israelitish priestly cities on the border of Judah and Dan (Jos 21:16), the nearest of them to Ekron, and the nearest point of entrance from Philistia into the hill-country of Judah (Jos 15:10-11). The valley in or on which (1Sa 6:13) it lay, was the same with the present Wady Surar. The present Ain Shems which rests on it is the ancient Bethshemesh.30 S. Robinson, II. 599, III. 224 sq. [ Amer. Ed. II. 14, 16, 223225.] If this direction was not taken by the cows, that was to be the sign that this was a chance ( is not adverb. by chance (Keil), but Nom. of the subject; and this is no ground for reading (with Bttcher) , by chance). The meaning of the priests was, that the cows, being unaccustomed to the yoke, and being, besides, milch cows, from which their calves had been separated, would, in obedience to their natural impulse, wish to turn about and go back to their stall, unless a higher power restrained them, and compelled them to take the road to Bethshemesh and keep it. By Gods ordination this was done, and so was for the Philistines the factual confirmation given by the God of Israel of the opinion that He had inflicted the plagues on them. 1Sa 6:10-11 relate the carrying out of the arrangements which the priests had made. The restoration is performed in the manner prescribed by the priests.
II. 1Sa 6:12-21. The ark is transported to Bethshemesh. 1Sa 6:12. They kept the road exactlylit. they were straight on the way.31 Mesillah () is a thrown up, raised way, a highway. On one highwaythat is, without going hither and thither, as is afterwards added by way of explanation, without turning aside to the right or to the left. They went going and lowing; that is, constantly lowing, because they wanted their calves; yet they did not turn about, but went on in the opposite direction. The Philistine princes went behind, not before them, because, in accordance with the suggestion of the priests, they had to observe whither the animals went. 1Sa 6:13. Bethshemesh is for the inhabitants of Bethshemesh. Though it was a priestly city, the inhabitants of Bethshemesh are expressly distinguished from the Levites. The Bethshemeshites, who were reaping wheat in the valley (Wady Surar), rejoiced to see the long-lost ark. [The wheat harvest points to May or June as the time of the return of the ark. Robinson: May 13. Most of the fields (near Jericho) were already reaped. Three days before we had left the wheat green upon the fields around Hebron and Carmel; and we afterwards found the harvest there in a less forward state on the 6th of June (I. 550, 551). We do not know what species of wheat the ancient Hebrews had; but the crop was the most important one in the country (see 1 Kings v. 11). Mr. W. Houghton says (Smiths Bib. Dict. Art. Wheat): There appear to be two or three kinds of wheat at present grown in Palestine, the Triticum vulgare (var. hybernum), the T. spelta, and another variety of bearded wheat, which appears to be the same as the Egyptian kind, the T. compositum. The phrase they lifted up their eyes and saw, being the common Heb. formula for looking, does not show that the object looked at was on a higher elevation than the spectator. Thus Stanleys argument (Sin. and Pal., p. 248) from Gen 22:4 as to the site of Moriah has no weight.Tr.] 1Sa 6:14. The great stone in the field of the Beth-shemeshite Joshua was probably the occasion of the carts being stopped here, with the design of using the stone as a sacred spot for the solemn removal of the ark and the presents, as appears from 1Sa 6:15. The Levites are expressly mentioned in connection with the setting the ark down on the great stone, a sacred act which pertained to them alone. Since the ark betokened the presence of the Lord, it could be said that they, namely, the Bethshemeshites, offered the kine to the Lord by using the wood of the cart for the burnt-offering. With this they joined a blood-offering. It was lawful to offer the sacrifice here, because, wherever the ark was, offering might be made. Though the people of Bethshemesh are expressly said to be the offerers [1Sa 6:15], this does not exclude the co-operation of the priests, especially as Bethshemesh was a priestly city. From the single burnt-offering in 1Sa 6:14, which was offered with the cart and the kine, the burnt-offerings [1Sa 6:15] and the slain-offerings, which were connected with a joyful sacrificial meal, are to be distinguished as a second sacrificial act, which, in its first element (the burnt-offering), set forth the renewed consecration and devotion of the whole life to the Lord, and in its second (the meal) expressed joyful thanksgiving for the restoration of Gods enthronement and habitation amid His people, of which they had been so long deprived. 1Sa 6:16. The five lords of the Philistines saw in this occurrence, in accordance with the instruction of their priests, a revelation of the God of Israel; they returned to Ekron the same day.
1Sa 6:17-18. A second enumeration of the expiatory gifts, comp. 1Sa 6:4. The statement here made varies from that of 1Sa 6:4 only in the fact that, while the priests had advised the presentation of only five golden figures of mice, here a much greater number, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines, are offered; because, from the expression from the fenced city to the village of the inhabitants of the low land ( Deu 3:5) [rather fenced cities and country32 villages], which shows that every Philistine locality was represented in the mouse-figures, we learn that the mouse-plague extended over the whole country, while the boil-plague prevailed only in the largest cities,33 In the second clause, instead of [and unto] read [and witness], and instead of [Abel], we must, on account of the attached Adj. and the repeated reference to the field of Joshua (1Sa 6:14; 1Sa 6:16), read [stone], and translate: and a witness is the great stone ( is found in the same sense, Gen 31:52) to this day. Kimchis explanation of as the name [the Heb. word means mourning] given to the stone on account of the mourning made there (1Sa 6:19) is a fanciful expedient, which has also no support in the context, since nothing is afterwards said of a mourning at this stone.
1Sa 6:19-21. The ark in Bethshemesh. A punishment is inflicted by God on the Bethshemeshites because they had sinned respecting the holiness of God, which was represented before their eyes by the ark. Wherein this sin consisted is stated in the words because they looked, &c. ( ), which are to be connected with the question in 1Sa 6:20. From 1Sa 6:13 (if we retain the text) it could not have been the mere looking at the ark, which stood on the cart, and was necessarily visible to every body, but, as the shows, consisted only in the manner of looking at it. As the unauthorized touching (Num 4:15; 2Sa 6:7), so the profane, prying, curious looking at the ark, as the symbol of the holy God who dwells amid His people, is forbidden on pain of death. The fundamental passage, to which we must here go back, is Num 4:20. The deepest ground of the strict prohibition to touch and look at the ark lies in the opposition which exists between man, impure through sin, and the holy God, which cannot be removed by immediate and unmediated connection with God on mans part, but only through the means which God has by special revelation ordained to this end. Against Thenius, who holds that this explanation cannot be based on Num 4:20, it is to be remarked that this passage speaks expressly not only of unauthorized intrusion, but also of a similar looking at the inner sanctuary. There is no contradiction between this verse and 1Sa 6:13, if we regard the Ace. in the latter, and the Prep. at () here; this difference in the designation of the object indicates a difference in this connection in the seeing. In Num 4:20 also the seeing is more exactly defined by an added word. Other explanations, as: because they were afraid at the ark (Syr., Arab.), or: looked into it (Rabb.), are entirely untenable. It is true, however, that the words of the text (according to which the above would be the only tenable explanation) present great difficulties, which Thenius expresses in the remark: One does not see why and he smote () is repeated, and why we have the people () again after the men of Bethshemesh ( ). Moreover, the following words of this verse, which give the number of the slain, undoubtedly offer an incorrect, or rather a corrupt text; whereby the preceding words would be involved in the corruption. The supposition of a defective text being here so natural, we should be inclined to adopt (with Thenius) the reading of the Sept.: And the children of Jechoniah among the Bethshemeshitcs were not glad (5:13) that they saw the ark, and he smote of them, etc.; but that the objection that we elsewhere find nothing at all about the race of Jechoniah is by no means so unimportant as Thenius thinks it. The reading 70 men, 50,000 men is evidently corrupt. If a process of addition were here intended, then and () must necessarily stand before the second number. If a partition were meant (70 out of 50,000 men), then, besides the grammatical difficulty, there is the objection that the city of Bethshemesh (and it alone is here spoken of), could not possibly have had so many inhabitants. The last objection applies with still more force to Ewalds translation, beginning with 70 and increasing to 50,000 men,which would require us to suppose a still larger population. The words 50,000 men are wanting in Jos. (Ant. 6,114), and in some Heb. MSS. (Cod. Kenn. 84, 210, 418), and are [to be rejected],34 since they give no sense, and probably came from the margin into the text as another solution of the numeral sign which stood there (in the original text stood [70], while in another [50,000] was found) (Thenius).The ground of the sudden death of the 70 of the race of Jechoniah is their unsympathizing, and therefore unholy bearing towards the symbol of Gods presence among His people, which showed a mind wholly estranged from the living God, a symptom of the religious-moral degeneracy, which had spread among the people, though piety was still to be found.35
1Sa 6:20. Who can stand before this holy God?This question expresses their consciousness of unworthiness, and their fear of the violated majesty of the covenant-God of Israel. The people of Bethshemesh recognize in the death of the 70 a judgment of God, in which He punishes the violation of His majesty and glory, and defends His holiness in relation to His people. God is called the holy in this connection, in that He guards and avenges His greatness and glory, which He had revealed to Israel, when they are violated and dishonored by human sin, by unholy, godless conduct.From the connection only God can be the Subj. of shall go up (). The question to whom shall he go up from us? refers then indeed to the ark, in connection with which the sin and the punishment had occurred, and supposes that the Bethshemeshites were unwilling to keep it among them, from fear of farther judgments which its stay might occasion. A superstitious idea here mingles with the fear of God, since the stay of the ark is regarded as in itself a cause of further misfortune.
1Sa 6:21. Kirjath-jearim, that is, city of forests [Forestville, Woodville], in the tribe-territory of Judah, belonged at an earlier period to Gibeon (Jos 9:17; Jos 18:25-26; Ezr 2:25; Neh 7:29), and is the present Kuryet el Enab= city of wine [literally grapes] (Rob. II. 588 sq. [Amer. ed. II. 11], and Bibl. Forschung. 205 sq. [Am. ed. III. 157], Tobler, Topogr. II. 742 sqq.).36 The embassy to the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim had two objects: the announcement of the return of the ark, and the demand that they should take it. They are silent as to the misfortune which was connected with its restoration, and as to their reason for not wishing to keep it. 1Sa 7:1 mentions the safe transportation of the ark by the Kirjath-jearimites to their city. The ark is placed in the house of Abinadab , on the hill, not in Gibeah (Vulg., Luther), as if the latter were a suburb of Kirjath-jearim. The house of Abinadab was on a hill, and for this reason probably was chosen as the resting-place of the ark. They consecrated Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, that is, they chose and appointed him as a person consecrated to God for this service: he had to keep watch and guard over the ark. It is hence probable that the ark found shelter in the house of a Levite. Nothing is said of Eleazars consecration as priest.. He was constituted not priest, but watchman at the grave of the ark, by its corpse, till its future joyful resurrection (Hengst., Beitr. III. 66 [Contributions to Int. to O. T.]). Why it was not carried back to Shiloh, is uncertain. The reason may be, that the Philistines after the victory in ch. iv. had conquered Shiloh, and now held it, as Ewald (Gesch. II. 540 [Hist, of Isr.]) supposes; though his conjecture that the Philistines had destroyed Shiloh together with the old sanctuary, is to be rejected, since it is certain that the Tabernacle afterwards moved from Shiloh to Nob, and thence to Gibeon, and that the worship in connection with it was maintained (1Sa 21:6; 1Ki 3:4; 2Ch 1:3). Or, it may be that, without a special revelation of the divine will, they were unwilling to carry the ark back to the place whence it had been removed by a judgment of God in consequence of the profanation of the Sanctuary by the sons of Eli (Keil); or simply that the purpose was first and provisionally to carry it safely to a large city as far off as possible, inasmuch as, in view of the sentence of rejection which had been passed on Shiloh, they did not dare to select on their own authority a new place for the Sanctuary (comp. Hengst., ubi sup., 49). It was not till Davids time that the ark was carried hence to Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6).
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. Outside the sphere of His revelations in the covenant-people, the living God has not allowed the heathen nations to be without positive testimonies to His glory; He has, by severe chastisements, made them feel His might and power over them, when they, though they were the instruments of His punitive justice on Israel, did violence to His honor, and transgressed the limits assigned them.
2. The exact knowledge that the Philistine priests and soothsayers had of the punitive revelations of God against the Egyptians, and of the cause of them in the fact that that people hardened itself against Him, is an eminent example of His government of the world, which was closely interwoven with the history of revelation in His kingdom, and in which He penetrated with the beams of His revealed light the darkness of heathenism which surrounded His people, and made preparation for the revelation of the new covenant, which was to embrace the whole world. They were in such light to seek the Lord in their ways, if haply they might feel after Him and find Him (Act 17:27).
3. The need of expiation, as well as the demand for it, is deeply grounded in the relation of man to the holy God; through sin against Gods will and ordinances man finds himself in custody under His punitive justice, whence there is no redemption except by an expiation, failing which judgment is pronounced against him. Ail need of expiation and all means thereto, not only in the sphere of Old Testament revelation, but also in heathendom, are predictions of Christ, who made the universal and all-sufficient expiation for the guilt of the world.
4. The enemies of Gods kingdom cannot and are not permitted to retain the possessions of Gods sanctuary which they have gotten by robbery, but must bow beneath His mighty hand, and give them up, yea, restore them increased by counter-gifts on their part.
5. Who can stand before the Lord, this holy God! The more clearly Gods holiness is seen in the mirror of His justice, the deeper and more energetic is the feeling of sin and unworthiness in the human heart before the holy God. The depth of the divine holiness becomes clearest and most sensible to sinful man in those of its manifestations, by which he sees God as this holy God, that is, in the vigorous exercise of His holiness, of which he has experience in Gods punitive justice directed against himself. But the deeper and more thorough the knowledge of ones own sin, the clearer the knowledge of the divine holiness. Yet, to sinful men the light of the divine holiness, which is always for him dulled, must not become intolerable, so that he shall avoid Gods face, and abandon fellowship with Him; rather must sinful man bear this light which discloses all his sin and alienation from God, and seek to learn in it the ways of grace and salvation (Psa 51:5-6 [4,5]). The contrary result of the revelation of Gods holiness and justice leads to a sundering of relations between sinful man and Him, which by mans fault makes of no effect Gods purposes of salvation.
6. The blow which fell on the inhabitants of Bethshemesh in connection with the arrival of the ark, showed the people that they were not yet worthy of the fulfilment of the promise I dwell in your midst. A condition of things had come about like that in the wilderness after the calf-worship, and in the Babylonian exile. The people must first become again inwardly Gods people before the sanctuary could be again placed among them. In what had happened they saw Gods factual declaration that He wished to dwell no longer in Shiloh (Hengst. Beitr. 3, 48 sq. [Contrib. to Introd.]).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa 6:1. [Henry: Seven months Israel was punished with the absence of the ark, and the Philistines punished with its presence. A melancholy time no doubt it was to the pious in Israelparticularly to Samuelbut they had this to comfort themselves with, as we have in the like distress, when we are deprived of the comfort of public ordinances, that, wherever the ark is, the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven, and by faith and prayer we may have access with boldness to Him there. We may have God nigh unto us, when the ark is at a distance.Tr.]. S. Schmid: God cannot bear with His enemies too long, but knows how at the right time to save His honor.
1Sa 6:2-3. J. Lange: Bad men, when they are chastised for their sins, are commonly disposed not to recognize the true cause, but maintain that it all comes only from chance or from merely natural causes.Wuertemberg Bible: Even false prophets and teachers often have the gift of prophecy: Num 24:2; Joh 11:50-51; Mat 7:22-23. We must therefore not trust to outward gifts.Tuebingen Bible: Even the heathen have recognized that the justice of God must be appeased if sin is to be forgiven.
1Sa 6:6. Cramer: God is wonderful, and often even speaks His word through unbelievers and ungodly men (Num 22:28). The word of God loses nothing in certainty, power, and worth, though it is preached by ungodly men (Php 1:15). [Hall: Samuel himself could not have spoken more divinely than these priests of Dagon: they do not only talk of giving glory to the God of Israel, but fall into an holy and grave expostulation. All religions have afforded them that could speak well. These good words left them both Philistines and superstitious.Tr.].
1Sa 6:7. S. Schmid: That the irrational brutes are under Gods providence and control, even the heathen have recognized.
1Sa 6:9. Starke: Great and wonderful is the long suffering of God, that He condescends to the weakness of men and suffers Himself to be tempted by them.S. Schmid: That in which men prescribe to God and tempt Him, cannot indeed bind God; but it binds the men themselves in their consciences, who prescribe to Him.
1Sa 6:13. S. Schmid: Even in troublous times God does not cease to do good to His people.Cramer: When God brings forth again the light of His word, it ought to be recognized with the highest thankfulness.
1Sa 6:14. Seb. Schmid: It is a great favor when God comes forward before men, and voluntarily appears among them.
