Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 12:1
And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
1. I have hearkened unto your voice ] Cp. 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 8:9 ; 1Sa 8:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Sa 12:1-5
And Samuel said unto all Israel.
A statesmans retrospect
The closing years in the life of Samuel, the last and greatest of the judges, witnessed a transition in the method of governing the nation of Israel from the theocracy to the monarchy. By the wise, unselfish action of Samuel, this transition, which might have involved grave national controversy and bloodshed, was peaceably made. Samuels work was, therefore, as a ruler, transferred to Saul; and though he continued for some years to exercise the functions of prophet, administrative duties passed into other hands. This address is a fine example of ancient Hebrew eloquence, and it manifestly appealed to the conscience and heart of the audience addressed. It touched upon three important points.
I. Vindication of personal character and administration. In his splendid review what facts emerged that should commend the retiring leader to the gratitude and appreciation of the nation he had sought to serve?
1. His loyalty to the national request for a king. We know how acutely he had felt his supersession of himself, and how he had directed his prayer to God in respect of it; but he had waived his own strong objection, and had dutifully assisted in the appointment of the divinely selected monarch.
2. His long and blameless life. High position magnifies every human quality, heightens every excellency, and blackens every blot of human character. But Samuels long career furnished no fault on which the most acute enquiry could fasten, no deviation from the right path that the sternest rectitude could condemn. What a magnificent challenge.
3. His upright administration. Samuel challenged the people on the question of his official life, as well as on his personal character. His public duties had been as free from exaction and oppression as his private life from moral taint. Nothing is more common, it is said, in Eastern lands, even down to this day, than oppression and exaction on the part of rulers and public men having charge of the government and taxation of the people.
II. Defence of Gods previous government of Israel. Note:–
1. The principle of this government. The theocracy, under which Israel had so long lived and prospered, meant the supreme and recognised sovereignty of God. By the test of experience, the test of practical results on the national life, the theocracy had its amplest vindication. Under it the nation had enjoyed signal prosperity.
2. The agency by which administered. This unique method of national government was carried on by specially selected rulers, appointed as the exigencies of the times demanded. God raised up men–great men–to meet emergencies of national life as they arose.
3. The law by which controlled. This law was the nations loyalty to God. When the nation was true to its best traditions, true to the faith and worship of the living God, true to the sublime morality of the Ten Commandments, Gods benediction rested upon them, and national prosperity followed. In this memorable address Samuel referred also to:–
III. The conditions of continued national prosperity.
1. Changed political conditions do not change moral or religious obligations. King or no king, Gods claim on the worship and service of Israel could not be abrogated or diminished. Amid all the changes of their national life, that was the one thing that was changeless. A new king on the throne, or a new form of government of the realm, did not and could not alter that. What is morally wrong cannot be politically right. What is wrong in England is wrong in India. If it is wrong to break the Sabbath at home, it is wrong to break it abroad. Christianity knows no geographical limits in the scope of its message, or the authority of its claims. Public opinion may change and vary, but it ought not, and must not, override the higher and more authoritative law of God.
2. Righteousness exalteth a nation. John Ruskin, in the opening paragraph of his Stones of Venice, tells us that Since the first dominion of men was asserted over the ocean, three thrones, of mark beyond all others, have been set upon its sands: the thrones of Tyre, Venice, and England. Of the first of these great powers only the memory remains; of the second, the ruin; the third, which inherits their greatness, if it forget their example, may be led through prouder eminence to less pitied destruction. No lesson is more urgently needed in our time than this. Vice means weakness and decay; virtue, devotion, humanity–these mean strength and permanence. The conditions of national prosperity, then, are clear and uniform. They are reverence for sacred things, obedience to the law of God in personal, social, and national affairs alike, consideration for others, and unselfish service to promote their interests and welfare. (Thomas Mitchell.)
Sauls confirmation in the kingship
After the great victory over the Ammonites at Jabesh-Gilead, Samuel said to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. The people were in a mood to listen to the advice. They were full of enthusiasm for Saul, and of gratitude to God on account of their splendid success. And Samuel wisely took advantage of the occasion to confirm the loyalty, not only of the people to the king, but also of the king and people to God.
1. After the feast, perhaps in the course of the afternoon, Samuel solemnly addressed the vast assembly. His aim, in the first part of his speech, was to show that they had nothing to justify their demand for a king in the character of his administration.
2. Samuels aim in the second part of his speech was to show that they had nothing to justify their demand for a king in the character of the Divine administration.
3. But, after convicting them of slighting God in asking for an earthly sovereign, Samuel now speaks to them about their present duty. (T. Kirk.)
Samuels vindication of himself
No doubt Samuel felt that, after the victory at Jabesh-Gilead, he had the people in a much more impressible condition than they had been in before; and while their minds were thus so open to impression, it was his duty to urge on them to the very uttermost the truths that bore on their most vital well-being. The reasons why Samuel makes such explicit reference to his past life and such a strong appeal to the people as to its blameless character is that he may establish a powerful claim for the favourable consideration of the advice which he is about to give them. If you have reason to suspect an adviser of a selfish purpose let him argue as he pleases, you do not allow yourselves to be moved by anything he may say. But if you have good cause to know that he is a disinterested man you feel that what such a man urges comes home to you with extraordinary weight.
1. The first consideration he urged was that he had listened to their voice in making them a king. He had not obstructed nor baulked them in their strong feeling, though he might reasonably enough have done so.
2. In the next place Samuel adverts to his age. What Samuel delicately points to here is the uniformity of his life. He had not begun on one line, then changed to another. Such steadiness and uniformity throughout a long life genders a wonderful weight of character. Happy the Church, happy the country, that abounds in such worthies!–men, as Thomas Carlyle said of his peasant Christian father, of whom one should be prouder in ones pedigree than of dukes or kings, for what is the glory of mere rank or accidental station compared to the glory of Godlike qualities, and of a character which reflects the image of God Himself?
3. The third point to which Samuel adverts is his freedom from all acts of unjust exaction or oppression, and from all those corrupt practices in the administration of justice which were so common in Eastern countries. Is there nothing here for us to ponder in these days of intense competition in business and questionable methods of securing gain? Surely the rule of unbending integrity, absolute honesty, and unswerving truth is as binding on the Christian merchant as it was on the Hebrew judge. No doubt Samuel was a poor man, though he might have been rich had he followed the example of heathen rulers. But who does not honour him in his poverty, with his incorruptible integrity and most scrupulous, truthfulness, as no man would or could have honoured him had he accumulated the wealth of a Cardinal Wolsey and lived in splendour rivalling royalty itself? It is right that we should very specially take note of the root of this remarkable integrity and truthfulness of his toward men. For we live in times when it is often alleged that religion and morality have no vital connection with each other, and that there may be found an independent morality altogether separate from religious profession. Let it be granted that this divorce from morality may be true of religions of an external character, where Divine service is supposed to consist of ritual observances and bodily attitudes and attendances, performed in strict accordance with a very rigid rule. Wherever such performances are looked on as the end of religion they may be utterly dissociated from morality, and one may be, at one and the same time, strictly religious and glaringly immoral. But wherever religion is spiritual and penetrating, wherever sin is seen in its true character, wherever men feel the curse and pollution of sin in their hearts and lives, another spirit rules. The will of God is a terrible rule of life to the natural man–a rule against which he rebels as unreasonable, impracticable, terrible. How then are men brought to pay supreme and constant regard to that will? How was Samuel brought to do this, and how are men led to do it now? In both cases, it is through the influence of gracious, Divine love. Samuel was a member of a nation that God had chosen as His own, that God had redeemed from bondage, that God dwelt among, protected, restored, guided, and blessed beyond all example. The heart of Samuel was moved by Gods goodness to the nation. More than that, Samuel personally had been the object of Gods redeeming love; and though the hundred-and-third Psalm was not yet written, he could doubtless say, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, etc. It is the same gracious, Divine action, the same experience of redeeming grace and mercy, that under the Christian dispensation draws mens hearts to the will of God; only a new light has been thrown on these Divine qualities by the Cross of Christ. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Samuel on his defence
The scene explains itself. In olden times, meetings of this kind were held in the open air. In earlier French history, the warriors used to meet in the month of May, and the king was carried round on a shield, to receive their homage. When our king Alfred divided the country into hundreds, he directed the heads of families to meet together at fixed seasons, the muster place being sometimes round a well-known tree, and there is in existence to this day such a tree, which gave its name to the hundred or wapen-take. And in the Isle of Man the farmers of the island meet once a year in the open air to transact business, to this very day. Israel in this chapter is met together in the same way. They are under a bright eastern sky, the young king stands before them–a fine figure to behold; perhaps the handsomest man of his time–and by his side stands an old man, hoary, and grey-headed. We must now leave all the rest, and think only of this grey-headed old man.
I. The public mans influence and temptations. Samuel spent about fifty years in a public life like this. Consider the influence he would necessarily acquire. If he has become known for being a sound thinker, competent to advise and willing to do so, men never mention his name without respect. They will go and ask him for opinions on matters that it seems almost impertinent to trouble him with. He seems only to live to assist others. Every house is open to him, and he carries many matters of importance without opposition. With such influence, consider what will be his temptations! If he has given a decision favourable to a man and that man, out of gratitude, sends him a handsome present, how tempting it will be to receive it. In going the round of his sessions he would probably receive hospitality from some of the richer men about; it would be his due. Now, suppose one of these richer men who had entertained him handsomely came into court, how tempting it would be to listen to him a little more favourably! What opportunities, too, he has to benefit his family. A man in such a position has sometimes disagreeable things to do. If he decides one way, he may make a powerful man his enemy. That enemy may annoy him much, may libel his character and torment him terribly. The temptation will then be to get rid of such a tormentor, by oppressing him and putting him down.
II. Fidelity to trust. We are all in some places of trust. No man lives for himself alone. It is a very great mistake for any man to suppose that he has no influence. Who is more respected by any right-minded man than an honourable servant of standing character? I dont know anyone more entitled to sympathy and kindness than those who have grown hoary and grey in service. Well, then, you that are men and women in the prime of life, whatever be your occupation, put this model before you, this speech of Samuels.
III. The joy of a pure conscience. Children and young people, in this life of Samuel there is nothing that you cannot do in your way. Say to yourselves every day as you begin, I am determined, God being my helper, to be so faithful in all that I do, that no man shall charge me with wronging him. You will fail sometimes, and be grieved at your failure. Yet be not discouraged, but persevere, and you may, if spared to be old and grey-headed, totter down the aisle of your church, or the streets of your village or town, with the consciousness of clean hands. There is no joy unmixed in this world. In his old age Samuel could have applied to himself the words of our great dramatist:–Tho I look old, Im lusty; For never in my youth did I woo the means of debility. Therefore mine age is as a lusty winter–Frosty, yet kindly. Let me be your servant. Ill do the service of a younger man. But no! the appeal had not its right effect. His countrymen were not grateful to him, as they ought to have been; they wanted this young king–something new–and the old man in his old age was to be forgotten. We must be prepared to be misunderstood–to find even a friend, who ought to know better, grow cool. But, firm in our upright course, we must fall back on the approbation of a pure conscience. A man need not skulk and hang his head if his conscience tells him that he has nothing to be ashamed of; rather will it whisper to him peace amidst the gloom that might dishearten him. (H. Hiley, D. D.)
Appointment of the first king in Israel
Israel was in the position of a boat which has been borne downs a swift stream into the very suction of the rapids. The best would be that she should be put back; but if it be too late for this, then the best is that there should be in her a strong arm and a steady eye to keep her head straight. And thus it was with Israel. She plunged down the fail madly, rashly, wickedly; but under Samuels control, steadily. This part of the chapter we arrange in two branches:–
I. Samuels conduct after the mortification of his own rejection. The people having accepted Saul as their king, had been dismissed, and Samuel was left alone, but his feelings were very different from those which he had in that other moment of solitude, when he had dismissed the delegates of the people. That struggle was past. He was now calm. The first moment was a terrible one. It was one of those periods in human life when the whole meaning of life is perplexed, its aims and hopes frustrated; when a man is down upon his face and gust after gust sweeps desolately over his spirit. Samuel was there to feel all the ideas that naturally suggest themselves in such hours–the instability of human affection–the nothingness of the highest earthly aims. But by degrees, two thoughts calmed him. The first was the feeling of identification with Gods cause. They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me. The other element of consolation was the Divine sympathy. If they had been rebellious to their ruler, they had also been disloyal to Jehovah. Atheism and revolution here, as elsewhere, went hand-in-hand. We do not know how this sentence was impressed by the Infinite Mind on Samuels mind; all we know is, he had a conviction that God was a fellow sufferer. The many-coloured phases of human feeling all find themselves reflected in the lights and shadows of ever-varying sensitiveness which the different sentences of His conversation exhibit. Be your tone of feeling what it may, whether you are poor or rich, gay or sad–in society or alone–adored, loved, betrayed, misunderstood, despised–weigh well His words first, by thinking what they mean, and you will become aware that one heart in space throbs in conscious harmony with yours. In its degree, that was Samuels support. Next, Samuels cheerful way of submitting to his fate is to be observed. Another prophet, when his prediction was nullified, built himself a booth and sat beneath it, fretting in sullen pride, to see the end of Nineveh. Samuel might have done this; he might have withdrawn himself in offended dignity from public life, watched the impotent attempts of the people to guide themselves, and seen dynasty after dynasty fall with secret pleasure. Very different is his conduct. He addresses himself like a man to the exigencies of the moment. Now remark in all this, the healthy, vigorous tone of Samuels religion. This man, the greatest and wisest then alive, thought this the great thing to live for–to establish a kingdom of God on earth–to transform his own country into a kingdom of God. It is worthwhile to see how he set about it. From first to last it was in a practical, real way–by activity in every department of life. Now he is deposed: but he has duties still. He has a king to look for, public festivals to superintend, a public feast to preside over; and later on we shall find him becoming the teacher of a school. All this was a religion for life. His spirituality was no fanciful, shadowy thing; the kingdom of God to him was to be in this world, and we know no surer sign of enfeebled religion than the disposition to separate religion from life and life duties. Listen: What is secularity or worldliness? Meddling with worldly things? or meddling with a worldly spirit? We brand political existence and thought with the name worldly–we stigmatise first one department of life and then another as secular; and so religion becomes a pale, unreal thing, which must end, if we are only true to our principles, in the cloister. Religion becomes feeble, and the world, deserted and proscribed, becomes infidel.
II. Samuels treatment of his successor, after his own rejection, is remarkable. It was characterised by two things–courtesy and generosity. When he saw the man who was to be his successor, he invited him to the entertainment. This is politeness; what we allude to is a very different thing, however, from that mere system of etiquette and conventionalisms in which small minds find their very being, to observe which accurately is life, and to transgress which is sin. Courtesy is not confined to the high bred; often theirs is but the artistic imitation of courtesy. The peasant who rises to put before you his only chair, while he sits upon the oaken chest, is a polite man. Motive determines everything. Something still more beautiful marks Samuels generosity. The man who stood before him was a Successful rival. One who had been his inferior now was to supersede him. And Samuel lends him a helping hand–gracefully assists him to rise above him, entertains him, recommends him to the people. It is very touching. Samuel and the people did the game thing–they made Saul king. But the people did it by drawing down Samuel nearer to themselves. Samuel did it by elevating Saul above himself. One was the spirit of revolution, the other was the spirit of the Gospel. In our own day it specially behoves us to try the spirits, whether they be of God. The reality and the counterfeit, as in this case, are singularly like each other. Three spirits make their voices heard, in a cry for Freedom, for Brotherhood, for human Equality. And we must not forget, these names are hallowed by the very Gospel itself. Unless we realise them we have no Gospel kingdom. Distinguish, however, well the reality from the baser alloy. The spirit, which longs for freedom puts forth a righteous claim; for it is written, If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Brotherhood–the Gospel promises brotherhood also–One is your master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. Equality–Yes. There is neither Jew nor Greek, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free. This is the grand Federation, Brotherhood, Emancipation of the human raze. Now the worlds spirit aims at bringing all this about by drawing others down to the level on which each one stands. The Christian spirit secures equality by raising up. The man that is less wise, less good than I–I am to raise up to my level in these things. Yes, and in social position too, if he be fit for it. I am to be glad to see him rise above me, as generously as Samuel saw Saul. And if we could but all work in this generous rivalry, our rent and bleeding country, sick at heart, gangrened with an exclusiveness, which narrows our sympathies and corrupts our hearts, might be all that the most patriotic love would have her. Once more there is suggested to us the thought that Samuel was now growing old. They might forget Samuel–they might crowd round his successor–but Samuels work could not be forgotten; years after he was quiet and silent, under ground, his courts in Bethel and Mizpeh would form the precedents and the germs of the national jurisprudence. A very pregnant lesson. Life passes, work is permanent. It is all going–fleeting and withering. Youth goes. Mind decays. That which is done remains. Deeds never die. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Samuel, seer and statesman
The character of Samuel itself is one which surely sets before us a type of that class of character which we can see in all departments of public life. Will you allow me to ask you to notice not merely the greatness of Samuel, but those causes which seem to have contributed to the formation of that character which lay at the back of his greatness? First, I may remind you how great Samuel was in the history of Israel. He has been called the second Moses, and not without reason.
I. The greatness of Samuel is seen in the three-fold aspect of his life. He was great as a judge in an era of considerable political confusion; he was great in that he founded, or was considered to have founded, what was called the school of prophets; and he was great also in that, in an era of transition, he acted as a consummate statesman. We have only to recall the significance of those three statements to see how widespread and enduring was that quality of Samuels greatness. As a judge in an era of confusion he showed exactly those qualities which were so much needed. And you mark that he had seen some of the symptoms of moral deterioration in his early days. He had seen the loose habits which had crept in in all quarters, he had seen the immoral sons of Eli, and how far the immorality had crept into the people when in the very precincts of the sacred place there was such immorality! But that was not all. Where there is a moral deterioration there is always a deterioration of the religious conception. And that is what Samuel had perceived, and therefore he realised that alike in religious thought and in social manners there needed a great reformation. Now there are a great many ways in which you bring about reformation. You may do it by legislation, you may do it by sending broadcast through the world the pressure and persuasion of men. Samuel chose the latter. He knew the only valuable reformation was a reformation which would strike the heart of the people. Watch him now as the statesman. There comes a change; there is inevitably a change in all human life. The development of national life, like the development of individual life, must go on. And this development must mean the passing away of things which are very dear. He showed us the example which will always be the example of wise men in eras of change. When you see a movement has become movement of the peoples thought do not be so unwise as to endeavour to withstand it, unless it be a question of right and wrong, but be wise and direct what you cannot oppose. That is the attitude of Samuel. If you watch him you see him, a man possessed of singular gifts, of great vigour in action, practical, with great insight into the causes which underlie national greatness, and at the same time with that marvellous flexibility that even in his old age he was ready to adjust himself to the new conditions of the life in which he found himself.
II. Samuels training for service. If we take him as marked by these features of greatness, we ask, what was the source, what were the forces which came to the formation of a character so strong, so youthfully great. There are two things, surely, which make up the complete man in his later days. One is, of course, the surroundings of his early life, and the other is the character which was originally his. The dramatic interest of life surely lies in this, that you have the raw material of life exposed to certain influences in the home, in the early training of the school, and in the environment of the dawn of life. Watch the environing circumstances in the case of Samuel. No person who understands the influence of home life will, I think, be tempted to undervalue it. Do you not pity Samuel in the second stage of his life? The child who is suddenly withdrawn at a tender age from home and is planted down amidst surroundings which, I think, one may venture without disparagement to call unsympathetic. He could not find sympathy in the wild men who were leading the loose lives of Hophni and Phinehas, and Eli must have been but a grave companion for the young child, but as you watch him he somehow or other identifies himself with the quiet gravity of the old man. Watch him a step further. There comes a moment in which the third influence is seen. The first is home, the second is the general companionship, and the third is the silent influence of the unseen world come into his life. There comes a moment when he is aware that life does not consist merely in those factors of home life which he has known, nor in these various powers of official and national life of which he has had some youthful experience, but behind all activities of the human life there is the great presiding power of the unseen; and in the silent watches of the night there is disclosed to him a consciousness of the great power, the great formative spirit, the great influence of the Divine which is always at work in the hearts and lives of men. And now watch the character which is exposed to these influences. Is there any character in the Bible of which you may say, The quiet piety of his life was like a growing thing? There were no startling changes. There was the one solid change from the home into the sanctuary, but for the rest his days were bound each to each by natural piety. Quietly he ripened under the solemn and sweet influences of the sanctuary.
III. The ripened character. And now watch him in his later life, and see the other characteristics. One would have imagined that this child who ripened under these circumstances would have been a person deficient in practical activity, deficient in those stronger and manlier virtues which we think can only be gained in the rude struggle of the more active life. But the man who has been brought up in this fashion had the qualities within him of that dogged determination and that entire devotion to duty which never stumbled at any duty, however arduous, and never shudders or shrinks from any danger; and, therefore, when he takes the reins of power what promptitude and what decision there is in all that he does! This is the man who, in the climax of his life, can show the one great solid quality which was, after all, the true characteristic of his life–the most complete and absolute disinterestedness. What are the conditions which we desire to see established in national life? If Samuel is to be an expression, or a type, or a teaching to us, then surely we want men who are absolutely free from self-interest. The danger of nations lies in self-interest. May I venture to say it without being misinterpreted?–this danger of self-interest in national affairs becomes much more dangerous as the complexity of life grows, and therefore the opportunities of manipulating affairs for personal interest begin to multiply upon us. What is the secret of having a disinterested mind? Jesus Christ was the supreme teacher, remember, and remember those words which He said, which we ought to write forever in our hearts–I would emblazon them upon the walls of our Law Courts and our political assembly rooms–If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Is there any inspiration of single-mindedness, is there any way that we can get the power to rid ourselves of self-interest? The voice of God heard always, the voice of God in the still hours of the night. That which makes the difference between man and man lies in this: his relationship to God. And it was because Samuel had found God in his life so early that God was in his life all through, and wherever he stood it was God that he saw. How much may we not be warped by personal interests, by the desire of some gain, by the opportunities which so often in the hurly-burly of affairs come in temptations before us! What need there is that we in such hours should be, as Samuel would have the people, purged from our own offences, all our gods of covetousness and idolatry put far away, and standing once more as a people hearing the voice of God. (W. Boyd Carpenter, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XII
Samuel, grown old, testifies his integrity before the people,
which they confirm, 1-5.
He reproves them for their ingratitude and disobedience; and
gives a summary of the history of their fathers, 6-12.
He exhorts them to future obedience, and calls for a sign from
heaven to confirm his authority, and to show them their
disobedience: God sends an extraordinary thunder and rain,
13-19.
He warns them against idolatry, and exhorts to obedience, and
promises to intercede for them, 20-23.
Sums up their duty, and concludes with a solemn warning, 24, 25.
NOTES ON CHAP. XII
Verse 1. And Samuel said] It is very likely that it was at this public meeting Samuel delivered the following address; no other time seems to be given for it, and this is the most proper that could be chosen.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Samuel said this to all Israel, whilst they were assembled together in Gilgal. And this is another instance of Samuels great wisdom and integrity. He would not reprove the people for their sin, in desiring a king, whilst Saul was raw, and weak, and unsettled in his kingdom, and in the peoples hearts, lest through their accustomed levity they should as hastily cast off their king as they had passionately desired him, and so add one sin to another; and therefore he chooseth this season for it; partly because Sauls kingdom was now confirmed and illustrated by an eminent victory, and so the danger of rejecting him was out of doors; which circumstance was also considerable for Samuels vindication, that it might appear that his following reproof did not proceed from any selfish respects or desires, which he might be supposed to have of retaining the power in his own hands, but merely from the conscience of his duty, and a sincere desire of all their good: and partly because the people rejoiced greatly, as is said in the next foregoing verse; and upon this occasion applauded themselves for their desires of a king; and interpreted the success which God had now given them, as a Divine approbation of those desires; whereby they were like to be hardened in their impenitency, and might be drawn to many other inconveniencies. Samuel therefore thinks fit to temper their excessive joys, and to excite them to that repentance and holy fear which he saw wanting in them, and which he knew to be absolutely necessary, to prevent the curse of God upon their new king, and the whole kingdom.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1-4. Samuel said unto allIsraelThis public address was made after the solemnre-instalment of Saul, and before the convention at Gilgal separated.Samuel, having challenged a review of his public life, received aunanimous testimony to the unsullied honor of his personal character,as well as the justice and integrity of his public administration.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Samuel said unto all Israel,…. When assembled at Gilgal, after they had recognized Saul as their king, and he was established in the kingdom, and while in the midst of their mirth and joy:
behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye have said unto me; respecting the affair of a king, to which it must be limited, as appears by what follows; otherwise it is possible, in some things they might apply to him about, he did not think fit to hearken to them, and grant their request, or speak for them:
and have made a king over you; that is, had by the direction and appointment of God chosen one by lot, anointed and declared him king; for it was the Lord alone, that, properly speaking, made him a king.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The time and place of the following address are not given. But it is evident from the connection with the preceding chapter implied in the expression , and still more from the introduction (1Sa 12:1, 1Sa 12:2) and the entire contents of the address, that it was delivered on the renewal of the monarchy at Gilgal.
1Sa 12:1-2 Samuel starts with the fact, that he had given the people a king in accordance with their own desire, who would now walk before them. with the participle expresses what is happening, and will happen still. must not be restricted to going at the head in war, but signifies the general direction and government of the nation, which had been in the hands of Samuel as judge before the election of Saul as king. “ And I have grown old and grey ( from ); and my sons, behold, they are with you.” With this allusion to his sons, Samuel simply intended to confirm what he had said about his own age. By the further remark, “ and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day,” he prepares the way for the following appeal to the people to bear witness concerning his conduct in office.
1Sa 12:3 “ Bear witness against me before the Lord,” i.e., looking up to the Lord, the omnipotent and righteous God-king, “ and before His anointed,” the visible administrator of His divine government, whether I have committed any injustice in my office of judge, by appropriating another’s property, or by oppression and violence ( , to pound or crush in pieces, when used to denote an act of violence, is stronger than , with which it is connected here and in many other passages, e.g., Deu 28:33; Amo 4:1), or by taking atonement money ( , redemption or atonement money, is used, as in Exo 21:30 and Num 35:31, to denote a payment made by a man to redeem himself from capital punishment), “ so that I had covered my eyes with it,” viz., to exempt from punishment a man who was worthy of death. The , which is construed with , is the instrumenti , and refers to ; consequently it is not to be confounded with , “to hide from,” which would be quite unsuitable here. The thought is not that the judge covers his eyes from the copher , that he may not see the bribe, but that he covers his eyes with the money offered him as a bribe, so as not to see and not to punish the crime committed.
1Sa 12:4 The people answered Samuel, that he had not done them any kind of injustice.
1Sa 12:5 To confirm this declaration on the part of the people, he then called Jehovah and His anointed as witnesses against the people, and they accepted these witnesses. is the subject to ; and the Keri , though more simple, is by no means necessary. Samuel said, “ Jehovah be witness against you,” because with the declaration which the people had made concerning Samuel’s judicial labours they had condemned themselves, inasmuch as they had thereby acknowledged on oath that there was no ground for their dissatisfaction with Samuel’s administration, and consequently no well-founded reason for their request for a king.
1Sa 12:6 But in order to bring the people to a still more thorough acknowledgment of their sin, Samuel strengthened still more their assent to his solemn appeal to God, as expressed in the words “ He is witness,” by saying, “ Jehovah (i.e., yea, the witness is Jehovah), who made Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt.” The context itself is sufficient to show that the expression “is witness” is understood; and there is no reason, therefore, to assume that the word has dropped out of the text through a copyist’s error. , to make, in a moral and historical sense, i.e., to make a person what he is to be; it has no connection, therefore, with his physical birth, but simply relates to his introduction upon the stage of history, like , Heb 3:2. But if Jehovah, who redeemed Israel out of Egypt by the hands of Moses and Aaron, and exalted it into His own nation, was witness of the unselfishness and impartiality of Samuel’s conduct in his office of judge, then Israel had grievously sinned by demanding a king. In the person of Samuel they had rejected Jehovah their God, who had given them their rulers (see 1Sa 8:7). Samuel proves this still further to the people from the following history.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Samuel’s Discourse to Israel. | B. C. 1069. |
1 And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and gray-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. 3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you. 4 And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. 5 And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.