1Sa 6:15. Wuert. Bible: When, after we have borne trouble and need, God again manifests to us His favor and help, we should not forget to be thankful.
1Sa 6:19. Seb. Schmid: An untimely and venturesome joy God can soon turn into great sorrow.The plague is fortunate that brings the impenitent to repentance.
1Sa 6:20. Berlenb. Bible: When God so to speak only passes by us, through some temporary taste of His presence, it is a favor which He may also impart to sinners. But that He may make His abode in us, as He promises in so many passages of Holy Scripture, that He may be willing to remain with us and in us,for that there is demanded great purity in every respect.S. Schmid: Better is quite too great a fear of God than no fear, if only it does not wholly take away confidence in Gods mercy (Psa 119:120).
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa 6:2. So the verb is not unfrequently used, as in Jos 23:2.Tr.]
[2][1Sa 6:2. Or, how.Tr.]
[3][1Sa 6:3. The Pron. is not in the present Heb. text, but is found in 7 MSS., in Sept., Syr., Chald., Arab., and apparently in Vulg. It may have fallen out, as Houbigant suggests, from similarity to the following word ( ). Others (so Erdmann) take the construction as impersonal, and render: if one sends back, etc.Tr.]
[4][1Sa 6:3. This phrase in Eng. A. V. is intended to express the Heb. Inf. Abs.; but where the proper shade of intensity or emphasis cannot be given in Eng., it is better to write the verb simply, and not introduce a foreign substantive idea.Tr.]
[5][1Sa 6:3. Some ancient vss. and modern expositors refer this to the ark, and render to it, relying on the grammatical connection, and on 1Sa 6:9; but the Philistines throughout seem to regard God, and not the ark, as the author of their sufferings. Yet it is possible that, even with this view, their idolatrous ideas might have led them to appease the instrument or visible occasion of the divine infliction.Tr.]
[6][1Sa 6:3. Erdmann and others take this sentence as conditional (which is here possible, but somewhat hard) on the ground that the priests are not sure that the atonement-offering will be successful, but propose an experiment (as in 1Sa 6:9). Yet in 1Sa 6:5-6 they are sure, and the experiment in 1Sa 6:9 seems an afterthought.Tr.]
[7][1Sa 6:3. The Heb. text is here supported by Syr., Arab. and Vulg., nor is there any variation in the MSS. (De Rossi); but Sept. has expiation shall be made for you (), and Chald. healing shall be granted you (). To the first of these the repetition is an objection, to the second the order of ideas (healing, expiation). It does hot appear whether they are loose renderings of our text, or represent a different text.Tr.]
[8][1Sa 6:4. Philippson renders tumors (geschwlste), setting aside the supposed plague of field-mice. See Exeg. Notes in loco. The Sept. here departs from the Heb. text in the order of statements and in the number of mice; see the discussion in the note on the passage.Tr.]
[9][1Sa 6:4. This clause stands first in the original.Tr.]
[10][1Sa 6:4. Heb.: them all, and so Erdmann and Philippson. But all the VSS. and 10 MSS. read you, Which the sense seems to require.Tr.]
[11][1Sa 6:6. The verb () is Aor., rendered wrought in Exo 10:2 by Eng. A. V.; Sept. and Vulg. render freely smote; but Syr. has they mocked them, and did not send them away, and they went, where the wrong number of the first vb. required the negation in the second.Tr.]
[12][1Sa 6:7. Or, take and prepare (so Erdmann). But the verb may properly be taken as expletive or pleonastic here, as in 2Sa 18:18 (see Ges. Lex. s. v.), though it must be understood before the second accusative kine.Tr.]
[13][1Sa 6:8. The word means any instrument or implement, and is used of utensils, implements, armor, weapons, vessels and jewels; here, however, it is none of these, but figures, copies or works: Luther, bilder, Erdmann, gerthe, DAllioli, figures, Cahen, empreintes, and the other modern VSS., of Martin, Diodati, DAlmeida, De S. Miguel, have figures; only the Dutch has jewels, Vulg. vasa, Sept. .Tr.]
[14][1Sa 6:8. The Art. here points out the coffer which belonged to the cart; but as this is not otherwise known or mentioned, the insertion or omission of the Art. in Eng. makes little or no difference. The Al. Sept. inserts a neg. before the word put in this verse, perhaps to avoid a supposed difficulty in the number of golden mice.Tr.]
[15][1Sa 6:11. The Vat. Sept. (but not Al.) omits the words and the images of their boils, perhaps in order to indicate that the mice were not in the argaz or box, and thus avoid the difficulty above-mentioned (see 1Sa 6:18). Wellhausen, taking exception to the inverted order here (mice, boils), to the word tehorim, and to the ambiguity of the phrase, omits all of 1Sa 6:11 after coffer, regarding the Heb. as a gloss on the already corrupt Greek. But this is improbable, and the Heb. is sustained by all the VSS. The tehorim is not improbably a marginal explanation of ophalim which has crept into the text (so Geiger and Erdmann); but the text, though not perfectly clear, must, on critical grounds, be retained, since there would have been no special reason why a scribe should insert it, but on the other hand ground for its omission, as the Greek shows tampering with the text to avoid a difficulty.Tr.]
[16][1Sa 6:12. On the form of the Heb. word see Erdmann in loco.Tr.]
[17][1Sa 6:12. Ges. Gram. (Conants transl.), 75, Rem. I. 2.Tr.]
[18][1Sa 6:13. The Heb. has simply Bethshemesh, the place put for its inhabitants.Tr.]
[19][1Sa 6:13. Sept.: to meet it (), error of copyist.Tr.]
[20][1Sa 6:18. The first clause of this verse (and along with it 1Sa 6:17) is stricken out by Wellhausen on the ground of its incompatibility with 1Sa 6:8. The external evidence for the clause is complete; on the internal evidence see the Comm. in loco and Translators note.Tr.]
[21][1Sa 6:18. Or: witness is the great stone, etc., omitting the word remaineth; so Erdmann, see Comm. in loco. The simpler translation given above is that suggested in Bib. Comm.Tr.]
[22][1Sa 6:19. This is the common meaning of the verb ( with ).Tr.]
[23][1Sa 6:19. These numbers, though probably incorrect, are left in the text, because no satisfactory reading has been settled on. The clause should be bracketed. See discussion in Comm.Tr.]
[24][The word here employed for priests (kohanim) is the same as that used to designate the priests of the true God, the distinctive word for idol-priests (kemarim) occurring only three times in O. T., though frequent in the Syriac and Chald. translations. The Arabic here renders chiefs or doctors (ahbara), probably to avoid a scandalous application of the sacred name. For etymology of kohen see Ges., Thes., and Frst, Heb. Lex.The word rendered soothsayer (qosem) is probably from a stem meaning to divide, partition, assign fortunes, and seems to be employed to denote divination by processes such as shaking arrows, consulting teraphim, inspecting livers (Eze 21:26-28 [2123]), perhaps differing thus from the mantic art proper, which involved possession or inspiration by the deity (which two methods Cicero calls divination with and without art, Div. 1, 18). The word is used in O. T. only of false diviners (for wider use in Arabic see Freytag, Ar. Lex. s. v. qasama). Comp. Art. Divination in Smiths Bib. Dict. Articles Wahrsager and Magier in Winers Bib. R. W., and Ges., Thes.Tr.]
[25][On this see Translators note in Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]
[26][The word asham rather means not debt, but offence and its punishment (comp. Gen 26:10; Ps. 14:9; Isa 53:10, and the Arab. athama), and is not restricted in the Mosaic Law to cases of restitution (see Leviticus 5 (Eng. A. Lev 5:1 to Lev 6:7), Lev 14:12; Num 6:12). Here it may be used in this latter sense, and is in general more appropriate than hattath, since the Philistines cannot be supposed to have the deeper conception of sin involved in the latter word. It is, of course, a question whether they employed this very word asham.Tr.]
[27][Against this see note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]
[28][For defence of the reading you all see Textual and Grammatical notes in loco.Tr.]
[29][Erdmann translates: take and make a new cart, and take two milch cows,on which see note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]
[30][Robinson: Just on the west of the village (Ain Shems), on and around the plateau of a low swell between the Surar on the North and a smaller Wady on the South, are the manifest traces of an ancient site. Here are the vestiges of a former extensive city, consisting of many foundations and the remains of ancient walls of hewn stone. The materials have indeed been chiefly swallowed up in the probably repeated constructions of the modern village; but enough yet remains to make it one of the largest and most marked sites which we had any where seen. On the north the great Wady-es-Suraritself a plainruns off first west and then north-west into the great plain; while on the south the smaller Wady comes down from the south-east, and uniting with the one down which we had traveled, they enter the Surar below the ruins.Tr.]
[31] is for , and the for . On this form comp. Ew. 191 b, and Gesen. 47, R. 3.
[32][The word is explained by the Mishna and the Jews generally, and by Gesenius, to mean open country, and this signification for the adj. form in the text is required by the contrast with fenced cities. See Ges. Thes. s. v. The Arab. stem pharaza is to separateand the derived nouns have the sense of planeness, whence the rural districts may have been called plane, that is, unwalled.Tr.]
[33][On the supposition that there was no mouse-plague, the mouse-figures equally represented the whole country. In this connection the Greek text of 1Sa 6:4-5 is worthy of attention. It reads: (1Sa 6:4), five golden hedras (ophalim, boils), according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; (1Sa 6:5), and golden mice, like the mice, etc.; thus separating the two statements, and omitting the second number five. If this reading were adopted, it-would relieve the Heb. text, which, in several places in this chapter, shows traces of corruption. See note under Textual and Grammatical.Tr.]
[34][The words in brackets are not in the Germanomitted probably by typographical error.Tr.]
[35][On the criticism of this verse see De Rossi, Var. Lcct., and a good note in Bib. Comm. As to the numbers, it seems impossible to determine anything with certainty, and the conjecture of Thenius (that we read 70, omitting the 50,000) is as probable as any other. That the first part of the verse is corrupt is evident from the variations in the VSS. and the confused character of the Heb. text itself. Two hints for the reconstruction of the true text appear to be given us, one by the Chald., the other by the Sept. The former reads: and He slew among the men of Bethshemesh, because they rejoiced when they saw the ark, etc. (where the rejoiced is apparently taken from 1Sa 6:13); the latter reads: and not pleased were the sons of Jechoniah among the men of Bethshemeshites, that they saw the ark, etc. Combining these, we may perhaps infer 1) that the rejoice or pleased was inserted by a translator or copyist and 2) that a phrase of several words preceded the words with the men of Bethshemesh, The verse then, may have begun somewhat so: , , and read and Jehovah was angry with the Bethshemeshites, because, etc., and smote among them (reading for ). From this the present Heb. text might have come by substituting (by homoteleuton or otherwise) for the first words, and omitting or , and the Sept. text might be explained as a duplet, in which the is a corruption of the Heb., and the displeased taken from the same source as the Chald.Wellhausen translates the Sept. into Heb. by the words , and adopts this as the true text. But this is not in itself very satisfactory (and the sons of Jechoniah were not guiltless, etc.), and does not answer the demands of the VSS. and the context.Tr.]
[36][Mr. Grove (Smiths Bib. Dict., Art. Kirjath-jearim ) suggests that the ancient sanctity of Kirjath-jearim (it was called Baalah and Kirjath-Baal, and may have been a seat of worship of the Canaanitish deity Baal) was the ground of the arks being sent thither. He points out also a difficulty in its identification with Kuryet el Enab from the distance (ten miles over an uneven country) between it and Bethshemesh (Ain Shems), and further from the absence (so far as known) of a hill corresponding to that mentioned in 1Sa 7:1. But see Porter, p. 270.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The events recorded in this Chapter are much more pleasing than what hath been said of Israel a long time before. Here is an account of the men of Kirjath-jearim fetching the ark and placing it in an house. The Israelites are represented as mourning after the Lord. The history of Samuel is renewed, his government, and victory over the Philistines. He set up the stone of help between Mizpeh and Shen, and called it Ebenezer in token of God’s help and his blessing again of Israel.
1Sa 7:1
(1) And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
This verse leads us to remark the different conduct of the men of Kirjath-jearim, to that of the men of Beth-shemesh. Jesus is a sweet savor to his people, and a precious chief corner-stone to them that believe. But a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to them that stumble at the word, being disobedient. 1Pe 2:6-8 . Reader! may it be your happiness and mine, as Eleazar the son of Abinadab received the ark into his house, to receive Jesus whom the ark typified, into our hearts, and that He may be formed there, the hope of glory.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Reconquests
1Sa 7:14
We have to dwell upon reconquests, upon the taking back of cities which we ought never to have lost. I do not speak of cities in the ordinary sense of the term, but I speak of the great losses which the Church meaning by the term Church all its sections and communions has forfeited or lost or unworthily abandoned. There will be a great day of restoration; the Church of Christ has much property to reclaim. The Church is very guilty in all this matter; the Church has let one thing slip after another. The consequence is that the Church is surrounded by a number of little military houses from the windows of which popguns are being continually fired, largely in mockery, and mainly because nearly all the Church property has been stolen.
I. We shall reclaim all that has been pilfered. Agnosticism will have to give up its purse and its passbook and its cheque-book and its balance. Agnosticism is the meanest of the thieves. Its name was invented only yesterday; it was baptized in a ditch, it has done no good for the world, but it has troubled a good many people in the Church on the subject of the unknowableness or unthinkableness of God. The Church ought never to have been troubled or disturbed for one moment.
II. And then the Philistines have built another hut which is called Secularism. Man likes a word which he thinks is practical and intelligible. Man loves to keep up a shop with a counter in it; man would not be happy if he had not a till, that is a box or drawer, unseen by the public, admission into which, so far as the public are concerned, is by a very small slit in the counter. Man calls that business. He does not care for religion, he cares for the secular aspects of life; he can understand these, but he cannot understand metaphysics, philosophies, theologies; so he puts another penny in the slot and sees that nobody else takes it out. This he thinks is commerce. No Christian treats wealth without regard, no truly pious man despises business; the man who prays best will work best in the city or in the field or on the sea Prayer is genius in all directions. He who prays best conquers most. We ought never, therefore, to have allowed the secularist to take anything from the Church. Anything that the secularist holds which is really precious and good belongs to the Church, and we should have it back, and take all the cities again in honest restoration which for the moment have been wrenched from the grasp of our unbelief.
III. There is now a wonderful partition, mainly of lath and plaster, put up between religion and what is called science. There ought to be no such partition. Science is theological; there is nothing excluded from the grasp and the dominion of a true theological genius and conception of things. The laboratory is a chamber in the Church; every retort ought to be claimed by the Church as a special instrument or resource or piece of furniture; the Lord has made the inventory, and that retort belongs to God. We must retake from Philistinian hands terms and properties and provinces which have been stolen from us, either while we were faithlessly slumbering, or in some hour in which our belief gave way and let the devil come in like a flood.
Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. II. p. 50.
Reference. VIII. 4-7. F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings, p. 1.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Solitary Power
1Sa 7:3
SAMUEL is now in full office. Eli died when the messenger told him that the Philistines had taken the ark. Up to this time we have had no express communication from Samuel himself. From pregnant sentences, here and there, we have known that he has all the while been moving in the right direction. The Lord was with Samuel, and did not suffer any of his words to fall unto the ground. “All Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.” “And the Lord revealed himself unto Samuel in Shiloh.” “And the word of Samuel came unto all Israel.” These assurances indicate that Samuel, in his comparative obscurity, has been steadfastly moving onward according to the purpose of God. From this time we shall see more of him. His position in this chapter is most conspicuous, and his deeds are most instructive. Verily, in this case, the child was “father to the man.” As prophet of the Lord, Samuel’s will was supreme; all the main features of the history derive their expression from the spirit of Samuel. There is authority in his word, there is inspiration in his encouragement, there is death in his frown. Under these circumstances you see how naturally we are led to meditate upon the profound influence of one life. Such is the subject. We shall develop it, by reviewing the three remarkable attitudes in which we find Samuel in the course of this chapter.
In the first place, look at the sublime attitude which Samuel assumed in relation to the corruption of the faith. Samuel distinctly charged the house of Israel with having gone astray from the living God; solemnly, with the pathos of a godly tone, with the solemnity of a righteous, indignant, yet pitiful heart, he said, “You have been guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours against the God of heaven; you have trampled underfoot your convictions and your traditions. You have bowed yourselves before the altars of forbidden gods.” Distinctly, without reservation, without anything that indicated timidity on his part, he laid this terrible indictment against the house of Israel. In doing so he assumed a sublime attitude. He stood before Israel as a representative of the God who had been insulted, dishonoured, abandoned. His was the only voice lifted up in the name of the true God. It is in such cases that men show what stuff they are made of: when they stand face to face with the crowd, and say, “You are wrong;” when they mount the popular whirlwind, and say, “Your will is moving in the wrong direction, it is corrupt, debased, utterly foul, and bad!” Is there a grander spectacle anywhere on the earth than to see a lonely man confronting a whole house or an entire nation, and upbraiding the whole community with a common apostasy with a common determination to go down to darkness and death? Samuel said, “You must put away Baalim,” a plural word, which stands for no god in particular, but for all the progeny of false gods. “You must put away Ashtaroth,” a plural word, which signifies no goddess in particular, but the whole company of feminine idols. “That is what you must do.” We find sublimity in the attitude, imperial force in the tone. How did Samuel’s influence come to be so profound upon this occasion? The instant answer is, Because his influence is moral. Moral influence goes to the heart of things. He who deals with moral questions deals with the life of the world. Any other influence addresses itself to affairs of the moment; all other influences are superficial and transitory. He who repronounces God’s commandments, and tells to the heart of the world God’s charges, wields a moral, and therefore a profound influence. Sometimes we say that a man’s intellectual influence has been profound. There is a sense in which that is perfectly possible, and may be really and gloriously true. But the heart is further in the man than the intellect. He, therefore, who purifies the heart, brings the life up to the right altitude and inspires it with the right purpose, does a work to which there is no end; it is abiding as God’s eternity, lustrous in its degree as God’s glory!
Herein is the supreme advantage of the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ docs not come to attend to any diseases that are merely cutaneous; the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not engage to settle questions that lie merely on the surface of society; the Gospel of Christ does not undertake our local politics, and things that are little, contracted, and perishing. The Gospel of Christ lays its saving hand upon the human heart and says, “This is the sphere of my mission. I will affect all things that are superficial and local and temporary; but I shall affect them indirectly. By putting the life right, I shall put the extremities right; by making the heart as it ought to be, the whole surface of nature will become healthful and beautiful.” This is the supreme advantage of the minister of the Gospel. A true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ has little or nothing to do, directly, with the petty, trifling, fussy controversies of the day. It is not his business to walk into heated committee rooms and to discuss, with all learning and profundity, transient parochial politics. The minister of Jesus Christ addresses man as man, and by moving the heart he moves the will; by enlightening the judgment, he elevates the life. Having done that interior, moral, everlasting work, there comes out of him, in all directions, the happiest influence in relation to things that are local and perishing. We shall fall from the great ministry, if, forgetting the universal, we give our strength to the particular. We need men in society who stand apart from the little fights, petty controversies, and angry contentions which seem to be part and parcel of daily life, and who shall speak great principles, breathe a heavenly influence, and bring to bear upon combatants of all kinds considerations which shall survive all their misunderstandings. Regard Samuel in this light, and you will see the sublimity of his attitude. He stands alone; on the other side of him is the whole house of Israel. It would be a much easier thing for him, viewed merely from the outside and in relation to the passing hour, to say, “We are all brethren; you have gone wrong, I must allow; but I do not think I should be harsh with you. Hail, fellows well met! let bygones be bygones, and from this day let us enjoy ourselves.” But no man’s will is merely personal when he speaks for God. Samuel would have no right to say, “I am setting up my little personal judgment and will against yours.” He was the medium on which the infinite heart broke into language, and through which the infinite purpose caused itself to be heard in all the indignation proper to its outrage, in all the pathos becoming the infinite compassion of God! Herein, again, is the great influence of a moral teacher, a revealer of Christian truth. Whenever we hear a preacher who speaks the right word, we hear God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; through his voice we hear the testimony of the angels unfallen; out of his words there comes the declaration of all that is bright, pure, true, wise, in the universe of God!
Now let us look at the holy attitude which Samuel assumed in relation to the guilt of Israel. Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.” In the first instance his attitude was sublime; the lonely man speaking the charge of God to an apostate nation. In this instance his attitude is holy. Because having charged the people in the name of God, condemned them in the interests of righteousness, and called them to purity of worship, he says, “If you will gather yourselves together, I will pray for you.” This is the secret of great influence: indignation, calmness, righteousness incorruptible and inexorable, devoutness that stoops to pray for the fallen, the foul, the evil-minded, and the debased. Samuel was not borne away by anger and fury; he did not give way even to judicial vengeance. In the first instance he describes the corruptness of the case, points out the right course, exhorts the people to take that course instantly, and then he speaks these healing words: “If ye will do these things, and gather yourselves together to Mizpeh, I will pray unto the Lord for you.” See the fulness of the meaning of such words as these, as used by such a man, under circumstances so distinctive and impressive! “I will pray unto the Lord for you.” Then the highest man in the Church is but a priest, a prophet, an agent, an instrument. Not, “Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and there I will pronounce the word of absolution for you.” Samuel lays no claim to any position, so far as this case is concerned, but that of a suppliant who has influence with God. That is all we can do for one another, the work of an instrument, the ministry of an agent. That word all has more force in it than the mere monosyllable. Why, what is there more than that? To understand the world’s case, to comprehend the terrible results of the world’s apostasy, to reproach, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God, and then to gather the world we have branded with God’s condemnation and pray for it unto the God of heaven! When a man has done that he has exhausted his resources; he has done more he has moved Omnipotence towards condescension and redemption!
“I will pray for you unto the Lord.” Then the human needs the divine. We never find taking great breadths of history, ages and centuries that the human has been able to exist alone, and to grow upward and onward in its atheism. We do find hours in which atheism seems to carry everything its own way. There are occasions in human history when God seems to be utterly deposed, when a whole nation has got up and out-voted God, emptied heaven, brought down the sky to the dust; but never lifted up the dust to the sky! Observe that such periods have been but occasional; they have always been transitory, and in proportion to the length of their duration has there afterwards gone up a cry to God, that he would come back again. If he would but once show his face, the men who repudiated his existence and renounced his name “would dash their idols at his feet, and call them gods no more.” What is true in nations is true in individuals. To any man who has not been living for God we may say: You have not been living upward. You have been living; you have not changed your address; people have recognised your physical features; but you have not been going up in the quality of your being, your pathos has not become tenderer, your charity has not become purer, your nobility has not enhanced itself. This is a plain thing to say to a man’s face, but we should say it, yet not we but the whole Triune God and all history, when a man lives without religion we will not say irreligiously, as if he were profane and blasphemous, in the ordinary sense of those terms his life is a diminishing quantity; he goes down in the volume and quality of his being.
Israel was gathered together to Mizpeh. The Philistines, the enemies of the house of Israel, having heard that Israel had gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. Observe, Israel was gathered at a prayer meeting. That is a modern expression, and not much in favour with men who are “advanced.” We do not know what they are “advanced” in, and perhaps it is better on the whole not to inquire. The Philistines went up against Israel, congregated for a devotional purpose; and when the children of Israel heard it they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us.” What became of the Philistines? The Philistines had won many victories; they had proved their prowess in arms as against the house of Israel; they had taken the ark of God when Israel resorted to the formal rather than to the spiritual. Now that Israel is getting its old heart back again, and its eyes are being turned to the heavens, what becomes of the Philistines? The Lord thundered that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.
“And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came unto Beth-car” ( 1Sa 7:11 ).
There is a great law here. To some minds this must, of course, be sentimental. To men who have seen prayer under certain aspects and circumstances, who have known godly persons, hard driven in life, unable to conduct a successful struggle, and yet who have been praying all the time, this must appear to be little better than mockery. But many others have known precisely the same thing under a different class of circumstances leading to the same gracious and undeniable results. The Philistines came against a praying army. We must consider not what the praying army did in the first instance, but what God did. The Lord thundered, and the Philistines were deafened; the Lord touched the heads of the Philistinian army, and they went crazy; the Lord wielded his hand before the eyes of the Philistinian leaders, and they were blind! It is nothing to him to save whether there be many or few.
In this case it does not appear from the text that God took the rod of his lightning and utterly discomfited the Philistines. He thundered! When God’s voice rolls over human life, it is either a benediction of infinite peace or a malediction no human force can turn aside. Observe when it was that Samuel said he would pray for the house of Israel. The great lesson here turns upon a point of time. When Israel returned unto the Lord with all their heart; when Israel put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth; when Israel prepared the heart unto the Lord and was ready to serve him only; when Israel had done this part, then Samuel said, “I will pray for you unto the Lord.” Under other circumstances prayer would have been wasted breath. We find a great law here, which applies to the natural and the spiritual. Is there a plague in the city? Purify your sanitary arrangements, cleanse your drains, disinfect your channels, use everything that is at all likely to conduce to a good end, then pray unto the Lord. After nature has exhausted herself, there may be something for the Lord to do, may there not? Who are we? Where did we obtain our education? Who put us up just one inch above the infinite that we might be able to say to God, “Now the people have done everything, there is nothing for thee to do”? Who are we? A man ought to have a good many certificates, credentials, and testimonials before he is able to establish a status which will justify him in suggesting that when all natural processes have been exhausted, God cannot do anything. What if God should be just one iota wiser than we are? What if after we have exhausted the resources of our skill and the efforts of our strength, God might be able to say, “See, there is one more thing to be done”? It would not be according very much to God, would it? Blessed are they who believe that after they have exhausted themselves, God can do exceeding abundantly above all that they ask or think!
Sometimes worldly people say “Pray for us.” Men have said that to us. What kind of men were they? Sometimes men who have made wrecks of themselves, who have gone as far devilward as they could get, whose hearts were like a den of unclean beasts, men who had no longer any grip of the world the whole thing was slipping away from them they have said to the minister whom they had previously characterised as a canting parson, “Pray for us.” But one condition must be forthcoming on their part. There must be not only consciousness of loss, and consciousness that they cannot fight against God any longer, and that their next step will be into the jaws of the devil there must be more than that. There must be self-renunciation, contrition, moral anguish, pain of the soul, repentance towards God. When these conditions are forthcoming, the servant of Christ may say, “I will pray for you unto the Lord.”
In the third place, look at the exalted attitude which Samuel assumes in relation to his whole lifetime. We read in the fifteenth verse of this chapter, “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.” Think of being able to account for all the days of a whole human history! Think of being able to write your biography in one sentence! Think of being able to do without parentheses, footnotes, reservations, apologies, and self-vindications! When we attempt to write our lives, there is so much to say that is collateral and modifying in its effect, so much which is to explain the central line. When we have written our biography, we have seen great blank spaces we do not know what we did then; we have seen great black patches, and we have known that these indicated service of the devil; we have seen blurred, blotched pages, with erasures and interlineations, and we have said, “This reminds us of the daily and terrible mistakes of our life.” So our biographical record becomes anomalous, contradictory, irreconcilable. Here is a man whose lifetime is gathered up in one sentence. “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.” We have seen him in his childhood, we have had glances of him as he was passing up to his mature age. To-day we see him in three impressive and remarkable attitudes. His whole history is in this sentence: He was a judge of God all his days. Think of giving a whole lifetime to God. There are those who cannot do that now. But young men may be able to give twenty, thirty, perhaps fifty years all to Christ. Fifty years in succession; no break, no marring interruption, half a century given to Christ! Some grey-haired old men may be following this study. Perhaps they are not within the circle that is divine; they may not be numbered amongst the members of the redeemed family, and now all that they can give is just the fag-end of a life. To such we would say: Death cannot be long in meeting you! Perhaps next year only, perhaps to-morrow. The young may die, the old must. You may only have six weeks left; you had better give them than not give anything at all.
See then the profound influence which may be exerted by one life. We are dealing with Samuel, and with Samuel alone. Samuel’s life is not confined to himself; it is a radiating life, streaming out from itself and touching thousands of points in the social and national life of others. Who can tell what may be done by one man? We shall not quote the testimony of a friend on this point, because he might be partial in his judgment. But once an enemy gave explicit testimony upon this point, and we shall accept his words just as he himself gave them. His name was Demetrius; he was an idol-maker; trade was slipping out of his fingers fast; he was not making so many gods as usual; and he spake to the people of the city in these words: “Ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul persuadeth and turneth away much people, saying, that they be no gods, which are made with hands.” It was a valuable testimony. It was an enemy writing the report of the Church for the last year. It was the devil, reading a secretarial report of what one man had done. This Paul! Not ten thousand Pauls, not a great army of Pauls, but one little man, with an immeasurably great soul, who was not only working mightily in Ephesus against idolatry, but throughout all Asia! What one life can do. Let no man despise himself; do not say, “My little influence is of no avail.” Every man can be intense, though only few men can be extensive in influence. The father upon the house, the head of the business in his own establishment, the friend among his friends, the mother in the nursery, each life can have a speciality of intensity in these high matters. Whoso would wield profound, eternal influence, let him help the souls of men; get away from things that are superficial, local, and self-contained! Speak the truth of God, and eternity itself cannot exhaust the happy effect of that blessed influence!
Prayer
Almighty God, thy claim upon our worship is unceasing, for thy mercy, like thy majesty, endureth for ever. Thou dost never withhold thine hand from giving good gifts unto thy children. As thou hast made them in thine own image and likeness, and hast implanted within them desires which the world cannot satisfy, so thou dost especially reveal thyself unto them day by day, appeasing their hunger with bread from heaven, and quenching their thirst with water out of the river of God. Oftentimes have we said concerning thy Son, We will not have this Man to reign over us. But when we have tasted the bitterness of sin, and have been convinced of our own emptiness and helplessness, when heart and flesh have failed, when by the ministry of thy Holy Spirit we have come to understand somewhat of thine own holiness and mercy and love, our hearts’ desire has been that Jesus might sit upon the throne of our love, and rule our whole life: that he might be King of kings, and Lord of lords, our Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel. We desire to live unto the glory of God, to understand the meaning of the gift of life with which we have been blessed. Thou hast entrusted us with solemn responsibilities: enable us to understand their meaning, to feel their pressure, and to respond with all our hearts to their demands. Let thy blessing rest upon us. May thy house be unto us as the gate of heaven; may weary souls recover their strength and tone. May desponding hearts be revived and comforted with the consolation of God. May worldly minds be given to feel that there is a world higher than the present: that round about us is the great sea of thine eternity. May we be prepared for all the future, having our hearts cleansed through the blood of Jesus Christ. We depend upon thy Holy Spirit; we will not look unto our own resources, except as they present themselves as the gifts of God. We will rely upon thy power; we will cry mightily unto our God! Thou wilt hear us; thou wilt redeem our souls from all fear; thou wilt inspire us with immortal hope; thou wilt clothe us with adequate power. Cleanse our hearts by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus. Show to us, more and more, the meaning of the mystery of his dear cross. May we find all that is deepest and truest in our own life symbolised in that cross of Jesus. May it be the answer to our sin, the remedy of our diseases, the one hope of our wondering and anxious souls! Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
III
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF ELI, AND THE RISE OF SAMUEL
1Sa 4:1-7:17
I will give, in order, the passages showing the rise of Samuel over against the descent of Eli. Samuel, more than any other book of the Bible, excels in vividness of detail, and especially in showing progressiveness in character, either upward or downward growing either better or worse. Over against the iniquities of Eli’s sons and the doom pronounced on his house, we have in order, these passages: 1Sa 1:27-28 ; 1Sa 2:18 , and the last clause of 1Sa 2:21 ; 1Sa 2:26 ; 1Sa 3:1-4 ; 1Sa 1 Samuel 19-21; 1Sa 4:1 .
The progress is: (1) For this child I prayed. (2) The child prayed for is devoted to Jehovah. (3) His home is God’s house and there he serves and worships. (4) The child is called. (5) The child grew in favor with God and man. (6) The child kept on growing. (7) He is recognized as a prophet by all Israel from Dan to Beersheba. In the meantime Eli’s house steadily descends until the bottom is reached. Macaulay, in his History of England, in telling about the great men in power at a certain time, including Lord Halifax, substantially makes this remark: “These great men did not know that they were even then being eclipsed by two young men who were rising up, that would attain to greater heights and influence than the others had ever attained,” and he gives the names of the two young men as John Somers and Charles Montagu.
We may apply this throughout life: A train once in motion will run for a while on its own impetus, but in both cases the motion will gradually cease unless new power be applied. So in every community there are leaders holding positions from past momentum, while new men are rising that will eclipse and succeed them. As in nature when a tree quits growing it begins to die, and when a stream quits flowing its waters stagnate, so when a leader quits studying he begins to lose power and must give place to younger men who are studious. And it will some day be so with you, and you will enter what is called the declining period of your life. For a while it will astonish you that you are not cutting as wide a swath as you used to cut, and unless you live only in God, that will be the bitterest hour of your life. Very few people know how to grow old gracefully; some of them become very bitter as they grow old. The following is a summary of the events connected with the fall of the house of Eli:
1. An enemy is strengthened to smite them. The absence of purity, piety, veneration, and fidelity in God’s people, either his nominal people like Hophni and Phinehas, or his real people, as Eli, always develops a conquering enemy. The case of Samson, Eli’s contemporaneous judge, illustrates this. When he betrayed the secret of his strength, he went out as aforetime and knew not that the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him, and so became an easy victim of the Philistines, bound, eyes put out, enslaved, grinding in the mills of God’s enemies, a sport to them, with the added despair that the cause suffered in his downfall.