Here, I. Samuel gives them a short account of the late revolution, and of the present posture of their government, by way of preface to what he had further to say to them, 1Sa 12:1; 1Sa 12:2. 1. For his own part, he had spent his days in their service; he began betimes to be useful among them, and had continued long so: “I have walked before you, as a guide to direct you, as a shepherd that leads his flock (Ps. lxxx. 1), from my childhood unto this day.” As soon as he was illuminated with the light of prophecy, in his early days, he began to be a burning and shining light to Israel; “and now my best days are done: I am old and gray-headed;” therefore they were the more unkind to cast him off, yet therefore he was the more willing to resign, finding the weight of government heavy upon his stooping shoulders. He was old, and therefore the more able to advise them, and the more observant they should have been of what he said, for days shall speak and the multitude of years shall teach wisdom; and there is a particular reverence due to the aged, especially aged magistrates and aged ministers. “I am old, and therefore not likely to live long, perhaps may never have an opportunity of speaking to you again, and therefore take notice of what I say.” 2. As for his sons, “Behold” (says he), “they are with you, you may, if you please, call them to an account for any thing they have done amiss. They are present with you, and have not, upon this revolution, fled from their country. They are upon the level with you, subjects to the new king as well as you; if you can prove them guilty of any wrong, you may prosecute them now by a due course of law, punish them, and oblige them to make restitution.” 3. As for their new king, Samuel had gratified them in setting him over them (v. 1): “I have hearkened to your voice in all that you said to me, being desirous to please you, if possible, and make you easy, though to the discarding of myself and family; and now will you hearken to me, and take my advice?” The change was now perfected: “Behold, the king walketh before you” (v. 2); he appears in public, ready to serve you in public business. Now that you have made yourselves like the nations in your civil government, and have cast off the divine administration in that, take heed lest you make yourselves like the nations in religion and cast off the worship of God.
II. He solemnly appeals to them concerning his own integrity in the administration of the government (v. 3): Witness against me, whose ox have I taken? Observe,
1. His design in this appeal. By this he intended, (1.) To convince them of the injury they had done him in setting him aside, when they had nothing amiss to charge him with (his government had no fault but that it was too cheap, too easy, too gentle), and also of the injury they had done themselves in turning off one that did not so much as take an ox or an ass from them, to put themselves under the power of one that would take from them their fields and vineyards, nay, and their very sons and daughters (ch. viii. 11), so unlike would the manner of the king be from Samuel’s manner. (2.) To preserve his own reputation. Those that heard of Samuel’s being rejected as he was would be ready to suspect that certainly he had done some evil thing, or he would never have been so ill treated; so that it was necessary for him to make this challenge, that it might appear upon record that it was not for any iniquity in his hands that he was laid aside, but to gratify the humour of a giddy people, who owned they could not have a better man to rule them, only they desired a bigger man. There is a just debt which every man owes to his own good name, especially men in public stations, which is to guard it against unjust aspersions and suspicions, that we may finish our course with honour as well as joy. (3.) As he designed hereby to leave a good name behind him, so he designed to leave his successor a good example before him; let him write after his copy, and he will write fair. (4.) He designed, in the close of his discourse, to reprove the people, and therefore he begins with a vindication of himself; for he that will, with confidence, tell another of his sin, must see to it that he himself be clear.
2. In the appeal itself observe,
(1.) What it is that Samuel here acquits himself from. [1.] He had never, under any pretence whatsoever, taken that which was not his own, ox or ass, had never distrained their cattle for tribute, fines, or forfeitures, nor used their service without paying for it. [2.] He had never defrauded those with whom he dealt, nor oppressed those that were under his power. [3.] He had never taken bribes to pervert justice, nor was ever biassed by favour for affection to give judgment in a cause against his conscience.
(2.) How he calls upon those that had slighted him to bear witness concerning his conduct: “Here I am; witness against me. If you have any thing to lay to my charge, do it before the Lord and the king, the proper judges.” He puts honour upon Saul, by owning himself accountable to him if guilty of any wrong.
III. Upon this appeal he is honourably acquitted. He did not expect that they would do him honour at parting, though he well deserved it, and therefore mentioned not any of the good services he had done them, for which they ought to have applauded him, and returned him the thanks of the house; all he desired was that they should do him justice, and that they did (v. 4) readily owning, 1. That he had not made his government oppressive to them, nor used his power to their wrong. 2. That he had not made it expensive to them: Neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand for the support of thy dignity. Like Nehemiah, he did not require the bread of the governor (Neh. v. 18), had not only been righteous, but generous, had coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel, Acts xx. 33.
IV. This honourable testimony borne to Samuel’s integrity is left upon record to his honour (v. 5): “The Lord is witness, who searcheth the heart, and his anointed is witness, who trieth overt acts;” and the people agree to it: “He is witness.” Note, The testimony of our neighbours, and especially the testimony of our own consciences for us, that we have in our places lived honestly, will be our comfort under the slights and contempts that are put upon us. Demetrius is a happy man, that has a good report of all men and of the truth itself, 3 John 12.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Samuel’s Address, vs. 1-5
One wonders what might have been the thinking of Samuel during the indeterminate period during which Saul was only king nominally. Perhaps he had decided that Saul would never assert himself as king and that the idea of a king would be forgotten by the people of Israel. Now, however, the outlook is different. The issue is at last settled. Saul has become a hero, and the vast majority of the people have fallen in with him. Saul too has warmed to the idea, and seems now to be ready to assume the leadership of the people. So all of Samuel’s fears will come to pass.
It seems that Samuel could not resist a last reminder to the people that they have made a serious mistake. He is just human enough, also, to feel that somehow their choice of a king is an indictment of his leadership as their judge. In this last address Samuel tells them that his last official duty on their behalf has been to accede to their demands and to make them a king. Their king is now before them, strong, handsome, and stalwart. He is only old, grayheaded Samuel, who has served them faithfully from his very childhood at Shiloh. Not only have the people at large seemingly cast him aside, but his own sons have joined with the people in desiring a king.
Samuel desired absolute exoneration of his judgeship from them. He asks for any who can to bear witness against him of any wrongdoing toward them. Has he taken their work animals from them? or defrauded them? or been oppressive? or taken a bribe to pass unjust sentence? If any can prove any such against him Samuel will restore to him whatever it is. But the people confessed that he had been guilty of none of these things, and that he had been absolutely fair with them. Samuel required their oath in the presence of the Lord, and they gave it. By their words, then, they admitted that it is of their own selfish pride they have rejected the Lord and His appointed judge and required for themselves a king instead.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.
1Sa. 12:1. And Samuel said, etc. The time and place of the following address are not given, but it is evident from the connection with the preceding chapter, and still more from the introduction and the entire contents of the address, that it was delivered on the renewal of the monarchy at Gilgal.(Keil.) I have hearkened. etc. These words correspond exactly to the words in 1Sa. 8:7; 1Sa. 8:21. Samuel at the same time testifies indirectly to the fact that he had therein obeyed the command of God: Hearken to the voice of the people. (Erdmann.) By appointing a great part of this chapter (viz. to 1Sa. 12:22) to be read in the synagogues as a Haphtarah to Numbers 16; Numbers 17, 18, the ancient Hebrew Church suggests the parallel between this speech of Samuel and the address of Moses in reply to Korah and his rebellious associates. (Wordsworth.)
1Sa. 12:2. My sons are with you. They are reduced to the condition of private persons, and are subjects of the king, as ye are. (Wordsworth.) Perhaps only an amplification of the words I am old and grey-headed. His grown-up sons were evidences of his age. Possibly, however, a tinge of mortified feeling at the rejection of himself and his family, mixed with a desire to recommend his sons to the good-will of the nation, is at the bottom of this mention of them. (Biblical Commentary.)
1Sa. 12:3. Witness against me. The venerable judge, in resigning his magisterial authority, challenged the most minute inquiry into every act of his administration. History scarcely anywhere presents a more striking example of the moral sublime. Grotius compares Samuel to Aristides. (Jamieson.) What Samuel here affirms of his official career stands in direct contrast with what is said in 1Sa. 8:3, of the blameworthy conduct of his sons; since it is inconceivable that he did not know, and had not now in mind the covetousness and perversion of judgment and the resulting discontent of the people, which was a co-factor in their desire for a royal government. The mode, as well as the fact and contents of the following justification, naturally suggest the statement in 1Sa. 8:3, and lead to the conclusion that this was the occasion of this (otherwise surprising) justification of his official career, on which in the eyes of the people a shadow had fallen in consequence of the opposite conduct of his sons. (Erdmann.) His anointed: i.e., of course, king Saul. The title Messiah, or anointed, had been given to the High Priests (Lev. 4:3-5, etc.), and in Hannahs prophetic song and in the prophecy of the man of God sent to Eli, prophetic mention had been made of Gods anointed; but this must be noted as the earliest instance of an actual king of Israel bearing the title of Gods Christ, and thus typifying the true Messiah or Christ of God. The application of the term anointed to Saul, makes it probable that he had been publicly anointed by Samuel at Gilgal. The secret anointing, mentioned at 1Sa. 10:1, would not be notorious enough to explain the phrase to the whole people of Israel. (Biblical Commentary.) To blind mine eyes therewith, rather that I should hide mine eyes at him. The thought is not that the judge covers his eyes from the copher (or ransom) that he may not see the bribe, but that he covers his eyes with it, so as not to see and not to punish the crime committed. (Keil.) I will restore. Compare Zaccheuss saying, Luk. 19:8. (Biblical Commentary.)
1Sa. 12:6. It is the Lord that advanced, etc. Literally made, i.e., appointed them to their office. The word make is to be understood of those excellent gifts which God had bestowed on Moses and his brother Aaron, that He might use their ministry in leading the people out of Egypt. (Calvin.) Observe the constant reference to the Exodus as the well-known turning point of their national life. (Biblical Commentary.)
1Sa. 12:7. Stand still, that I may reason with you. Both verbs have a forensic sense. They would be better rendered stand up (as if in a court of justice) that I may contend with you before the Lord. Samuel is, as it were, the advocate of Jehovah, vindicating the righteousness of His dealings with Israel, and throwing all the blame of their calamities on themselves (compare Stephens speech, Acts 7). (Biblical Commentary.)
1Sa. 12:9. Samuel here introduces individual facts from the times of the Judges, but only prominent events as they occurred to him, neglecting their order, which was in itself unessential. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 12:11. Bedan. This name does not occur in the book of Judges, and only in one other place in the Bible (1Ch. 7:17). As Samuel here places it between the names of two well-known Hebrew deliverers, many commentators agree with Kiel in believing that it is a copyists error for Barak, the Hebrew letters in both words being nearly identical in form. Samuel. Some commentators here substitute Samson, thinking it more natural than that the prophet should mention himself, and omit the greatest of the judges. But Erdmann remarks that Samuel could mention himself without exciting surprise, because he was conscious of his high mission as judge and deliverer, and the profound significance of his office for the history of Israel was universally recognised. By this mention of himself he honours not himself but the Lord, who had made him (like Moses and Aaron before) what he was (comp. 1Sa. 12:6-9). Besides, it was under him that the yoke of the forty years dominion of the Philistines was broken, which work of deliverance Samuel was only able to begin.
1Sa. 12:12. And when ye saw that Nahash. It hence appears not improbable that Nahash had made incursions into the Hebrew territory before the Israelites had demanded a king, and after his election had returned, and begun the siege of Jabesh. (Clericus).
1Sa. 12:14. Translate If ye will fear the Lord, and serve Him, and obey His voice, so as not to rebel against the mouth of the Lord, and will be (both you and your king that reigns over you) followers after the Lord your God. (Biblical Commentary.)
1Sa. 12:17. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? The wheat-harvest occurs in Palestine between the middle of May and the middle of June. In ordinary seasons, from the cessation of the showers in spring until their commencement in October and November, rain never falls, and the sky is usually serene. (Robinson.) Thunderings, as the voices of God (Exo. 9:28), are the harbingers of judgment. (Keil.)
1Sa. 12:18. Feared the Lord and Samuel Compare the very similar phrase (Exo. 14:31). (Biblical Commentary.) Samuel is added because heas before by his word, so by his introduction of this manifestation, wonderful and contrary to the ordinary course of nature, of Gods wrathhad displayed himself as instrument of the judicial power and glory of the God-king. (Erdmann.)
1Sa. 12:21. Vain things, i.e., the idols, because they are vain; literally emptiness, i.e., worthless beings.
1Sa. 12:22. For His great names sake, i.e., for the great name which He had acquired in the sight of all the nations by the marvellous guidance of Israel thus far to preserve it against misapprehension and blasphemy. (Keil.)
1Sa. 12:24. How great things, etc. Some refer this to the miracle mentioned in 1Sa. 12:18, but the immediate connection seems to refer it to the mighty deliverances of which Samuel has just been reminding them.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE CHAPTER
SAMUELS PUBLIC RESIGNATION OF HIS OFFICE
I. A change of relationship or position naturally suggests a review of the past. When, on a journey, we have for some time been travelling in one direction, and we suddenly come to a turn in the road, we very naturally stand for a moment and look at the path which we have trodden, and which we are now about to quit. If we are journeying in a country with which we are unacquainted, such a review will probably be useful to usit will help us to a more definite conception of our whereabouts. So when a man is about to enter into new relationships, whether of a private or public character, it is natural that he should look back upon the path which he has trodden up to the present moment, and if he do this in a right spirit it will be helpful to him in the future. It is good for a man to do this when he is about to undertake a position of responsibility, whether public or private; and it is good for him to do it also when he is about to resign any office of trust, whether to a single master or to his country. Happy will he be if at such a time he can, with Samuel, call God to witness that he has performed his duties faithfully. Samuel had, during a long life, been Gods vicegerent in Israel; his public work was now about to cease, and consequently his relationship to the nation would be changed. It is not in egotism or boastfulness that he recalls the manner in which he has discharged his trust, or reminds them that by him (1Sa. 12:11) God had delivered them out of the hand of their enemiessuch a review of the past was natural and right. But Samuel not only looks back upon the road by which he has arrived at the present turning-point in his life, he also bids the people whom he is addressing recall the steps by which they, as a nation, had arrived at the position in which they now stood. His relationship to them was about to undergo a change, which was in some respects the natural result of his advancing years, although it was partly due to the late national movement. But they had by their own choice taken an entirely new position, and assumed entirely new responsibilities; and although their sinful self-willed action in the past could not be recalled, yet many sins and much misery might be avoided in the future if they now gratefully and humbly remembered all the way by which the Lord their God had led them.
II. Whenever a nation rejects God, such rejection will be followed by signs of Gods displeasure. The miracle which followed Samuels words was a confirmation of their truth. It was a token that he was expressing the feelings of the Divine mind regarding Israels conduct. The conception which Israel now had of a king was not Gods conception, and their desire to have a king like the nations was a rejection of their Divine and invisible King. Hence this token of His displeasure. In later days this same nation rejected this Divine King when He came to them in human flesh, and they themselves then became what they have ever since remaineda sign to the entire human race of the danger of not improving national privileges. Nations who do not find a God and King after their own heart in Him who is their rightful sovereign will make one after their own likeness (Psa. 50:21); but signs will not be wanting of His displeasure.
III. The servants of God sin against Him when they neglect to pray for their fellow countrymen.
1. They ought to pray for them because they are their fellow creatures. Paul, speaking by inspiration, desires that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth (1Ti. 2:1; 1Ti. 2:3-4.)
2. Because national love ought to be an element in the character of every godly man. The best men are ever deeply interested in the welfare of the nation to which they belong. Pauls love to his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, notwithstanding all that he had suffered at their hands, was intense (Rom. 9:1-3). And he who is a true patriot cannot serve his country so effectually in any other way as by praying for the godliness of the people, for a nations greatness depends upon the relation of its individual members to the Living God.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1Sa. 12:2. I have hearkened to your voice, which was so violent and impetuous. Now you must hearken to my voice, and be told that after your peace-offerings God hath still a quarrel with you.Trapp.
God will not let his people run away with the arrearages of their sins, but, when they least think of it, calls them to account. All this while was God angry with their rejection of Samuel; yet, as if there had been nothing but peace, He gives them a victory over their enemies, He gives way to their joy in their election. God may be angry enough with us, while we outwardly prosper: it is the wisdom of God to take His best advantages; He suffers us to go on till we should come to enjoy the fruit of our sin, till we seem past the danger either of conscience or of punishment; then, even when we begin to be past the feeling of our sin, we shall begin to feel His displeasure for our sins. This is only where He loves, where He would both forgive and reclaim: He hath now to do with His Israel; but where He means utter vengeance, He lets men harden themselves to a reprobate senselessness, and make up their own measure without contradiction as purposing to reckon with them but once for ever.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 12:2-3. Samuels life is both an example and a rebuke.
1. An example. To stand forth and make so successful an appeal must have presented to Saul an illustrious example of personal excellence and of public probity. He thus saw that it was possible to live in high places and be a righteous man; to administer the state, and retain integrity; to direct the concerns of millions, and receive their spontaneous and unanimous approvaltruths which few governors have ever found. He was also an example to the whole people; for the same goodness that made him faithful, with his many talents and his many trusts, could supply them with ability to use theirs with fidelity.
2. A rebuke. The unimpeachable life of Samuel was a great rebuke to Israel. They had not improved his ministry, and had grown weary of so godly a regime as his. Every good mans life condemns the world that refuses to follow his way.Steel.
1Sa. 12:9. When Gods people abandon Him, He, by virtue of the same righteousness which blesses them if they are faithful, abandons them to their enemies, who enslave and oppress them. The selling refers to the right of the father to sell his children as slaves, here exercised by God as the extremest paternal right, as it were. (Jdg. 2:14; Jdg. 3:8; Jdg. 4:2; Jdg. 4:9; Deu. 32:10; Isa. 50:1; Isa. 52:3; Eze. 30:12.)Langes Commentary.
1Sa. 12:13. In this declaration is set forth the origin of Sauls kingly position
(1) on its human side, by the words: Whom ye have chosen;
(2) on its divine side, by the words: Behold, the Lord hath set a king over youyour demand sprang from an evil root, yet hath the Lord granted it; this king, though chosen and demanded by you, is yet alone the work of God. By these words is confirmed the truth, that the Lord is and remains king.Erdmann.
1Sa. 12:14-15. With whom or against whom is the hand of the Lord? The answer to this question depends on the following considerations:
1. whether one has, or has not, given himself to be the Lords with his whole heart(a) in true fear of God, (b) in true service of God.
2. Whether one is, or is not, in his will thoroughly obedient to the will of the Lord(a) hearkening unconditionally to His word, (b) not resisting His commandments.
3. Whether one is, or is not, in his whole walk ready to follow the Lord in His guidance(a) keeping in the way pointed out by Him, (b) keeping in view the goal set up by Him.Langes Commentary.
Here is a precedent for preachers, who must one while chide their people, another while comfort them, and always pray for them. They must turn themselves into all shapes and fashions of speech and of spirit to bring men home to God. This is an excellent way of preaching, to mingle promises with threatenings. Sour and sweet makes the best sauce.Trapp.
1Sa. 12:16-19.
I. Unseasonable weather is one of Gods punishments. We suffer sometimes from lack of rain to moisten the earth and prevent the miseries of drought. Such a calamity was inflicted upon Israel on account of sin in the days of Elijah (1Ki. 17:1). At other times rain is unseasonable and injurious, as was the case in the present instance. It comes at the call of the prophet, to mar the fruits of the earth, and to injure the harvest, that the people might perceive their wickedness to be great.
II. We must ask for fair and seasonable weather upon no other condition than that of repentance. We must bring forth fruits meet for repentance, if we expect that the earth should bring forth fruits meet for our sustenance; for God sometimes sees fit to withhold these blessings, to make us know their worth by the want of them. He is sometimes pleased to send us an abundance of good things to see how we will use them, and whether we will grow better by them. But if we consume them upon our lusts, as Israel did here, instead of having more, that which we have shall be taken away.Matthew Hole.
Men have so many ways of shifting off their own guilt that unless they be taken in the act they will hardly confess it, and when convicted of the fact they will deny the fault or the measure. To cut off all excuses, therefore, Samuel appeals to God, the highest judge, for His sentence, and dares trust to a miraculous conviction. Had not Samuel before consulted with his Maker, and received warrant for this act, that would have been presumption which was now a noble improvement of faith. Rather than Israel shall go clear away with a sin, God will accuse and arraign them from heaven. No sooner hath Samuels voice ceased than Gods voice begins. Every crack of thunder spake vengeance against the rebellious Israelites, and every drop of rain was a witness of their sin. Now they found that they had displeased Him who rules in heaven by rejecting the man who ruled for Him on earth.Bishop Hall.
The elements are exclusively under the control of the Creator, and He alone can say what shall be in relation to the clouds; yet for special endsgenerally moral endsthey have occasionally been placed for a season at the service of men. This instance is a parallel to that which occurred in Egypt (Exo. 9:23).
The revelation of the Lords power through Samuel has for its aimI. To glorify the name of God, and to exhibit the peoples high calling as chosen people and Gods property. II. To show more strikingly the peoples sin and thereby induce sincere repentance. III. To show the penitent people the source of consolation and help, and fix in their hearts the ground of hope for future salvation.Langes Commentary.
1Sa. 12:20-21. A threefold word of exhortation to penitent sinners.
1. A word reminding of past sin. Ye have done all this wickedness.
2. A word consolingly pointing to Divine grace. Fear not.
3. A word exhorting to fidelity. Turn not aside from the Lord.Langes Commentary.
1Sa. 12:23. In this Samuel sets a glorious example to all rulers, showing them that they should not be led astray by the ingratitude of their subordinates or subjects, and give up on that account all interest in their welfare, but should rather persevere all the more in their anxiety for them.Berlenberger Bible.
Moses and Samuel are specified by God as having extraordinary power with Him (Jer. 15:1); and why? Because they prayed for their enemies.Wordsworth.
1Sa. 12:24. I. Fear and service go together. Serve the Lord in fear, saith David (Psa. 2:11); Fear the Lord and serve Him, saith Joshua (Jos. 24:14); and, fear ever before service; for that, unless our service proceed from fear, it is hollow and worthless. Behold the same tongue that bade them not fear (1Sa. 12:20), now bids them fear; and the same Spirit that tells us they feared exceedingly (1Sa. 12:18), now enjoins them to fear more. What shall we make of this? Their other fear was at the best initial; for now they began to repent: and, as one says of this kind of fear, that it hath two eyes fixed upon two divers objects, so had this of theirs: one eye looked upon the rain and thunder, the other looked up to the God that sent it. The one of these is borrowed of the slavish or hostile fear, as Basil calls it, the other of the filial; for the slavish fear casts both eyes upon the punishment; the filial looks with both eyes upon the party offended. Samuel would rectify and perfect this affection, and would bring them from the fear of slaves, through the fear of penitents, to the fear of sons: and indeed one of these makes way for another. It is true that perfect love thrusts out fear; but it is as true that fear brings in that perfect love which is joined with the reverence of sons: like the needle or bristle, as one compares it, draws in the thread after it. The compunction of fear, saith Gregory, fits the mind for the compunction of love. We shall never rejoice truly in God except it be with trembling; except we have quaked at His thunder, we shall never joy in His sunshine. II. As our service must be grounded on fear, so our fear must be reduced to service. Indeed, the worst kind of fear is that we call servile; but the best fear is the fear of servants; for there is no servant of God but fears filially. And God hath no son but he serves. We all know what service means; for we all are, or were, I imagine, either servants or masters, or servants of the public, or masters of servants, or all these. We cannot, therefore, be ignorant either of what we require of ours, or what our superiors require of us. If service consisted only in wearing of liveries, in taking of wages, in making of courtesies, and kissing of hands, there were nothing more easy or more common. But be not deceived: the life of service is work: the work of a Christian is obedience to the law of God.Bp. Hall.
1Sa. 12:25. I. If there be a moral governor of the universe, sin must provoke him. II. If sin provoke God, He is able to punish it. III. Bodies of men are punishable in this world only; in eternity there are no families, churches, nations. If, therefore, a country is to be destroyed, it is tried, and condemned, and executed here. IV. There is a tendency in the very nature of sin to injure and ruin a country. It violates all the duties of relative life; it destroys subordination; it relaxes the ties which bind mankind together, and makes them selfish and mean; it renders men enemies to each other. Social welfare cannot survive the death of morals and virtue.Jay.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Samuel Reviews His Career. 1Sa. 12:1-5
And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
2 And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.
3 Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
4 And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any mans hand.
5 And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.
1.
How could Samuel speak to all Israel? 1Sa. 12:1
Samuel could not find a place where all the millions of Israelites could gather. His message must have been given to leaders from various tribes. His message would then be carried back to the many thousands in each tribe. On occasions great numbers did gather at one place. They were expected to come to the Tabernacle on the three annual feast days. Samuels address may have been given at one of these times.
2.
What was Samuels appearance? 1Sa. 12:2
Samuel describes himself as being gray-haired. He must have been a venerable man. His appearance would have commanded respect. The dignity that goes with a venerable, silver-thatched man was his; and in addition his godly life would have won him the admiration of all good men.
3.
Was Samuel without fault? 1Sa. 12:3
Samuel asked a series of questions which, perhaps purposely, are cast in rhythmical form with assonance at the end of each question in the Hebrew forms. These are the questions:
1.
Whose ox have I taken?
2.
Whose ass have I taken?
3.
Whom have I oppressed?
4.
Whom have I maltreated?
5.
From whose hand have I taken a gift that I might blind mine eyes with it?
The tendency of the prophets to cast their oracles in poetic form is illustrated elsewhere. The questions asked by Samuel all refer to judicial honesty which has always been rare in the East. Samuel was not without sin, but his work was irreproachable.
4.
Who was the Lords anointed? 1Sa. 12:5
The king was the Lords anointed. Samuel himself had anointed Saul to be king, and Samuel knew that Saul was not taking over the leadership in Israel because he found fault with Samuels judgeship. God Himself could testify to the good work of Samuel, and the people were impressed with the sacred testimony which they were bearing to him on this occasion.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) And Samuel said unto all Israel.We believe we possess in this section of our history, in the report the compiler of these memoirs has given us of the dialogue between the judge Samuel and the elders of Israel at the solemn assembly of Gilgal, many of the very words spoken on this momentous occasion by the old man. It is doubtless a true and detailed account of all that took place on that daythe real inauguration of the earthly monarchy; that great change in the life of Israel which became of vast importance in the succeeding generations. In such a recital the words used by that grand old man, who belonged both to the old order of things and to the new, who was the link between the judges and the kingsthe link which joined men like Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, Gideon, and Jephthah, heroes half-veiled in the mists which so quickly gather round an unlettered past, with men like David and Solomon, round whose lives no mist will ever gatherthe words used by that old man, who, according to the cherished tradition in Israel, was the accredited minister of the invisible King when the Eternal made over the sovereignty to Saul, would surely be treasured up with a jealous care. This gives an especial and peculiar interest to the present chapter, which contains the summary of the proceedings of the Gilgal assembly. The old judge Samuel, with the hero-king Saul standing by his side, presents the king to the people of the Lord under the title of the Anointed of the Eternal, and then in a few pathetic words speaks first of his own pure and upright past. The elders reply to his moving words. Then he rehearses the glorious acts of the Eternal King, and repeats how He, over and over again, delivered the people from the miseries into which their own sins had plunged them; and yet, in full memory of all this, says the indignant old man, in the place of this invisible Ruler, so full of mercy and pity, you asked for an earthly king. The Lord has granted your petition now. Behold your king ! pointing to Saul at his side.The old man continues: Even after your ingratitude to the true King, still He will be with you and the man He has chosen for you, if only you and he are obedient to the old well-known Divine commandments. At this juncture Samuel strengthens his argument by invoking a sign from heaven. Awe-struck and appalled, the assembled elders, confessing their sin, ask for Samuels prayers. The old prophet closes the solemn scene with a promise that his intercession for king and people shall never cease.
Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.This should be compared with 1Sa. 8:7; 1Sa. 8:19-20; 1Sa. 8:22, where the proceedings of the deputation of the people to Samuel at Ramah are related at length. Their wishes expressed on that public occasion had been scrupulously carried out by him. He would now say a few words respecting the past, as regards his (Samuels) administration, would ask the assembled elders of the nation a few grave questions, and then would leave them with their king. The account, as we possess it, of these proceedings at Gilgal on the occasion of the national reception of Saul as king, is in the form of a dialogue between the prophet Samuel and the elders of the people.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1, 2. I have made a king over you This statement, together with that which follows behold, the king walketh before you indicates what we have already assumed, that this farewell address was made at Gilgal when they renewed the kingdom there.
My sons are with you That is, are at your disposal, to be treated as may seem proper to you and to your king. They had heretofore assisted Samuel in the judgeship by attending to matters in remote parts of the country, (see on 1Sa 8:1,) but now they were superseded by the election of a king.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Samuel Makes A Clean Break From His Civic Responsibilities ( 1Sa 12:1-5 ).
In his farewell speech Samuel begins by making clear that he is now free from all civil responsibility for Israel. He wants them to know without any shadow of doubt that from now on he will act only as YHWH’s prophet. The deliberate detail in which he does this emphasises the cleanness of the break. As far as he is concerned once the people have given him clearance he ceases his duties. From now on they must look to the king whom they have chosen to watch over their interests in all civil matters. He will no longer be their ‘Judge’.
Analysis.
a
b “Here I am. Witness against me before YHWH, and before his anointed, Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom with which to blind mine eyes? And I will restore it you.” (1Sa 12:3).
b And they said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken anything of any man’s hand” (1Sa 12:4).
a And he said to them, “YHWH is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness” (1Sa 12:5).
Note that in ‘a’ he points out that he has made a king over them and has walked before them openly since his youth, and in the parallel he charges them in the sight of YHWH and the king to bear witness that he has not failed them in any way. In ‘b’ he sets out the charges that might possibly have been laid against him, and in the parallel the people refute them.
1Sa 12:1-2
‘ And Samuel said to all Israel, “Look, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. And now, see, the king walks before you, and I am old and grey-headed, and look, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my youth to this day.”
He begins by pointing out that he has listened to their voice and made a king over them. He wants them to be absolutely clear that it was their choice and not his. Let them recognise that he had not wanted them to have a king over them. He had wanted YHWH to be their King. But they have gone their own way and chosen a king.
How much we all like a king (whether it be a pastor, or a youth leader, or some other person in authority). It is so much easier to have someone who will tell us exactly what to do so that no blame might be laid at our door. And we then hope that he will not make too many demands on us. But what we really do not want to have to do is look to God directly for guidance, and to commit our way totally to Him. For we know that, in His case, any demands that He makes on us will be absolute, and that such a walk requires faith and obedience. It is a call to full surrender.
Then Samuel stresses that their king walks before them (and he could have added ‘in the prime of life’) for he contrasts the king with himself, old in years and grey-headed, with grown up sons who live among them. And he stresses that from his youth he has walked openly before them and served them. But that is now over. Now they must look for their young king to serve them.
1Sa 12:3
“ Here I am. Witness against me before YHWH, and before his anointed, Whose ox have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of whose hand have I taken a ransom with which to blind mine eyes? And I will restore it you.”
So he then calls on them to bear witness concerning him in the sight of YHWH, and of the one whom YHWH has ‘anointed’. For the latter see 1Sa 10:1; and compare 1Sa 2:10; 1Sa 2:35. The anointing indicated someone totally separated to God, and they could see in each one who was anointed by YHWH the potential future coming king who was described in 1Sa 2:10. But, alas, one by one each one of them, even David, would prove a disappointment.
And he asks the people whether, in the sight of these two, YHWH and His representative, they are able honestly to accuse him of any misdemeanour? Has he taken their oxen or asses (deprived them of their most valued possessions)? Has he ever defrauded them? Has he ever oppressed them? Has he ever accepted a bribe which has made him close his eyes to the truth (compare Exo 23:8; Deu 16:19; and contrast 1Sa 8:3)? If they can rightly accuse him of any of these things he will recompense them now, restoring to them what they claim that they have lost.
1Sa 12:4
‘ And they said, You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, nor have you taken anything of any man’s hand.” ’
Their reply is that he is clear of any of those things. They recognise that he has been honest and true in all things.
1Sa 12:5
‘ And he said to them, “YHWH is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.” ’
He then asks them to confirm the fact in front of YHWH and in front of the one whom He has anointed, with both of them acting as witnesses. They reply by affirming that YHWH Himself is witness, and as the Greater includes the lesser, so also is His anointed. Thus Samuel has a twofold witness that he has not failed them in any way. And having sworn to his innocence they now know without any doubt that Samuel’s long watch over them as Judge is over. They can no longer look to him to act in civil affairs. From now on they must look to Saul.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Sa 12:17 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king.
1Sa 12:17
Pro 26:1, “As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest , so honour is not seemly for a fool.”
1Sa 12:22 For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
1Sa 12:22
1Sa 12:25, “But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.”
Deu 31:16-17, “And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?”
2Ch 15:2, “And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.”
2Ch 24:20, “And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you.”
Psa 37:25, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”
Heb 13:5, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
1Sa 12:23 Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way:
1Sa 12:23
1Sa 12:23 “but I will teach you the good and the right way” Comments – The second responsibility of Samuel was to teach God’s people about God’s Holy Word.
1Sa 12:23 Comments – Why is a passage about prayer mentioned after 1Sa 12:23? The reason is that there is a need for intercession for nations. For example, God would have destroyed Israel in wilderness twice, but for Moses’ intercession.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Samuel Protests his Integrity
v. 1. And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. v. 2. And now, behold, the king walketh before you, v. 3. Behold, here I am; witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed, v. 4. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any man’s hand. v. 5. And he said unto them, v. 6. And Samuel, v. 7. Now, therefore, stand still that I may reason with you, v. 8. When Jacob was come into Egypt and your fathers cried unto the Lord, v. 9. And when they forgat the Lord, their God, v. 10. And they cried unto the Lord and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth, v. 11. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, v. 12. And when ye saw that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, came against you, v. 13. Now, therefore, behold the king whom ye have chosen, v. 14. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve Him, and obey His voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, v. 15. But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you as it was against your fathers,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
SAMUEL‘S EXHORTATION TO THE PEOPLE AT GILGAL. This speech of Samuel is not to be regarded as a farewell address made upon his resignation of his office; for though a new power had been introduced, and Samuel’s sons excluded from the succession, yet it was only gradually that a change was made in his own position. He was still judge (1Sa 7:15), and on extraordinary occasions came forward with decisive authority (1Sa 15:33). But as Saul gathered men of war round him (1Sa 14:52), the moral power possessed by Samuel would be overshadowed by the physical force which was at Saul’s command. But no formal change was made. It had been the weakness of the office of the judges that their power was irregular, and exercised fitfully on special occasions. Such a power must fall into abeyance in the presence of the regular authority of a king surrounded by armed men. Without any direct deposition, therefore, or even still retaining the form of his office, Samuel would henceforward chiefly act as the prophet, and Saul as Jehovah’s king.
The address divides itself into three parts:
1. The testimony to Samuel’s integrity as judge (1Sa 12:1-5).
2. The reproof of the people for their disobedience and ingratitude (1Sa 12:6-17).
3. The Divine testimony to Samuel’s uprightness and teaching (1Sa 12:18-25).
SAMUEL‘S INTEGRITY (1Sa 12:1-5).
1Sa 12:1
I have hearkened unto your voice. See 1Sa 8:7, 1Sa 8:9, 1Sa 8:22.
1Sa 12:2
The king walketh before you. I.e. you have now one to protect and lead the nation, whereas my business was to raise its religious and moral life. The metaphor is taken from the position of the shepherd in the East, where he goes before his flock to guide and guard them. On this account the word shepherd or pastor is used in the Bible of the temporal ruler (Jer 2:8; Jer 23:4, etc.), and not, as with us, of the spiritual guide. My sons are with you. This is no mere confirmation of the fact just stated that he was old, but a direct challenge of their dissatisfaction with his sons’ conduct, as far at least as concerns any connivance on his part, or support of them in their covetousness. Samuel says, You know all about my sons; I do not profess to be ignorant that charges have been brought against them. Give full weight to them, and to everything said against them and me, and then give judgment.
1Sa 12:3, 1Sa 12:4, 1Sa 12:5
Witness against me. Literally, “answer,” as in a court of justice to the formal question of the judge. His anointed. I.e. the king (see on 1Sa 2:10, 1Sa 2:35; 1Sa 2:1). Whose ox,… whose ass? See on 1Sa 8:16. Of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? Bribe should be rendered ransom. Literally it signifies a covering, and was used of money given by a guilty person to induce the judge to close or “blind his eyes,” and not see his sin. It does not mean, therefore, any bribe, but only that given to buy off a guilty person. Such persons are generally powerful men who have oppressed and wronged others; and the knowledge that they can cover their offence by sharing their gains with the judge is to this day in the East the most fruitful source of bad government. The people all bear witness to Samuel’s uprightness, nor is there any contradiction between this and their desire to have a king. His internal administration was just and righteous, but they were oppressed by the nations round them, and needed a leader in war. And in Samuel’s sons they had men, not vicious or licentious, but too fond of money, and so neither fit to be their generals in war nor their judges in peace. We gather from 1Sa 22:2 that though Saul proved a competent leader in war, he was not successful in the government of the country in peace.
SAMUEL‘S REPROOF OF THE PEOPLE (1Sa 22:6-17).
1Sa 12:6
It is Jehovah that, etc. In the Hebrew Jehovah is put absolutely, without any government, and the Septuagint rightly supplies is witness. Samuel had said, “Jehovah is witness against you;” the people in answer shouted the last word, “Witness” (see end of 1Sa 12:5, where He is is supplied). Then Samuel solemnly repeats Jehovah s name, saying, “Even Jehovah that advanced Moses and Aaron.” This rapid interchange of words brings the whole scene vividly before us, whereas nothing could be tamer than the A.V. Out of the land of Egypt. Samuel begins with this as the first act of Jehovah as Israel’s King; for the theocracy began with the deliverance from Egypt.
1Sa 12:7, 1Sa 12:8
Stand still. Literally, station yourselves, take your places, stand forth (see 1Sa 10:23). That I may reason with you. Literally, “that I may deal as judge,” i.e. that with all the authority of my office I may declare that Jehovah has acted justly by you, and that you have dealt unjustly with him. Righteous acts. The margin, benefits, is wrong. Samuel vindicates God’s dealings with them against the charge of his having failed to protect them implied in their demand for a king.
1Sa 12:9
When they forgat Jehovah their God. The theocracy, as we have seen (1Sa 10:18), was a moral government, under which idolatry and the immorality attendant upon it, as being rebellion, were punished by Jehovah’s withdrawing his protection, and the consequent subjection of the nation to foreign rule. It was the repeated sin, therefore, of the people which made Israel’s history so checquered. Sisera (Jdg 4:2), the Philistines (Jdg 3:31), and Eaton, king of Moab. (Jdg 3:12), are mentioned as three of the earlier oppressors of Israel, but are given here in the reverse order to that found in the Book of Judges.
1Sa 12:10
We have served [the] Baalim and [the] Ashtaroth. I.e. the numerous Baals and Astartes, which were worshipped under various titles by the heathen. For though representing the same power, each people had their own epithets for their own particular personification of the god (see on 1Sa 7:4).
1Sa 12:11
Bedan. Numerous ingenious explanations of this name have been given, but the only probable account is that Bedan is a misreading for Barak. The two names are very similar in the Hebrew, and the two most ancient versions, the Septuagint and the Syriac, actually have Barak. And Samuel. This is even more puzzling than Bedan. We cannot suppose that Samuel, who hitherto had confined himself to the old deliverances, would thus suddenly introduce his own name. In mentioning only them he had avoided everything that would grate upon the ears of the people, but this would look like giving way to personal vexation. Some, therefore, would read Samson; but this, though found in the Syriac, is supported by no other version. Possibly some scribe, mindful of Samuel’s recent achievement at Mizpah, wrote his name in the margin, whence it was admitted into the text. And ye dwelled safe. Literally, “in confidence,” in security. With sin came danger and unquiet; upon repentance, not only was their country free from danger, but their minds were at rest.
1Sa 12:12
Nahash the king of the children of Ammon. This makes it probable that there had been threats of war, and even incursions into the Israelite territory, by Nahash before his attack on Jabesh-Gilead. We thus, too, should be able to account for the rancour displayed in his wish so to treat the men of that town as to make them a reproach to all Israel; for his hatred of Israel may have grown in intensity in the course of a harassing war, or he may have learnt to despise a people incapable of offering a regular resistance. At all events, Samuel describes Nahash as giving the final impetus to the desire of the nation for a king. When Jehovah your God was your king. See Jdg 8:23.
1Sa 12:13
Behold the king whom ye have chosen!… behold, Jehovah hath set a king over you. We have here the two sides of the transaction. The people had desired a king, chosen and appointed by themselves, to represent the nation in temporal matters; Jehovah gave them a king to represent himself, with authority coming from God, and limited by God. Most, too, of the kings of Judah were as truly representatives of Jehovah as any of the judges had been, and David even more so. Desired is rather “demanded,” “required.” They had done much more than desire a king.
1Sa 12:14
If ye will fear, etc. This verse, like Luk 19:42, is left unfinished, and we must supply well, as in Exo 32:32. For the verse cannot be translated as in the A.V; but is as follows: “If ye will fear Jehovah, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment (Hebrew, the mouth) of Jehovah, and if both ye and the king that reigneth over you will follow Jehovah your God, it shall be well.” Samuel piles up one upon another the conditions of their happiness, and then from the depth of his emotion breaks off, leaving the blessed consequences of their obedience unsaid. “To follow Jehovah” implies willing and active service as his attendants, going with him where he will, and being ever ready to obey his voice.
1Sa 12:15
Against you, as it was against your fathers. The Hebrew has “against you and your fathers,” and so the Vulgate, for which the Septuagint reads, “against you and your king,” as in 1Sa 12:25. The text is probably corrupt, and to make sense requires the insertion of some such words as those given in the A.V; with which the Syriac also agrees.
1Sa 12:16
Stand. Better stand forth, as in 1Sa 12:7; take your places in solemn order.
1Sa 12:17
Wheat harvest. Barley was fit for reaping at the Passover, and wheat at Pentecost, i.e. between the middle of May and the middle of June. Jerome, on Amo 4:7, testifies that during his long residence in Palestine he had never seen rain there during June and July; but Conder, says, “Storms still occur occasionally in harvest time.” He shall send thunder. Hebrew, voices, and so in verse 18 (see 1Sa 2:10; 1Sa 7:9).
DIVINE TESTIMONY TO SAMUEL‘S INTEGRITY (verses 18-25).
1Sa 12:18
Jehovah sent thunder and rain. Rain in Palestine falls usually only at the autumnal and vernal equinox, and though thunder storms are not unknown at other times, yet, by the general testimony of travellers, they are very rare. Naturally, therefore, this storm deeply impressed the minds of the people. Though not in itself miraculous, the circumstances made it so.
1Sa 12:19
Pray for thy servants. On Samuel’s mediatorial office see 1Sa 7:5, 1Sa 7:8.
1Sa 12:20
Ye have done all this wickedness. The ye is emphatic, and to give its force we should translate, “Ye have indeed done all this evil.” From following Jehovah. See on 1Sa 12:15.
1Sa 12:21
For then should ye go after vain things. The word for is omitted in all the ancient versions, and the sense is complete without it: “And turn ye not aside after tohu,” the word used in Gen 1:1, and there translated “without form.” It means anything empty, void, and so is often used, as here, for “an idol,” because, as St. Paul says, “an idol is nothing in the world” (1Co 8:4). So Isaiah (Isa 44:9) calls the makers of idols vanity, Hebrew, tohu, i.e. empty people, with no sense in them. The word is used again at the end of the versewhich idols cannot profit nor deliver; for they are tohu, emptiness.
1Sa 12:22
For his great name’s sake. Though Samuel in 1Sa 12:14 had described their well being as dependent upon their own conduct, yet in a higher light it depended upon God’s will. He had chosen Israel not for its own sake (Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8), but for a special purpose, to minister to the Divine plan for the redemption of all mankind, and so, though individuals might sin to their own ruin, and the nation bring upon itself severe chastisements, yet it must continue according to the tenor of God’s promises (see on 1Sa 2:30), and through weal and woe discharge the duty imposed upon it.
1Sa 12:23
God forbid, Hebrew, “Far be it from me.” That I should sin… in ceasing to pray for you. In no character of the Old Testament does this duty of intercessory prayer stand forward so prominently as in Samuel (see 1Sa 12:19); nor does he rest content with this, but adds, I will teach you the good and the right way. This was a far higher office than that of ruler; and not only was Samuel earnest in discharging this prophetic office of teaching, but he made provision for a supply of teachers and preachers for all future time by founding the schools of the prophets.
1Sa 12:24
For consider, etc. Samuel concludes his address by appealing to the mighty deeds wrought in old time by Jehovah for his people; literally, it is, “For consider how grandly he hath wrought with you.”
HOMILETICS
1Sa 12:1-5
Character a power.
The facts are
1. Samuel reminds the people that he
(a) has carried out their wishes in setting a king over them,
(b) is now a very old man, and
(c) has spent the whole of his life among them.
2. He appeals to God in asserting that the whole of his official life has been free from self-seeking.
3. The people freely admit that his public conduct has been honest, considerate, and free from greed. The meaning of Samuel’s reference to himself is to be sought not in egotism, but in a desire to find a basis for his intended argument and appeal. The actual weight of counsel depends not on the abstract wisdom of the language used, but on the readiness of the hearers to give heed to the speaker and their conviction of his integrity of purpose. Samuel appeals to character in order to secure moral power in argument. He availed himself of the privilege of honoured age.
I. CHARACTER IS A GROWTH. A human being is mutable in purpose and disposition, and time is requisite in order to insure fixity of either. Character lies in determinateness, permanent fixity. Morally it is the form, style, and expression the life eventually assumes. It remains a long unsettled question as to what determinateness some men’s nature is to come. In so far as instability itself is an undesirable quality, its presence is the sign of permanent badness. But even in the absence of instability, men suspend their judgment of their fellow men because all good qualities in them are regarded as only tentatively established in the soul. The true progress of a life is secured when holiness of disposition becomes so gradually master of every faculty as to be the distinctive, invariable mark of the man. Obviously, this character is a passing of an inner silent force into all the avenues of thought, feeling, and action, repeating its self-manifestations in these day by day, till those who know the individual are compelled to see that such is the natural, fixed, reliable style of his life.
II. The CONDITIONS OF ITS POWER ARE TWOFOLDone in the individual himself, and the other in observers.
1. Constancy and steadiness of growth is one condition. It is this which creates a belief that the man is true. There is a strong belief that fluctuations in conduct and opinion are signs of either weakness or actual badness. Those who watch the steady, early growth of a doubtful plant, and observe how by the action of a powerful law it at length assumes a given type of leaf and bud, know then what they have in sight, and treat it accordingly. So a quiet advance in goodness is essential to the acquisition of power in character.
2. The existence in observers of a sense of right is another condition. The power which a holy, consistent character has over all grades of men implies that there is something in them which, in virtue of its own nature, pays homage to goodness. Men know and inwardly revere the right. In this moral necessity of judgment we have a clue to the deference often paid by bad men to the good; the uneasiness of the vile and unjust in presence of purity; and the strong hold which the holy gospel of Christ has secretly over even the most daring of its opponents.
III. The POWER OF CHARACTER IS SOMETIMES DEVELOPED BY UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES. It may exist as the result of a growing, unconscious influence over observers. Neither party may be aware of its real force. Many a man exercises more power on society than either he or others contemplate. The degree to which the present condition of the world is owing to this silent, unconscious influence of holy, consistent characters is beyond all conception. The fact should be a comfort to those whose lives seem to be barren of usefulness because no great deeds are chronicled. But now and then events transpire which bring out the depth of reverence and respect cherished for, it may be, an ordinary quiet Christian man.
IV. It is ALLOWABLE TO USE CHARACTER AS A MEANS OF URGING IMPORTANT CLAIMS. Samuel was right in referring to his long consistent life. He could honestly, and without self-glorying, speak of his having never enriched himself by his office. He was within the limits of modesty in claiming some credit for consistency, for his object was to enforce the claims of God. Thus the Apostle Paul referred to his manner of life, his self-denying labours, in order to win among Corinthians attention to the message he delivered, and counteract the insinuations of false brethren (2Co 11:1-33.). There are occasions when a pastor, a teacher, and parent may fitly refer to their general character as furnishing a reason for attention to their appeals.
Practical lessons:
1. It is of supreme importance to be well established in strong religious principles early in life; roots set in virgin soil strike deep and thrive steadily.
2. We should watch carefully against tendencies to instability, and at the same time not think over much about what men think of us.
3. No man who is ambitious to obtain power of character will get it: it comes to those who are concerned to be good rather than to have the power which goodness conifers.
4. We honour God when we pay honour to those who bear his image.
5. The quality of holy self-sacrifice is that in official persons which most impresses observers, and should, after the Saviour’s example, be cultivated by all persons in things small and great.
1Sa 12:6-15
The immutable condition of well being.
The facts are
1. Samuel, having shown his right to be heard, calls on the people to hearken to his argument.
2. He refers to historic instances to show that trouble always came with unfaithfulness to God, and prosperity with a return to fidelity.
3. He reminds them that their desire for a king implied distrust of God.
4. Recognising the new order of things, he insists that the adversity or prosperity of the nation rested where it always hadon their own disobedience or obedience to God. Samuel, having gained a respectful hearing, proceeds to urge his argument with the view to convince Israel that constant obedience to God will be in future, on their part, the only rational conduct. The principles involved are universal, and they imply what some have recklessly denied or questioned, namely, the essential reasonableness of religion. Changing the historic allusions for corresponding facts in modern experience, the identical argument could be urged with equal force upon many who fain would escape the yoke of Christ as being inconsistent with the claims of human reason.
I. CONFORMITY TO THE WILL OF GOD IS THE SUPREME CONDITION OF WELL BEING. Israel would, as a people, dwell in safety, be rich, prosperous, and, in fact, realise all the best ends of national existence, in proportion as they obeyed the Lord God. The interactions of material agencies, and the habits of irrational beings, in so far as they flow from necessary physiological laws, are conformed to the Divine will. The possession by man of moral freedom renders it possible for him to be resolutely and knowingly out of accord with the same. The will of God is variously expressed, though always one. In external nature, in constitution of mind, in moral relations, in social laws, in Scripture there are harmonious expressions of will varying according to the subject matter and occasions. It being in the power of man, as free, to conform in feeling, in purpose, and actual outward movement of will to what God reveals of himself, perfect life, personal, social, and national, lies in that conformity, and that alone. The continuous act of obedience is conformity. Observing physical, mental, and moral laws in every detail of life; acting in harmony with the revealed requirements of repentance and effort after holiness; constant exercise of faith in Christ as the revealed means of the highest spiritual lifethis course of action is a fulfilment of the conditions of blessedness, the prelude to final likeness to Christ.
II. THAT SUCH CONFORMITY IS THE CONDITION OF WELL BEING IS A TRUTH ATTESTED BY HISTORY. It could be shown by independent lines of proof that religion, as consisting in true conformity to God’s will, is essentially reasonable, and that, conversely, sinful men are most irrational. But Samuel knows human nature, and, therefore, he deals with the concrete facts of history, and points out how the past records of Israel’s national life establish his contention. GOD gave them freedom from Egypt by Moses and Aaron. Disobedience and neglect entailed subjection to Sisera and the Philistines. A return to God brought deliverance once more. Therefore history connected prosperity with due recognition of God, adversity with disobedience. Every sinful nation and individual is deluded by fallacy. There is induced, by the blinding effect of moral corruption on the intellect, a belief that the miseries endured are not connected with moral causes. But a fair induction of the facts of public and private life will demonstrate Samuel’s position, that when the soul of the nation has been true to God it has enjoyed the truest prosperity. The very prosperity of fools is in the long run their destruction, The merriment of the impious, like the brilliant glare of a rocket, yields to a more conspicuous reverse. Pious men may not in some instances be equal, in power and general social usefulness, to men not pious; yet, given men of equal natural abilities, the pious will do more and better than the not pious. Every day life is full of cases in which men, by conforming to the gospel law of repentance and faith, at once place themselves and their homes in a new and better relation to all material and mental laws; and rise from poverty, disease, ignorance, and shame to comfort, health, fair attainments, and honour. A nation of true Christians would be a model to the world in all excellence and acquisitions and happiness.
III. ALL ATTEMPTS TO EVADE THE CONDITION OF WELL BEING ARE FRUITLESS. Samuel’s reference to Israel’s desire for a king, in connection with his argument and closing appeal, evidently means that the people were under the delusive impression that their troubles and dangers were in some way associated with the external form of government under which they had hitherto lived. But Samuel points out the sin involved in this thoughtit was distrust of God’s all-sufficiency; and he also indicates that the attempted substitution of a form of government for the practice of righteousness is utterly vain. Human nature is constant in its self-revelations. This attempted substitution of what is formal and outward for what is moral and inward is of common occurrence. Nations often cry out for changes of form of government when the real need is a change in disposition and conduct. Nominal Christians present an outward, and, in emergencies, a more elaborate, form of worship in place of the sacrifice of the penitent and contrite heart. It is hard to learn the lessons of history; but all its testimony confirms what could be, a priori, shown to be truethat however good external arrangements may be per se, they are as fruitless to secure a nation’s highest good, a Church’s truest prosperity, and an individual’s most vigorous and joyous piety, in the absence of a faithful conformity to the whole will of God, as was Israel’s acquisition of a king fruitless to insure, apart from righteousness of life, safety from danger and internal prosperity. “Abide in me.” “For without me ye can do nothing.”
IV. THE TRUTH THUS VINDICATED CAN BE VERIFIED IN SPITE OF PAST SINS AND ERRORS. Samuel admits the existence of the king as a fact, though having its origin in sin and folly. He does not cut Israel off from the hope of proving the truth of his contention, that well being depends on conformity to the will of God. Under their new and, as he thinks, unjustifiable arrangements they may, if they will, verify the correctness of his teaching; and hence the urgent appeal. The sins and errors of men in the past have had the natural effect of placing them in disadvantageous circumstances for the fullest development of piety. Even in so called Christian countries the social arrangements and customs, the habits of thought, the methods and principles of commerce, the form and spirit of legislation, and the attitude of class toward class, are the expression of the faults as well as of the virtues of our ancestors. They to that extent impede the full expression of the gospel spirit. The same holds good of antecedents in private and Church life. Nevertheless, God gives to nations, Churches, and individuals opportunities for testing the value of conformity to his will, and each may prove its sufficiency by new acts of obedience. Here we have a philosophy of life which each may experimentally establish.
General lessons:
1. Conformity to the will of God being the immutable maxim of life, care should be taken to ascertain that will as distinct from our own wishes; and, when ascertained, all the force of our nature should be bent on insuring its observance.
2. It is well to fortify conduct by an appeal to the reasonableness of a religious life, since in a struggle reason and faith are both helpful.
3. In all times of restlessness and dissatisfaction deeper search should be made than into the outward forms of life, for the outward change is no sure cure for the inward unrighteousness.
4. Gratitude to God for permission to recover lost prosperity best shows itself in renewed consecration to him.
1Sa 12:16-25
The outward sign.
The facts are
1. Samuel, to confirm his argument, calls for thunder and rain during the wheat harvest, thus imperilling their property.
2. The people, awed by the event, entreat for his intercession.
3. Samuel encourages hope on the ground of God’s mercy, and promises to pray for and instruct them.
4. He makes a final appeal, setting forth the blessed and sad alternative consequences. Samuel knew well with whom he had to deal; and, therefore, besides securing a deferential hearing in virtue of age and character, and enforcing the reasonableness of conformity to God’s will, he now calls attention to a display of Divine power in a form suggestive of the material disasters that may come if they should, by disobedience, come into collision with that power. Men soon feel the force of an argument that touches their property. The natural force of his previous statements would compel the assent of reason, and secure the echo of conscience. But in morally weak men the clear light of reason is apt to become eclipsed by the uprising of wilful desires, and the voice of conscience dies away amid the clamours of passion. It was, therefore, great kindness, an act of beautiful, Divine consideration, to introduce another means of insuring the impressment of the lessons conveyed.
I. OUTWARD SIGNS ARE HELPFUL TO RELIGION. Manifestations of God’s presence and power in impressive forms, in some instances miraculous, are aids to faith and practice. There is a modern tendency to dispute this. Even some Christian apologists speak of the miraculous events recorded in Scripture as rather a hindrance than an aid to faith. The difficulty proceeds from a defective comprehension of all the facts that enter into a consideration of the question. No doubt moral truth is its own witness; no doubt reason recognises what lies within the range of her vision. The whole sum of truth we have in Christ, and in the records associated with his name, enables us to say, “This is the Son of God.” The personal experience of the man who is one in life with Christ is superior to all “external evidences.” But obviously all this applies to men in the full light of Christian truth, and can have no appreciable bearing on the gradual education of the world by a chosen nation, through “here a little and there a little,” as men were morally and intellectually fit to receive it. Observe more specifically
1. General education by outward signs is universal. By education we mean development of the entire nature, rational and moral We have to regulate life and unfold its capabilities by means other than the mere subjective effect of what is perceived and appreciated as rational or moral.
(1) In childhood the mind accepts truth on external authority. Its movements, its receptivity, and its resistance to certain influences are often determined by the appearance of an external power, which either awakens fear or insures unquestioning submission.