The devil has known from the beginning that his only chance to win against God’s people is, by their sins, to turn God against them. He knows that as long as God is for you, nobody can be against you. He knows that he cannot fight against you when you have God back of you, but if you become estranged from God, the devil will show you very quickly that when it comes to a wrestle he can give you a fall, and it does not take him long to do it.
It was in this way that he influenced Balaam to suggest to Balak the plan to make Israel sin with women, as a step toward idolatry. His slogan was: “If you can make them sin against their God and put him against them, then you can down them.” The Phinehas of that day, how different from this Phinehas, Eli’s son! Naming a child after a great and good man does not make him like his namesake.
One of the most unpatriotic men I ever knew was named after George Washington; one of the greatest failures as a preacher was named after Spurgeon; one of the poorest excuses for a statesman was named after Sam Houston. Now here is Phinehas, the son of Eli, named after that other Phinehas of Balaam’s time.
The devil, here called Belial, is never more satisfied than when he can nominate his own children as ministers of religion. Hophni and Phinehas, children of Belial, were priests. The prevalent evils of today arise from the fact that children of Belial occupy many pulpits and many chairs in theological seminaries and Christian schools. Always they are the advance couriers of disaster to God’s cause, and herald the coming of a triumphant adversary.
When preachers and professors, in schools begin to hawk at and peck at the Bible, and rend it with their talons, or defile the spiritual feasts like harpies) you should not only count them as unclean birds of prey, but should begin to set your own house in order, for trouble is coming fast.
2. The Philistines won a battle. Four thousand Israelites were slain.
3. Stimulated by fear, the sons of Eli resorted to an expedient, tempting God. They sent for the ark of the covenant, taking it from its appointed place to be used as a fetish or charm. So used as an instrument of superstition it had no more power to avert evil than a Negro’s use of a rabbit’s foot, or the nailing up of a horseshoe over a door to keep off witches.
As religion becomes decadent its votaries resort to charms, amulets, relics of the saints, alleged pieces of the cross, images and other kinds of evil, instead of resorting to repentance, faith, and obedience. So used, the most sacred symbol becomes worse than any common thing.
We will see later in Jewish history the idolatrous worship of the brazen serpent made by Moses, and we will hear good King Hezekiah say, as he breaks it to pieces, “Nehushtan,” i.e., “it is only a piece of brass.” As a symbol, when lifted up, it was of great use, but when used as an object of worship it became only a piece of brass. A student of history knows that a multiplication of holy days, pyrotechnic displays, games, festivities, plays, and cruel sports, until there are no days to work, marks the decadence of a people. We need not be afraid of any nation that gives great attention to fireworks, a characteristic of the Latin races.
We shout in vain: “The ark of the Lord! The ark of the Lord!” when we fail to follow the Lord himself. No issue is made in that way, as it is not an issue of the Lord against Dagon, but a superstitious and impious use of sacred symbols against the devil, and the devil will whip every time. In the medieval times, early in the history of the crusades, we see that even the cross so used falls before the crescent, the sign of Mohammed followers.
We might as well seek the remission of sins in baptism, or salvation in the bread of the Supper, as to expect God’s favor sought by any such means.
When Elisha smote the Jordan with Elijah’s mantle, he trusted not to the mantle, nor did he say, “Where is Elijah?” but he said, “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” and so he divided the waters.
4. The Philistines won another battle. Thirty thousand Israelites perished; Hophni and Phinehas were slain; the ark was captured; Eli died, and the wife of Phinehas died in premature labor, naming her new born babe, “Ichabod,” that is, “The glory is departed from Israel”; Shiloh was captured and made desolate forever, ceasing to be the central place of worship; both the ark and the tabernacle became fugitives, separating never to meet again, and so Israel lamented after the Lord.
5. The Philistines regarded the capture of the ark, (1). as a triumph of their god, Dagon, over Jehovah, the God of Israel, and so they placed it in a subordinate position before Dagon in their temple. (2) They regarded it as the capture of Jehovah himself, obligated by his captivity now to serve the Philistines as be had heretofore ministered to Israel.
The prevalence of such conceptions in ancient times is very evident. For ages the presence of a deity was associated with his symbol. To capture his symbol, or image, was to capture the deity, as in the story of Aladdin in The Arabian Nights, whoever held the lamp of the genie controlled the genie himself. Assyrian sculptures today exhibit the idols of vanished nations borne in triumphant procession, and the parade is always to show that they have triumphed over the gods of that country.
The Hebrew prophets allude to this custom frequently. The passages are: Isa 46:1 ; Jer 48:7 ; Jer 49:3 ; Hos 10:6 ; Dan 11:8 . Cyrus, when he captured Babylon, adopted its gods, but the Romans under Marcellus brought to adorn their own cities the captured images and pictures of the Greek gods. Nebuchadnezzar carried away the sacred symbols of Jerusalem when he captured that city, as did Titus after our Lord’s time, and we see in Rome today carved on the Arch, the sevenbranched golden candlestick which Titus carried from the Temple of Jerusalem in triumph to Rome. The Roman general, Fabius, when he captured the city of Tarentum, said to his soldiers, “Leave their gods here; their gods are mad at them; so let us leave them with their gods which they have offended,” and so they left the idols. It would have been a good thing, as after-events show, had Nebuchadnezzar done the same thing, for when Belshazzar, his successor, on a certain night at a drunken feast, used the sacred vessels of the Temple for desecration, it was then that the hand came out and wrote on the wall, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.
Jehovah showed the Philistines that their victory was not over him: (1) By causing the image of Dagon to fall down before the ark, and when they set it up again, caused it to fall down again, and to break its head and arms off; (2) by sending two great plagues: tumors or boils, violent and fatal, under which thousands died, and field mice that swarmed so as to destroy the great harvests of grain that made their land famous; (3) by causing the cessation of the worship of Dagon in Ashdod, for after taking the falls and breaking his head and arms off, no man would go in and worship Dagon.
A natural inquiry when an individual or a people is subject to a series of severe and extraordinary disasters is, What sin have we committed and how may we expiate it, or avert its judgment? Such an inquiry is inseparably connected with any conception of the moral government of God. Men may indeed often fail to note that all afflictions are not punitive, some being disciplinary, or preparatory to greater displays of mercy. We see this problem discussed in the case of Job and his friends; also to those who asked Jesus, “Who did sin, this man or his parents?” He answered that this affliction did not result from personal sin of either of them, but that the glory of God might be manifested. It is the most natural thing in the world for anybody who has suffered one buffet of ill fortune after another, to ask, “What have I done?” and it is perfectly natural for the neighbors to point out that one and say, “Ah, you have been doing something against the Lord: your sin is finding you out.” Therefore it was the most natural thing in the world for the Philistines, when they saw such disasters coming in connection with the capture of the ark, to put the question, “What is our sin?”
We will see what expedients the Philistines adopted to determine whether their calamities came only in a natural way, or were supernatural afflictions connected with the ark and coming from the offended Jehovah, and if from Jehovah, how be was to be appeased. 1Sa 5:7-11 gives us the first expedient: “We will move this ark from Ashdod to the next one of the five cities, and see what happens then. If the same things happen there, we will move it to the next city, and if the same things happen there we will move it to the next city, and so on around the circle of the five cities, and if the same results follow all of these cities, such a series of incidents will be regarded as full proof that the judgments are from Jehovah.”
We recall the story of the boy and the cow bells: He said, “When my father found a cow bell, Ma and I were mighty glad, for we needed one. And when he found another cow bell we were glad again, for we really needed another one, but when Dad found another cow bell, Ma and I became suspicious.” A man would not naturally find three cow bells one after another, so they thought that “Dad” had stolen them. So when five cities, one after the other, had the same afflictions, they could not call that chance.
I knew of a general in a terrible battle who, when a bombshell as big as a water bucket came from a gunboat, cut through a tree and sank into the ground, making an excavation that you could put a house in, ran and put his head right into the hole where the shell came. Somebody asked him why, and he said that such a shell as that would never come twice in the same place. And so the Philistine idea was to move the ark from Ashdod to the next city, and if nothing happened, then they were mistaken about this being chastisement from Jehovah, but if wherever they took it there came the mice and boils on the inhabitants, they were not mistaken, and they could not misunderstand.
That was their first expedient. Their second expedient was to call upon their religious leaders, their diviners and soothsayers, and to ask them to tell them how they could conciliate Jehovah. And the diviners told them that the ark must be sent back, and it must be sent back with a gift, and the gift must signify their confession of sin. In the olden times if a man was healed of a wound in his hand, the Lord was presented with a silver offering to commemorate the healing of the hand. So they had five golden mice made, one for each city, and five golden tumors, one for each city, to symbolize their conception that the evils had come upon them for this offense to Jehovah. But as there still might be a question as to whether these afflictions were natural or supernatural, they tested it in this way: They went to the pen where were cows with young calves (you know what a fool a cow is over her first calf when it is little) and hitched two of these cows to a cart, put the ark on it, to see if the cows, against nature, would go away and leave their calves willingly, and still thinking about the calves and calling them, would carry the ark back to some city of the Levites; that would show that Jehovah was in it.
That was a pretty wise idea of those Philistines, and so when they took a new cart and put the ark on it, and took those two mother cows, they never hesitated but struck a beeline for the nearest Levite city, about twelve miles, and they went bellowing, showing that they felt the absence from their calves. These were their two expedients.
1Sa 6:19-20 says that some of the people at Bethshemesh looked into the ark to see what was in there, and the blow fell in a minute. No man was authorized to open that sacred chamber over which the mercy seat rested and on which the cherubs sat, but the high priests of God. If you will turn to the Septuagint, you will find another remarkable thing which does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, viz.: all of the Levites of the city of Bethshemesh rejoiced at the return of the ark of God, except one man, Jeconiah, and his family, who refused to rejoice at its homecoming, and God smote that family in a moment.
Now, a later instance: The ark, at the request of the citizens of Bethshemesh, was moved to Kirjathjearim, and stayed there until David had been reigning a long time; he sent after it, and Uzzah, when the ark was shaken by the oxen stumbling, reached up his hand to steady the ark and God struck him dead. His attempt was well meant, but it presumed that God was not able to take care of himself. It was a violation of the law for any man to touch that ark except the ones appointed by Jehovah. Which one of the Psalms commemorates the capture and restoration of the ark?
After twenty years Samuel led Israel to repentance and victory. 1Sa 7:3-12 tells us all about it. It says that Samuel called upon them to repent truly of their sins; if they ever wanted the favor of God any more, to cast off their idols and obey God. This is like John the Baptist saying, “Repent ye, repent ye.” Every prophet, in order to be a reformer, was a preacher of repentance. The people repented of their sins, turned from their idols, and returned to God. He assembled all Israel at Mizpah; the Philistines heard of it and came with a great army. Samuel and Israel met them and smote them hip and thigh, and broke their power.
The next paragraph in the Harmony tells how Samuel judged Israel and the regular circuit he made while living at Ramah. He would go to Beth-el, Gilgal, and Mizpah, then come back, holding special courts of judgment, and with such wisdom, purity, and impartiality that he must be classed as the last, best, and greatest of the judges.
QUESTIONS
1. Cite, in order, the passages showing Samuel’s rise over against the descent of Eli.
2. What said Macaulay on this point, and what other examples cited by the author?
3. Give a summary of the events connected with the fall of the house of Eli.
4. How did the Philistines regard the capture of the ark?
5. Show the prevalence of such conceptions in ancient times.
6. How did Jehovah show the Philistines that their victory was not over him?
7. What is the natural inquiry when an individual or a people is subject to a series of severe and extraordinary disasters?
8. To what expedients did the Philistines resort to determine whether their calamities came only in a natural way, or were supernatural afflictions connected with the ark and coming from the offended Jehovah, and if from Jehovah, how was he to be appeased?
9. How else did Jehovah manifest the sanctity of his ark, both at Bethshemesh and later, as we will find in the history?
10. What Psalm commemorates the capture and restoration of the ark?
11. How does Samuel lead Israel, after twenty years, to repentance and victory?
12. What cities did Samuel visit in his judgeship, and what can you say of the judgments rendered by him?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
IV
THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS
The more important passages bearing on this subject are 1Sa 3:1-4 ; 1Sa 10:5 ; 1Sa 10:9-12 ; 1Sa 18:13-24 ; 1Ki 19:18 ; 1Ki 19:20-21 ; 1Ki 20:35 ; 2Ki 2:3-5 ; 2Ki 4:38 ; 2Ki 6:1 ; 1Ch 29:29 ; 2Ch 9:29 ; 2Ch 12:15 ; 2Ch 13:22 and other chapters in that book I do not enumerate. The last one is Amo 7:14-15 . The reader will understand that I give these instead of a prescribed section in the Harmony. These constitute the basis of this discussion.
Let us distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office , and give some examples. Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, his seventy elders, Balaam, Joshua, and others before Samuel’s time had the gift, but not the office; perhaps we may except Moses as in a measure having the office. After Samuel’s time, David, many of his singers, and particularly Daniel, had the gift in a high degree, but not the office. Moreover, the high priests from Aaron to Caiphas in Christ’s time, were supposed to have officially the gift of prophecy that is, to hear and report what the Oracle said but Samuel is the first who held the office.
The distinction between a prophet and a son of a prophet is this: A son of a prophet was a candidate for the office, ministering to the prophet, a disciple instructed by him, consecrated to the work, and qualifying himself to perform the services of the office with the highest efficiency. A prophet is one who, through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, speaks or writes for God. In this inspiration he is God’s mouth or pen, speaking or writing not his own words, but God’s words. This inspiration guides and superintends his speech and his silence; what is recorded and what is omitted from the record. The gift of prophecy was not one of uniform quantity nor necessarily enduring. The gifts were various in kind, and might be for one occasion only. As to variety of kinds, the revelation might come in dreams or open visions, or it might consist of an ecstatic trance expressed in praise or song or prayer. If praise, song, or prayer, its form was apt to be poetic, particularly if accompanied by instrumental music.
As to the duration of the gift, it might be for one occasion only, or a few, or many. The scriptures show that the spirit of prophecy came upon King Saul twice only, and each time in the form of an ecstatic trance. In his early life it came as a sign that God had chosen him as king. In his later life the object of it was to bar his harmful approach to David. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 12-14 inclusive, explains the diversity of these gifts and their relative importance.
There are two periods of Hebrew history in which we find clearest notices of the schools of the prophets, the proofs of their persistence between the periods, and their influence on the nation. The notices are abundant in the time of Samuel, and in the time of Elijah and Elisha, but you have only to study the book of Chronicles to see that the prophetic order, as an office, continued through these periods and far beyond. Later you will learn that in the time of persecution fifty of these prophets were hidden in a cave and fed regularly. The object of the enemy was to destroy these theological seminaries, believing that they could never lead the nation astray while these schools of the prophets continued. Their object, therefore, was to destroy these seats of theological education. Elijah supposed that every one of them was killed except himself, but he was mistaken.
Samuel was the founder of the first school of the prophets, and the scripture which shows his headship 1Sa 19:20 , where Saul is sending messengers to take David, and finally goes himself and finds the school of the prophets, with Samuel as its appointed head. The reason for such a school in Samuel’s time is shown, first, by an extract from Kirkpatrick’s Commentary on 1 Samuel, page 33. He says:
Samuel was the founder of the prophetic order. Individuals in previous ages had been endowed with prophetic gifts, but with Samuel commenced the regular succession of prophets which lasted through all the period of the monarchy, and did not cease until after the captivity. The degeneracy into which the priesthood had fallen through the period of the judges demanded the establishment of a new order for the religious training of the nation.
For this purpose Samuel founded the institutions known as the schools of the prophets. The “company of prophets” at Gibeah (1Sa 10:10 ) and the scene at Ramah described in 1Sa 19:18 ff., imply a regular organization. These societies are only definitely mentioned again in connection with the history’ of Elijah and Elisha but doubtless continued to exist in the interval. By means of these the Order was maintained, students were educated, and common religious exercises nurtured and developed spiritual gifts.
Kirkpatrick’s is a fine commentary. The priests indeed were instructors of the people, but the tendency of the priesthood was to rest in external sacrifices, and to trust in a mere ritualistic form of sacrifice. That is the trouble always where you have a ritual. And after a while both priest and worshiper began to rely upon the external type, and on external conformity with the ritual. God needed better mouthpieces than those, hence while in the past there was a prophetic gift here and there, he now establishes the prophetic school, or society, in which training, bearing upon the prophetic office, should be continuous. The value of these schools of the prophets is also seen from Kirkpatrick, page 1 Samuel 34:
The value of the prophetic order to the Jewish nation was immense. The prophets were privy-counsellors of kings, the historians of the nation, the instructors of the people. It was their function to be preachers of righteousness to rich and poor alike: to condemn idolatry in the court, oppression among the nobles, injustice among the judges, formality among the priests. They were the interpreters of the law who drew out by degrees the spiritual significance which underlay ritual observance, and labored to prevent sacrifice and sabbath and festival from becoming dead and unmeaning forms. Strong in the unshaken consciousness that they were expressing the divine will, they spoke and acted with a fearless courage which no threats could daunt or silence.