(2) In mature life we are influenced not by subjective truth alone, but by external authority m form of testimony on matters of importance. This testimony has sometimes sufficient force to compel conduct against inclination, and create fear as determinant in action. Also in government the exercise of external power insures on the part of many a respect in practice for moral truth which otherwise would not exist.
(3) In the formation of opinion we are constantly looking out for an external confirmation. That is, we do not live intellectually even by the sheer light that is within. In so far as external confirmations are necessary for some of our opinions, we are dependent on powers outside us for the direction our own thought, and, consequently, conduct, will take. That these powers, human it may be, do not act suddenly and miraculously is not to the point, for the principle contended for is education by outward signs.
2. Spiritual education of men by appropriate outward signs is a fact recognised throughout all time. The three means, irrespective of inspiration of the heart by the Holy Spirit, of spiritual educationpresentation of truth to the moral perception, the convincing of the judgment by reasons, and the suggestive power of outward signsare found in the whole course of history, from the day when Adam’s conscience recognised the moral force of the Divine command because Divine, appreciated the argument of life or death as the alternative of obedience or disobedience, and looked on the “tree” as a visible sign of a power worthy to be feared, unto the latest observance of the Lord’s Supper, affording an outward sign of a power merciful in its almightiness.
(1) The entire dispensation covered by the Old and New Testament was characterised by the outward sign in a miraculous manner. Abraham desired to know by some means that he should inherit the land (Gen 15:8), and the sign was given. Moses had granted to him a sign of his delegation (Exo 4:1-5). The blackness and darkness around Sinai were visible demonstrations to inspire the too rash people with becoming awe. Signs and wonders were one means by which Nicodemus recognised the “Teacher come from God” (Joh 3:1, Joh 3:2; cf. Act 2:29). The excision of the miraculous element may be consistent for those who exclude God from direct action in the education of mankind, but it is an illogical act when done by believers in a personal “living God.” The Bible is a very consistent book.
(2) In so far as the Bible record is an education of mankind, it, containing a faithful account of the visible signs of the past, causes those signs to be a formative influence still. The visible manifestations during the ages covered by Biblical records not only made people then know and feel the reality of God’s presence and power to a degree that otherwise would not have been possible, but they cause the “ends of the earth” to be more thoroughly convinced of it. It takes much effort to shake men out of their indifference to the Unseen, to strengthen faith in an ever ruling Power. The Bible comes to the aid of our reason and conscience, and by these recorded facts helps us to live as though we saw him who is invisible. Those who object to the reality of miracles in the past because, forsooth, similar do not occur now, and are hot needed, forget how much of their present faith in God is due to the combination of these ancient miracles with the spiritual element that abides. We may have a spiritual appreciation of the truth of Christianity which amply satisfies us; but that spiritual Christianity so appreciated is impossible apart from the stupendous “outward sign” of an Incarnation and Resurrection.
(3) The facts consequent on the establishment of Christianity are outward signs which continue to furnish aid to faith. The indirect result, in the continued existence of the Jews as an essentially separate people, is impressive. The direct effects, in the salvation of souls, the pure, elevating spirit, and the social ameliorations naturally flowing from Christianity, are signs and wonders which indicate the mighty power of God.
3. Spiritual education by outward signs is very reasonable. This will be admitted so far as relates to our children, and also the formation of character by outward signs of power that are not miraculous. Therefore the controversy is limited to the reasonableness of the outward miraculous signs related in the Bible. Here observe, those who admit that the Incarnation, “God manifest in the flesh,” was a reality, and not a figure of speech, have conceded the principle; and if it was the Divine intention by this miracle to save men in Christ, where is the difficulty of admitting that by miracle God wrought the way for Christ, and educated the world for the event? If the escape is sought in the supposed number of miracles in Old Testament times, then who is to tell God how many he shall work? Where do wisdom and propriety begin and end? Let any one try and settle what and how often God shall work. Moreover, it is all a delusion as to the vast number of miracles. Genesis covers at least 2800 years, and yet not over twenty-two miracles, or strictly open manifestations, are recorded during that period, giving an average of one in 127 years. Further, what more reasonable than, e.g; this of the “thunder”? The people have had the truth, and reason has been appealed to; but they are weak, as history proves. God is the supreme Power, but they evidently need to be impressed, so that the lessons just given may abide. Fear thus produced will act with consciousness of moral truth and force of reason, and consequently it is an act of great mercy to render them this additional aid, just as it is an act of kindness to enforce lessons on children by an authority which they can appreciate.
II. THERE ARE SPECIAL ENCOURAGEMENTS TO CONFORMITY TO GOD‘S WILL set forth by his prophets, justified by reason and conscience, and supported by outward signs. It is instructive to note how God’s methods have respect to the whole man. Moral obligation is placed before the conscience (verses 13-15), reason is appealed to (verses 7-11), fear of disobedience is aroused by outward sign of supreme power, and now the hopes of the soul are to be sustained by appropriate considerations. Would that men who sneer at the Old Testament records had the heart to study its spiritual teaching! They would see how beautifully the terrible and the mild blend to meet the needs of the real man. The encouragement is threefold.
1. An assurance of God’s great mercy. “Fear not.” He “will not forsake his people. This “fear not” comes to the sinful soul still. It came with the angels’ song over the plains of Bethlehem; it was heard by the “little flock;” and the conscience smitten jailor heard the same. God “hath not forsaken” mankind. Not for what virtue he sees in perverse, ungrateful men, but” for his own sake” he saves the penitent. As Israel had “for his own sake” been made his people, with prospective reference to the introduction of the Messiah and the future education of the world, so in the redemption wrought by Christ every man on earth is embraced in a covenant of mercy, sealed with the “blood that cleanseth from all sin.” To know that God is merciful and gracious, that all his terrible displays of power are in love, this brings cheer to the entire race of man. If only despisers of the gospel knew the richness of its mercy for all men, they would surely not seek to hinder its acceptance by this sorrowing world.
2. The prayer and sympathy of the faithful. Samuel assures Israel that he will bear them on his heart. His affection for them and his spiritual duty to them were such that not to continue to pray would be sin (verse 23). This encouragement has every one who is called on to conform to the wilt of God. The Church pleads “for all men.” The penitent and struggling are especially on the heart of God’s faithful children. In thousands of homes daily prayer is made for persons never seen and unknown by name.
3. Continuous instruction. As long as Samuel lived he would teach them “the good and the right way.” No doubt, like the Apostle Peter, he would also devise means so that they should have his wise words “after” his “decease.” It requires “line upon line, precept upon precept,” to keep men in the safe and blessed pathway; and how fully is this secured to us in the “lively oracles”! By the written word, by the suggestions of the Holy Spirit, by the wise counsel of friends, God teaches us the way in which we should go. We are not left to wander at our will, or to follow the contradictory voices of men. There is “a sure word of prophecy which shineth as a light in a dark place.”
General lessons:
1. A study of the signs of God’s presence in human affairs will prove a salutary restraint on sinful tendencies.
2. It becomes the true Christian to manifest tender sympathy for men who are spiritually weak and erring.
3. Great influence is gained over men when we can convince them that, though they are very sinful, God is merciful and waiting to bless.
4. The element of fear in religion, to be healthful, must be supplemented by that of hope and confidence.
HOMILIES BY B. DALE
1Sa 12:1-25. (GILGAL.)
Samuel’s admonitions to Israel.
1. The occasion of his admonitions was the full recognition of the first king of Israel -by the national assembly, and his retirement from the more active duties of his office as judge. He was not mortified at parting with power, nor did he wish to reverse the change which had been effected. He cheerfully acquiesced in the will of God, and cordially united with the people in giving honour to the” Lord’s anointed” (1Sa 12:3, 1Sa 12:5). Yet he might not allow them to suppose that there was nothing blameworthy in their desire for a king, as they were apt to do, or enter upon their new career in perilous self-complacency, without warning them of the rocks ahead. He spoke not merely as judge, but also as a prophet and “faithful priest” (1Sa 12:19).
2. The form which they assumed is varied. They consist generally of a dialogue between him and the elders; partly of an apology, or defence of his official conduct; partly of a narration of the dealings of God with Israel; and partly of exhortations, warnings, and promises closely connected together. The whole may be conceived of as a judicial scene occurring before the invisible Judge, in which Samuel, having vindicated himself as against the people, sets forth their sin against God, who himself confirms his words in the thunderstorm (Job 38:1), which leads them to confess their transgression and seek the intercession of the prophet, who consoles and admonishes them, and assures them of his continued help. The language is direct and rugged and full of force.
3. The main subject is the course of sinful perversity which Israel had pursued in desiring a king; the chief aim to produce a humble and penitent state of mind, and lead to the maintenance of a proper relation to the invisible King. His former words may be compared (1Sa 3:11-14; 1Sa 7:3-6; 1Sa 8:10-18; 1Sa 10:17-19); also the words of Moses (Num 16:25-30; Deu 29:1-29.), and of Joshua (Jos 24:1-33.). He speaks of their course as
I. ADOPTED WITHOUT SUFFICIENT REASON (verses 3-6) in the light of his just administration. He sets himself, as it were, before the tribunal of the invisible Judge, and before the king,himself, “old and grey headed,” on the one hand, Israel on the other,and seeks an open vindication (as public men are often under the necessity of doing); not, however, so much from regard to his own dignity as to their welfare and the honour of God. We have here
1. A challenge, on the part of Samuel, to bear witness against him. “Behold, here I am,” etc. (verse 3). It is a common temptation for men in authority and power to use their position for selfish and unjust purposes, such as
(1) appropriating wrongfully what belongs to others,
(2) defrauding them of what is their due,
(3) oppressing the poor and weak, and
(4) perverting the proper course of justice, especially in the case of the rich and strong, for the sake of “a gift” or bribe.
How have these evils prevailed in every age! But Samuel had consciously wronged no one, and if any can show that he has done so, he stands ready to make restitution (Luk 19:8). His conscience is “as the noontide clear.” “No doubt he found himself guilty before God of many private infirmities; but for his public carriage he appeals to men. A man’s heart can best judge of himself; others can best judge of his actions. Happy is that man that can be acquitted by himself in private, in public by others, by God in both” (Hall).
2. A testimony, on the part of the elders, to his integrity (verse 4); ready, explicit, and with one voice. It is almost impossible for men in public office to be faithful without making enemies. If Samuel had any, they now nowhere appear; and his character shines forth “as the sun when he goeth forth in his might” (Jdg 5:31).
3. An invocation, on the part of both, to the Lord and his anointed to confirm the testimony (verse 5); thereby making it more solemn and memorable. Why, then, seeing his government was so unblamable, did they wish to set it aside? Their testimony to him was a sentence of condemnation on themselves for their inconsideration, ingratitude, and discontent. The force of the testimony was increased by his further invocation of the Lord as he who had “appointed Moses and Aaron, and brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt” (verse 6). As the appointed and faithful leader of Israel, even as they, no other was necessary, and his rejection was the rejection of the Lord. With this he passes on to speak of their course as
II. MARKED BY AGGRAVATED TRANSGRESSION (verses 7-12) in the light of the righteous dealings of God in past time. “Now therefore stand forth,” etc. (verse 7). He and they now change places; he becomes their accuser, and reasons or contends with them (in order to convict them of sin) “concerning the righteous acts of Jehovah,” who had acted justly in his covenant relation with them throughout their whole history, faithfully fulfilled his promises, inflicted punishment only when it was deserved, and bestowed upon them the greatest benefits (Eze 33:17; Mic 6:2). These acts include
1. A wonderful deliverance (verse 8) from a crushing oppression, in compassion to the cry of the needy, through the instrumentality of men raised up for the purpose, with “a mighty hand and an outstretched arm,” and completed in their possession of the land of promise. This deliverance is always regarded as the foundation of their history. “History was born in that night in which Moses, with the law of God, moral and spiritual, in his heart, led the people of Israel out of Egypt” (Bunsen).
2. Repeated chastisements (verse 9), rendered necessary by forgetfulness of God, varied (the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Moabites), and with a view to their moral improvement. “Notice here Samuel’s prudence in reproof.
(1) By his reproof of their ancestors he prepares their minds to receive reproof;
(2) he shows that their ingratitude is old, and so worse, and they should take care that it grow no stronger;
(3) he chooses a very mild word, ‘forget,’ to express their offence” (Pool).
3. Continued help (verses 10, 11), through penitence and prayer, by means of successive “saviours,”Jerubbaal (Gideon), Sedan (Barak), Jephthah, Samuel (1Sa 7:10; referring to himself in the third person, because now speaking as the advocate of Jehovah),against their “enemies on every side,” and in their safe preservation unto the present time. “And ye dwelled safe.” But what return did they make for all his benefits? As soon as they saw the threatening attitude of Nahash (verse 12), they forgot the lessons of the past, lost their confidence in God, trusted in an arm of flesh, and recklessly and persistently demanded a king, virtually rejecting the Lord as their king. Former experience of the goodness and severity of God greatly aggravates present transgression (verse 19).
III. INVOLVING PERILOUS RESPONSIBILITY (verses 13-15) in the light of present circumstances. “Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen,” etc. Although they had taken the initiative in the matter, he had reserved to himself the authority of appointing him, and abides the supreme Ruler over both people and king (verse 12). In the new order of things
1. They are specially liable to forget this primary truth, and to trust in man, and hence he impresses upon them once and again the fact that “the Lord God is their king.” No earthly monarch can release them from their responsibility to him, and no human help can save them apart from him. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psa 118:9).
2. They can prosper only by being faithful to him. “If ye will fear the Lord,” etc; it will be well with you and your king. But
3. If unfaithful, they will expose themselves to heavy judgments, as their fathers had done before them. Wherein, then, have they improved their condition? What a perilous course have they entered upon! And how can they hope to avoid its consequences except by profound humiliation, and seeking the Lord “with full purpose of heart”?
IV. NECESSITATING SINCERE REPENTANCE (verses 16-18) in the light of approaching judgment. “Now therefore stand and see this great thing,” etc. Hitherto the words of Samuel appear to have produced little effect; something further was necessary that they might not be spoken in vain; and, in response to his prayer, the thunder crashed above the heads of the great assembly, and the rain fell in torrents around themthings “incomprehensible to a Hebrew” in time of harvest. The miraculous sign
1. Corroborates the word of truth as well as the Divine commission of him who uttered it, and confirms the testimony borne to his integrity. The voice of the supreme Judge answers the appeal which had been made to him (verse 5), and there is “an end of all controversy” (Heb 6:16).
2. Is significant of the Divine displeasure at their sin, and of terrible judgments (Exo 9:28). “Hereby the Lord showed his power, and the people their foolishness in not being contented to have such a mighty God for their protector, who could with thunder and rain fight for them against their enemies, as he did for Israel against the host of Pharaoh, and not long before this against the Philistines. And, beside, it appeared with what small reason they should be weary of Samuel’s government, who by his prayer could fetch down rain and thunder from heaven” (Willet). “God had granted their desire; but upon them and their king’s bearing toward the Lord, not upon the fact that they had now a king, would the future of Israel depend; and this truth, so difficult for them to learn, God would, as it were, prove before them in a symbol. Did they think it unlikely, nay, well nigh impossible, to fail in their present circumstances? God would bring the unlikely and seemingly incredible to pass in a manner patent to all. Was it not the time of wheat harvest, when in the East not a cloud darkens the clear sky? God would send thunder and rain to convince them, by making the unlikely real, of the folly and sin of their thoughts in demanding a king” (Edersheim).
3. Is designed to effect a moral end, in filling them with salutary fear. “That ye may perceive that your wickedness is great” (verse 17). And it is not in vain; for “all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel” (verse 18), thus solemnly avouched to be his prophet. God is never at a loss for means to accomplish his purposes, and goes beyond his usual method of operations when the occasion demands it. The end of his dealings with men is to bring them to repentance and make them holy.
V. NOT EXCLUDING CONSOLATION AND HOPE (verses 19-25) in the light of the great name and merciful purposes of God. By means of repentance and faith men place themselves within the circle where the “consuming fire” of Divine wrath (Rom 1:18; Heb 12:29) is transformed into the genial beams of Divine grace; and “he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1Jn 1:9). We have here
1. A description of a penitent people (verse 19), overwhelmed with fear, freely and fully confessing their sin, rendering honour where they had formerly shown ingratitude and disrespect, and seeking Divine mercy in the way in which they had reason to believe it might be obtained.
2. An exhortation to an amended course of life (verses 20, 21).
(1) A consoling word. “Fear not.”
(2) A reminding and humbling word. “Ye have done all this wickedness.”
(3) A restraining word. “Turn not aside from following the Lord” (as ye have done in your distrust and self-will).
(4) A directive word. “But serve the Lord with all your heart” (in faith, and love, and entire consecration).
(5) A warning word. “And turn ye not aside” (from God to any false object of trust, idols).
(6) An instructive word. ‘” For they are vain” (utterly empty and disappointing).
3. An assurance of mercy and grace (verse 22), resting on
(1) His relationship. They are still “his people.”
(2) His namehis revelations of power and salvation to his people, and his honour and glory before all the nations.
(3) His good will. “Because” (he will not forsake his people, because) “it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people.” Whatever benefits he has conferred have proceeded from his pure benevolence, and are a pledge of further benefits (Jer 31:3). His free and unmerited love is the sinner’s chief hope.
4. A promise of continued aid, on the part of Samuel, in intercession and instruction (verse 23). “In this he sets a glorious example to all rulers, showing them that they should not be led astray by the ingratitude of their subordinates or subjects, and give up on that account all interest in their welfare; but should further persevere all the more in their anxiety for them.”
5. A final admonition to steadfast obedience (verses 24, 25), without which both people and king will be overwhelmed in destruction. In keeping with the tone which pervades these admonitions, and as in foresight of coming evils, they end with a warning.D.
1Sa 12:2. (GILGAL.)
Piety in old age.
“Old and grey headed.” On speaking of himself as “old and grey headed,” Samuel immediately afterwards made reference to his childhood. “I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.” He loved to linger (as old men are wont) over his early days; and in his case there was every reason for doing so, for they were surpassingly pure and beautiful. One of the chief lessons of his life is that a well spent childhood and youth conduces greatly to a happy and honoured age. Consider him as an eminent illustration of piety in old age.
I. OLD AGE IS PRESUMPTIVE OF PIETY, inasmuch as
1. Piety prevents indulgence in vices that tend to shorten life. How many are brought by such vices to a premature grave! When, therefore, we see an old man we naturally infer that he has been a good man, nor can there be any doubt that he has exercised much self-control. Samuel was a Nazarite.
2. It has a direct tendency to prolong life by producing healthful virtues. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days “(Pro 10:27).
3. It has the promise of many days. “With long life will I satisfy him” (Psa 91:16). “Even to old age I am; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you” (Isa 46:4). “A good old age” (Gen 15:15). “Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season” (Job 5:26).
4. It is commonly associated with long life. There are, doubtless, exceptions, the causes of which are not far to seek, but this is the rule.
II. OLD AGE IS MADE HONOURABLE BY PIETY, because of
1. Its maintaining the respect which is naturally felt for the aged. Among the Spartans, when a hoary headed man entered their assemblies, they all immediately rose, and remained standing till he had taken his place; and it is enjoined in the law of Moses: “Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man” (Le 19:32). But this injunction assumes the possession of godliness, without which old ago neither deserves nor receives appropriate reverence.
2. The beauty and perfection of character which it develops. There is beauty in the fresh springing corn, but there is still greater beauty in “the full corn in the ear,” bending under its golden burden. A good old man, matured in character by long growth, and abounding in “the fruit of the Spirit,” is one of the noblest sights on earth. He is a king amongst men. “The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness” (Pro 16:31; Pro 20:29).
3. The conflicts and perils that have been passed. “An old disciple” (Act 21:16), or “such an one as Paul the aged” (Phil 9), is like a veteran soldier bearing on him the scars of many a hard fought battle, and wearing the honours conferred by a grateful country. He is like a giant of the forest, standing erect when the storm has laid his companions in the dust.
4. The good that has been done in past time, and lives to bear witness to the doer, and “praise him in the gates.” We value the young for the good they may hereafter effect, the old for the good they have already accomplished. “Them that honour me I will honour.”
III. OLD AGE IS RENDERED USEFUL BY PIETY, for thereby it
1. Furnishes a convincing evidence of the truth and power of religion. When faith survives doubts, temptations, difficulties, its very existence is an argument for the reality of that which is believed, a proof of the practicability of a religious life, and a commendation of its unspeakable worth.
2. Sets forth an impressive example of the spirit of religionhumility, trustfulness, calmness, patience, resignation, Cheerfulness (Gen 48:21; Deu 33:1; Jos 14:10, Jos 14:12; Jos 23:14; 2Sa 19:32).
3. Bears valuable testimony for God, and continues in prayer and labour on behalf of men. “They shall still bring forth fruit in old age,” etc. (Psa 92:14, Psa 92:15; Psa 71:14, Psa 71:17, Psa 71:18). Although some services are no longer possible, others, often more valuable, may, and ought to, be rendered till the close of life.
4. Affords wise counsel to the younger and less experienced. Wisdom is proverbially associated with age. Those who have seen and heard much of the world, and had long experience of life, may be expected to know more than those who are just starting out in their course. Their judgment is less influenced by passion and impulse; they look at things in a clearer light, and in a calmer frame of mind, and are more likely to perceive the truth concerning them.
“Whose ripe experience doth attain
To somewhat of prophetic strain.”
Much of the inspired wisdom of the Scriptures is based upon the sanctified experience of the aged. “Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance” (2Pe 1:15, 2Pe 1:12-14; 1Pe 5:1, 1Pe 5:5). “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1Jn 3:18). “Little children, love one another.”
IV. OLD AGE IS GREATLY COMFORTED BY PIETY. It has its drawbacks and troubles. Bodily infirmities increase, the mental powers lose their vigour, and friends become fewer (Ecc 12:1-14.). It is also liable to moral failings, such as irritability, fretfulness, despondency, and excessive carefulness, which need to be guarded against. “When I consider in my mind, I find four causes why old age is thought miserable: one, that it calls us away from the transactions of affairs; the second, that it renders the body more feeble; the third, that it deprives us of almost all pleasures; the fourth, that it is not very far from death” (Cicero ‘on Old Age ‘). But notwithstanding such things, it has, “with godliness,” abundant compensations, consisting of
1. Pleasant recollections of the past, especially of the Divine benefits that have been received. “Surely I will remember thy wonders of old” (Psa 77:11).
2. Wide observation of the works and ways of God. “I have been young, and now am old,” etc. (Psa 37:25).
3. Inward support and consolation derived from communion with God. “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2Co 4:16). “The glory of the old age of the godly consists in this, that while the faculties for the sensible no less than mental enjoyments gradually decline, and the hearth of life gets thus deprived of its fuel, the blessings of godliness not only continue to refresh the soul in old age, but are not until then most thoroughly enjoyed. The sun of piety rises the warmer in proportion as the sun of life declines.”
4. Bright prospects of the heavenly home”a house not made with hands,” the vision of God, perpetual youth, reunion with parted friends, perfect and endless blessedness. As the world of light draws near, some of its rays seem to shine through the crevices of the earthly tabernacle that is falling into decay (Gen 49:18; Luk 2:29, Luk 2:30). “The state in which I am now is so delightful, that the nearer I approach to death, I seem, as it were, to get sight of land; and at length, after a long voyage, to be getting into the harbour. O glorious day I when I shall depart to that Divine company and assemblage of spirits, and quit this troubled and polluted scene” (Cicero). “If the mere conception of the reunion of good men in a future state infused a momentary rapture into the mind of Tully; if an airy speculationfor there is reason to fear it had little hold on his convictionscould inspire him with such delight, what may we be expected to feel who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God” (R. Hall). “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better” (Php 1:23; 2Ti 4:6-8)
Observations:
1. Let us be thankful for the consolations of religion in “the time of old age.”
2. Let the aged cherish the dispositions by which it is made beautiful and useful.
3. Let the young honour the aged, and not forsake “the counsel of the old men” (1Ki 12:8).
4. Let them also remember that they will grow old, and so live that they may then be honoured and happy.D.
1Sa 12:3-5. (GILGAL.)
Integrity in public office.
“Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord.” It is a noble thing for a man in any position of life, but especially in exalted, public, and responsible office, to “do justly and love mercy” as well as to “walk humbly with his God;” to continue for many years in the fulfilment of his duty with strictest integrity and unselfish devotion to the public good. Of this Samuel was an illustrious pattern. Concerning integrity in public office, observe that
I. It is generally, and not improperly, EXPECTED, because of
1. The superior knowledge which one who fills such an office is assumed to possess (Ezr 7:25).
2. The important trust which is reposed in him. “Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful” (1Co 4:2).
3. The powerful influence which he exerts over others, for good or evil (Pro 29:2).
II. It is beset by numerous TEMPTATIONS, such as
1. To prefer his ease and pleasure to laborious and self-denying duty (Rom 12:8).
2. To use his power for the enrichment of himself and his family, to the disregard of the general welfare, and even by means of extortion, fraud, and oppression (Act 16:22; Act 24:26).
3. To seek the praise of men more than the praise of God, and to yield to the evil wishes of the multitude for the sake of personal advantage (Joh 19:13).
III. It lies open to public CRITICISM, for
1. The conduct of a public man cannot be wholly hidden from view.
2. His responsible position invites men, and gives them a certain right, to judge concerning the course he pursues; and, in many instances, his actions directly affect their persons, property, or reputation.
3. As it is impossible to restrain their criticism, so it is, on the whole, beneficial that it should be exercised as a salutary restraint upon those “who are in authority.” Happy is he in whom “none occasion nor fault can be found, forasmuch as he is faithful” (Dan 6:4).
IV. It is NOT always duly APPRECIATED, but is sometimes despised and suspected.
1. The reasons of the conduct of one in public office are not always fully understood, nor the difficulties of his position properly considered, nor the motives of his actions rightly interpreted.
2. Evil doers, to whom he is “a terror,” may be expected to hate and speak ill of him. “What evil have I done?” said Aristides, when told that he had everyone’s good word.
3. Men are apt to be envious of those who are exalted above them, and to forget their past services if they do not favour the gratification of the present popular feeling. Samuel’ was not the only judge who experienced ingratitude. “Neither showed they kindness to the house of Jerubbaal, namely, Gideon, according to all the goodness which he showed unto Israel” (Jdg 8:35).
V. It sometimes requires to be openly VINDICATED, for the sake of
1. Personal character and reputation. “I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one of them” (Num 16:5).
2. Truth, and righteousness, and the honour of God. How often, on this account, did the Apostle Paul vindicate himself, in his epistles, from the accusations that were made against him!
3. The welfare of the people themselves, on whom misrepresentation and unfounded suspicions exert an injurious influence.
VI. It is certain, sooner or later, to be fully RECOGNISED.
1. Time and circumstances bring real worth to the light.
2. There is in men a sense of truth and justice which constrains them to acknowledge and honour the good.
3. God takes care of the reputation of those who take care of his honour. There comes a “resurrection of reputations.” The judgment of one generation concerning public men is often reversed by the next. “There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest.” “And the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.”D.
1Sa 12:8-12. (GILGAL.)
Doctrine in history.
This is an important chapter in the history of Israel. In it are set forth certain truths of universal import, which are also illustrated, though less distinctly, in the history of other nations. They are such as follows:
1. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD (1Sa 12:8). “It hath pleased the Lord to make you his people” (1Sa 12:22). Of his own free and gracious will, always founded in perfect wisdom, he raises up a people from the lowest condition, confers upon them special blessings and privileges, and exalts them to the most eminent place among the nations of the earth (Deu 32:8; Act 17:26, Act 17:27). As it was with Israel, so has it been with other peoples. His right so to deal with men cannot be questioned, his power therein is manifested, his undeserved goodness should be acknowledged, and the gifts bestowed employed not for selfish ends, but for his glory and the welfare of mankind.
II. THE SINFULNESS OF MEN. “They forgat the Lord their God” (1Sa 12:9). So constantly and universally have men departed from God and goodness as to make it evident that there is in human nature an inherited tendency to sin. “It is that tendency to sinful passions or unlawful propensities which is perceived in man whenever objects of desire are placed before him, and laws laid upon him.” As often as God in his great goodness has exalted him to honour, so often has he fallen away from his service; and left to himself, without the continual help of Divine grace, his course is downward. “In times past the Divine nature flourished in men, but at length, being mixed with mortal custom, it fell into ruin; hence an inundation of evils in the race” (Plato. See other testimonies quoted by Bushnell in ‘Nature and the Supernatural’). “There is nothing in the whole earth that does not prove either the misery of man or the compassion of God; either his powerlessness without, or his power with God” (Pascal).
III. THE CERTAINTY OF RETRIBUTION. “He sold them into the hand of Sisera,” etc. (1Sa 12:9).
“The sword of Heaven is not in haste to smite,
Nor yet doth linger, save unto his seeming
Who, in desire or fear, doth look for it.”
(Dante, ‘Par.’ 22.).
“Morning by morning doth he bring his judgment to light; he faileth not” (Zep 3:5). “History is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last; not always by the chief offenders, but paid by some one. Justice and truth alone endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long lived, but doomsday comes at last to them in French revolutions and other terrible woes” (Froude, ‘Short Studies’).
IV. THE BENEFICENCE OF SUFFERING. “And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned,” etc. (1Sa 12:10). Underneath what is in itself an evil, and a result of the violation of law, physical or moral, there is ever working a Divine power which makes it the means of convincing men of sin, turning them from it, and improving their character and condition. A state of deepest humiliation often precedes one of highest honour. It is only those who refuse to submit to discipline (Job 36:10) and harden themselves in iniquity that sink into hopeless ruin.
V. THE EFFICACY OF PRAYER. “And the Lord sent and delivered you,” etc. (1Sa 12:11). “Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses” (Psa 107:6, Psa 107:13, Psa 107:19, Psa 107:28). As it was with Israel throughout their history, so has it been with others, even those who have had but little knowledge of “the Hearer of prayer.”
“In even savage bosoms
There are longings, yearnings strivings
For the good they comprehend not,
And the feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God’s right hand in that darkness,
And are lifted up and strengthened”
(‘The Song of Hiawatha’).
VI. THE PREVALENCE OF MEDIATION. “Then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron” (1Sa 12:8). “And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel” (1Sa 12:11). He sent help by men specially raised up and appointed, and deliverance came through their labours, conflicts, and sufferings. One people also has been often made the medium of blessing to others. And herein we see a shadowing forth of the work of the great Mediator and Deliverer, and (in an inferior manner) of his people on behalf of the world.
VII. THE INCREASE OF RESPONSIBILITY on the part of those who have had the experience of former generations to profit by, and who have received higher privileges than they (1Sa 12:12, 1Sa 12:19). “Now all these things were written for our admonition,” etc. (1Co 10:11). “Two things we ought to learn from history: one, that we are not in ourselves superior to our fathers; another, that we are shamefully and monstrously inferior to them if we do not advance beyond them” (Froude).D.
1Sa 12:23 (GILGAL.)
Intercessory prayer.
“God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.”I bless God,” said Mr. Flavel, the Puritan, on the death of his father, “for a religious and tender father, who often poured out his soul to God for me; and this stock of prayers I esteem the fairest inheritance on earth.” And another eminent man said that he “set a greater worth upon the intercessions of the good than upon all the wealth of the Indies.” The people of Israel esteemed the prayers of Samuel on their behalf in like manner. They had experience . of their amazing power and worth (1Sa 7:8, 1Sa 7:9); they were in great need of them; they appear to have thought that he might cease to offer them on account of their past treatment of him, and they entreated him, saying, “Pray for thy servants,” etc. (1Sa 12:19). His reply was, “Moreover as for me,” etc. Every true Christian, as “a priest unto God,” an intercessor with God for his fellow men, ought to adopt this language as his own. It expresses
I. AN ACKNOWLEDGED OBLIGATION, which
1. Arises out of the fact that it is one of the principal means of doing good to othersobtaining invaluable blessings for them. Of the fact there can be no doubt (Jas 5:16). Why it should have been ordained as such a means we cannot fully tell; but it is plainly in accordance with the intimate relationship and mutual dependence of men; teaches them to feel a deeper interest in each other, and puts signal honour upon eminent piety. The principle of mediation pervades all things, human and Divine.
2. Is an essential part of the duty of love which we owe to others; the force of the obligation being determined by the nearness of their relationship, and the extent of their claims upon our love and serviceour kindred and friends, our country, mankind.
3. Is often expressly enjoined in the word of God. “Pray one for another” (Luk 11:5; 1Ti 2:1). “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask (of God), and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death” (1Jn 5:16).
4. Is inculcated by the example of the best menAbraham, Moses, Job (Job 42:8, Job 42:10), Samuel and all the prophets; above all, by the example of our Lord himself, who has prayed for us all, and through whose intercession we present our prayers and hope for their acceptance.
II. A POSSIBLE OMISSION. Intercessory prayer may cease to be offered. It is sometimes omitted from
1. Want of consideration of others; the worth of their souls, their lost condition, the love of God to them, the ransom that has been given for them. Attention is so absorbed in other objects that they are uncared for. The more we think of them, the more we shall feel and pray for them. “Love for souls as souls is not a passion of earthly growth. It is a holy fire from heaven. But bow can we have it; how can it be begotten in our hard hearts? The only true method is to draw near to them, and to look at themto look on them in the light of reason and revelation, of immortality and of God” (C. Morris).
2. Deficiency of love and desire for their salvation.
3. Unbelief.
4. Delay in the fulfilment of our requests, and apparent denial of them. But remember that sincere prayer is never offered in vain, and “pray without ceasing.” God knows best when and how to answer our petitions.
III. A DEPRECATED SIN. “God forbid that I should” (far be it from me to) “sin against the Lord,” etc. The sin of its omission is spoken of in direct relation to him, and consists in
1. Disregarding his benevolent designs concerning others. “The Lord will not forsake his people,” etc. (verse 22) If he loves them and seeks their welfare, we should do the same.
2. Disobeying his declared will concerning ourselves. He has not only commanded us to intercede for others, but the very position in which he has placed us is a plain indication of his will. “Ye who remember Jehovah, leave yourselves no rest, and give him no rest,” etc. (Isa 62:6, Isa 62:7).
3. Burying in the earth the greatest talent that he has intrusted to us.
4. Grieving the Holy Spirit, who is ever inciting those in whom he dwells to “cry unto God day and night.” “Quench not the Spirit. Whilst the devout should be urged by these considerations to “continue instant in prayer,” others should remember that it is possible to place an improper reliance on the intercessions of the good, especially in expecting to obtain benefit from their prayers whilst they neglect to pray for themselves or walk in “the good and right way.”D.
1Sa 12:24. (GILGAL.)
The good and right way.
“Only fear the Lord,” etc. Samuel assured the people that (as a priest) he would continue to pray for them, and (as a prophet) to show them the way of happiness and righteousness (Act 7:4). Of this way the text may be taken as a further explanation, and gives
I. ITS DESCRIPTION.
1. Filial reverence. Fear not (be not terrified1Sa 12:17, 1Sa 12:18, 1Sa 12:20); but fear (with a lowly, affectionate, trustful reverence.), implying a knowledge of his character and saving purposes, in so far as he has revealed them to men; in our case, of him who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
2. Practical obedience. “And serve him.” Recognise yourselves as servants, his servants, and act accordingly. “Fear God, and keep his commandments” (the practical expression of the principle): “for this is the whole of man” (Ecc 12:13). The two may not be disjoined (Jos 24:14; Psa 2:11). “The life of service is work; the work of a Christian is obedience to the law of God” (Hall).
3. Thorough sincerity and whole heartedness. “In truth, with all your heart.” Do not suppose that it is sufficient to render an outward and formal service; or a partial service, in which the love of idols may be united with the love of God. “Serve him only” (1Sa 7:3). “God will put up with many things in the human heart; but there is one thing he will not put up with in ita second place. He who offers God a second place offers him no place; and he who makes religion his first object makes it his whole object” (Ruskin).
II. ITS NECESSITY. “Only.” You must walk in it, whatever else you do; for it is only by doing so that you can
1. Avoid walking in the evil and wrong way. The “vision of life” which the great Teacher saw and described contained only two ways, the broad and the narrow, and there is no other.
2. Escape the destructive consequences of that way. You have already entered on a perilous course, only, “fear the Lord,” etc. “If ye still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both you and your king” (1Sa 12:25). “The way of transgressors is hard.” “it leadeth to destruction.”
3. Receive, and continue to receive, the blessings that have been promised. “The Lord will not forsake his people,” only, “fear,” etc. “I will pray for you, and teach you,” only, “fear,” etc. (Jer 6:16; Isa 1:19).
III. ITS INCENTIVE. “For consider how great things he hath done for you.” The motive here is not fear of punishment, nor hope of reward, nor even the sense of right, but gratitude and love.
1. What benefits; so great, so numerous, so long continuedtemporal and spiritual (1Sa 12:6-11).
2. Toward you, in comparison with others (1Sa 12:22).
3. He hath wrought. He, and no other; freely and graciously. “Free love is that which has never been deserved, which has never been desired, and which never can be requited.” “We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love” (1Jn 4:17). But in order that his love may be perceived and its influence felt, in awakening love, we must consider, fix attention upon it, especially as manifested in “his unspeakable gift” (1Jn 4:10). Our responsibility in regard to “salvation” depends directly on the power we possess of directing attention to Divine truth, and considering it with a real and earnest desire to know it, and live according to it; and by this means, as ice is melted by the sunbeams, so the heart is softened, renewed, and sanctified by the Spirit of truth. “O that they would consider!”D.
HOMILIES BY D. FRASER
1Sa 12:23
The good man’s weapons.
There was a vein of misgiving evident in the words of Samuel. Perhaps the new king and his triumphant soldiers ascribed it to the timorousness of old age; but the seer looked further into the future than they, and if he felt bound to warn them of the danger they would incur by rebelling against the commandment of the Lord, he gave them at the same time an assurance that he would do all in his power to preserve them from such wickedness and its inevitable consequences. The man of God could never forget Israel. But what could he do in old age for this intractable people? The reins of government had been taken out of his hands; and it had never been his duty, now less than ever, to go out to battle. What remained for him to do? Must he not let king and people take their own coursesow as they pleased, and then reap what they sowed? Nay. Samuel would not, under a plea of helplessness, withdraw himself from all care for Israel’s future. There remained to him the two greatest weapons for moral effectprayer and teaching. The one points to God in heaven, the other to men on the earth. Such are a prophet’s weapons, and they are mightier than a king’s sceptre or a warrior’s sword. That the intellectual and the moral are the highest forms of greatness and usefulness is a truth which has established itself throughout all history. The most illustrious and influential of the Hebrew race were the prophets. Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, none of the kings compare with these, except David and Solomon, and they because they had qualities resembling those of the prophetsthe one of them a poet, and the other a sage. In like manner the greatest of the Greeks were not their warriors or rulers, but such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotlethe men who thought and who taught. That unique and ancient people, the Chinese, regard as by far their most important man the sage Confucius. Their most powerful emperors have been comparatively little men. Our modem nations too have had their characters moulded by their thinkers and teachers far more than by their princes and soldiers; and a nation’s character makes its history as much as its history shapes its character. There is a supreme illustration of this truth. Unspeakably the greatest effect ever produced by one personality on the human race has been exerted by the man Christ Jesus. The widest, deepest, and most beneficial influence has issued from him; and he began that mighty movement, which has outlasted many governments, and shows no symptom of weakness or decay, by the very instruments or weapons which were named and used by the prophet Samuel, viz; prayer and instruction. Jesus prayed; Jesus taught. How weak in comparison were the men of the swordHerod, and Pontius Pilate, and Pilate’s imperial master at Rome I Jesus had no worldly title, and used no carnal weapon. If he was a king, it was to bear witness to the truth. The weapons by which he overcame were thesehe prayed, and so prevailed with God; he taught, and so prevailed with men. In the same manner he continues to animate and strengthen the Church. He makes continual intercession in heaven; and by the abiding of his words and the living guidance of his Spirit he gives continual instruction on earth. In the very beginning of the Church the apostles showed their deep appreciation of this truth, and refused to be drawn aside from that way of highest usefulness which their Master had shown to them. They would concentrate their energies on moral and spiritual work. “We will give ourselves to the word of God and to prayer.” Paul was of the same mind in his apostolate. He relied on weapons “not carnal, but mighty through God.” He foresaw, and it is evident from the writings of Peter and John that they too in old age foreboded, evil days, as Samuel did in his declining years; but those apostles knew no better course to recommend to the faithful than that which Samuel followedto pray always, and to teach sound doctrine. Evil might come, even apostasy might ensue; but the elect would be proved and purified, and after troubled days the kingdom would ultimately be set up in “the sure mercies of David,” and the confusion of the time of Saul would be past forever. No emphasis is laid on rite or ceremony. Samuel was a priest, and lived in a dispensation of religion which gave great scope for ritual. But we are left to assume that the rites prescribed through Moses were observed at this period. We hear wonderfully little about them. Samuel was intent on teaching that “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” How weak and puerile to lay the stress of our religion on the observance of ritual, or the performances of a priesthood! The way to make and keep a people Christian is not to sing masses for them, or multiply altar ceremonies and celebrations, but to pray, and to “teach the good and the right way,” of obedience to conscience and to God. Whoso would serve his own generation well, let him pray, and let him by example, and persuasive speech or writing, preach righteousness. These are the good man’s weapons, and these through God are mighty. Mischief may go on, as Saul went on to distress the people of God; but prayer and teaching quietly counteract the mischief, and prepare the way for a revival of piety and the reign of the “King of kings and Lord of lords.”F.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 12:1. And Samuel said unto all Israel Saul being now publicly recognised for the king of Israel, Samuel takes the occasion of this solemn meeting to appeal to the people in the presence of their king, in justification of himself and his conduct since he had been judge over them: his office ceasing of course, now that God had given them a king.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II. Samuels solemn concluding Transaction with the Assembly of the People at Gilgal
1Sa 12:1-25
1And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold I have hearkened unto your voice in 2all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you, and I am old and gray-headed,1 and behold, my sons [my sons, behold, they] are with you, and I have walked before you from my 3childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am. Witness against me before the Lord [Jehovah] and before his Anointed: whose ox have I taken? or, whose ass have I taken? or, whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or, of whose hand have I received any [a] bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?2 and I will 4restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither 5hast thou taken aught of any mans hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is [Jehovah be] witness against you, and his Anointed is [be] witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they3 answered [said], He is witness 6[Witness be they]. And Samuel said unto the people, It is [om. it is] the Lord [Jehovah]4 that [who] advanced [appointed] Moses and Aaron, and that [who] brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt!
7Now, therefore, [And now] stand still [stand forth] that I may [and I will] reason with you before the Lord [Jehovah]5 of all the righteous acts of the Lord 8[Jehovah] which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come [came] into Egypt, and6 your fathers cried unto the Lord [Jehovah], then the Lord [Jehovah] sent Moses and Aaron, which [and they] brought forth [om. forth] 9your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. And when [om. when] they forgat the Lord [Jehovah] their God, [ins. and] he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor,7 and into the hand of the Philistines,10and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord [Jehovah] and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord [Jehovah], and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth; but [and] now 11deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord [Jehovah] sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan,8 and Jephthah, and Samuel,8 and delivered 12you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord [Jehovah] your God was your king.
13Now, therefore, [And now] behold the king whom ye have chosen, and [om. and] whom ye have desired [demanded];9 and behold, the Lord [Jehovah] hath set a 14king over you. If ye will fear the Lord [Jehovah], and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord [Jehovah], then shall [om. then shall, ins. and] both ye and also [om. also] the king that reigneth over you [ins. will] continue following [follow] the Lord [Jehovah] your God, well.10 15But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord [Jehovah], but rebel against the commandment of the Lord [Jehovah], then shall the hand of the Lord [Jehovah] 16be against you, as it was against your fathers.11 Now, therefore, [And now] stand 17and see this great thing, which the Lord [Jehovah] will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord [Jehovah], and he shall [will] send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive [know] and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight [eyes] of the Lord [Jehovah] 18in asking you a king. So [And] Samuel called unto the Lord [Jehovah], and the Lord [Jehovah] sent thunder and rain that day; and all the people greatly feared the Lord [Jehovah] and Samuel.
19And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord [Jehovah] thy God that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, 20to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not. Ye have done all this wickedness; yet turn not aside from following the Lord [Jehovah], but serve 21the Lord [Jehovah] with all your heart; And turn ye not aside, for12 then should ye go [om. for then should ye go] after vain things, which cannot [do not] profit nor 22deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord [Jehovah] will not forsake his people for his great names sake; because it hath pleased the Lord [Jehovah] to make 23you his people. Moreover [om. moreover] as for me [ins. also], God forbid that I should [om. God forbid that I should, ins. far be it from me to] sin against the Lord [Jehovah] in ceasing to pray for you,13 but I will teach you the good and 24the [om. the] right way.14 Only fear the Lord [Jehovah] and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider [see] how great things [how greatly] he hath 25done [wrought] for you [towards you]. But if ye shall still [om. still] do wickedly, ye shall be consumed [destroyed] both ye and your king.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Sa 12:1. And Samuel said to all Israel. That the following words were really spoken by Samuel is put beyond doubt by the direct impression of historical truth which this narrative in chap. 12 makes, and by the homogeneity of the individual historical features of this picture with the historical picture given us in all that precedes. Ewald (Gesch. [History of Israel] I., 229, Rem. 2) calls this a narrative which in its present form is inserted only for the sake of the exhortations to be put into Samuels mouth, and the occasional historical statements of which sound very discrepant, against which we remark: 1) that the historical statements in this piece, as the exposition will show, do not at all contradict the foregoing historical account, and 2) that if a mere insertion had been intended here, in order to put exhortations into Samuels mouth, it would have been simpler to give it in the form of a monologue; that is, a continuous address of Samuel to the people.We have here, namely, not one continuous address of Samuel, as this section is usually called, but a dialogue, a conversation or transaction with the people in the grandest style. Samuel speaks to all Israel, and they speak to him by the mouth of their elders (cf. 1Sa 12:3-6; 1Sa 12:19-20), and the longer connected declarations of the prophet (1Sa 12:7-17; 1Sa 12:20-25) are embraced by these colloquies and attached to them.Incorrect also is the usual designation of this section as a parting-address, whereby its significance in relation to the preceding account of Sauls public solemn presentation to the whole people as king of Israel is obscured or concealed. Samuel does not take leave of the people in order to withdraw from the scene of public life and action into the retirement of private life; he rather promises the continuance not only of his intercession for them, but also of his prophetic labors in respect to the whole people; he points expressly to the elevated position which he will assume, as teacher of the good and right way, hereafter, as now, towards king and people.Further, when the whole procedure, as is common, is regarded as a solemn resignation of office by Samuel, we must call attention to the fact mentioned in 1Sa 7:15, that he judged Israel all the days of his life, and to the vigorous interference which he repeatedly found necessary during Sauls government. Certainly with the incoming of the kingdom, which the people desired instead of the existing judgeship (1Sa 8:5; 1Sa 8:20) in order that the king might judge the people and lead them in war, the official position which Samuel had hitherto occupied as judge in Israel, must have had an end; and this end of his proper judicial office, sole and highest Governor of Israel as he had hitherto been, is the starting-point for what he has now still to say to the people. He remains in fact what he was, the highest judge of Israel according to the will of God, under whose oversight and guidance the kingdom also stands; officially the leadership for external and internal political affairs, for which the kingdom was established, is no longer in his hands. Of a resignation of office nothing is said, but (proceeding only from the fact that the government is now given into the hands of the king, and his official government as judge has now consequently come to an end) he passes in review his previous official life as judge of the people, in order, over against the fulfilment of their desire for a king, which was a factual rejection of his official judgeship externally occasioned by the evil conduct of his sons (1Sa 8:1-7), solemnly to testify and cause them to testify that he had filled his office blamelessly and righteously. On this follows (1Sa 12:7-12) the rebuking reference to the great deeds of the Lord, wherein in the history of His guidance of the people He had magnified Himself in them, and to the guilty relation of ingratitude and unfaithfulness in which they had placed themselves to this their God and king by the longing after an earthly king, which was a rejection of His authority over them. In 1Sa 12:13-18, after a solemn confirmation of the fact, that God the Lord in accordance with that desire had given them a king, in powerful words, which are accompanied and strengthened by an astounding miracle, he exhorts king and people together to the right relation, in which in faithful obedience they are to put themselves, to the will and word of the Lord. King and people are to be obedient subjects of the invisible king. Finally follows (1Sa 12:19-25) a word of consolation from Samuel to the people now, in consequence of this warning and hortatory address, repentantly confessing their sin in their demand for a king, in which he gently and in friendly fashion exhorts them to obedience and faithfulness towards the Lord (1Sa 12:20-21), promises them the Lords grace and faithfulness (1Sa 12:22), and assures them of his continuing active fellowship with them in intercession and in instruction in the way of truth (1Sa 12:23), and finally with repeated exhortation and warning sets before them the blessing and good pleasure of the Lord along with a threatening reference to the punishment to be expected in case of disobedience (1Sa 12:24-25).With this fourfold division this whole dialoguic transaction of Samuel with the people connects itself immediately with what precedes, as the conclusion of the assembly of the people in Gilgal. On this connection see Thenius remarks. Berlenberger Bible: Thus with this ends in solemn wise the general assembly of the people. [Philippson (in Israel. Bib.): This chapter is one of the finest in the book, and is a model of old-Hebrew eloquence. Words and tone speak for the high antiquity of this piece.Tr.]
The words: See, I have hearkened to your voice in all that ye said to me correspond exactly to the words in 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 8:21. Samuel at the same time testifies indirectly to the fact that he had therein obeyed the command of God: Hearken to the voice of the people (1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 8:9; 1Sa 8:22). His listening to the voice of the people was based on the repeated divine command, and was an act of self-denying obedience to the will of the Lord.And I have made a king points to 1Sa 12:15 a of the preceding chapter.
1Sa 12:2. Walketh is to be understood not merely of leading in war, but in general of the official guidance and government of the people. The and I introduces the contrast between the Hitherto and the Now. I am grown old and gray-headed points to the words of the elders, 1Sa 8:5. As the people by the mouth of their elders there take occasion from his age to ask a king for themselves, so Samuel here refers back to it, in order not only to point out that this their demand was fulfilled, since he in fact by reason of his age could no longer hold in his hands the internal and external control of the people, but at the same time, in view of the termination of his office and the beginning of the royal rule, to give account of the righteous character of his long career. The reference to his sons as occupying official positions is not to be regarded (Thenius, Keil, et al.) as a confirmation of his age, but looking to 1Sa 8:1 (where it is expressly said that Samuel on account of his age had made his sons judges over Israel, that is, his assistants in the judicial office) rather as a confirmation of the declaration that this change in the government must needs have taken place by reason of his age, which had already necessitated the substitution of his sons. [It is clearly wrong to suggest (Bib. Com. in loco) that a tinge of mortified feeling at the rejection of himself and his family, mixed with a desire to recommend his sons to the favor and good-will of the nation, is at the bottom of this mention of them. There is no trace here of mortification or favor-seeking. Samuel stands throughout above the people, and promises his continued friendship and watch-care, while he cordially accepts the change of the government.Tr.]. What Samuel here affirms of his official career stands in direct contrast with what is said in 1Sa 8:3 of the blameworthy official conduct of these sons, since it is inconceivable that he did not know, and now have in mind the covetousness and perversion of judgment and the resulting discontent of the people, which was a cofactor in their desire for a royal government. The mode as well as the fact and content of the following self-justification naturally suggest the statement in 1Sa 8:3, and lead to the conclusion that this was the occasion of this (otherwise surprising) justification of his official career, on which in the eyes of the people a shadow had fallen in consequence of the opposite conduct of his sons. In order that, at this important turning-point of his life and of his peoples history, there may be perfect clearness and truth in respect to his judicial career and his unselfish official bearing towards the people, and that the lightest shadow of mistrust and misunderstanding may be dispelled, he in the first place refers to his official life which lay clear and open before the eyes of the people from his youth unto this moment when he had become old and gray; for the words I have walked before you, like the preceding walketh, indicate his public official intercourse and walk.
1Sa 12:3. Answer against me, that is, witness against me. A formal hearing of witnesses as a judicial act is here introduced. The judicial authorities are two, a heavenly, invisible, God the Lord, the All-knowing, before whom he walked, and an earthly-human, clothed, however, with divine authority, the Anointed of the Lord, who in the name and place of God executes the royal office, which includes the judicial. Here for the first time after the establishment of the kingdom the theocratic king is called the Anointed of the Lord. Here for the first time after his installation regard is had to Saul in his royal authority and position. Before him as before the Lord, the people, in reply to Samuels questions put in powerful lapidary style and with grand rhetoric, must bear witness to the following: 1) That he had not covetously appropriated the property of others,ox and ass represent property in a social life based on agriculture and trade, and are expressly named in the Law with the things forbidden to covet (Exo 20:17); Samuels sons, on the contrary, turned after gain, that is, were covetous, 1Sa 8:5;2) that he had violated no mans right and freedom by oppression and violence, defraud is stronger than oppress; both often occur together, as in Deu 28:33, to express violence;his sons perverted judgment, 1Sa 8:3;3) that he had not been guilty of venality in the administration of justice by receiving bribes,kopher () bribe is here not to be regarded (with Keil) as simply a payment for release from capital punishment (Exo 21:30; Num 35:31), but means in general a gift of money designed to buy the favor of the judge and thus escape deserved punishment. The gift was to cover the punishment [the Heb. word means primarily cover,Tr.], and thus as covering be an expiation: that I might hide my eyes from him (or, with it).15 The sons of Samuel took gifts, 1Sa 8:3. This was a transgression of the Law, Exo 23:6; Deu 27:5.The answer of the people: that Samuel had done no wrong.
1Sa 12:5. Strengthening of this declaration by the participation of the people in Samuels invocation of the Lord and his Anointed as witness.16 Calvin: In these words they confess their ingratitude and perfidy before Jehovah and the king, in that they had rejected the so praiseworthy government of Samuel.
1Sa 12:6. Further strengthening of the testimony by repetition on Samuels part of the invocation of Gods witness. To Jehovah we must supply witness; there is no need to suppose that it fell out by clerical error.Maurer: Nothing has fallen out. Samuel repeats the name of Jehovah in order to make the transition to what follows. Appointed [ made, Eng. A.V. advanced] refers to what they were in their God-appointed calling; they were just that for which the Lord had made them, as leaders of the people and their representatives before God.Calvin: The word make is to be understood of those excellent gifts which God had bestowed on Moses and his brother Aaron, that he might use their ministry in leading the people out of Egypt. Samuel also was made by the Lord into that which he was to be and was to the people. In taking part, now, in his invocation of God as witness to his impartiality and justice, the people gave confirmation that he had exercised his judicial authority before the Lord according to his divine calling, and that in this view therefore, there was no necessity for their demand for a king.
After (1Sa 12:1-6) having solemnly testified and before God and the king made them testify to the purity and spotlessness of his long official life among the people, he joins (1Sa 12:7-12) to the name of Jehovah, whom he has invoked as witness, the humbling reminder of the unfaithfulness of which they had been guilty in respect to this their God and Lord and His benefits by the demand for an earthly-human king. He here looks at the relation of the people to their God. The reference to Moses and Aaron as the first instruments of the Lords mighty deeds for His people, and His first deed, the deliverance from Egypt, forms the transition to the following enumeration of Gods might-revelations for the deliverance of His people from great dangers.
1Sa 12:7. Formally and solemnly the first words and now stand forth that I may reason with you before the Lord introduce as it were a judicial procedure (Cleric.: I will conduct my cause, as it were, before a judge), in which Samuel as the judge before the tribunal of the invisible king represents Gods cause over against the people, and holds up before the latter their guilt in this matter of the king.17 Eze 17:20. [righteous deeds] never means merely blessing, benefit, kindness, but always contains the idea of righteousness. It indeed often actually means all that (as in Psalm 22:32; Psa 24:5; Jdg 5:11; Pro 10:2; Pro 11:4) but always from the stand-point of Gods faithfulness in covenant and promise; the acts of salvation are proof of the divine righteousness, so far as they are Gods reply to mans right conduct towards Him, or, without this, an outflow of Gods faithfulness by which He grants man the thing promised as something falling to his share. The Plu. righteous acts, as in Mic 6:5, are Gods several deeds of power and grace performed for His people on the ground of His covenant-relation instituted in Abraham and through Moses. [Bib. Comm.: Samuel is here vindicating God, comp. Stephens speech, Acts 7].