Thus they proved a counterpoise to the despotism of monarchy and the formalism of priesthood. In a remarkable passage in his essay on “Representative Government,” Mr. John Stuart Mill attributes to their influence the progress which distinguished the Jews from other Oriental nations. “The Jews,” he writes, “had an absolute monarchy and hierarchy. These did for them what was done for other Oriental races by their institutions subdued them to industry and order, and gave them a national life. . . . Their religion gave existence to an inestimably precious institution, the order of prophets. Under the protection, generally though not always effectual, of their sacred character, the prophets were a power in the nation, often more than a match for kings and priests, and kept up in that little corner of the earth the antagonism of influences which is the only real security for continued progress.”
I was surprised the first time I ever saw the statement from Mill. He was a radical evolutionist and infidel, but a statesman, and in studying the development of statesmanship among the nations, he saw this singular thing in the history of the Jews, unlike anything he saw anywhere else, and saw what it was that led that nation, when it went into backsliding, to repentance; what power it was that brought about the reformation when their morals were corrupted; what power it was that was the real light of the nation and the salt of the earth, and saw that it was this order of prophets which was the conservator of national unity, purity, and perpetuity. I have the more pleasure in quoting that passage, as it comes from a witness in no way friendly to Christianity, just as when I was discussing missions I quoted the testimony of Charles Darwin to the tremendous influence for good wrought by the missionaries of South America.
Particularly in this case of the schools of the prophets we find their value, by noting very carefully the bearing on the case under Samuel. We have already noticed the corruption of the priesthood under Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas; how the ark was captured, the central place of worship desecrated; how Samuel, called to the office of prophet, needed assistance, and how he instituted this school of the prophets. He gathered around him the brightest young men of the nation and had the Spirit of God rest on them, and in order that their instruction might be regular he organized them into companies, or schools; he would go from one to another, and these young “theologs” were under the instruction of Samuel and for twenty years worked as evangelists in making sensitive the national conscience. It took twenty years to do it, and he could not have done it by himself, but with that tremendous power, the help he had, at the end of twenty years, he saw the nation repentant and once more worshiping God. I am for a theological seminary that will do that.
I give a modern example somewhat parallel: Mr. Spurgeon was called to the city of London, when about nineteen years old, to be the pastor of the old historic church of Dr. Gill, and in his evangelical preaching impressed a number of men to feel that they were also called to preach (if your preaching does not impress somebody else to preach, you may be sure that you are not called to preach), and it impressed the women and a multitude of laymen to do active Christian service. Therefore, Mr. Spurgeon organized what is called “The Pastoral College.” He wouldn’t let a drone be in it; he did not want anybody in it that was not spiritually minded. In other words, he insisted that a preacher should be religiously inclined, and should be ready to do any kind of work. He supported this institution largely through his own contributions, although the men and women all over England, when they saw what it was doing, would send money for its support. I used to read the monthly reports of the contributions and the list of donors that accompanied them.
Mr. Spurgeon determined to work a revolution, just as Samuel did, and he used this school of the prophets for that purpose. Consequently, hundreds of young preachers belonging to that school of the prophets preached in the slums of the city, in the byways, in the highways, in the hedges, in the mines, on the wharves to the sailors, and in the hospitals. Hundreds of laymen said, “Put us to work,” and he did; he had pushcarts made for them, and filled them with books and so sent out over the town literature that was not poisonous. He put the women to work, and established) or rather perpetuated in better form, a number of the almshouses for the venerable old women who were poor and helpless, following out the suggestion in 2 Timothy, and he erected a hospital. Then they got to going further afield. They went all over England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, crossed over into the Continent, crossed the seas to Australia, and the islands of the seas, and into heathen lands. I have always said that Spurgeon’s Pastoral College came nearer to the Bible idea of a seminary than any other in existence. There was not so much stress laid on mere scholarship as on spiritual efficiency.
It is important to note particularly what I am saying now, because it was burnt into my heart as one of the reasons for establishing a theological seminary. The nature of that society was that it was a school. They left their homes and came to stay at this school, with what we now call a mess hall in which all the theological students, by contributing so much, have their table in common. It was that way then; they had their meals in common. In preparing dinner one day for the sons of the prophets, somebody put a lot of wild gourds into the pot, and when they began to eat it, one of them cried out: “Ah, man of God, there’s death in the pot!” Once I preached a sermon on this theme: “Wild Gourds and Theological Seminaries,” to show that to feed the students in theological seminaries on wild gourds of heresy is to put death in the pot; they will do more harm than good, as they will become instruments of evil.
In determining what were their duties, we must consult quite a number of passages. We gather from this passage that they were thoroughly instructed in the necessity of repentance, individually and nationally, and of turning from their sins and coming back to God with faithful obedience. That lesson was ground in them. They were taught the interpretation of the spiritual meaning of the law, all its sacrifices, its feasts, its types, and therefore when you are studying a prophet in the Old Testament you will notice how different his idea of types and ceremonies from that of the priests. They will tell you that to do without eating is fasting, but the prophet will show that literal fasting is not true fasting; that there must be fasting at heart; that there must be a rending of the soul and not the garment as an expression of repentance; that to obey God w better than a formal sacrifice.
Another thing they were taught, which I wish particularly to emphasize, was music, both vocal and instrumental. In that school of the prophets started the tremendous power of music in religion so wonderfully developed by David, who got many of his ideas from associating with the schools of the prophets. And from that time unto this, every evangelical work, and all powerful religious work, has been associated with music, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament; not merely vocal, but instrumental music. The heart of a religion is expressed in its songs, and if you want to get at the heart of your Old Testament you find it in the hymnbook of the Hebrew nation the Psalter. It is indeed an interesting study to see what has been the influence of great hymns on the national life. There is an old proverb: “You may make the laws of the people, if you will let me write their ballads.” Where is there a man capable of measuring the influence of “How Firm a Foundation,” or “Come, Thou Fount,” or “Did Christ O’er Sinners Weep?” There is a rich literature on the influence of hymns on the life.
In the awful times of the struggle in England, Charles I against the Parliament, one faction of the nation held to ritualism, while the other followed spirituality, even to the extreme of not allowing any form, not even allowing any instruments of music. One of the finest stories of this period is the account of a church that observed the happy medium, using instrumental as well as vocal music, and congregational singing as well as the use of the choir; every sabbath somebody’s soul was melted in the power of that mighty singing. I can’t sing myself, but I can carry the tunes in my mind, and I can be more influenced by singing than by preaching. It was singing that convicted me of sin. It was on a waving, soaring melody of song that my soul was converted. I once knew a rugged, one-eyed, homely, old pioneer Baptist preacher, who looked like a pirate until his religion manifested itself, and then he was beautiful. I heard him one day when a telegram was put into his hand stating that his only son had just been killed by being thrown from a horse. While weeping, his face became illumined; he got up and clapped his hands and walked through that audience, singing, “O, Jesus, My Saviour, to Thee I Submit.”
John Bunyan wrote that song while in Bedford Jail. They had put him there to keep him from preaching, and looking out through the bars of the dungeon he saw his poor blind girl, Mary, begging bread, and he sat down and wrote that hymn. The effect of the old preacher’s singing John Bunyan’s song was a mighty revival.
The relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries is this: The purpose was the same. And so in New Testament times, Jesus recognized that if he wanted to revolutionize the world by evangelism he must do it with trained men. He did not insist that they be rich, great or mighty men. He did not insist that they be scholars. He called them from among the common people, and he kept them right with him for three years and a half, and diligently instructed them in the principles and spirit of his kingdom. He taught them in a variety of forms; in parables, in proverbs, in exposition, illustrating his teachings by miracles, and in hundreds of ways in order that they might be equipped to go out and lead the world to Christ. You cannot help being impressed with this fact: That the theological seminaries in Samuel’s time and in Christ’s time were intensely practical, the object being not to make learned professors, but to fill each one with electricity until you could call him a “live wire,” so that it burnt whoever touched it.
This is why I called Samuel a great man, and why in a previous discussion, counting the men as the peaks in a mountain range, sighting back from Samuel to Abraham, only one other peak comes into line of vision, and that is Moses.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the more important passages bearing on the schools of the prophets?
2. Distinguish between the prophetic gift and the prophetic office and illustrate by examples.
3. Distinguish between a prophet and a son of a prophet.
4. What is the meaning of prophet?
5. In what two periods of Hebrew history do we find the clearest notices of the school of prophets, what are the proofs of their persistence between these periods, and what is their influence on the nation?
6. Who was the founder of the first school of the prophets?
7. What scripture shows his headship?
8. What was the reason for such school in Samuel’s time?
9. What was the value of these schools of the prophets, and particularly in this case, and what illustration from modern instances?
10. What was the nature of that society, and what was the instruction given?
11. What was the relation of the schools of the prophets to modern theological seminaries?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Sa 7:1 And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
Ver. 1. And the men of Kirjathjearim came. ] Notwithstanding the recent slaughter at Bethshemesh; Aliorum perditio horum erat cautio: they had seen their neighbours shipwrecked, and would look better therefore to their own tackling.
And brought it into the house of Abinadab.
In the hill.
To keep the ark of the Lord.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Samuel
REPENTANCE AND VICTORY
1Sa 7:1 – 1Sa 7:12
The ark had spread disaster in Philistia and Beth-shemesh, and the willingness of the men of Kirjath-jearim to receive it was a token of their devotion. They must have been in some measure free from idolatry and penetrated with reverence. The name of the city City of the Woods , like our Woodville suggests the situation of the little town, ‘bosomed high in tufted trees,’ where the ark lay for so long, apparently without sacrifices, and simply watched over by Eleazar, who was probably of the house of Aaron. Eli’s family was exterminated; Shiloh seems to have been destroyed, or, at all events, forsaken; and for twenty years internal disorganisation and foreign oppression, relieved only by Samuel’s growing influence, prevailed. But during these dark days a better mind was slowly appearing among the people. ‘All . . . Israel lamented after the Lord.’ Lost blessings are precious. God was more prized when withdrawn. Happy they to whom darkness brightens that Light which brightens all darkness! Our text gives us three main points,-the preparation for victory in repentance and return 1Sa 7:3 – 1Sa 7:9; the victory 1Sa 7:10 – 1Sa 7:11; the thankful commemoration of victory 1Sa 7:12.
I. We have first the preparation for victory in repentance and return. At the time of the first fight at Eben-ezer, Israel was full of idolatry and immorality. Then their preparation for battle was the mere bringing the ark into the camp, as if it were a fetish or magic charm. That was pure heathenism, and they were idolaters in such worship of Jehovah, just as much as if they had been bowing to Baal. Many of us rely on our baptism or on churchgoing precisely in the same spirit, and are as truly pagans. Not the name of the Deity, but the spirit of the worshipper, makes the ‘idolater.’
How different this second preparation! Samuel, who had never been named in the narrative of defeat, now reappears as the acknowledged prophet and, in a sense, dictator. The first requirement is to come back to the Lord ‘with the whole heart,’ and that return is to be practically exhibited in the complete forsaking of Baal and the Ashtoreths. ‘Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ It must be ‘Him only,’ if it is Him at all. Real religion is exclusive, as real love is. In its very nature it is indivisible, and if given to two is accepted by neither. So there was some kind of general and perhaps public giving up of the idols, and some, though probably not the fully appointed, public service of Jehovah. If we are to have His strength infused for victory, we must cast away our idols, and come back to Him with all our hearts. The hands that would clasp Him, and be upheld by the clasp, must be emptied of trifles. To yield ourselves wholly to God is the secret of strength.
The next step was a solemn national assembly at Samuel’s town of Mizpeh, situated on a conspicuous hill, north-west of Jerusalem, which still is called ‘the prophet Samuel.’ Sacrifices were offered, which are no part of the Mosaic ritual. A significant part of these consisted in the pouring out of water ‘before the Lord,’ probably as emblematic of the pouring out of soul in penitence; for it was accompanied by fasting and confession of sin. The surest way to the true victory, which is the conquest of our sins, is confessing them to God. When once we have seen any sin in its true character clearly enough to speak to Him about it, we have gone far to emancipate ourselves from it, and have quickened our consciences towards more complete intolerance of its hideousness. Confession breaks the entail of sin, and substitutes for the dreary expectation of its continuance the glad conviction of forgiveness and cleansing. It does not make a stiff fight unnecessary; for assured freedom from sin is not the easy prize of confession, but the hard-won issue of sturdy effort in God’s strength. But it is like blowing the trumpet of revolt,-it gives the signal for, and itself begins, the conflict. The night before the battle should be spent, not in feasting, but in prayer and lowly shriving of our souls before the great Confessor.
The watchful Philistines seem to have had their attention attracted by the unusual stir among their turbulent subjects, and especially by this suspicious gathering at Mizpeh, and they come suddenly up the passes from their low-lying territory to disperse it. A whiff of the old terror blows across the spirits of the people, not unwholesomely; for it sets them, not to desire the outward presence of the ark, not to run from their post, but to beseech Samuel’s intercession. They are afraid, but they mean to fight all the same, and, because they are afraid, they long for God’s help. That is the right temper, which, if a man cherish, he will not be defeated, however many Philistines rush at him. Twenty years of slavery had naturally bred fear in them, but it is a wise fear which breeds reliance on God. Our enemy is strong, and no fault is more fatal than an underestimate of his power. If we go into battle singing, we shall probably come out of it weeping, or never come out at all. If we begin bragging, we shall end bleeding. It is only he who looks on the advancing foe, and feels ‘They are too strong for me,’ who will have to say, as he watches them retreating, ‘He delivered me from my strong enemy.’ We should think much of our foes and little of ourselves. Such a temper will lead to caution, watchfulness, wise suspicion, vigorous strain of all our little power, and, above all, it will send us to our knees to plead with our great Captain and Advocate.
Samuel acts as priest and intercessor, offering a burnt-offering, which, like the pouring out of water, is no part of the Mosaic sacrifices. The fact is plain, but it is neither unaccountable nor large enough to warrant the sweeping inferences which have been drawn from it and its like, as to the non-existence at this period of the developed ceremonial in Leviticus. We need only remember Samuel’s special office, and the seclusion in which the ark lay, to have a sufficient explanation of the cessation of the appointed worship and the substitution of such ‘irregular’ sacrifices. We are on surer ground when we see here the incident to which Psa 99:6 refers ‘Samuel among them that call upon His name. They called upon the Lord, and He answered them’, and when we learn the lesson that there is a power in intercession which we can use for one another, and which reaches its perfection in the prevailing prayer of our great High-priest, who, like Samuel and Moses, is on the mountain praying, while we fight in the plain.
II. We have next the victory on the field of the former defeat. The battle is joined on the old ground. Strategic considerations probably determined the choice as they did in the case of the many battles on the plain of Esdraelon, for instance, or on the fields of the Netherlands. Probably the armies met on some piece of level ground in one of the wadies, up which the Philistines marched to the attack. At all events, there they were, face to face once more on the old spot. On both sides might be men who had been in the former engagement. Depressing remembrances or burning eagerness to wipe out the shame would stir in those on the one side; contemptuous remembrance of the ease with which the last victory had been won would animate the other. God Himself helped them by the thunderstorm, the solemn roll of which was ‘the voice of the Lord’ answering Samuel’s prayer. The ark had brought only defeat to the impure host; the sacrifice brings victory to the penitent army. Observe that the defeat is accomplished before ‘the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh.’ God scattered the enemy, and Israel had only to pursue flying foes, as they hurried in wild confusion down the pass, with the lightning flashing behind them. The same pregnant expression is used for the rout of the Philistines as for the previous one of Israel. ‘They were smitten before ,’ not by , the victors. The true victor was God.