1Sa 12:8. The first and greatest of the mighty deeds of the divine covenant-righteousness is the deliverance out of Egypt and introduction into the land of promise.18 In 1Sa 12:9 the: and they forgat the Lord their God is put as contrast to the righteous acts of the Lord; they answered Gods covenant-fidelity with unfaithfulness, defection. And so the oppressions of the people by foreign enemies are represented as punishments by the righteous God for their defection. He sold them into the hand, etc., indicates the just retribution of their forgetting Him. When His people abandon Him, He, by virtue of the same righteousness which blesses them if they are faithful, abandons them to their enemies, who enslave and oppress them. The selling refers to the right of the father to sell his children as slaves, here exercised by God as the extremest paternal right, as it were (Jdg 2:14; Jdg 3:8; Jdg 4:2; Jdg 4:9; Deu 32:10; Isa 50:1; Isa 52:3; Eze 30:12). [It is also the right of the king to sell his subjects, and of God to dispose of His creatures.Tr.].In proof of this punitive justice of God Samuel adduces individual facts from the time of the Judges on, but only prominent events, as they occurred to him neglecting the order of events and of times, which was here unessential (Cleric). [Pooles Synopsis: Notice here Samuels prudence in reproof: 1) by his reproof of their ancestors he prepares their minds to receive reproof; 2) he shows that their ingratitude is old and so worse, and they should take care that it grow no stronger; 3) he chooses a very mild word, forget, to express their offence.Tr.].Hazor was the capital city of the Canaanites, where dwelt king Jabin whom Joshua smote, Jos 11:1; Jos 11:10-13; Jos 12:19. In the time of the Judges Hazor again appears as the residence of a Canaanitish king Jabin (Jdg 4:2 sq.), instead of whom, however, the there-mentioned captain Sisera is here named, because he commanded the army which then oppressed Israel. The Sept. insertion of Jabin king of after host of, is evidently a mere explanation.Into the hand of the Philistines, see Jdg 3:31, where the attacks of this people are first mentioned. [See also Jdg 13:1.Tr.].Into the hand of the king of Moab, that is, Eglon (Jdg 3:12).These three nations represent, as the most prominent, all the heathen nations into whose hands God gave His people. Samuel mentions them, looking to the beginnings of the sufferings and wars of the Period of the Judges, in respect to which in the Book of Judges also (1 Samuel 3) the he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about (1Sa 12:14) and they forgat the Lord are introduced (as here by Samuel) as correlatives.
1Sa 12:10. The repentant conversion of the people. And they cried to the Lord (comp. Jdg 2:18; Jdg 3:9; Jdg 3:15; Jdg 4:3), that is, the lamentation over their misery directed to the Lord. The following: we have sinned is their self-accusation on account of their defection from God; the sin is twofold, forsaking the Lord and serving idols. The same accusation is found literally in Judg. 10:40, only that here, as in Jdg 2:13; Jdg 10:6, Ashtaroth is added to Baalim. Baal is the general designation of the divinity among the Phenicians and Carthaginians; with the Art. it is the male chief deity of the Phenicians; the Plu. refers to the numerous individualizations of this deity. P. Cassel [in Langes Biblework] on Jdg 2:13 : The various cities and tribes had their special Baals, which were named not always from the cities, but from various natural qualities worshipped in them. This is like the various attributes from which Zeus received various names and worships in Greece. On Baal-cultus among the Israelites see Winer, B. R.-W. s. v. I., 118. Ashtaroth is the designation of the Phenician and Carthaginian female chief deity (along with Baal) which was also worshipped by the Philistines (1Sa 31:10); the Plu. refers to the number of the stars, which she as queen of heaven represents (Jer 7:18; Jer 44:17 sq.); for the Sing. Ashtoreth=Astarte (Grk.) has the same root as star [Germ. stern], , stella, in Pers. Astara (on the Upper Asiatic origin of this word see J. G. Mller s. v. in Herzogs R.-E.); she was not merely the moon goddess alongside of Baal as sun-god, as her pictures with the moon-crescents on the head testify, but as light-giving night-goddess, also star-goddess, representative of the glittering host of heaven (Jer 7:18), like the later Artemis.19 Comp. P. Cassel on Jdg 2:13; Winer, s. v. On the renewed introduction of her worship by Solomon, in which is presented the fulfilment of Deu 4:19, see 1Ki 11:5; 1Ki 11:33.On the accusation follows the prayer, Deliver us in contrast with the forsaking and forgetting, and the vow we will serve thee in contrast with we have served Baalim, etc. This repentance the Lord graciously answers (1Sa 12:11): 1) by sending deliverers. Again only a few are mentioned: Jerubbaal-Gideon; the name signifies let Baal strive, that is, with him, and expresses scorn and contempt at the impotence of Baal, whose altar Gideon had with impunity destroyed, Jdg 6:28-32. Gideon is thence called Jerubbesheth. 2Sa 11:21.The name Bedan is found elsewhere only in 1Ch 7:17 as name of a descendant of Manasseh, who is, however, of no historical importance. In the Book of Judges, to whose contents this part of Samuels address (especially 1Sa 12:10) unmistakably points, there is no judge of this name; but the connection shows that a judge is here meant. The name has been read Ben-Dan = the Danite, as Samson was born in Dan, Jdg 13:2 (Kimchi), and at the same time a play of words on his corpulence [Arab, badana] has been also supposed (Bttch.). But against this last Thenius rightly remarks that a name resting on a word-play would by no means suit this serious discourse; against the first (apart from the form) is the fact that Samson is never so-called, as must have been the case if the people were here to understand the name. Gesenius (Halle Lit. Z. 1841, No. 41) regards the name as abbreviation of Abdon, and so Ewald, who understands the judge of that name (Jdg 12:13). But this judge does not occupy the important place in the history which the connection calls for. Similarly we must reject the supposition that Jair of Gilead Judges 10 assumed to be a descendant of Machir (whose great grandson, 1Ch 7:17, is Bedan) is here meant, since the connection of Jair and Machir is not proved; and the supposition that a judge omitted in the Book of Judges from his insignificance is intended, is untenable. The best expedient is to read (with Sept., Syr., Arab) Barak; for the letters of this name () might easily pass into the other () and the error be perpetuated by copyists. But Barak is one of the most prominent judges along with those here mentioned. The historical-chronological order is not strictly observed in 1Sa 12:9 also. Barak represents with Deborah that heroic Israelitish band that (Judges 4) broke the power of Sisera and delivered Israel out of the hand of the Canaanites.The fact that, after Jeph., Sam. names himself as the fourth representative of the divine deliverance is not so surprising as it is thought by the Syr. and Arab, versions and a Greek manuscript (Kennicott in the Addend, to his dissert. gener.) which put Samson instead, and also by Thenius, who, though the Sept. and Vulg. have Samuel, accepts the former reading because Samuel does not speak of his own times till the next verse. Samuel could mention himself without exciting surprise, because he was conscious of his high mission as judge and deliverer, and the profound significance of his office for the history of Israel was universally recognized. By this mention of himself he honors not himself, but the Lord, who had made him (like Moses and Aaron before) what he was, comp. 1Sa 12:6-9. Besides, it was under him that the yoke of the forty years dominion of the Philistines was broken, which work of deliverance Samson was only able to begin. Samuel includes himself as an instrument of the divine deliverance, because over against him the demand for a king involved the rejection of the Lord (1Sa 8:5), and so the sin against the Lord in that demand appears in the clearest light; and this, after having pointed secondly to the repeated wonderful deliverances of Israel out of the hand of enemies by these messengers of God, and thirdly to the quiet and security which they were enabled to attain in the land, he sets before them in 1Sa 12:12. These words expressly declare that Ammonitish attacks on the territory of Israel were the first occasion of the demand for a king as leader in war, comp. 1Sa 8:20. Clericus well remarks: It hence appears not improbable that Nahash had made incursions into the Hebrew territory before the Israelites had demanded a king, and after his election had returned and begun the siege of Jabesh. It often happens in these books that circumstances omitted in their proper place are mentioned where they less properly belong. And yet the Lord your God is your king.By such deliverers He had shown Himself anew their king; this He was by the covenant, and this He remained by His covenant-faithfulness. With the same declaration Gideon (Jdg 8:23) exhibits the inadmissibility of His elevation as king, and Samuel the sinfulness and the unjustifiableness of their demand for a king.
1Sa 12:13-18. The third section of this transaction: in view of the fact that God has actually established a king in accordance with their demand, though it was a sinful and blameful one, Samuel declares a truth, which contains an earnest warning, namely, that, if the people with their king will maintain the right relation to God in fidelity and obedience to His will, the hand of the Lord will be with them both; in the contrary case, it will be against them both.
1Sa 12:13. And now. Here the discourse turns from the past and from the judgment of the peoples conduct to the present fact of the established kingdom, which, with the words: Behold the king is taken as starting-point for the following declaration and the attached serious warning and truth. In this declaration is set forth the origin of Sauls kingly position1) on its human side by the words: whom ye have chosen, whom ye have demandedthe discourse here goes regressively first to the election instituted by Samuel, and then to the demand made against him and Gods will, and there is just here a progression in the thought;202) on its divine side by the words: behold, the Lord hath set a king over you.Your demand sprang from an evil root, yet hath the Lord granted it; this kingthough chosen and demanded by youis yet alone a work of God; his election and establishment rests on the divine will and command. By these words is confirmed the truth that the Lord is and remains king (1Sa 12:12). So far is that rejection (factually affirmed by the demand) from overthrowing Jehovahs kingdom, that the universal authority of the latter is rather now for the first time rightly declared in the installation of the sought-for king, and in his obligation and the peoples to be subject to Jehovah and unconditionally obedient to His will. This point of view of the absolute theocracy comes out here the more clearly not only by the immediately preceding reference to the human side of the origin of the kingdom, but also by Samuels declaration in 1Sa 12:1 : I have made a king over you, to which stands opposed the declaration: Behold, the Lord hath set a king over you. From this fact, that the installed king is a gift of the Lord, granted to the peoples demand (comp. 1Sa 10:19), follows now, in view of the relation in which therefore people and king should stand to the Lord, the truth and the warning: The well-being of both depends on faithful obedience to the Lords will and word. The if introduces a protasis which includes all of 1Sa 12:14, and has no apodosis. The view that the latter has fallen out by similar endings, and read: then he will save you out of the hand of your enemies (Thenius) is not satisfactorily supported, and is not required to explain the aposiopesis, since the absence of the apodosis is easily explained by the length of the protasis, and its content apparent from the context= well, or it will be well with you. A similar failure of the apodosis to be supplied from the connection is found in Exo 32:32. The assumption of an apodosis with [as in Eng. A. V.] in the sense, then ye will follow the Lord, is untenable, partly from the tautology it makes in protasis and apodosis, partly from the expectation, awakened by the parallelism with the following sentence in 1Sa 12:15, of finding a promise set over against the threat. The voluntative sense of =modo, if only (Keil) [=O that ye would only], cannot be taken here, since it would then have the Imperf.21 (Ew. 329 b). Nor can we (with S. Schmid) connect 1Sa 12:14 with the last words of 1Sa 12:13 : The Lord hath set a king over you, if ye only will, etc.; but if not ., since the conditioned character of the former clause would then require in it the Imperf. If (with Kimchi, Maurer) we read , ye shall live, we cannot (with Maurer) translate: who reigns over you after Jehovah (that is, next to Jehovah), since this is an, expression foreign to the Old Testament; nor (with Tremellius) supply sequentes [that is, ye will live following Jehovah]. If an apodosis be insisted on here (changing the text to ), we might perhaps read: then shall ye live after Jehovah, which answers to the view expressed in the preceding words, of following God in obedience to His commands. But, retaining the text and supposing the apodosis omitted, Samuel here, in keeping with the importance of the moment and the emotion of his own heart, heaps together in most eloquent fashion the demands which are to be made on religious-moral life in view of the conditions of true well-being for the people and their king in the new order of things: to fear the Lord, serve Him, hearken to His voice, not rebel against His word (comp. Deu 1:26, rebel against the mouth [commandment] of the Lord), and be after him, or, remain in His retinue true to Him. About the last words Keil rightly remarks (against Thenius) that to be after is good Hebrew, and especially is often used in the sense, to attach ones self to the king, hold to him, comp. 2Sa 2:10; 1Ki 12:20; 1Ki 16:21. This expression corresponds completely to the thought underlying this exhortation, namely, that the Lord, in spite of Israels rejection of Him by the demand for an earthly-human king, is and remains the King of His people (1Sa 12:12-13).
1Sa 12:15. The contrast: But if ye will not(from the preceding are recapitulated only the two traits of obedience to the word of the Lord and not rebelling against His commandment)then will the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers.22This comparative addition looks to the words from 1Sa 12:7 to 1Sa 12:12, wherein is pointed out how the fathers had brought on themselves by sin and defection the oppression of the enemy, in which the hand of the Lord was heavy on them, and from which the people now hoped to be delivered by the kings. At bottom the defection of the fathers and the demand for a king who was to deliver from oppressions sent by God for their sins, are one and the same wrong against the Lord. Therefore Samuel wishes by his earnest warning to lead them to repentance.
1Sa 12:16 gives the transition to a miraculous confirmation of that realness of the divine holiness and righteousness, with which Samuel, his gaze fixed on the future, has just directed his exhortation to the people in the form of the announcement of a sentence. Even now connects the following with the preceding, so that 1) the picture of a judicial scene, which was introduced in 1Sa 12:7, is continued in the following narration, and 2) the signification of the next related fact is closely connected with that of the previously spoken words. The now also or even now refers back to 1Sa 12:7, where the judidicial scene is introduced with the same words: and now stand forth, that I may reason with you. The reasoning continues thence through all the stages of the discourse, which the people have up to this moment heard, and is completed in the fact announced by Samuel [that is, the thunder-storm.TR.], in which they are to behold the Lords judgment on their sin in the matter of the king.
1Sa 12:17. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? This question signifies that at that season (in May or June) rain was unusual. So testifies Jerome on Am. iv. 7 [and Rob. I., 429431.TR.]. After the barley-harvest (2Sa 21:9; Rth 1:22; Rth 2:23) followed the wheat-harvest, 1Sa 6:13; Gen 30:14; Jdg 15:1To give voices, said of Jehovah, = to thunder, Psa 46:7; Psa 68:34; Psa 18:14; Exo 9:23. Thunder is called the voice of the Lord, Psa 29:3 sq. Samuel announces a storm with thunder and rain as a God-given sign, by which the Israelites should perceive that they had grievously sinned against God in asking a king. The voices = thunder answer to the voice and mouth in 1Sa 12:15.
1Sa 12:18. At Samuels request this sign of His anger and His punitive justice, as manifestation of His kingly glory, takes place.The result is that the people are seized with great fear of the Lord and of Samuel; of Samuel is added because he, as before by his word, so by his introduction of this manifestation, wonderful and contrary to the ordinary course of nature, of Gods wrath, had displayed himself as instrument of the judicial power and glory of the God-king.
1Sa 12:19-25. Fourth section of Samuels dealing with the repentant people. Confession of sin, comfort and exhortation to the humbled people.
1Sa 12:19. Their overwhelming fright and terror of soul leads first to the prayer to Samuel to call on the Lord that He might mercifully spare them. That we die not,the presence of the holy and just God has made itself known to the people. Before Him the sinner cannot stand, His judgment must reach him. The for supplies the basis to the thought contained in what precedes, that they had deserved the punishment of the angry God. Their penitent confession is not merely the admission that they had asked a king, but that they had added to all their sins this evil. 1Sa 12:20. The word of consolation: Fear not, in contrast with: and all the people greatly feared (1Sa 12:18). To his consoling word Samuel adds 1) the reference to their sin, which, in order to retain them in wholesome sorrowful repentance, he anew sets before them in its whole extent (ye have done all this wickedness), and 2) the exhortation, negative: only turn not aside from following the Lord (the from after points back to the after in 1Sa 12:15); positive: Serve the Lord with all your heart, the undivided, complete devotion of the heart, the innermost life to the Lord is inseparably connected with not turning aside from Him.
1Sa 12:21. Warning against apostasy to idol-worship. And turn ye not aside [after vanities which do not profit]. (Text-criticism.The difficulties in the for after are not set aside by supplying or , as many ancient and modern expositors do [so Eng. A. V.TR.]. According to this view, the ground of the resumed warning would be here given: for ye go (if ye do that, namely, turn aside from the Lord) after vanities. But then something is adduced as ground of the warning which is implicitly its object; besides, apart from the hardness of the insertion, the resumption of the turn not aside with and is a difficulty. Looking at the following , it becomes probable that this one was by mistake inserted a line before. It is rendered in not one of the ancient versions (Then.). It is wanting in Luthers version also. The omission of the gives a good, clear sense and an advance suitable to the lively character of the whole discourse. The Turn not aside from the Lord [1Sa 12:20] is continued in the Turn not aside after vanities, for apostasy to idolatry is the consequence of apostasy from the Lord. The former is introduced with (only do not) in the form of urgent request, hearty wish, the latter as a categorically-determined negative with , (not.). Idols are described as naughty, vain (= ), as in Isa 46:9 the idol-makers. They cannot help nor deliver, because they are simply, tohu, nothing, vanity.[Comp. 1Co 8:4.TR.]
1Sa 12:22 is factually the reason why they are not to fear (1Sa 12:20); but formally this verse is the ground of the preceding exhortation; they are not to forsake the Lord and turn aside from Him and serve idols, because the Lord will not forsake them as His people, which is said in contrast with the vain idols, which cannot help and deliver, because they are naught, while the Lords great name is to be the pledge that He will not forsake them. The words: for his names sake are explained by and based on the declaration: for it hath pleased the Lord ( ), not the Lord hath begun, but he has by free determination taken the first step thereto, it pleased him (comp. Jdg 17:11; Jos 7:7; Exo 2:21).To make you his people.This embraces all Gods deeds, by which He has established Israel in history as His people, the deeds of choice, deliverance out of Egypt, covenanting, introduction into the promised inheritance, preservation from enemiesby these deeds He has glorified His name, which is the expression of all Gods revelations of salvation and power to His people. The ground of this is found simply in the determination of the free, loving will of God, comp. Deu 7:6-12, which furnishes a complete parallel to the train of thought here. Of the vain idols it is said in 1Sa 12:21 [lo yoilu, they do not profit], of the Lord here [hoil, he did kindly, it pleased him], a paronomasia of pregnant meaning. The name of the Lord, therefore, that by which He has made Himself this name in His relations to His people, and that which thence resulted, the dignity of the people as the Lords people and their appertainment to Him as His property is the pledge that He will not leave His people. His people and make you His people are corresponding expressions, they are His people because He has made them His people. Comp. Psa 100:3; Psa 95:7; Deu 7:6; Deu 7:9; Deu 7:18.
1Sa 12:23. Samuel promises the people his personal mediation and aid, partly through the priestly function of intercession for them, partly through the exercise of his prophetic office in showing them the right way. The as for me too refers to the Jehovah in the preceding verse, and to the close connection into which the people (1Sa 12:19) had brought his name with the name of the Lord. The assurance of his intercession follows on the request in 1Sa 12:19 : Pray for thy servants. Both passages put Samuels prayer-life anew in a clear light (comp. 7, 8). By the solemn asseveration far be it, he points to the importance which he himself attributes to his intercession for the people. The word sin indicates his obligation before the Lord to intercede; to neglect this would be a sin against the Lord; for, as mediator between God and the people, he must enter the Lords presence in whatever concerned them, for weal or for woe. Comp. his work of prayer in chs. 7, 8. The not ceasing indicates his persistency in intercession.Along with this priestly mediation Samuel promises also his constant prophetic watch-care, which consists in showing the good and right way, that is, the way of God. The predicates good and right show that moral conduct is referred to, and that according to the will and law of the Lord (so Psa 25:4). The instruction is to be given to king as well as people.
1Sa 12:24. Samuel, having spoken of his person and his personal office, now directs the peoples look from his person and work to the Lord, and holds up anew before king and people the great EitherOr: either ye will fear the Lord and serve Him and ye will experience the salvation of your God,or, ye will do evil andboth of you will be destroyed. The discourse culminates in a condensed statement of what is said in 1Sa 12:14-15. The in truth, with all your heart, exhibits the double character of the service of God, of truth and of innerness, in contrast with the service of outward appearance and dead works. Since this exhortation to fear and serve God relates to the general religious-moral life of the people, we cannot refer the confirmatory declaration: For ye see what great things he hath done for you to the extraordinary natural phenomenon narrated in 1Sa 12:18. The mighty deeds of the Lord here referred to are those mentioned in 1Sa 12:6-7 sqq., to which reference is repeatedly made in all these transactions relating to the king (1Sa 8:8; 1Sa 10:18), from which most frequently is drawn the motive for true fear of God and obedience to His will, because by them God established and confirmed His covenant relation with Israel as His people, and so the people owed Him covenant-fidelity and obedience as their God.
HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL
1. Review of the history of the introduction by Samuel of the Israelitish monarchy under Saul (chaps 812). The following are its principal stadia, in the general and special development of which the well-adjusted connection between the several sections becomes apparent. In chap. 8 Samuel confers with the people concerning their demand for a king, and receives in prayer the revelation from the Lord that he should listen to the peoples demand and give them a king. In 1Sa 9:1-17 is set forth the providence of the Lord, whereby in the person of Saul the divinely chosen and appointed king of Israel is led to Samuel, and is designated as such by a special revelation from the Lord. 1Sa 9:17 to 1Sa 10:16, Samuel as instrument of the divine call which came to Saul; Saul receives from Samuel first the announcement of his high calling by the Lord (1Sa 12:17-25), then the consecration to the royal office by anointing, and the assurance of his call by reference to appointed signs therefor (1Sa 10:1-8), and finally the confirmation and strengthening of his divine call together with qualification for it by the Spirit of the Lord (1Sa 12:9-16).1Sa 10:18-27. Samuel and the people in the assembly at Mizpah for the public presentation of the God-chosen king, which is followed by a partial recognition only on the part of the people.Chap. 11 Sauls proclamation and general recognition as king of Israel in consequence of his heroic deed of deliverance from the Ammonites, and also his solemn installation at Gilgal.Chap. 12 Samuel, in a solemn, affecting final conference at Gilgal, after a justificatory review of his official career, places people and monarchy under the government of the Lord, as their king, and obligates both to obey His will.
2. Samuel yields to the desire of the people because he knows that now Gods time has come; but at the same time he makes every effort to bring the people to a consciousness of their sins. If it were true that Samuel considered the monarchy in itself incompatible with the theocracy, how very differently he must have acted! In that case, when the whole people, deeply moved by his discourse and by the confirmatory divine sign, said: Pray for thy servants to the Lord thy God, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king (1Sa 12:19), he must have insisted that the old form be straightway re-established. But he is far from doing this. He rather exhorts the people to be from now on faithful to the Lord, who would glorify Himself in them and their king. Hengstenberg, Beitr. 3, 258 sq. [Contributions, etc.].
3. At Gilgal [chap. 12] Samuel stands at the highest point of his work as instrument of the divine guidance and government of his people, and as mediator between the people and God as their king and lord. As prophet he leads king and people together into the presence of the Lord, calls forth in the people by a moving discourse the deep feeling of sin and the penitent confession of guilt, places king and people under Gods royal majesty and legal authority, and obligates them to inviolable obedience to the will of the Lord. As judge he, at Gods command, installs the asked-for king, makes the people solemnly confirm the self-justifying declaration which he with invocation of God and the king had made, conducts the Lords cause against the unfaithful people by reasoning with them and accusing them, exhibits in thunder and storm the majesty and the wrath of the despised invisible king, decrees weal and woe, salvation and destruction to king and people, according to the regard which they hereafter show to the exhortations and instructions which he had given them as prophet. In this sense, in spite of the termination now of his official functions as judge, he remains a judge over king and people. And there is, besides, his priestly position, in which he again presents himself between the Lord and His people, with the assurance and promise that he will ever intercede for them, and would sin by not interceding. The people so needed him as long as he lived.
4. The Lords mighty deeds towards and for His people, their apostasy to unfaithfulness and idolatry, punishment for their sins in oppression and misery, cry to the Lord for help in time of need, repentance and confession of sins, new exhibitions of the Lords grace, these are in constant sequence the chief features of the history of the kingdom of God in Israel, here briefly sketched (1Sa 12:7-12), and in the Book of Judges detailed at length.
5. The mention of the Lords manifestations of grace and revelations of power for His people, which is here heard from Samuel, and remains throughout all prophecy a standing element of prophetic preaching, has as its aim: 1) to glorify the name of God, to bring out clearly His covenant-faithfulness, and to exhibit the peoples high calling as chosen people and Gods property; 2) to show more strikingly the peoples sin in unfaithfulness, unthankfulness and disobedience, and thereby to bring them to acknowledgment of their sin; 3) to induce sincere repentance and penitent return to the Lord; 4) to show the penitent people the source of consolation and help, and to fix in their hearts the ground of hope for future salvation; 5) to make more effective admonitions and warnings respecting the maintenance and attestation of their covenant-faithfulness.
6. The truth and the fact: The Lord your God is your King (1Sa 12:12), notwithstanding its subjective obscuration in the consciousness of the people, whence proceeded the demand (sinful in its motives and moral presuppositions) for an earthly-human kingdom, has lost so little objectively in validity and importance that now, in the outset of the history of the kingdom granted by God in accordance with this desire, it rather comes out more clearly, since monarchy and people are placed under the immediate royal authority of God (1Sa 12:13-14), and both people and king (the two embraced as a unit in this point of view, 1Sa 12:14), exhorted to like obedience to His royal will, and threatened with like punishment from the Most High King as their Judge (1Sa 12:14-15; 1Sa 12:25). The rejection of the God-king by the demand for a man-king led to a higher stage of development of the theocracy, on which, over against and by means of the earthly kingdom, there was of necessity a so much the more glorious unfolding of the royal honor of God.
7. Gods manifestations of grace and salvation to Israel are often regarded in the Old Testament under the point of view of righteousness, and called by this name, as in 1Sa 12:7. But this righteousness is not then (as is often done) to be taken as =goodness, benefit, and the like, for these are different conceptions; nor as=faithfulness, trustworthiness, so far as God fulfils to His people the promises which He gives as covenant-God. The ground of this designation of the divine gracious kindnesses is given in the relation in which God as covenant-God stands to His people; established by own free grace and His absolute loving will (1Sa 12:22), it is the norm, according to which the people over against him walk in the obedience due to His holy will (ethical righteousness), and on the other hand the Lord over against His people reveals to them the love and goodness which belong to them as His possession by virtue of the gracious rights established by Him, imparting to them gifts and benefits of grace partly as a promised blessing, partly as reward of faithful and obedient fulfilment of covenant-obligations (Psa 24:5; 22:32; Mic 6:5). In accordance with this, God in His deliverances exercises His righteousness (which gives each his own) as King of His people on the ground and according to the norm of the covenant-relation established by Himself in His own free grace (1Sa 12:14-15; 1Sa 12:24-25). Comp. 1Jn 1:9 : God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins. After the completion of the economy of salvation in Christ, Gods righteousness is exhibited, along with His faithfulness, in the bestowment on the penitent sinner of the gracious gift of forgiveness of sins as something which belongs to him by the right accorded him by free grace, since God has ordained that he who penitently confesses his sins shall find pardon.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1Sa 12:1-6. How a servant of God should, after the example of Samuel, rightly perform the duty of maintaining his personal honor and innocence against unjust accusations: 1) By a clear and true statement of his own course of life and behaviour (1Sa 12:1-2); 2) By a bold appeal to the knowledge and conscience of others (1Sa 12:3-4); 3) By a solemn invocation of the all-knowing God as the best witness. [1Sa 12:2-3. Samuel a statesman and civil and military ruler, living in times of cruel warfare, political changes, social corruption, and general relaxation of morality; he can solemnly appeal to God and man for the absolute integrity of his official conduct through all the years (particularizing thata) he has not seized their property, b) defrauded them, nor c) inflicted personal violence, and d) has not taken bribes); and all the people (1Sa 12:5-6), and God Himself (1Sa 12:18), fully confirm the claim. A notable example, often needed.Hall: No doubt Samuel found Himself guilty before God of many private infirmities; but, for his public carriage, he appeals to men. A mans heart can best judge of himself; others can best judge of his actions. Happy is that man that can be acquitted by himself in private, in public by others, by God in both.Scott: The honor rendered to those who are concluding their course, differs widely from the applause and congratulation which many receive when they first step forth before the public eye. This, indeed, often terminates in disgrace and contempt.TR.]
1Sa 12:7-12. Think of former times: 1) That we may with shame remember the Lords many manifestations of grace and benefits; 2) That we may be penitently conscious of the sins committed against the Lord; 3) That we may humbly acknowledge the ground of all evils and distresses in our own guilt; 4) That we may honestly turn to the obedience of faith towards the Lord. [1Sa 12:7-12. Hall: Samuel had dissuaded them beforehe reproves them not until now.. We must ever dislike sinwe may not ever show it. Discretion in the choice of seasons for reproving is not less commendable and necessary than zeal and faithfulness in reproving.TR.]
1Sa 12:14-15. With whom or against whom is the hand of the Lord? The answer to this question depends on the following considerations: 1) Whether one has, or has not, given himself to be the Lords with his whole hearta) in true fear of God, b) in true service of God; 2) Whether one is, or is not, in his will thoroughly obedient to the will of the Lord, a) hearkening unconditionally to His word, b) not resisting His commandments; 3) Whether one is, or is not, in his whole walk ready to follow the Lord in His guidancea) keeping in the way pointed out by Him, b) keeping in view the goal set up by Him.
1Sa 12:13-15. True unity between king and people, authorities and subjects: 1) As being holy it is closely bound by the hand of the King of all kings in establishing the covenant between the two (1Sa 12:13; 1 Samuel 2) As being deeply grounded it is rooted in the common obligation of both alike to fear God, serve God, obey God (no true unity without right fear of God, humble service of God, faithful obedience to God) (1Sa 12:14); 3) As unshakable and abiding it is maintained in times of heavy assaults, when both are tempted to apostasy, unbelief and disobedience (1Sa 12:15 a); 4) It shows itself ever firmer in view of the Lords threatenings and promises to both.
1Sa 12:14-19. The hard speech of God against sinners: 1) Why it is necessarybecause men are hard-hearted, hard of hearing, cross-grained; 2) How it makes itself heardin the earnest exhortations of His holy love (1Sa 12:14), in the threatenings of His righteous wrath (1Sa 12:15), in alarming natural events (1Sa 12:16-18); 3) What is its aimacknowledgment of sin (1Sa 12:17), fear of God (1Sa 12:18), seeking Gods grace (1Sa 12:19).
1Sa 12:19-21. To whom applies the divine word of consolation, Fear not: To those who1) penitently confess their sins before God, 2) humbly acknowledge Gods punishments as well-merited, 3) eagerly seek Gods grace and mercy; 4) are willing to serve the Lord in faithful obedience.
1Sa 12:20-21. The exhortation to fidelity, Turn not aside from the Lord. Turn not aside1) When experiencing His punitive justice, but have childlike confidence in His forgiving love; 2) When harassed by natural inclination to resist His will, but serve Him in faithful obedience through the power of His Spirit; 3) When tempted to fall away by the world which is sunk in the service of vanity, but bravely withstand the idolatry of the ungodly world.
1Sa 12:20-21. A threefold word of exhortation to penitent sinners: 1) A word reminding of past sin (Ye have done all this wickedness); 2) A word consolingly pointing to the divine grace (Fear not); 3) A word exhorting to fidelity (Turn not aside from the Lord), which, with the warning against the idolatry of the vain world contains a demand to serve the Lord alone with all the heart.
1Sa 12:22. The Lord forsakes not His peoplefor 1) He has made His people His possessiona) by choice out of free grace, b) by covenanting with them in faithful love; 2) He has made Himself a great name among His people, a) by His wonderful deeds in the past, b) by the promises of His word for the future.
1Sa 12:23. The highest service of love which men can do one another: 1) Intercession for each other before the Lord; 2) Pointing to the good and right way.Ceasing to intercede for our brethren a sin against the Lord: 1) Because the souls of our brethren as members of His people are His possession; 2) Because the Lord demands intercession as a sign and fruit of love, which flows from the fountain of His paternal love, and in which men as His children are to keep themselves before Him; 3) Because the Lord, in that community of life in which He has placed us, often gives us special occasion and necessity to pray for our brethren. [Henry: Samuel promises more than they asked. (1) They asked it of him as a favorhe promised it as a duty. (2) They asked him to pray for them at this time, and upon this occasion, but he promises to continue his prayers for them, and not to cease as long as he lived. (3) They asked him only to pray for them, but he promises to do more, to teach them also the good and the right way, the way of duty, the way of pleasure and profit.TR.]
1Sa 12:24-25. Fear the Lord: 1) What sort of fear the true fear of God Isaiah 2) On what it is grounded (great things). 3) Whereby it manifests itself (serving Him). 4) From what it preserves (from temporal and eternal destruction). [Henry: And two things he urges by way of motive: (1) Gratitude, considering what great things he had done for them; (2) Interest, considering what great things He would do against them, if they should still do wickedly.TR.] 1Sa 12:22; 1Sa 12:25. Harless (On Hallowing the Sabbath, I., 113): The hope of genuine national prosperity. Where then is the ground for hope of genuine national prosperity? Where there Isaiah 1) Fear of Gods Name; 2) Confidence in Gods Name.
Footnotes:
[1][1Sa 12:2. Sept. wrongly , as if from .Tr.]
[2][1Sa 12:3. Or, in his account; so Chald.: I hid my eyes in judgment from him. Sept. reads: a ransom (proper rendering of , but here= bribe) and a sandal (reading , instead of ), answer against me, and, etc. So in Sir 46:19. Vulg.: I will despise that to-day. Syr. and Chald. support Heb. The insertion in the Sept. of the easy answer is suspicious, and the sandal is hard. It seems better to retain the abbreviated Heb. text.Tr.]
[3][1Sa 12:5. Heb. is sing., but Sept. and several VSS. and Heb. MSS. plu.; the subject is the people, which may have been taken as a sing. collective.Tr.]
[4][1Sa 12:6. Sept.: Jehovah be witness, who, etc., a natural and suspicious insertion, and not necessary. Syr. has Jehovah is God alone. Ch. and Vulg. as Heb.Tr.]
[5][1Sa 12:7. Sept. inserts: and I will tell you, which makes the sentence easier, but is easily supplied in the pregnant Heb. construction.Tr.]
[6][1Sa 12:8. Erdmann not so well makes the apodosis begin here. Here Sept. inserts: and Egypt humbled them, which has much to recommend it. But, if it had been in the original text, it would be hard to explain how it fell out. The addition of and his sons after Jacob in the Sept. is probably spurious.Tr.]
[7][1Sa 12:9. Sept.: host of Jabis king of Asor, which agrees with the expression in Jdg 4:2; Jdg 4:7. So the Vulg.Tr.]
[8][1Sa 12:11. Sept.: Barak. In the Syr. the list is: Deborah, Barak, Gideon, Nephtah, Samson. Probably we should read Barak for Bedan; the others as in the Heb. text. See Exegetical Notes.Tr.]
[9][1Sa 12:13. Omitted in Sept. The order in the Heb. does not seem natural, but may refer to the two paths by which they obtained the king (chs. 10 and 11). Wellhausen suggests that there is here a duplet. De Rossi prefers, on the authority of many MSS. and three VSS. (Syr., Vulg., Arab.), the insertion of and before whom ye have demanded.Tr.]
[10][1Sa 12:14. On the construction see Exeget. Notes. For Heb. , be, Chald. in Waltons Polyg. has , live (which does not help the matter), but P. de Lagardes ed. of Codex Reuchlinianus (Targ.) has , be gathered.Tr.]
[11][1Sa 12:15. Sept.: and against your king, which accords with 1Sa 12:14.Tr.]
[12][1Sa 12:21. The is, with all the ancient vss., to be omitted. Syr. and Arab. and Chald. diverge slightly from the masor. text.Tr.]
[13][1Sa 12:23. Sept. inserts: and I will serve the Lord.Tr.]
[14][1Sa 12:23. The omission of the Art. in is strange.Tr.]
[15]Thenius, on the ground that in the sense of hide is always construed with , changes the text into , and (if it were only) a pair of shoes; witness against me, against which Keil rightly remarks that the supposed meaning hide from does not suit here; that the thought is not that the judge hides his eyes from the in order not to see the bribe, but that he covers his eyes with the bribe, in order not to see and punish the crime. The , however, might also be referred to , and would then mean: that I might hide my eyes on his account, towards him, or in respect to him. The change after the Sept., requiring a large addendum for explanation, compels us to introduce a too special thing (shoes) in the most extraordinary way.
[16]We must read the Sing. [said], not the Plu. (Qeri), since the people is to he taken as subject.
[17]The Accus. sign [) is here: concerning, in respect to.The verb judge usually has with the object, as in Jer 2:35; Joel 3:27; but has also the Accus. as in Eze 17:20.
[18]We are not with the Sept. to insert after and after . If either had originally been there, it would not have been omitted. The breviloquent text speaks for its originality. The is the explanation of the in 1Sa 12:6).
[19][This account of Ashtoreth is in several points incorrect. The word (the etymology of which is not known) has no connection with , and the Plu. Ashtaroth refers (like Baalim) to various god-modifications. See Rawlinsons Five Great Mon., I. 138, and Schrader Die Keil-Insch. u. d. Alt. Test. on Jdg 2:11; Jdg 2:13.Tr.]
[20]On the weakening of the a to e in , see Gesen. 64, 3, Rem. 1.
[21][It has the Imperf. here, and might express a wish but that the construction in 1Sa 12:14 is clearly the same as that in 1Sa 12:15, which is conditional.Tr.]
[22]Not and against your kings, fathers being taken=kings (D. Kimchi), nor (with Sept. and Thenius) and your king, but (with Chald., Syr., Arab., Cler., Maur., Keil) retaining the harder reading of the text, and taking the as comparative [=as, so Eng. A. V.], in support of which is the fact that it sometimes introduces and connects loosely with the preceding whole sentences, the thought in which is subordinate, explanatory, or comparative, Ew. 340 b. It is properly to be explained: And it was against your fathers,which is shortened into: and against your fathers, whence is suggested a comparison. [Instead of this somewhat forced explanation it is better either to adopt the reading of the Sept., or to suppose the and to be an error for as. We might expect in 1Sa 12:15 the mention of the king.Tr.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter contains the address to Samuel, on the resignation of his government, now Saul is king. He appeals to him concerning , his own integrity, in the administration of justice; brings the people to the acknowledgment of it: points out, yet once again, their sin and folly in the insisting upon a king: at the call of Samuel the Lord answers, in confirmation of what he had said of their sin and his rectitude, in sending thunder; and the chapter concludes with Samuel’s assurances, that if the people obeyed the Lord, both they and their king should be preserved.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. (2) And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.
There is somewhat wonderfully affecting in the last address of departing persons, even in the commonest circumstances of life. But eminently more so in faithful ministers. Farewell discourses are generally very striking. Samuel had been called of God, from a very child, to minister unto the Lord’s people; and now he was grown old among them. It is as if he had said, by this preface, I pray to be heard, before that I take my leave of you forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Samuel’s Dismissal
1Sa 12:12-15
Some one has said, ‘In addition to other graces a good man ought to pray for is the grace to resign his office when his work is done’. Samuel was the last of the judges and prophets. He had ruled with conspicuous ability, justice, success. Under his control, it is true, the people had suffered from the attacks of the neighbouring tribes, but defeat had not been due to Samuel’s holding the rein of government.
I. Samuel himself might be good, righteous, just, but the system he represented was out of date, obsolete. So they desire a king and make their desire known. He is willing to grant their request. He sees it is God’s will that he should, so the king is appointed, and Samuel summons the people to meet him for a farewell address. When they come first he vindicates his character and conduct, wishes like a brave and good man to meet those who are dissatisfied. He briefly reviews the history of the past, bringing to their notice one clear fact that when they had sinned they suffered, when they repented and turned to God, were saved. And so he says it will be in the future. Do not depend upon a change of government. Whether Samuel judges or Saul reigns, if they did right, the blessing of God would be theirs.
II. That was the lesson then that in the far-off past Samuel taught. We are reminded very frequently by statesmen and others of the awful struggle against poverty, misery. We are also being constantly reminded of those who suffer in other ways owing to the stress of modern life, those, for instance, who because they are poor, have to work ‘midst unwholesome surroundings and under insanitary conditions. And some of those who most frequently remind us of these things tell us that it is the competition system that is at fault; that instead of competition there should be cooperation; that socialism should be the system under which we live instead of the method of government that now obtains. The need is deep and great for reform, but whether we have a government of Samuel or Saul, whether the present system of private capital be replaced by a system of collective ownership by the State or community of all the sources and instruments of production and distribution, we shall not get rid of suffering, wrong, oppression, till we can get rid of sin.
E. J. Miller, Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXIV. p. 62.
References. XII. 13. H. Hensley Henson, Preaching to the Times, p. 33. Spurgeon, Ten Sermons, p. 80. R. Heber, Parish Sermons, vol. ii. p. 25. XII. 14. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 125. XII. 19. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches, p. 180. XII. 20. J. Keble, Sermons After Trinity, part i. p. 105.
God’s Second Best
1Sa 12:23
If a man has blundered or played the fool in the management of his life, is there a second chance? God not only approves of a man’s penitence, but assists it. But to see this one needs to keep in mind a process and a principle at work in the world, ‘God’s Second Best’.
I. Israel’s First Best In the earlier stages of its national life Israel had no king, but experienced again and again marvellous smoothings of its way by Providence, to convince the people that they were under God’s care, and make it easy for them to obey Him.
II. Israel’s Second Best. The process of degeneration. The repairing process. Silently, quietly God builds up the walls they have broken down; He repairs the waste places; He creates out of the very debris of their failure a new sort of opportunity, and offers the remainder of life for reclamation and transfiguration.
III. God’s Second Best in Modern Life Men lose health through violation of nature’s laws. But a repairing process is at work in our bodies the physical expression of God’s marvellous patience and through that process a second best is offered to men.
IV. The Cross as a Second Best. God in His loving mercy came to man in his fall from innocence, with a design of salvation and repair of which the centre was the cruel Cross God’s most terrible, amazing ‘second best’ and through that Cross has been repairing human life and bringing it to sainthood. Even beyond saintship is a third experience, in which we shall have to look for the last and truest definition of the phrase ‘God’s Second Best’.
G. A. Johnston Ross, Christian World Pulpit, vol. LXXV. p. 321.
References. XII. 23. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 49. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 333. J. Keble, Sermons Academical and Occasional, p. 127. XIII. 3. J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i. p. 269.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Samuel’s Defence
1Sa 12
IT would seem that a fitting time had now come for Samuel’s retirement from his great position. We are all conscious of the fitness of certain historical occasions, so much so that we can adopt the duties which they suggest with a sense of harmony and rectitude. After the splendid victory acquired by Saul it would seem as if the dispensation of Samuel must naturally close. Blessed is he who can say, “He must increase, but I must decrease;” and still more blessed is he who looking back upon all his career can adopt the language and spirit of the veteran Samuel. In this noble speech there is no sign whatever of intellectual exhaustion or the blunting of that fine sagacity which had so long led the policy and fortune of Israel. It is better for men to retire whilst in full possession of their faculties, rather than to live themselves into the deserved contempt of their fellow-men. Still, throughout the speech there is a tone which expresses something like resentment, as if the old man would have gladly continued but for the impatience of the unruly populace. Who likes to resign a great leadership? We should consider these things in looking upon men, and their offices, and their supposed duties. Probably we do not make allowance enough for the instincts which constitute our very manhood. It is easy to stand by and to suggest to other men that they should resign their positions and abandon the fields in which they have won a hundred honours; but it is not always so easy for the man who is most deeply implicated to rise to this heroism of self-renunciation. We should be patient with our veteran leaders, our old statesmen, our well-proved teachers and guides. It is instructive to observe, however, the wonderful manner in which Providence intervenes, to show when times have arrived for the cessation of this or that function and the inauguration of a new period of rule and service. Things work together quite wonderfully in this way; so much so that an attentive observation of their course impresses the mind with the fact that there is a Power, call it by what name we please, which centralises all things and gives them their best applications. Samuel seems to have pondered upon all the events of his time so wisely as to have come to the conclusion that the hour of retirement had arrived. Let us now hear his valedictory speech. Even though the king walked before Israel, Samuel was not afraid to call attention to himself. It is notable that the whole reference is distinctly of a moral quality. He seems to be anxious only to come out of the court of trial with an unstained character. He asks for no crown or sceptre or purple of a merely artificial or decorative kind; his one desire is to be clothed with the robe of an unpolluted reputation. Truly, it is a kind of heaven which the old man claims. He would be called good, rather than great. Is there a finer picture upon earth than an old and grey-headed man who is able to challenge the world to bring a just accusation against him? Samuel was able to descend into minute details, and to show that in so-called little things he had lived a life that was beyond suspicion. Samuel had lived in the blaze of noonday since he was a child; indeed, he could hardly be said to have had any childhood, so early was he pressed into the public service. Now he looks up to the heavens, and asks that the people might witness against him if they had any charge to make. “Behold, here I am: witness against me before the Lord, whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken?” ( 1Sa 12:3 ). The ox and the ass represent possessions of considerable value in that primitive age and in a country where agriculture was the principal source of revenue. A further inquiry is, “Whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed?” For many years he had been supreme judge in Israel, and now that he is about to retire from the judgeship, he gives all men liberty to speak and to testify against him if they could. Throughout the whole year nothing was more common than for judges to receive bribes, in order that their favour might be bought and a wealthy criminal might escape. On this point Samuel puts a direct inquiry: “Of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?”
These are searching questions, and every man who professes to be godly ought to be able to put them to his own age. What it we have kept all the dogmas of orthodoxy and performed all the ceremonies of artificial religion, if we have not been free from the spirit of covetousness, or if we have defrauded or oppressed the helpless and the weak? Away with the orthodoxy that is not supported by a pure morality! “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings.” These are the conditions upon which God offers communion to man; not intellectual conditions which only a few can attain, but moral conditions which are open to the whole world. The virtue of our public men has a large influence upon the virtue of society. Where there is corruption at the head, there must of necessity be some measure of corruption in all the departments which that head rules. Like priest, like people. It is true that sometimes the nation has been in advance of the throne in the purity of its moral sentiment; but it is also true that where the throne has been renowned for probity and beneficence a very happy influence has been exerted upon the nation at large. In this regard it is of infinite importance that men should pray for their kings, rulers, judges, and magistrates, that society in its highest places should be kept pure and healthful. Every man will have to give an account of his life, and it rests with the man himself, to a large extent, whether that account shall be good or bad. It is not every one who may be able to stand up with Samuel and make the same wide and minute challenge, with the same consciousness that exculpation will be the result of the searching criticism; at the same time, here is a line by which we may be guided; here is an ideal towards which we may constantly aspire.
It is further noticeable that the challenge which Samuel addresses to the people is strictly limited to themselves. There is no appeal to God to testify that Samuel has always been in his sight a pure and holy character, without stain or blemish. There is no pharisaic boasting, no challenge addressed to Heaven, claiming the crown on the ground of good conduct. A very wide distinction is noticeable between an appeal to society and an appeal to Heaven. Samuel was talking in his public capacity, and in his public capacity he pressed every question which he asked; he was not engaged in the exercise of prayer, urging his respectability upon the attention of Heaven, and claiming to have been alone faithful in a faithless world. In this respect a man may adopt two distinctly different tones. Addressing his fellow-men, he may speak in a tone of superiority, moral dignity, and stainless honour; in doing so he may in reality be magnifying God, though there may be no nominal profession of so doing; on the other hand, when he comes face to face with God, none may hear the moaning of his discontent, or see the tears of his contrition, as he reflects upon his innumerable shortcomings and perversities. The purist and the Pharisee, therefore, must not be allowed to take encouragement from the example of Samuel, that they may boast themselves as before God. All such boasting is vain and false. Even Samuel himself may say, in the secrecy of the sanctuary, “God be merciful to me a sinner!”
“And Samuel said unto the people, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgat the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king” ( 1Sa 12:6-12 ).
Once more we come upon an excellent practice established in olden times, namely, faithfully to recount the history of God’s providence, so far as it is known in human experience. The days are never separated from one another, and treated as detailed points of time. The historians and prophets of Israel always seem to be searching for the central line of history, which indeed is the central line of purpose; hence we find continuity and cumulativeness in the statements of all the men who address the nation. Very noticeable are these speeches for their statesmanlike comprehensiveness. Every one of them begins at a well-ascertained historical point, and continues the story without omission or perversion up to the then immediate day: this is a philosophy as well as an example. We miss the whole meaning of divine providence if we look at events separately and incidentally, as we miss the whole meaning of the Bible if we read it in detached portions and texts. The providence of life is an inspired revelation of God, but it must be read in its continuity if its meaning is to be correctly and profitably seized. Not what was done yesterday, or the day before, but what was done on the earliest and on every succeeding day, is the inquiry which every man should put to himself. The expulsion of Memory from the service of the Church is an act of sacrilege. Praise is incomplete without recollection. Our hallelujah, though apparently an utterance of rapture, will be louder and sweeter in proportion to the critical accuracy and large comprehensiveness of our memory. So we find Samuel beginning at the beginning, with Moses and Aaron, and the deliverance from Egypt, and “all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers;” Jacob is not forgotten, nor are any of the errors of Israel omitted, nor their consequent subjugation and cruel punishment, their bondage under the Philistines, and their sufferings under the hand of the King of Moab. On and on the great story rolls, up to the times of Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel himself; nay, the very last act which they themselves had witnessed is pressed into the great body of the accumulated evidence, and then the appeal is launched upon the judgment and conscience of the people. Consider what that appeal must be today if we take in the whole horizon of human history! This is literally impossible, but morally it lies within our power to make noble use of it. The world itself could not contain the books if all providential acts were minutely recorded; but the very fact of the literal impossibleness of the exercise constitutes a direct appeal to the spiritual imagination, which in its highest moods can unite all the courses of providence, and shape them into one sublime and holy appeal. Let this be done, and the judgment will be supported, conscience will be inspired, and the heart will be excited into new enthusiasm of trust and consecration.
“Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the Lord hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God: but if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and sec this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king” ( 1Sa 12:13-25 ).
With this appeal the function of teacher in Israel would almost seem to cease. Samuel avails himself of the old man’s right to review the course of the nation’s history, and to found certain appeals upon it. A younger man might have been interrupted in this historical review and moral application; but the venerable prophet seemed to have acquired a right to make the last great speech to his people. It was a kind of farewell sermon. Nor is it weakened by mere sentiment, or turned into an occasion of self-gratulation in any impious sense. It is the speech of a judge and a great man. Samuel accepts the monarchy, and calls upon the people to behold their king, and to see in that king an answer to their own desire. Samuel does not commit himself to the absolute righteousness of this choice of a king; but with marvellous sagacity points out that the people themselves had wished to have a king, and that God had so far granted the popular desire. But the presence of a king was not to dispossess the Lord of his throne in Israel. Samuel does not remit the nation to secondary authority, telling the people to await the decrees of the king that they may know the limits of duty and the bounds of responsibility. To Samuel’s reverent mind the kingship did not displace the theocracy. In the fourteenth verse Samuel directs the attention of the people to the Lord, and calls upon them to serve him, and obey his voice, and take heed unto his commandment, and then promises them consequent reward. This is a very remarkable point in the grand appeal. Samuel clings to the eternal theocratic idea. It is God who must reign; it is God who must be for a man or against a man; it is God who can send forth great signs, and it is to the Lord all kings must look, if they would reign in righteousness and have honour in heaven. That such was Samuel’s great conviction is proved by his performance of a miracle that day, in the sight of all the people. Even in the midst of wheat harvest he called upon the Lord to send thunder and rain, that he might himself testify that his throne was in the heavens, and that the crowning of Saul in nowise interfered with the glory of his crown and the completeness of his empire. The people themselves took a highly religious view of the occasion, and instinctively turned to Samuel that he might pray for them a kind of final prayer. This was the proper ending of a grand ministry. In putting the request to Samuel that he would pray for them, the people seemed to expunge the long record of waywardness and ingratitude. There was a turning of the heart in the right direction, and that turning was accepted as repentance and restitution.
Now comes the word of comfort, the great and holy word which is befitting for old age to speak to a new nation. A wickedness had been committed in asking for a king; still, that wickedness would be regarded as official rather than personal, if the people themselves would see to it that their hearts were kept right, and that their purpose was to serve the Lord with steadfastness of love. A distinction is made between official mistakes and personal transgressions. How otherwise than upon this ground could God spare even the nations which are called by the Christian name? Then Samuel utters a very tender word; he is about to retire from the priesthood and the official guardianship of Israel, but he says, “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you” ( 1Sa 12:23 ). There is a private ministry by which every man can help his nation. Who knows how many priests there are in any country, who are obscurely, but sincerely praying to God that the land may be saved, that war may be averted, and that the ground may be fruitful in harvest-time? When we resign our public functions we may still be able to continue a private ministry. Samuel says he will not only pray for the people: he will teach them the good and the right way. In the presence of the regular authority of a royal power, surrounded by all the pomp and show of a great soldiery, the office held by Samuel must fall into secondary importance. But the teacher says he will still continue his instruction. Though Samuel practically ceased to be judge, he was determined to continue as a prophet. Here is the great function of men who have the prophetic gift. They cannot fight, they cannot make great proposals in the state, they cannot attract the attention of nations, they cannot command a field of battle; but they can constantly teach the good and the right way, they can protest against evil, they can rebuke injustice, they can cry shame upon oppression, they can call people back from negligence, dissoluteness, worldliness, and hold up evermore before the attention of the world great examples, and turn to moral account all the events which give vividness and significance to human history. The world may be poor by the loss of its kings, but it will be infinitely poorer by the removal of its prophets.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
V
SAMUEL AND THE MONARCHY, AND HIS VINDICATION AS JUDGE
1Sa 8:1-22
I logically connect these two chapters so as to round up Samuel’s judgeship, and the intervening chapters will be discussed later. The general subject for this discussion is, “God through Samuel establishes the monarchy, and Samuel’s vindication when he gives up the position as judge.” The general purpose of this chapter is to show the steps of transition from a government by judges to a government by kings. The immediate occasion of the change was the persistent demand of the people.
The grounds alleged by the people for the change were, (1) that Samuel was old; (2) that his sons whom he made judges walked not in his way, and these allegations were strictly true. Samuel was old. He had made his sons judges, as Eli had done in the case of his sons. These sons were unworthy to hold office: “They did not walk in Samuel’s way, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment.” Samuel had no right to make judges, nor to appoint his successor; that was Jehovah’s prerogative. He had retained these sons in office, though unworthy, and had so far followed Eli’s example.
Nepotism has always been repugnant to the people.
It was a compliment to the late Senator Coke when his kinsfolk complained that he had never gotten them an office on the score of kinship.
Public office is a public trust, and not for distribution of family patronage.
But their demand displeased Samuel. He did not dispute the facts alleged, nor deny their grievance against his sons, but he objected to the remedy proposed, namely: “Give us a king to judge us.” It would interest us to know what Samuel would have done if they had merely demanded the removal of his sons from office and Samuel’s consent to leave to God the appointment of his successor. But it is a destructive remedy to burn a ship in order to get rid of the rats. A change in the form of the government is not always the best way to get rid of unworthy officials, although the people will always demand it if from any cause the legal methods of removal are barred. The people usually are long-suffering, and often know not how practically to get rid of an evil by legal methods. Press them too far, and a revolution comes, maybe a destructive one. Samuel evinced his wisdom by carrying the case to Jehovah in prayer; that is, before he answered the people, with the following results:
1. Jehovah shows that the plausible grounds alleged by the people for the change of government disguised their real motive. It is characteristic of fallen human nature to veil a motive in a plausible plea; for example, to defend saloons on the plea of “personal liberty,” or that prohibition “injures business.”
2. These people meant, by rejecting Samuel, to reject Jehovah. It was the theocracy to which in heart they objected. They wanted kings like other nations.
3. Jehovah directed Samuel to set before them plainly, in protest, the manner of a king such as other nations had; to thus force them, if they persisted in their demand, to do so with open eyes and with all of their motives unmasked. This would prove that though they had a real grievance, they were not seeking redress of that grievance, but making it a plausible plea for the dethronement of Jehovah, even though their remedy brought grievances a thousand fold worse than those from which they pretended to seek relief.
The character of an Oriental despot is given by Samuel in his protest. Let us look at that in 1Sa 8:11-17 : “This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons and appoint them unto him, for his chariots and to be his horsemen; and they shall run before his chariots; and he will appoint them unto him for captains of thousands and captains of fifties; and he will set some to plow his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and the instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your olive yards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks; and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king whom ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” I do not know anywhere in literature a better picture of an Oriental despot than is given in the language of Samuel.
The results, after Samuel showed them what it was to have a king like other nations, were as follows: (1) With their eyes open and their motives exposed, they demanded a king like other nations. (2) Jehovah directed Samuel to make them a king. “Sometimes God answers in wrath.” (3) But not to establish such a monarchy as they desired, that is, like other nations, but a kingdom under a written charter which retained the theocratic idea, the earthly king to be only Jehovah’s appointee and vicegerent, subject to Jehovah’s law, and guided in all things by Jehovah’s prophets, and at all times liable to removal by Jehovah. So God does not answer their request altogether. He makes a king, but not such a king as they wanted. Concerning such a ruler Geikie uses the following language: “Such a ruler would necessarily stand in a unique position. As only viceroy and representative of the true invisible King, Jehovah, he must be pointed out beforehand by special indications, and consecrated as to a sacred office. That be should, moreover, have commended himself to the nation by his qualities and deeds, was essential. Nor could it be permitted him to reign like other Eastern kings, by his mere pleasure; for the rights of Jehovah and those of his people, as a nation of freemen, demanded equal respect. He must, therefore, at all times, remember that he ruled under a higher King, whose will, expressed in his revealed law, was his absolute guide both in religion and ordinary life; its transgression, in any particular, being self-destruction. But such a man would necessarily be in loving sympathy with him under whom he held his authority, to be king after his heart; a man truly religious; obeying, not by mere outward constraint, but from loving choice.