The story gives boundless hope of victory, even on the fields of our former defeats. We can master rooted faults of character, and overcome temptations which have often conquered us. Let no man say: ‘Ah! I have been beaten so often that I may as well give up the fight altogether. Years and years I have been a slave, and everywhere I tread on old battlefields, where I have come off second-best. It will never be different. I may as well cease struggling.’ However obstinate the fault, however often it has re-established its dominion and dragged us back to slavery, when we thought that we had made good our escape,- that is no reason to ‘bate one jot of heart or hope.’ We have every reason to hope bravely and boundlessly in the possibility of victory. True, we should rightly despair if we had only our own powers to depend on. But the grounds of our confidence lie in the inexhaustible fulness of God’s Spirit, and the certain purpose of His will that we should be purified from all iniquity, as well as in the proved tendency of the principles and motives of the gospel to produce characters of perfect goodness, and, above all, in the sacrifice and intercession of our Captain on high. Since we have Christ to dwell in us, and be the seed of a new life, which will unfold into the likeness of that life from which it has sprung; since we have a perfect Example in Him who became like us in lowliness of flesh, that we might become like Him in purity of spirit; since we have a gospel which enjoins and supplies the mightiest motives for complete obedience; and since the most rooted and inveterate evils are no part of ourselves, but ‘vipers’ which may be ‘shaken from the hand’ into which they have struck their fangs, we commit faithless treason against God, His message, and ourselves, when we doubt that we shall overcome all our sins. We should not, then, go into the fight downhearted, with our banners drooping, as if defeat sat on them. The belief that we shall conquer has much to do with victory. That is true in all sorts of conflicts. So, though the whole field may be strewed with relics, eloquent of former disgrace, we may renew the struggle with confidence that the future will not always copy the past. We ‘are saved by hope’; by hope we are made strong. It is the very helmet on our heads. The warfare with our own evils should be waged in the assurance that every field of our defeat shall one day see set up on it the trophy of, not our victory, but God’s in us.
III. We have here the grateful commemoration of victory. Where that gray stone stands no man knows to-day, but its name lives for ever. This trophy bore no vaunts of leader’s skill or soldier’s bravery. One name only is associated with it. It is ‘the stone of help,’ and its message to succeeding generations is: ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.’ That Hitherto’ is the word of a mighty faith. It includes as parts of one whole the disaster no less than the victory. The Lord was helping Israel no less by sorrow and oppression than by joy and deliverance. The defeat which guided them back to Him was tender kindness and precious help. He helps us by griefs and losses, by disappointments and defeats; for whatever brings us closer to Him, and makes us feel that all our bliss and wellbeing lie in knowing and loving Him, is helpful beyond all other aid, and strength-giving above all other gifts.
Such remembrance has in it a half-uttered prayer and hope for the future. ‘Hitherto’ means more than it says. It looks forward as well as backward, and sees the future in the past. Memory passes into hope, and the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God’s ‘hitherto’ carries ‘henceforward’ wrapped up in it. His past reveals the eternal principles which will mould His future acts. He has helped, therefore he will help, is no good argument concerning men; but it is valid concerning God.
The devout man’s ‘gratitude’ is, and ought to be, ‘a lively sense of favours to come.’ We should never doubt but that, as good John Newton puts it, in words which bid fair to last longer than Samuel’s gray stone:-
‘Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.’
The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment the divine help which has filled our lives. Like some track on a mountain side, it is less discernible to us, when treading it, than when we look at it from the other side of the glen. Many parts of our lives, that seemed unmarked by any consciousness of God’s help while they were present, flash up into clearness when seen through the revealing light of memory, and gleam purple in it, while they looked but bare rocks as long as we were stumbling among them. It is blessed to remember, and to see everywhere God’s help. We do not remember aright unless we do. The stone that commemorates our lives should bear no name but one, and this should be all that is read upon it: ‘Now unto Him that kept us from falling, unto Him be glory!’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
men. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14. the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Abinadab. Some codices, with one early printed edition, Aramaean, Septuagint, and Syriac, add “which is”. in the hill. Or, in Gibeah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 7
And so the men of Kirjathjearim came, and they took the ark of the Lord; and they brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill, and sanctified Eleazar the son to keep the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, while the ark was there at Kirjathjearim, it was there for a long time; for twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. And Samuel spake to all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth [Now Ashtaroth was the goddess of sexual love, and the fertility goddess, and they were, the children of Israel worshiping Ashtaroth, and he said, “Put away the gods and Ashtaroth,”] from among you, and prepare your hearts to the Lord, serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the children of Israel put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And so they gathered together at Mizpeh, and they drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and he fasted on that day, and said, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh. Now when the Philistines heard that they had gathered to Mizpeh, they set up the army against them. And the children of Israel were afraid of the Philistines. And they said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a suckling lamb, and offered it as a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. [Now Samuel beginning to exercise his ministry of intercessory prayer.] And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day on the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came to Bethcar. And then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us ( 1Sa 7:1-12 ).
The Ebenezer stone. The word means “the stone of help”. Now we sing the song, “Come the fount of every blessing to my heart to sing thy praise. Streams of mercy never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.” Second verse, “Here I raise mine Ebenezer”, and you’ve probably been singing that all your life. What in the world are you raising? “Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help that comes.” Actually, it’s a stone of memorial, it’s a memory kind of a stone. Here I set the stone. God has helped me thus far. God has brought me this far along.
Now actually that’s something we can set up every day. You set up Ebenezer, “Well, God brought me this far.” Now in that there is always encouragement and hope. For God brought me this far not to dump me. If He wanted to dump me, He would’ve dumped me a long time ago. Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. The help of the Lord in the past is a prophecy of the help of the Lord in the future. The fact that God has helped me up to this point, gives me assurance He’s gonna see me all the way. For the Lord will complete that which concerns you, having begun a good work in your life, He is going to finish it, He’s going to complete it. So it is healthy sometimes to set up that memorial “Well God has brought me this far, surely He’s not gonna leave me now. He’s not gonna forsake me now. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
So this was the beginning of the turn of the tide against the Philistines. Up to this point the Philistines had been beating them at every turn, every battle. Now this is the first turn of the tide against the Philistines, and as they came out he set up that stone, he said, “All right the Lord has helped us this far.” The first of the beginning of God’s work in bringing them victory over their enemies.
So as God brings victories in your lives, set up your Ebenezer stone, “Well, praise the Lord He helped me this far.” Stones that mark the places of victory and God’s work in my life.
So the Philistines were subdued, they came no more into the coast of Israel: during all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored, from Ekron even to Gath; there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged all the days of his life, judged Israel. And then he went from year to year in a circuit [So he was sort of a circuit prophet.] and he would go from Bethel, to Gilgal, to Mizpeh, and then return to his home in Ramah ( 1Sa 7:13-17 );
Which is the modern city of Ram Allah just north of Israel.
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The Ark found its resting place temporarily at Gibeah, in the house of Abinadab. A dark period of twenty years is passed over without detailed record. It would seem that during all that time Israel was under Philistine rule, without any definite center of worship; for while the Ark was resting in the house of an individual, the Tabernacle was in all probability dismantled.
During this period Samuel was advancing from youth to manhood and approaching the hour of his leadership. This period was ushered in by the people’s lamentation after God. Of this Samuel took advantage, calling them to return to Him and put away all strange gods.
They obeyed, and then were summoned to Mizpah. Here, by a direct divine intervention, the power of Philistia was broken, and her cities restored to Israel. Here Samuel erected an altar and called it Ebenezer.
This was a great word uttered in the hearing of the people, “Hitherto hath Jehovah helped us.” The “hitherto” included all through which they had passed, not the victories only, but the discipline and the suffering also. This man of clear vision recognized both the fact of the divine government and its beneficent method. Jehovah had helped them through chastisement to sorrow for sin, and through such lamentation to freedom from oppression.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Rashness Punished; Reverence Blessed
1Sa 6:13-21; 1Sa 7:1-4
The new cart, with its precious burden, must have come upon the men of Beth-shemesh like an apparition. The Ark was welcomed by them, after its seven months of absence, with great joy. But privilege entails responsibility; and their wanton curiosity and irreverence could not be permitted. Reverence for God Himself demanded the most careful behavior toward the Ark of His Presence, and when this was lacking, swift judgment ensued. See Num 1:50-51; Num 4:5; Num 4:16-30.
It is interesting to notice that when the Israelites were weaned from the Ark, their hearts lamented after the Lord, 1Sa 7:2. We cannot be permanently happy without God. Seasons of apathy and irreligion will sooner or later be succeeded by faith and love, as the frost of winter yields to the touch of spring. In this case, the revival was due to the patient labor of Samuel, and he did splendid service in urging the people to deal drastically with the idols of Canaan, which had cut them off from God as clouds hide the sun.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Kirjathjearim: 1Sa 6:21, Jos 18:14, 2Sa 6:2, 1Ch 13:5, 1Ch 13:6, Psa 132:6
Abinadab: 2Sa 6:3, 2Sa 6:4, 1Ch 13:7, Isa 52:11
Reciprocal: Jos 9:17 – Kirjathjearim Jos 15:60 – Kirjathbaal Jdg 18:12 – Kirjathjearim 1Sa 14:18 – For the ark 1Ch 2:50 – Kirjathjearim 1Ch 13:3 – the ark Psa 78:67 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
The Ark with Abinadab
1Sa 7:1-17
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We cover a period of twenty years, in which the Ark was in the care of the House of Abinadab, under the charge of his son, Eleazar.
We wish to emphasize just one thing: The sanctifying of Eleazar to keep the Ark.
1. The fuller meaning of the word “sanctified.” The Philistines had suffered at the hands of the Ark, because they were defiled with iniquity. For this cause the Ark meant disaster, and not blessing. The same Lord who is blessing to the righteous, is cursing to the unrighteous. For this cause the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men.
If Eleazar was to “keep” the Ark, he had to be cleansed from all iniquity. Even so it is today. “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord,” is as applicable to us as it was to Eleazar. In the Second Epistle to Timothy we read of being “sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” How can unclean hands hold clean and holy things?
The word “sanctified,” however, means more than “cleansing.” It also means “separated.” To be used for the Master we must be separated from things of this world. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, * * and I will receive you.” Those who would serve the Lord must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.
The word “sanctified” has a third meaning; it means “dedication.” To be “sanctified” is not only to be clean and to be separated; it is to be wholly His. It is a life placed on the altar of service, obedient to His will. Thus was Eleazar sanctified.
2. The fuller meaning of the word “keep.” Eleazar was sanctified that he might keep the Ark of the Lord. What a hallowed and sacred trust became his; what a blessed service.
God had given to Eleazar a holy trust. Something worth more than life had been put into his charge. He was responsible for the safety of the Ark of the Lord. He was to keep that which was given to his charge.
A similar trust has been committed unto us. The words, even now, are sounding in our ears: “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust.” And what was committed to Timothy? It was the Word of the Gospel which he preached. No wonder the Apostle was so solemn in his charge, as he said: “I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the Appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
No wonder the Apostle urged Timothy to avoid profane and vain babblings, and the oppositions of science falsely so called.
To Eleazar it was given to keep the Ark of the Lord. To us it is given to keep the Word of the Lord. What a sacred trust, then, is ours. We are to give ourselves wholly to these things. We are to prove ourselves good ministers of Christ, nourished up m the words of the faith and of good doctrine.
Our charge is to hold the faith, and to war a good warfare. Some have made shipwreck of the faith, but we, like Timothy, are urged to continue in all things which we have learned, even in the Holy Scriptures which are given by inspiration of God.
I. LAMENTING AFTER GOD (1Sa 7:2)
1. Turning their eyes Godward. Israel had wandered away from the Lord. For this cause God had smitten her with defeat at the hands of the Philistines. For this cause, also, the Ark had been taken by the enemy. That was a great blow to the House of the Lord. The fact that God seemed to have left them, made them awake to a sense of their own wanderings. Their sins were lying heavily upon them. When the Ark, however, was brought back, they rejoiced to see it. Somehow or other, they felt more secure when they knew that God was with them. Thus it was that they once more turned their eyes toward Him.
2. Lamenting after the Lord. We need not alone to seek the Lord but to seek Him with tears of confession and repentance. If we come with our hands stained with blood and with iniquity, the Lord cannot hear us. It is vain to seek Him, unless we lament after Him. It is only the hungry heart that finds Him. Then shall ye find the Lord when ye seek after Him “with all your heart.” David found mercy only when his prayer breathed the yearnings of his broken spirit. Had Israel merely turned toward the Lord, without any sense of her sin, and without consequential lamentations, she had never found Him.
The Pharisee who sought the Lord, boasting his goodness, failed to find audience with Him. The publican who beat upon his breast and pleaded himself a sinner, found mercy.
II. CONDITIONS OF BLESSING (1Sa 7:3)
It is remarkable to us how closely God’s words to Israel, through Samuel, coincide with His words to us. Three things were presented to Israel as conditions upon which the Lord would bless them.
1. They were commanded to put away their strange gods. Here is something very vital to us. We cannot come to God unless we first forsake our evil ways and our evil thoughts. Repentance has a very vital place in the lives of those saints who would seek a blessing from Heaven. It is impossible for us to carry into the new life the raiment of the old. We must, the rather, put off the old man with the lusts thereof, before we can expect to put on the new man.
2. They were commanded to turn to the Lord with all their heart. No halfhearted affair was sufficient. Remember God searcheth the heart. He does not care for outward appearances, no matter how religious they may seem. He wants genuineness, a deep-seated, deep-rooted cleansing and affection; He wants the heart. Have you not read: “My son, give Me thine heart”? Christ said if ye forgive not from your heart your enemies, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you.
Christianity is not to be worn as our raiment is worn, on the outside. It is to be the very inner springs of our being.
3. They were commanded to serve Him only. We remember how it was written, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Araorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
This is a solemn matter. In these days of philosophical folly, many are seeking to serve a god that their fathers never knew; some are seeking to serve the god of the modernist, and denying the only Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; others are seeking to serve the god of mammon, bowing down before worldly pleasures, and divers lusts.
Here ye the Word of our Lord: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Mat 6:24).
III. THE WAY OF APPROACH TO GOD (1Sa 7:4-6)
The time had come, at last, when Samuel saw that the Children of Israel were ready to come into the presence of the Holy One.
1. They had obeyed the voice of the Lord and put away Baalim and Ashtaroth; they had also fulfilled the command, and had learned to serve the Lord only.
Prayer is the approach of the heart to God. The basis of that approach is, therefore, the basis of acceptable prayer. There is a little verse that says: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” When anybody seeks to come into the presence of God with unclean hands or hearts, the Lord will not hear him. Our God is a Holy God, and His presence chamber is not open to the unholy.
In the day of Israel’s backsliding, the Lord said: “When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts?” Then He added: “When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.”
Would we, therefore, seek to enter into the presence of God? Then we must be washed and made clean. We must put away the evil of our doings.
2. The time for prayer had come. Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.” How blessed it is when we find the way of access is open to us, and we can come to the Lord in prayer. If there are any young people who feel, when they pray, that there is an impregnable wall between them and the Lord, let them remember this lesson; they must put away the evil from their own lives; they must prepare their hearts to serve Him only, and then, cleansed by the Blood of Christ and thus robed in Divine righteousness, they will find the way open through prayer to approach even into the Holy of Holies.
IV. A SEVERE TEST OF FAITH (1Sa 7:7-8)
1. Satan will always oppose those who seek to serve the Lord fully. It was when the Children of Israel had sought the face of God, having cleansed themselves from their idols, that the Philistines went up against them. Here is a lesson we need to learn. Let anyone seek to follow the Lord fully and obstacles will immediately arise. If the Children of Israel seek in obedience to go through the Red Sea, Pharaoh and his hosts will follow after them to destroy them.
The more we endeavor to serve God only, the more Satan will seek to shift us from our fidelity.
2. Israel had a needless fear. When the Children of Israel heard that the Philistines were coming up against them, they were sore afraid. They remembered the fearful beating they had received from their hands, not so long since. They knew the strength and the prowess of the enemy, and they were afraid.
Well they might have been afraid, had they not all left Baalim and Ashtaroth, and set themselves with all their hearts to serve the Lord. Now they needed not to fear. God will never forsake those who worthily trust in Him. We remember how Christ said: “It is I; be not afraid.” If God be with us and for us, who can be against us?
The wicked can never prevail against those who are hid with Christ in God. They are just as safe as He is safe. Their life is hidden away in His life; and because He lives, they shall live also.
3. Looking to the source of help. To Samuel Israel said: “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.” Israel knew they could not save themselves. They had come to the end of their own strength. Their trust was neither in horses nor horsemen. They sought unto the Lord. They asked for His salvation.
What a lesson all of this is to us. Let us live in the place of successful prayer, and we will live in the place of assured victory.
V. PRAYER AND SACRIFICE (1Sa 7:9-10)
1. Man’s only approach unto God. We have already discovered that God’s people must come in prayer before Him with clean hands and a pure heart. This, however, in no wise even suggests that there is any approach unto God apart from the Blood of Christ. God does demand even of those who come with a burnt offering, that they shall, in addition thereto, be clean. Not that we would add anything to the Cross of Christ by the way of atonement for sin. We do, however, insist that grace is no excuse for licentiousness; and the one who has been cleansed by the Blood of Christ should prove his trust by his life. If we plead the Blood and yet continue walking in our own will and way, it shows our trust in the Blood is more of a formality than a heart relationship.
2. Samuel offered a burnt offering, and then he cried unto the Lord. When we come before the Lord, let us always come through the Blood. Christ said, “No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” Even the best of us are not holy, even though we are not living in willful sin, and know of nothing that would condemn us. Yet we dare not say we have not sinned, neither dare we say we have no sin.
There was no entrance into the Holy Place apart from the blood. Neither was there entrance into the Holy of Holies apart from the blood. Cain tried to come to God without any offering of blood, but he was refused, and his offering stank in the nostrils of God.
3. We read that Samuel cried unto the Lord and the Lord heard him, God always hears when the conditions of true prayer are fully met. The Lord’s ear is not less ready to hear than His hand is to help. Thank God that we have One who does not shut Himself away from the needs of His people. He lives for those who love Him and who trust in Him.
VI. EBENEZER (1Sa 7:12)
1. A wonderful victory. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines. There is no possible defeat when Christians stand, as it were, with their hand upon the burnt offering. Even Baalim could not curse Israel, as he stood with his hand upon the offering.
There is a little verse in Revelation, where it says: “They overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.”
2. Giving God the glory. Samuel did not seek any glory because of Israel’s victory. He had done the praying, and he had sacrificed the burnt offering, yet he did not take even the least of praise. Let us be sure that we give God the glory, for, if it had not been for Him, our lives had known nothing but defeat. Our triumphs are His, our conquests are His. The truth is that to the Lord belongeth the victory.
Apart from Christ we can do nothing, but to him that believeth all things are possible.
3. Ebenezer. The word means “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” Hitherto; that is, up to this point, the Lord has been with us. What does this mean in our lives? It means that we should stop and count our blessings, that we may give praise to God. It means that we should, as it were, erect a stone of remembrance as a memorial of blessing received.
There is something else, however, very vital to us in the word Ebenezer. To me, it seems to say, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, and help us He will until our day is done. He who hath wrought, will work. Our past blessings may always remain as a basis in our plea for future blessings. God will not help us today, and leave us stranded tomorrow. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
VII. A PERIOD OF REST (1Sa 7:13-15)
1. The Philistines were subdued. Is it not possible for us to have the same victory over all the powers of darkness? Is not our Lord an ascended and seated Lord; and is not Satan and all the powers of the enemy under His feet? Why then should we not be overcomers?
The expression “the Philistines were subdued” should be ours each day of the year. If he is under Christ’s feet, let us put him under ours.
2. They came no more into the coast of Israel. As long as Samuel lived the Philistines let Israel alone. Is there not a place of continued victory? May we not have so conclusive and so overwhelming victory, through faith, and over the powers of darkness, that they through sheer discouragement will let us alone? This was, at least, the case in the days of Samuel.
3. Israel received back again all she had lost because of her sins. The very cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored, even from Ekron unto Gath.
Let us not think that the Israel of today which has been so stricken because of her sins shall never again have peace. The Arabs and the Jews are, at this very moment, contending over the land which God gave unto Israel. The Arabs hold that land the same as the Turks once held it, because Israel has sinned. When Israel, however, comes back to God, all of the land that was given to Abraham shall be restored unto God’s own people.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Abinadab discovered that the Ark of God was the river of blessing which Israel had lost.
In the White Mountain region is a place called the Lost River, which is much visited by tourists. It is a narrow ravine filled with gigantic rocks. The theory is that a small river once flowed here, but a great convulsion of the earth’s surface caused a landslide which buried the river. A brook tumbles in and out among the rocks, but this is not, so it is said, the original river. You get a trace of that in the Chamber of Silence.
The guide takes you down through many crevices, potholes, and caverns until you come to a cave where he bids you to be still and listen. At first you hear only the roar of a little cataract formed by the brook as it falls over the rocks near by. Soon, however, you become aware of a faint, silvery sound of dripping water, which conies up from depths far below your feet. That, the guide tells you, is the Lost River.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
PASSING OF THE JUDGESHIP
A NATIONAL REVIVAL AND ITS RESULTS (1 Samuel 7)
In our last we left the ark in care of the men of Kirjath-jearim, which means the city of woods, and is located near Bethshemesh and northwest of Jerusalem. Why the ark was not brought to Shiloh is not stated, but only that it remained in the city before-named twenty years. It would appear from 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13 that it remained there longer, but that period had elapsed when the event of this chapter began.
That event was a revival. Israel lamented after the Lord (1Sa 7:2), because they were suffering the consequences of His averted face, which included the oppression of the Philistines.
Samuel tells them how to find relief (1Sa 7:3). Ashtaroth was a goddess of the Sidonians, whose worship was popular in other lands, and which the Greeks and Romans knew by the name Astarte. The worship was licentiousness under the guise of religion. Baal and Ashtaroth are named together, and taken by some to represent the sun and the moon, and by others the male and female powers of reproduction. Asherah, translated in the King James Version grove, was really an idol-symbol of the goddess.
The people listened to Samuel and gathered to Mizpah (1Sa 7:6). This refers to a public meeting for the observance of religious ceremonies, including fasting and the pouring out of water before the Lord as a token of their need for purification. Samuel seems to begin his duties as a judge or civil magistrate at this time, having only exercised the office of prophet/teacher before.
The enemy is quick to discern danger, for a return of Israel to God means a return to power, and hence they spring upon them while unprepared (1Sa 7:7). But Samuels intercession is effective (1Sa 7:8-10), and Israel so follows up the advantage gained by the supernatural interposition that the Philistines never fully recover the blow all the days of Samuels judgeship.
Observe in 1Sa 7:16 that Samuel was a circuit judge. As later we read of schools of the prophets in the places named in that verse, some think that Samuel was the founder of them at this time.
THE DEMAND FOR A KING (1 Samuel 8)
This chapter presents no difficulties. Observe how history repeats itself in the case of Samuel and his sons as compared with his predecessor (1Sa 8:1-5). Samuels displeasure may have been in part personal, but chiefly because of the dishonor done to God and the injury that would be wrought by such a revolution to the people themselves (1Sa 8:6). God will grant them a king in His anger (1Sa 8:7-9, compare Hos 13:10-11), and tells them what kind of a ruler they will have (1Sa 8:9-18).
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
1Sa 7:1. The men of Kirjath-jearim fetched up the ark That is, by the priests appointed to that work. Into the house of Abinadab As the care of the ark belonged to the Levites, doubtless Abinadab was of that tribe, otherwise, indeed, he could not have consecrated, that is, set apart, or solemnly appointed his son to keep, or to attend it, and see that no rudeness was offered to it; to keep the place, where it was, clean, and to guard it that none might touch it but such as God had allowed so to do. In the hill This place they chose, both because it was a strong place, where it would be most safe; and a high place, and therefore visible at some distance, which was convenient for them, who were at that time to direct their prayers and faces toward the ark. And for the same reason David afterward placed it on the hill of Sion. If it be inquired why they did not carry the ark to Shiloh, its ancient seat; the answer is, that the Philistines had destroyed that place; and the tabernacle, upon the death of Eli, was removed from thence unto Nob; where it remained till the death of Samuel.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 7:1. Sanctified Eleazar, a levite, to keep the ark. Holy persons were consecrated by imposition of hands and by sacrifices, as was Samuel, a levite also. Abinadab seems to have been aged or dead. All the priests were purified anew, before they touched the holy vessels.
1Sa 7:2. Lamented after the Lord; for they had heard anew of the fame of his ark. But the first work of repentance is to put away our idols and our sins.
1Sa 7:3. Ashtaroth. See on Jdg 10:6. Jos 23:7.
1Sa 7:6. Water poured before the Lord, designates contrition of heart and purity of purpose.
1Sa 7:7. The Philistines. We read, Sir 46:18, that the Tyrians joined them against the Israelites. They had cause to execrate their error; for all that meddle with Zion, meddle with her to their hurt.
1Sa 7:9. Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it. This he did as a prophet immediately inspired of God. This Elijah did on mount Carmel when no priest was present.
1Sa 7:10. Thundered. See Jos 10:10. Jdg 4:15. Baldwin, when going to take Damascus, by a dreadful storm was driven back. The darkness, rain, and thunder were so tremendous as to induce him to own the hand of heaven. Gesta Dei, &c. p. 849, in Harmer, vol. 2.
1Sa 7:12. Samuel took a stoneand called the name of it EBEN-EZER; that is, the stone of help, when Israel had no other help. The most brilliant victories which heaven conferred on the Hebrews were not achieved by an arm of flesh.
1Sa 7:13. The Philistinescame no more into the coast of Israel, during Samuels life; proof sufficient that he wrote his own history.
1Sa 7:16. He went from year to year. Good and great men should not be localized. Daniel says, many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be encreased in the earth. Persons endowed with divine excellencies are national treasures. Altars were built in Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, as well as in Ramah. This verse was probably a marginal reading, which found its way into the text. See 1Sa 7:13.
REFLECTIONS.
Samuel, called of God to a divine work, had proceeded with it from youth to riper age; and in the course of twenty years, labouring without noise and ostentation, he had so far succeeded as to revive in the whole nation a love for the religion of their fathers. And no sooner did the people begin to reform their morals, and to cherish piety, than God began to remove their affliction, to prosper their affairs, and to enrich them with every covenant blessing. They gradually shook off every yoke, and under David made the Euphrates the boundary of their empire, as the Lord had promised. What a blessing is one man of God to a kingdom. He is the gift of heaven; and of more value than every other gift.
Samuel, to give effect to the good which had been done in the several cities of Israel, and to perfect the reformation, following the example of Moses and Joshua before their death, convened the people in Mizpeh, a central town, for the renewal of the national covenant with God. This was a wise and salutary measure; it bound them by oath to put away the strange gods which lurked among them; and it attached them to religion by a taste of its sweetness, and a discovery of its glory. After so solemn an act of devotion proceeding from the hearts of the people, the temporal and spiritual affairs of Israel had always succeeded well. What a proof of the faithfulness of God to his word; and what a basis of confidence to believers in all succeeding ages. Happy if christians could adopt some means of like nature to revive the spirit, and impress the nations with the glory of their religion.
The Philistines, hearing of this convocation, took the alarm, assembled in arms, and invaded the land; for guilt is always suspicious, and tyranny is always jealous. And mark how the Lord acted for his people. He suffered them to fear, he suffered them to cry for a moment; he suffered their faith to be exercised, whether he would be mindful of his word, having promised to defend the land while the people attended the national festivals. Then in anger he thundered from the heavens against the old and hard oppressor; then he appalled their soul with the fear and terror of his arm. Then the affrighted host fled in confusion; and the trembling Hebrews, venturing to pick up the weapons the enemy had cast away, pursued them to the fortress of Beth-car. Who said that God had forsaken his people? Who said that we must always trust in an arm of flesh, and not in the faithfulness of God? Here is a victory great in itself: and greater still as the pledge of Israels rise to unrivalled glory in the east.
We ought to make memorials of the mercies of the Lord. If twelve stones were taken out of Jordan because the Lord had affrighted the stream; if stones of covenant memorial were set up in Gilgal; Samuel, wisely conforming to the order of providence, set up his Ebenezer in Mizpeh; he resolved that this stone should swell the trophies of his God, and be a monument of national instruction to Israel. And how many Ebenezers may the christian church raise, when she considers the deliverances from pagan and christian Rome, whose chains were heavier than those of Philistia on Israel: and when she, glorious to consider, sees the many Samuels whom God has raised up in her own bosom. And how many Ebenezers may every experienced christian raise, when he considers the many deliverances God has wrought for his soul, and how often he has been saved in the hour of temptation, affliction and distress.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 6:1 to 1Sa 7:1. Ark Brought back to Beth-shemesh; Plague Breaks out there; Ark Housed at Kiriath-jearim.
1Sa 6:1 may not belong to the main story; 2 would be a better continuation of 1Sa 5:12. At the end of the verse LXX adds And their land swarmed with mice. This would prepare for the mice in 1Sa 6:4 f., 1Sa 6:11, 1Sa 6:18. Possibly these references to mice are survivals from a fuller form of the story, in which the mice figured more largely, or mice may have symbolised plague. One doubts whether it was known then that vermin carried the infection.
1Sa 6:2. diviners: qosem (see Deu 18:10).
1Sa 6:3. guilt-offering: asham, here not a sacrifice, but a compensation for injury; so also 2Ki 12:16; later on in the Priestly Code, a form of sacrifice (Lev 5:6).
1Sa 6:4. tumours: homoeopathic treatment; magic often seeks to control a person or thing by an image thereof. [This is especially the case with disease or loss. The sufferer takes to the sanctuary a figure of the diseased part of his body, fashioned of clay, bronze, or wax, and the peasant who has suffered a loss of cattle brings a representation of the animal. In the animistic stage of thought the image is thought to have a soul. Through its immanent psychical power it is to exercise magical coercion over the soul of the god. See Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology, pp. 438440.A. S. P.]
1Sa 6:6. wrought wonderfully among them: better made a mock of them (mg.).
1Sa 6:8 f. If the kine made straight for the nearest point of Israelite territory, it would show that they were under the control of the God of Israel and that it was His will that the Ark should be returned to its own country.
1Sa 6:8. coffer: The word so translated occurs only in this narrative and its meaning is not certain.
1Sa 6:9. Beth-shemesh: Jos 15:10, p. 31.
1Sa 6:14. There is no question of limiting sacrifice to the Tabernacle. The great stone may have been a sacred stone, or may have been used as an altar (1Sa 14:33-35).
1Sa 6:15. Editorial addition; later custom required that Levites should be present, both in connexion with the sacrifice, and as guardians of the Ark. The offering of further sacrifices seems out of place.
1Sa 6:16 continues 1Sa 6:14.
1Sa 6:17. Gaza: p. 28, Jdg 16:1*.Ashkelon: see p. 28.
1Sa 6:19. Read (mg.) with LXX, And the sons of Jeconiah did not rejoice with the men of Beth-shemesh when they saw the ark of the Lord, and he smote of them seventy men, and the people mourned, etc.
1Sa 6:20. Identifies the Ark with Yahweh. Holy here denotes terrible majesty, which brings disaster on those who do not show due reverence.
1Sa 6:21. Kiriath-jearim: see Jos 9:17.
1Sa 7:1. sanctified: performed certain rites, ablutions, etc., which would be thought necessary to qualify Eleazar to become the custodian or priest of the Ark, and to protect him from its baleful holiness.The Ark now disappears from the history till 2Sa 6:2, which see for its fortunes in the interval. Its presence in 1Sa 14:18 is due to a mistake of a scribe. Probably the sanctuary at Shiloh was destroyed at this time, and our documents contained a statement to that effect, which for some reason has been omitted (cf. Jer 7:12*).
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Men from Kirjath-jearim respond to the call to bring the ark there. It is not said how it was transported, nor whether it was Levites who attended it. We are not even told whether Abinadab, to whose house the ark was taken, was a Levite, though it would seem he must have been, since he sanctified his son to keep the ark. Whatever the case, however, it appears evident that there was a proper respect given the ark, for it remained there for twenty years with no mark of God’s displeasure. Not until David was reigning was its location changed (2Sa 6:1-11).
However, during this time, when God was virtually confined to a private location, Israel was in a lax, unprofitable state, allowing an admixture of idolatry along with a slight recognition of God. No doubt it was the working of the grace of God that awakened them to lament after the Lord, that is, to feel the fact of their having largely left the Lord out and allowed idols in. Samuel, the man of God, is ready for this occasion, though still a young man whose ministry was only half appreciated by Israel.
He tells Israel that if there is reality in their returning to the Lord, then let them put away the idols they had adopted and serve only the Lord. This had some real effect, for they did put away their strange gods, Baalim and Ashtaroth, and gave their allegiance to the Lord alone. At least, this was the public action they took and it gave occasion to Samuel to seek to deepen some work in the souls of the people. He calls for a gathering of the people at Mizpah, meaning “watchtower,” for in the past they had not watched, and found themselves under Philistine domination. Their gathering is in order that Samuel may appeal to the Lord publicly on their behalf.
They drew water and poured it out before the Lord. The significance of this is seen in 2Sa 14:14 : “We must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.” This was a confession before the Lord that their condition was such that they were helpless to recover themselves. Their fasting further speaks of their self-judgment, that is, refraining from satisfying their natural appetites. When there is reality in such exercise as this, God will work in pure grace on behalf of His people. It is not that these things have merit in themselves, but are rather a genuine confession of our deserving nothing from God. Then He works on behalf of those who have no power.
The Philistines, hearing of this gathering of Israel, are alarmed and militant. Satan always hates the thought of believers unitedly seeking the mercy of God, and will quickly raise opposition. Of course Israel had before suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Philistines (ch.4:10), and are frightened at the show of Philistine strength. It is now therefore with no bold self-confidence that they go to battle, but with the entreaty that Samuel will not cease to pray to God for them. This spirit of humiliation and of dependence on God will not fail to bring God’s intervention. However, Samuel does not only pray, but offers a young lamb as a whole burnt offering to God. Of course this typifies the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, which is the only basis on which we are given any title to blessing from God.
Under law it was not the work of Levites to offer sacrifice, but of the priests. But the priesthood having badly failed, God in this unusual way both exposed the shame of the priests and provided for Israel’s needed help. Later Saul forced himself and offered a burnt offering because Samuel had not come to him as quickly as he wanted (ch.13:9-14), but this was an act of fleshly impatience, not God’s leading, and Samuel told him that for this reason his kingdom would not continue.
The Philistines came to the attack as Samuel was offering the lamb. If the enemy attacks us at a time when we are consciously dependent on the precious sacrifice of Christ, there will be no doubt of his defeat. It was not Israel’s strength that gained the victory that day, but God’s intervention by thundering with a great thunder upon the Philistines. One can imagine how sudden, tremendous peals of thunder, very close at hand, would send chills of fear into the hearts of brave men. This of course frustrated them and spread confusion in their ranks, so that Israel had no difficulty in gaining a decisive victory.
After God’s victory over the Philistines on behalf of Israel, Samuel was careful to keep Israel from gloating over such a victory, for when all is done he set up a memorial stone, calling it Eben-ezer, “the stone of help,” that they might not forget that the triumph was gained only through the help of the Lord. While their attitude was thankful, it was also subdued in the recognition “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” As to the future, they must remember that they could expect His help only as they honestly recognized His authority and depended on His mercy.
The Philistines, having been repulsed, are not so anxious again to take the offensive against Israel, and God’s hand was manifestly for Israel against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. How much power there is in one man’s genuine intercession! “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jam 5:16). This is a precious type of the mediatorship of the Lord Jesus. They were able also to reclaim those areas that the Philistines had taken from them before, from Ekron to Gath. Both of these were border cities, which made them an object of contention, but they were really Israel’s. Philistines continued to live in them, though tributary to Israel, much as is the case with the Gaza strip now in 1990. Also mentioned is the fact of peace between Israel and the Amorites. These were highland dwellers in Israel who had been put under tribute, not being expelled from the land. Samuel’s intercession was evidently effective in this case also, to preserve peace.
All his life from youth he remained the judge of Israel. For his consistent, plodding faith and faithfulness he stands out among all the characters of scripture. He had adopted a general plan of travel that holds helpful spiritual significance for us. Each year he went in a circuit, first to Beth-el, meaning “the house of God.” God’s house that is, God’s interests in connection with His people, we should rightly expect to be given the first place. Today God’s house is composed of all believers, and care for them and fellowship with them is vitally important if we are to prosper spiritually.
Gilgal was his next stop. This is a negative complement of the positive truth of the house of God. Gilgal means “rolling away,” significant of God’s rolling away Israel’s reproach in their coming out of Egypt into Canaan, by means of circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh (Jos 5:2-8). This therefore involves serious self-judgment, the self-discipline that is always necessary if we are to preserve godly unity among saints in the assembly of God.
Mizpah followed this. We have seen that its meaning is “watchtower.” Though we may have learned self-discipline in some good degree, yet the enemy is cunning enough to attack if we are not on guard: watching against his wiles is a vital element of true Christian life (See 1Co 16:13).
Finally, his return was to Ramah, meaning “height,” where was his proper dwelling, as it should be for us too, for it speaks of our position “in Christ” far above the level of earth, as seated “in the heavenlies” (Eph 2:6), our true sphere of life and blessing. Typically, Samuel was making true practically for himself the reality of what was true doctrinally. May we be more like him in this regard. There he built an altar to the Lord, the symbol of a vital relationship to God based on the value of Christ’s sacrifice.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
7:1 And the men of {a} Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
(a) A city in the tribe of Judah, called also Kirjathbaal, in Jos 15:60.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
CHAPTER VIII.
REPENTANCE AND REVIVAL.
1Sa 7:1-9.
WITH the men of Bethshemesh the presence of the ark had become the same terror as it had been successively at Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. Instead of the savour of life to life, it had proved a savour of death to death. Instead of a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, it had become a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. They sent therefore to their neighbours at Kirjath-jearim, and begged them to come down and remove the ark. This they readily did. More timid men might have said, The ark has brought nothing but disaster in its train; we will have nothing to do with it. There was faith and loyalty to God shown in their readiness to give accommodation to it within their bounds. Deeming a high place to be the kind of situation where it should rest, they selected the house of Abinadab in the hill, he being probably a Levite. To keep the ark they set apart his son Eleazar, whose name seems to indicate that he was of the house of Aaron. They seem to have done all they could, and with due regard to the requirements of the law, for the custody of the sacred symbol. But Kirjath-jearim was not turned into the seat of the national worship. There is no word of sacrificial or other services being performed there. There is nothing to indicate that the annual feasts were held at this place. The ark had a resting-place there – nothing more.
And this lasted for twenty years. It was a long and dreary time. A rude shock had been given to the sacred customs of the people, and the comely order of the Divine service among them. The ark and the other sacred vessels were separated from each other. If, as seems likely (1Sa 21:1-15), the daily offerings and other sacred services ordained by Moses were offered at this time at Nob, a sense of imperfection could not but belong to them, for the ark of the covenant was not there. Incompleteness would attach to any public rites that might now be celebrated. The service of Baal and Ashtaroth would have a less powerful rival than when the service of Jehovah was conducted in all due form and regularity at Shiloh. During these years the nation seems to have been somewhat listless on the subject, and to have made no effort to remove the ark to a men suitable place. Kirjath-jearim was not in the centre, but on the very edge of the country, looking down into the territory of the Philistines, not far from the very cities where the ark had been in captivity, a constant reminder to the Israelites of its degradation. That Samuel was profoundly concerned about all this we cannot doubt. But he seems to have made no effort to remedy it, most probably because he knew it to be God’s order first to make the people sensible of their wickedness, and only thereafter to restore to them free access to Himself.
What then was Samuel doing during the twenty years that the ark was at Kirjath-jearim? We can answer that question only conjecturally, only from what we know of his general character. It cannot be doubted that in some way or other he was trying to make the nation sensible of their sins against God; to show them that it was to these sins that their subjection to the Philistines was due; and to urge them to abandon their idolatrous practices if they desired a return to independence and peace. Perhaps he began at this period to move about from place to place, urging those views, as he moved about afterwards when he held the office of Judge (1Sa 7:16). And perhaps he was laying the foundations of those schools of the prophets that afterwards were associated with his name. Whenever he found young men disposed to his views he would doubtless cultivate their acquaintance, and urge them to steadfastness and progress in the way of the Lord. There is nothing said to indicate that Samuel was connected with the priestly establishment at Nob.
There are two great services for God and for Israel in which we find Samuel engaged in the first nine verses of this chapter 1. In exhorting and directing them with a view to bring them into a right state before God. 2. This being accomplished, in praying for them in their time of trouble, and obtaining Divine help when the Philistines drew near in battle.
1. In the course of time the people appear to have come to feel how sad and desolate their national life was without any tokens of God’s presence and grace. “All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” The expression is a peculiar one, and some critics, not understanding its spiritual import, have proposed to give it a different meaning. But for this there is no cause. It seems to denote that the people, missing God, under the severe oppression of the Philistines, had begun to grieve over the sins that had driven Him away, and to long after Him, to long for His return. These symptoms of repentance, however, had not shown themselves in a very definite or practical form. Samuel was not satisfied with the amount of earnestness evinced as yet. He must have more decided evidence of sincerity and repentance. He insisted on it that they must “put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among them, and prepare their hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only.”
Now the putting away of the strange gods and Ashtaroth was a harder condition than we at first should suppose. Some are inclined to fancy that it was a mere senseless and ridiculous obstinacy that drew the Israelites so much to the worship of the idolatrous gods of their neighbours. In reality the temptation was of a much more subtle kind. Their religious worship as prescribed by Moses had little to attract the natural feelings of the human heart. It was simple, it was severe, it was self-denying. The worship of the pagan nations was more lively and attractive. Fashionable entertainments and free-and-easy revelries were superadded to please the carnal mind. Between Hebrew and heathen worship, there was something of the contrast that you find between the severe simplicity of a Puritan meeting and the gorgeous and fashionable splendour of a great Romish ceremonial. To put away Baalim and Ashtaroth was to abjure what was fashion- able and agreeable, and fall back on what was unattractive and sombre. Was it not, too, an illiberal demand? Was it not a sign of narrowness to be so exclusively devoted to their own religion that they could view that of their neighbours with no sort of pleasure? Why not acknowledge that in other religions there was an element of good, that the services in them were the expression of a profound religious sentiment, and were therefore entitled to a measure of praise and approval? It is very certain that with this favourite view of modern liberalism neither Samuel nor any of the prophets had the slightest sympathy. No, If the people were in earnest now, they must show it by putting away every image and every object and ornament that was connected with the worship of other gods. Jehovah would have their homage on no other terms. If they chose to divide it between Him and other gods, they might call on them for help and blessing; for it was most certain that the God of Israel would receive no worship that was not rendered to Him alone.
But the people were in earnest; and this first demand of Samuel was complied with. We are to remember that the people of Israel, in their typical significance, stand for those who are by grace in covenant with God, and that their times of degeneracy represent, in the case of Christians, seasons of spiritual backsliding, when the things of this world are too keenly sought, when the fellowship of the world is habitually resorted to, when the soul loses its spiritual appetite, and religious services become formal and cold. Does there begin to dawn on such a soul a sense of spiritual poverty and loneliness? Does the spirit of the hymn begin to breathe from it —
“Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet Messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast”
Then the first steps towards revival and communion must be the forsaking of these sins, and of ways of life that prepare the way for them. The sorrow for sin that is working in the conscience is the work of the Holy Ghost; and if the Holy Ghost be resisted in this His first operation – if the sins, or ways toward sin, against which He has given His warning be persisted in, the Spirit is grieved and His work is stopped. The Spirit calls us to set our hearts against these sins, and “prepare them unto the Lord.”
Let us mark carefully this last expression. It is not enough that in church, or at some meeting, or in our closet, we experience a painful conviction how much we have offended God, and a desire not to offend Him in like manner any more. We must “prepare our hearts” for this end. We must remember that in the world with which we mingle we are exposed to many influences that remove God from our thoughts, that stimulate our infirmities, that give force to temptation, that lessen our power of resistance, that tend to draw us back into our old sins. One who has a tendency to intemperance may have a sincere conviction that his acts of drunkenness have displeased God, and a sincere wish never to be drunk again. But besides this he must “prepare his heart” against his sin. He must resolve to turn away from everything that leads to drinking, that gives strength to the temptation, that weakens his power of resistance, that draws him, as it were, within the vortex. He must fortify himself, by joining a society or otherwise, against the insidious approaches of the vice. And in regard to all that displeases God he must order his fife so that it shall be abandoned, it shall be parted with forever. You may say this is asking him to do more than he can do. No doubt it is. But is not the Holy Spirit working in him? Is it not the Holy Spirit that is urging him to do these things? Whoever is urged by the Holy Spirit may surely rely on the power of the Spirit when he endeavours to comply with His suggestions. When God works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure, we may surely work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
Having found the people so far obedient to his requirements, Samuel’s next step was to call an assembly of all Israel to Mizpeh. He desired to unite all who were like-minded in a purpose of repentance and reformation, and to rouse them to a higher pitch of intensity by contact with a great multitude animated by the same spirit. When the assembly met, it was in a most proper spirit. They began the proceedings by drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord, and by fasting. These two acts being joined in the narrative, it is probable they were acts of the same character. Now as fasting was evidently an expression of contrition, so the pouring out of the water must have been so too. It is necessary to remark this, because an expression not unlike to our text, in Isa 12:1-6, denotes an act of a joyful character, “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” But what was done on this occasion was to draw water and pour it out before the Lord. And this seems to have been done as a symbol of pouring out before God confessions of sin drawn from the depths of the heart. What they said in connection with these acts was, “We have sinned against the Lord.” They were no longer in the mood in which the Psalmist was when he kept silence, and his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day. They were in the mood into which he came when he said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” They humbled themselves before God in deep convictions of their unworthiness, and being thus emptied of self they were in a better state to receive the gracious visitation of love and mercy.
It is important to mark the stress which is laid here on the public assembly of the people. Some might say would it not have answered the same end if the people had humbled themselves apart – the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart, every family apart, and their wives apart, as in the great mourning of Zechariah (Zec 12:12-14)? We answer, the one way did not exclude the other; we do not need to ask which is best, for both are best. But when Samuel convened the people to a public assembly, he evidently did it on the principle on which in the New Testament we are required not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. It is in order that the presence of people like-minded, and with the same earnest feelings and purposes, may have a rousing and warming influence upon us. No doubt there are other purposes connected with public worship. We need constant instruction and constant reminding of the will of God. But the public assembly and the social prayer-meeting are intended to have another effect. They are intended to increase our spiritual earnestness by the sight and presence of so many persons in earnest. Alas! what a difference there often is between the ideal and the real. Those cold and passionless meetings that our churches and halls often present – how little are they fitted, by the earnestness and warmth of their tone, to give those who attend them a great impulse heavenward! Never let us be satisfied with our public religious services until they are manifestly adapted to this great end.
Thus did Samuel seek to promote repentance and revival among his people, and to prepare the way for a return of God’s favour. And it is in this very way that if we would have a revival of earnest religion, we must set about obtaining it.
2. The next scene in the panorama of the text is – the Philistines invading Israel. Here Samuel’s service is that of an intercessor, praying for his people, and obtaining God’s blessing. It is to be observed that the alleged occasion for this event is said to have been the meeting held at Mizpeh. “When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.” Was not this most strange and distressing? The blessed assembly which Samuel had convened only gives occasion for a new Philistine invasion! Trying to do his people good, Samuel would appear only to have done them harm. With the assembly at Mizpeh, called as it was for spiritual ends, the Philistines could have no real cause for complaint. Either they mistook its purpose and thought it a meeting to devise measures to throw off their yoke, or they had an instinctive apprehension that the spirit which the people of Israel were now showing would be accompanied by some remarkable interposition on their behalf. It is not rare for steps taken with the best of intentions to become for a time the occasion of a great increase of evil, – just as the remonstrances of Moses with Pharaoh led at first to the increase of the people’s burdens; or just as the coming of Christ into the world caused the massacre of the babes of Bethlehem. So here, the first public step taken by Samuel for the people’s welfare was the occasion of an alarming invasion by their cruel enemies. But God’s word on such occasions is, “Be still and know that I am God.” Such events are suffered only to stimulate faith and patience. They are not so very overwhelming events to those who know that God is with them, and that “none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.” Though the Israelites at this time were not far advanced in spiritual life, they betrayed no consternation when they heard of the invasion of the Philistines. They knew where their help was to be found, and recognizing Samuel as their mediator, they said to him, “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.”
With this request Samuel most readily complies. But first he offers a sucking lamb as a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, and only after this are we told that “Samuel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him.”
The lesson is supremely important. When sinners approach God to entreat His favour, it must be by the new and living way, sprinkled with atoning blood. All other ways of access will fail. How often has this been exemplified in the history of the Church I How many anxious sinners have sought unto God by other ways, but have been driven back, sometimes farther from Him than before. Luther humbles himself in the dust and implores God’s favour, and struggles with might and main to reform his heart; but Luther cannot find peace until he sees how it is in the righteousness of another he is to draw nigh and find the blessing, – in the righteousness of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Dr. Chalmers, profoundly impressed with the sinfulness of his past life, strives, with the energy of a giant, to attain conformity to the will of God; but he too is only tossed about in weary disappointment until he finds rest in the atoning mercy of God in Christ. We may be well assured that no sense of peace can come into the guilty soul till it accepts Jesus Christ as its Saviour in all the fullness of His saving power.
Another lesson comes to us from Samuel’s intercession. It is well to try to get God’s servants to pray for us. But little real progress can be made till we can pray for ourselves. Whoever really desires to enjoy God’s favour, be it for the first time after he has come to the sense of his sins; or be it at other times, after God’s face has been hid from him for a time through his backsliding, can never come as he ought to come without earnest prayer. For prayer is the great medium that God has appointed to us for communion with Himself. “Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” If there be any lesson written with a sunbeam alike in the Old Testament and in the New, it is that God is the Hearer of prayer. Only let us take heed to the quality and tone of our prayer. Before God can listen to it, it must be from the heart. To gabble over a form of prayer is not to pray. Saul of Tarsus had said many a prayer before his conversion; but after that for the first time it was said of him, ”Behold, he prayeth.” To pray is to ask an interview with God, and when we are alone with Him, to unburden our souls to Him. Those only who have learned to pray thus in secret can pray to any purpose in the public assembly. It is in this spirit, surely, that the highest gifts of Divine grace are to be sought. Emphatically it is in this way that we are to pray for our nation or for our Church. Let us come with large and glowing hearts when we come to pray for a whole community. Let us plead with God for Church and for nation in the very spirit of the prophet: “For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that bumeth.”