“Though nominally king, it was a condition of his rule that he acted only as the prophet instructed him. Under the strange theocratic constitution enforced by Samuel, he was in fact only a puppet, moved by the prophet as he chose, and forbidden to act in anything as a free agent. The only counterpart to such a state of things in modern times, was the titular rule of the Mikado in Japan, side by side with the real Emperor, the Tycoon; the one a shadow king, the other the actual sovereign power. In antiquity, strange to say, we find parallel to Saul and Samuel among the Getae of the century before Christ. In their wild home north and south of the Danube, that people were ruled by a chief who acted only as the servant of a holy man, without whom he was not allowed to act in anything whatever. Still stranger, the result of this extraordinary custom was the same as followed the rule of Samuel in Israel. From the lowest weakness and moral degeneracy the Getae roused themselves under the leading of the holy man and the phantom king, to a thorough and lasting reformation. Indeed, they so turned themselves to a nobler life that their national vigor showed itself in a puritanical strictness and steadfast bravery, which carried their banners far and wide over new territories, till their kingdom was infinitely extended. Once recognized, such a complete subordination to the representative of the theocracy as was demanded from Saul might become more easy to be borne, but in its early years the strong, valiant warrior must have been sorely tried by finding himself king in name, but in fact absolutely subordinate in the most minute detail to the command of Samuel.”
Using the word, “puppet,” Geikie is mistaken, since the prophet never spoke except as God commanded, and for a man to rule under the direction of God does not make him a puppet. This kind of a kingdom was not repugnant to Jehovah’s plan, as set forth in their previous history and law, and in their subsequent history.
1. In Gen 17:16 , in the covenant which God made with Abraham, he promised that kings should be his descendants.
2. In Deu 17:14-20 : “When thou art come unto the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around about me; thou shalt surely set him king over thee, whom Jehovah thy God shall choose: one from among the brethren shalt thou set king over thee; thou mayest not put a foreigner over thee, which is not thy brother. Only he shall not multiply horses to himself nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; forasmuch as Jehovah hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests and the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.”
We can tell whether kings of later date did this, for we remember that Solomon took only 700 wives, besides 300 concubines. Every king, in his subsequent history, who violated this kingdom charter, or who refused to hear and obey Jehovah’s prophet, was punished by Jehovah. And to the extent that when one of them respected this charter, be was blessed of Jehovah, he and the people with him.
Thus it is evident that the issue was not whether the ruler should be called judge or king, but that Jehovah ruled, whatever the title of his earthly subordinate. The lesson is a mighty one. Jehovah is King of kings and Lord of lords. His law and authority are paramount over nations as well as over individuals. His government extends over the unwilling as well as the willing. To deny his rule is not to vacate responsibility to his judgment. That it was immaterial whether the ruler was called judge or king, is illustrated by a relative passage from Pope’s Essay on Man. The third epistle of that essay line 303, says:
For forms of government let, fools contest;
Whate’er is best administered is best,
It is further evidenced that the people had to see and admit their wrong in seeking to displace Samuel as judge in 1Sa 12:1-25 which gives Samuel’s address and contains the following points:
1. They had to bear witness and have the testimony recorded, to the wisdom, purity, and fidelity of Samuel’s administration when he retired from the judgeship.
2. They had to admit that all great leaders in the past were appointed by Jehovah, and that they had rebelled against every one of them.
3. They had to accept this alternative, with a king put over them; that is, if they and their king submitted to Jehovah’s rule according to the kingdom charter, then well; but if they turned away from him, then condign punishment came on them as on their rebellious fathers.
4. They had still to submit to Samuel as a prophet. The words of Samuel were confirmed by this miracle: He called their attention to the fact that it was harvest time when in ordinary cases it never rained. Then lifting his face, he spoke to Jehovah for a sign, and instantly the heavens were blackened, loud thunder rolled, lightning gored the black bosom of the cloud, and a windstorm came up to testify that God was speaking to them.
The result was that they felt and confessed the sin of their demand, and implored Samuel’s intercession that they might be forgiven, to which he gave the following reply:
1. He encouraged them not to despair on account of their sins that God was merciful but to repent and do better in the future.
2. That God, for his own name’s sake, would never forsake that people.
3. That he himself would not sin by ceasing to pray for them that their sins should be forgiven.
4. That he would, as prophet, continue to instruct them in the good and right way.
5. That in view of the great things that God had done for them, they should fear him and serve him in truth with all their hearts; otherwise they would be consumed. With other great events in their history, 1Sa 12 may be compared thus:
1. With the farewell address of Moses, (Deu 29:1-31:5 )
2. Joshua’s farewell address (Jos 24:1-28 )
3. Paul’s farewell address to the elders of the church at Ephesus (Act 20:18-38 )
4. On the score of patriotism, we may include Washington’s farewell address, when he announced he would no more be president. I once went to the city of Annapolis to see a great picture, or painting, representing the scene of Washington tendering his sword back to Congress at the close of the war, retiring from the office of commander-in-chief. It is a marvelous painting. Supposed but far-distant relatives of mine are in the picture Charles Carroll and his daughters. In a glass case to the right is the very suit of clothes Washington wore on that day, including his spurs. My old teacher made me memorize Washington’s farewell address. Two doctrines in Samuel’s address need to be emphasized:
1. The ground of God’s not forsaking his elect nation: “Not on your account, but for his own name’s sake,” and in this connection you must read Eze 36:22-36 , and the whole of Romans II. They both talk about God’s saving in one day the whole Jewish nation.
2. It is a sin not to pray for the forgiveness of sinners, of which the following is a Texas illustration: There was a certain man, preaching in many counties, taking the position that no Christian was justifiable in praying for the forgiveness of the sinner. I joined issue publicly, in the pulpit and in the press, citing Samuel’s doctrine: “God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for the forgiveness of your sins.” In that great discussion I referred to what is called the “mourner’s bench,” stating that I had no particular fancy for what is called the “mourner’s bench;” that a man could find Christ on the bench, on the floor, behind the barn, or in the field, unless he made this point: “I will do anything that God wants Die to do to be saved, except a certain thing;” that if he reserved any one point on which he would not surrender to God, then he did not surrender at all; and I insisted that in leaving out the “mourner’s bench” they would not leave out the mourning. I did not object to leaving out the bench if they wanted to, but if they did leave it out, I hoped they would not cease praying for sinners.
QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS
1. What is the general purpose of this chapter?
2. What is the immediate occasion of the change?
3. What are the grounds alleged by the people for the change?
4. What can you say of these allegations?
5. Why, then, did their demand displease Samuel?
6. In what did Samuel evince his wisdom?
7. What are the results?
8. Describe the character of an Oriental despot as given in Samuel’s protest.
9. What were the results after Samuel showed them what it was to have a king like other nations?
10. Prove that this kind of a kingdom was not repugnant to Jehovah’s plan, as set forth in their previous history and law, and in their subsequent history.
11. If then it was immaterial whether the ruler was called judge or king, cite a relative passage from Pope’s Essay on Man.
12. What further evidence that the people had to see and admit their wrong in seeking to displace Samuel as judge?
13. How were the words of Samuel confirmed?
14. What was the result?
15. Analyze Samuel’s reply.
16. With what other great events in their history may 1Sa 12 be compared?
17. What two great doctrines in Samuel’s address need to be emphasized?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
VI
SAUL, THE FIRST KING
1Sa 9:1-12:25
I devote an extended discussion to 1 Samuel 9-11 because it is necessary to fix clearly in the mind the nature of the kingdom established in order to interpret correctly the history of the kings which follows. Without this understanding we will break down in the interpretation of even the first rejection of Saul, and with Jehovah’s dealing with every subsequent king. Before entering upon the history of the first king, let us state tersely the salient points which define the Hebrew monarchy:
1. A government by kings was not an afterthought with Jehovah, but was one of the predetermined stages of the national development and a forecast preparatory to the setting up of the messianic spiritual kingdom.
2. Though Jehovah granted Israel’s demand for a kingly government superseding the previous rule by judges, he did not establish such a monarchy as they desired, like that of other nations.
3. The kingdom established had a written charter clearly defining its nature, powers, and limitations, the basis of which was given to Moses (Deu 17:14-20 ) with subsequent enlargements by Samuel. This charter made the written law, the Pentateuch, the constitution of the kingdom. The king must make the law his Vade Mecum, and the rule of his reign. There was not only this unalterable written constitution, but to emphasize the retention of the theocratic idea, the king must at all times hear and obey the fresh messages from Jehovah, coming through his now established order of the prophets, his mouthpieces and penmen. This part of the charter turns a blaze of light on the subsequent history.
4. The monarchy was not elective by the nation, through corporate action of their great congregation or general assembly, but each king must be appointed by Jehovah, and that appointment designated through the prophet, Jehovah’s mouthpiece. Jehovah chooses the king, Jehovah’s prophet anoints him and presents him to the assembly for acceptance.
5. The monarchy was not hereditary in the modern sense. A dynasty might be changed at Jehovah’s sole option, as from the house of Saul to the house of David, and it did not follow that when a king’s son succeeded him he should be the first-born; for example, the case of Solomon. Whether in changing a dynasty, or designating which son of a king should succeed his father, the living prophet was Jehovah’s medium of making known his will.
6. Neither king nor general assembly, nor both cojoined, had the power to declare war, direct it when declared, make peace, or contract alliances, except as Jehovah directed through his living prophet.
7. By the law, and through the living prophet, the people were safeguarded from the tyranny of the king. See the case of Nathan’s rebuke of David for the wrong against Uriah, and Elijah’s denunciation of Ahab concerning Naboth’s vineyard.
8. Particularly, the prophet spoke with all authority from God in matters of religion, hedging not only against idolatry but reliance upon formalism and ritualism, all the time bringing out the spiritual meaning of the law and calling for repentance and reformation. Therefore, no man can interpret any part of the mere history of the Hebrew monarchy apart from the section of the Psalter bearing on it, and the contemporaneous prophets. On this account Wood’s Hebrew Monarchy , though not perfect in its arrangement, excels Crockett’s Harmony as a textbook.
A quotation from a prophet pertinent to the establishment of the monarchy considered in the preceding chapter is Hos 13:9-11 : “It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me against thy help. Where now is thy king, that he may gave thee in all thy cities? and thy judges, of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? I have given thee a king in mine anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.” There were several ways by which the people, as well as the king, could get at the will of Jehovah apart from the written Jaw, viz.:
1. By submitting a question to the Oracle abiding in the ark of the covenant, to be answered by the high priest, wearing his ephod, through the Urim and Thummim (1Sa 23:8-12 )
2. By appealing to the prophets (1Sa 9:6-9 )
3. By sacrifice and asking of signs; as in the case of Gideon (Jdg 6:17-21 )
There are two passages, one showing the despair of an individual, and the other showing the deplorable condition of the nation, from whom, on account of aggravated sins, God has cut off all means of communication with him. In one, Saul, the first king, in his later life thus bemoans his condition: “And when ‘Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of Jehovah, Jehovah answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,” (1Sa 28:5 ) In the other, Hosea thus describes the pitiable condition of the rebellious Israel: “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without Ephod or teraphim,” (Hos 3:4 )
SAUL, THE FIRST KING
Certain passages bear on part of the foregoing statement of the nature of the kingdom. For instance, Jehovah chose Saul to be the king, privately announcing him to his prophet, and providentially bringing him in touch with this prophet (1Sa 9:15 ) and later before the great assembly at Mizpah he makes known his choice to the people publicly (1Sa 10:17-21 ). Acting under Jehovah’s direction, the prophet prepares the mind of Saul for the high honor (1Sa 9:20-25 ). Then privately the prophet accounts him as king, and then confirms to him his position by signs (1Sa 10:2-7 ). Then by an enduement of the Holy Spirit he is qualified for his office. Not converted, but qualified for his office. Then the prophet brings about the public designation before the people, the general assembly at Mizpah (1Sa 10:17-21 ). Then the prophet arranges for his recognition by the people in a subsequent general assembly at Gilgal (1Sa 10:8 ; 1Sa 11:14-15 ). Then the prophet vacates his own office of judge (1Sa 12 ).
It is easy to see from the text the details of which I need not give, just what Jehovah does, just what the prophet does, just what the people do, just what Saul does, and particularly the text shows how Jehovah prepares the people to accept Saul prepares the prophet first, then prepares Saul, and then the people,
The several stages showing the preparation of Saul are intensely interesting. The first hint which Samuel gives to Saul seemed to him an incredible thing, for he says, “I belong to the smallest tribe, and our family is a subordinate one in that tribe.” But still, it puts him to thinking. Then Samuel gives him the post of honor in entertaining, and that puts him to thinking. Then Samuel privately anoints him as king, and that ceremony impresses him. Then Samuel predicts three signs, the object of which is to satisfy Saul thoroughly and to confirm the kingship in his own mind; and particularly the last of the three, which was that the Spirit of God would come upon him in the gift of prophesying, and he would be changed into another man.
Note Saul’s reticence: First, when his uncle asks him where he had been, and he tells him about the prophet’s informing him that the asses have been found, but does not say a word about the kingship; again, when after he is publicly designated and some of the evil-minded people, children of Belial, declared that they could not accept him as king, because they saw no salvation in him, instead of getting mad and answering in resentful language, Saul holds his peace. He never says a word; he knows how to wait. Again, we notice that notwithstanding all the things that have occurred so far) when at that great gathering at Mizpah where he was to be publicly shown as king, Saul hides, and when the question comes up and when the lot determined Saul as king, they ask where he is, and God said, “He is hiding among the stuff” the baggage.
I once preached a sermon from that text on God’s discovering a number of appointed men hiding with the stuff, more concerned about their farming and the things of the world than about the preaching of his Word. In the army every soldier thought it disgraceful if he had to stay with the baggage when the battle came on. Since he could be pointed at as the soldier who had to stay with the stuff, he wanted to be on the firing line.
I am showing you all these things to mark the progress in Saul’s own mind, and God’s leading him step by step. After a while he is wide awake enough for the kingly honor. Now let us consider the meaning of apostasy, what is essential in a particular case to prove the doctrine, and what the application to Saul, and explain 1Sa 10:5-6 ; 1Sa 10:9-10 . Apostasy means that a regenerated man may be finally and forever lost. In order to prove that doctrine by a particular case, the evidence must be indubitable on two points: First, that in the case selected there was first regeneration, and second, that this regenerated one was finally and forever lost. The proof must be ample and unequivocal at both ends regeneration and damnation,
On these premises, we examine the particular case of Saul, King of Israel. A failure of demonstration that he was a regenerated man, or that he was finally lost, deprives the doctrine of apostasy, as defined above, from any support from the particular case of Saul. If the proof fall short at either point, there is no need to consider the other. Therefore, let us shorten matters by attention to one point only: Was Saul a regenerated man? In the case under consideration, the passages relied upon to establish the contention that Saul was a truly regenerated man, a spiritual child of God, are:
First, Samuel’s promise, “Thou shalt be turned into another man” (1Sa 10:5-6 ).
Second, the historian’s declaration of the fulfilment of the promise, “God gave him another heart” (1Sa 10:9-10 ). A careful examination of both passages (ASV) settles conclusively that in the promise, the Holy Spirit would in some sense come upon Saul, with the result that he would be changed into another man, and that in the fulfilment, the Holy Spirit did come upon him in the sense promised, with the result that God gave him another heart. If we accept the record, there is no doubt here that the Holy Spirit exerted a power on Saul and that consequently there was a change in him.
The questions to be determined are: What was the nature of the power exerted, and of the resultant change? My answer is that the Spirit power promised was the gift of prophesying, which throughout the Scripture is distinguished from the grace of regeneration, and the change was according to the power, and that the end, or purpose, exercised was not to regenerate Saul, but is expressly called a sign, to assure Saul’s doubting mind that Jehovah had chosen him as king. The incredible thing to Saul, which needed confirmation by signs, was not that he would become a child of God by regeneration, but that he whose tribe was so small, and the position of whose family in that tribe was so low, should be chosen of Jehovah to be king of all Israel. The nature of the power exerted and the resultant change effected are thus determined by their purpose.
The difference between the grace of regeneration and the miraculous gift of the Spirit is expressed thus: The grace of regeneration is not a sign, but the miraculous gift of the Spirit is a sign, and is so regarded in both Testaments. In the same way, the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was not to regenerate the apostles, all of whom were already Christians, but to assure their hearts, and, as signs, to accredit them to others.
In 1 Corinthians 12-14 the whole matter is laid bare so that a child can understand it. Very sharply, and at many points, does Paul contrast these miraculous and temporary enduements of the Spirit, given for signs, with the grace of regeneration expressed in the abiding fruits of faith, hope, and love. Regeneration is one thing in all cases. The miraculous gifts of the Spirit were diverse. One of the recipients, like Saul, might prophesy, another work miracles, another speak with tongues, another interpret tongues.
The Spirit power received on Pentecost did change the apostles; did, in an important sense, give them other hearts, as we may learn from the coward, Peter, trembling before a maidservant, and the Peter, bold as a lion, on Pentecost. In the Corinthian discussion (1 Cor. 12-14) Paul makes clear, first, that faith, hope, and love, the evidences and fruits of regeneration, are superior in nature and more edifying in exercise than the gifts of the Spirit, one of which only Saul had; second, that all these signs would cease, but that regeneration, evidenced by faith, hope, and love, would abide.
If we look for evidences of regeneration in Saul’s life, we do not find them. If we look for evidences of a miraculous Spirit gift bestowed on him for assurance to him that Jehovah wanted him to be king, and for a sign to others, we do find them, and we also find that this gift of the Spirit was withdrawn from him when becoming unworthy of office, Jehovah no longer wants him as king. But, perhaps, the strongest evidence in the Bible that Saul was not a regenerated man is to be found in God’s contrast between Saul and Solomon on this very point. (2Sa 7:13-16 and 1Ch 17:11-13 ASV.) Here it is unequivocally taught that Saul was not a regenerated man, but Solomon was. The regeneration of Solomon, as contrasted with Saul, appears in this:
1. God was ‘Solomon’s spiritual Father, and Solomon was God’s spiritual son.
2. Therefore, when he sinned, Solomon was chastised as a child and not as an alien.
3. Being a child, God’s loving-kindness would not be with drawn, as in the case of Saul.
Old John Bunyan was accustomed to say, “Gifts make a preacher, but grace makes a Christian.” Saul had the gift, but not the grace. To this already unanswerable argument we may add that a miraculous, because supernatural, gift may be bestowed by the devil, who in no case can regenerate. This power of Satan can of course be exercised only through God’s permission, and this permission is never granted except to test men, or as a punitive judgment on men who refuse to be guided by the Holy Spirit.
In Saul’s own case, this permission was granted, as we see from the result being as before, that Saul prophesied. Read the passage and see. Later we will find a similar case. The New Testament explains the ground of this permission thus (see 2Th 2:8-13 ) : “And then shall be revealed the lawless one) whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of his coming, even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause, God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.”
And it is precisely on this account that John says, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they be of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (Joh 4:1 ). No miracle can accredit a doctrine contrary to the written Word.
To make evident the application of this line of argument to Saul’s case, we are assured that these miracles) signs, and wonders, wrought by Satan and his demons, no matter how plausible nor how convincing to their dupes, can never possibly deceive the elect (see Mar 13:22 and Mat 24:24 ). But the evil spirit’s miracle causing Saul to prophesy (1Sa 16:14 ; 1Sa 18:10 ) did deceive him and straightway led him to seek the murder of David, led him to the slaughter of the priests of Nob (1Sa 22:9-19 ), and led him to irretrievable ruin, despair, and suicide.
QUESTIONS
1. Why devote any extended discussion to 1 Samuel 9-11?
2. Even now, before entering upon the history of the first king, restate tersely the salient points which define the Hebrew monarchy,
3. Cite a quotation from a prophet pertinent to the establishment of the monarchy considered in the preceding chapter.
4. In what ways could the people, as well as the king, get at the will of Jehovah apart from the written law?
5. Cite two passages, one showing the despair of the individual, and the other showing the deplorable condition of the nation, from whom on account of aggravated sins, God has cut off all means of communication with him.
6. Cite, in order, certain passages bearing on part of the foregoing statement of the nature of the kingdom.
7. What did Jehovah do, what did the prophet do, what did the people do, and what did Saul do to prepare the people to accept Saul?
8. Describe Saul’s reticence in accepting this high position of honor.
9. What is the meaning of apostasy, what is the essential feature in a particular case to prove the doctrine, and what the application to Saul, explaining 1Sa 10:5-6 ; 1Sa 10:9-10 ?
10. What is the difference between the grace of regeneration and the miraculous gift of the Spirit? Illustrate by New Testament instances.
11. What, then, do we find in Saul’s life, and what the strongest evidence in the Bible that he was not regenerated?
12. What was Bunyan’s saying, and what added argument?
13. What is the purpose of God’s permission of the devil to bestow miraculous gifts, and what New Testament testimony?
14. What is the difference in effect of these miracles of the devil on the saved and the unsaved, and how does Saul’s case illustrate?
VII
SAUL, THE FIRST KING (CONTINUED)
It is contended by some that the reference to Saul’s “another heart” is equivalent to the “new heart” of Eze 36:26 , to which we may safely reply that the “another heart” given to Saul was not equivalent to the passage cited in Ezekiel. But when we come to Saul’s death, in the history, to sum up his character, we will not be able to classify him with Judas, though there are some points similar, particularly in that both were led by a dominant evil spirit to despair and self destruction. Saul, in many ways, was a finer man than Judas, leaving behind precious memories of some deeds and traits which evoked the gratitude of the men of Jabeshgilead, the unswerving attachment of several tribes, and the beautiful eulogy of David. Nothing like these do we find in the low, avaricious, treacherous life of Judas.
Believers in apostasy use the life of Saul to prove apostasy, and I do not wonder that they take this case as the basis of their argument to sustain the doctrine of apostasy, since it is the most plausible in the Bible, but if this case fails in demonstration they may not hope for support in any other. But they may ask, “What then does Paul mean in Gal 5:4 : ‘Ye are fallen away from grace’ ?” To which we again reply that the scriptural phrase, “Ye are fallen away from grace,” as used by Paul in Gal 5:4 , does not imply that real Christians, the truly regenerate, may be finally lost, but that those once accepting the doctrine of salvation by grace, and then returning to a doctrine of salvation by works, have fallen away from grace. They have turned from one doctrine to the opposite one, as often happens in practical life, without meaning that either the original acceptance was regeneration, or the falling away from it was final. In Paul’s meaning of the phrase, men may fall from grace.
We have now seen how Jehovah prepared his prophet for designation of Saul as king, how he prepared Saul for the great honor, and how he prepared the people to accept Saul. Before advancing in the history, we need to understand more particularly certain matters in the record already so tersely covered, particularly the steps of the people’s preparation to accept Saul, and how gradually the acceptance was, in a glorious climax, made complete:
1. The gift of prophesying came upon Saul, enduing him for service, and this being in the company of the school of the prophets, prepared the mighty prophetic order to recognize him as God’s man. As this enduement of power came on him also in the presence of many of the people) it was designed to accredit him to them. But they were more startled by the prodigy than they were made ready to accept him. There is something scornful in their saying, which became a proverb: “Is Saul also among the prophets?” Their scorn is somewhat mitigated by a bystander’s question: “Who is their father?” meaning, “What in their descent puts the prophets above Saul that you should wonder at the bestowal on him of the prophetic gift?” God bestowed it, and not on account of family position.
2. Jehovah’s choice of him by an extraordinary method in the great congregation at Mizpah as the man for the place out of all Israel. As this method of showing divine selection had availed in Joshua’s time in infallibly pointing out Achan, the one criminal out of millions (Jos 7:14-18 ), and would again avail in David’s time (1Sa 16:12 ), it ought to have been equally convincing in showing Jehovah’s choice of a king. It did convince most of the people, who shouted their acceptance in a phrase that has gone round the world: “God save the King!” But not all were satisfied for certain sons of Belial said, “How shall this man save us?” And they despised him and brought no present. You must note that the phrase, “sons of Belial,” retains the meaning already established (1Sa 1:16 ; 1Sa 2:12 ). Belial is a proper name, meaning the devil, and quite in keeping with their nature, the devil’s children will not accept Jehovah’s choice of a king.
3. The spirit of Jehovah comes upon Saul and demonstrates his fitness for the high honor by leading to the deliverance of Jabeshgilead. It is not enough to shout, “God save the king,” but will you fall in line and follow the king? In his call to war, Saul rightly associates his name with Samuel’s (1Sa 11:7 ) and “the dread of the Lord fell on all the people, and they came out as one man.”
This practical demonstration of Saul’s fitness wrought unanimity in his acceptance, and led the people to demand of Samuel the death of those who had refused Jehovah’s choice, Saul’s wisdom again appearing in refusing to stain the glorious beginning of his reign with the blood of political executions.
4. The people now being prepared in mind to accept Jehovah’s choice, under divine direction, they were formally and officially committed by the ratification at Gilgal in solemn assembly, with appropriate sacrifices, and great rejoicing of both king and people, followed by Samuel’s surrender of the office of judge. This meeting at Gilgal is the dividing official line of separation between the period of the judges and the period of the monarchy.
Before, we have only shown the steps toward transition. The scene of the consummation was most fitting, for at Gilgal the period of the pilgrimage ended and the period of the conquest commenced, and at Gilgal the distribution of a part of the land took place officially, ending, in part, the conquest period of the judges.
5. Jehovah, king, prophet, and general assembly are in full accord, the functions of all clearly distinguished and defined. Happy beginning of the monarchy I The later history will show wherein, when, and how the glorious charter of the kingdom is violated by prophet, king, or people. We will find a sad history, enlivened here and there by deeds of heroes and song of bards. But the picture will gather deepening shadows until the eclipse is completed by the downfall of the monarchy. The chief heroes will be the prophets, a few kings will be illustrious, and very rarely, a priest.
The distinction in the meaning of the words “seer” and “prophet,” used as synonymous in 1Sa 9:7 , is this: “Prophet” has the larger meaning, including all the import of “seer.” Strictly speaking, the word “seer” refers only to one method of receiving revelation, i.e., in vision. A prophet not only had the gift of vision) but was in all respects the mouthpiece, or penman, of Jehovah in teaching, reforming, or recording. He was by inspiration God’s direct legatee, ambassador, or representative, with authority above king or people.
There is a humorous play on the common version of 1Sa 10:14 which a deacon once made to an indiscreet preacher, saying, “My dear sir, if you keep on shooting off your mouth half-cocked, you will presently find yourself where Saul perceived his father’s asses to be.” The words of the text in that version are: “We saw they were nowhere.”
SAUL’S REIGN AFTER THE RATIFICATION IN GILGAL 1Sa 13:1 says, “Saul was forty years old when he began to reign, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel,” etc. His personal appearance is described in 1Sa 10:23-24 : “From his shoulders upward he was higher than the people. None of them were like him.” Hence the proverb: “Head and shoulders above his fellows.” We will find later that his armor was too large for David. The conditions of his reign were hard. At this time Israel was dominated by the Philistines on the Southwest, assailed by Amalek on the South, by Ammon. Moab, and Edom on the Southeast, and by Zobah, or Syria, on the Northeast, but against all these at times Saul waged a victorious war. Besides this his resources were limited. He had no standing army, no arms, no equipment, no public treasury except spoils gathered in battle, and the whole country was impoverished by raids and invasions of his many enemies, 1Sa 13:19-23 shows the pitiable condition of the people as to artificers, implements of industry and arms: “Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his ax, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of the people that were with Saul and Jonathan: but with Saul and with Jonathan his son was there found.” This statement has its great lessons.
No people can become or remain safe and prosperous who are dependent on other nations for mechanicians, manufactured goods, and their means of transportation. This was illustrated in the great controversy and War Between the States. During the controversy there appeared a book by a renegade North Carolinian, entitled: Helper’s Impending Crisis, in which he thus pictured the South’s unpreparedness for war, and the certain disasters which would, in the case of war, necessarily overtake it. I never read it but one time, and that was when I was a child, but it was burned into my mind so that I can repeat it now:
“A Southern man gets up in the morning from between Northern sheets, having slept on a Northern mattress, resting on a Northern bedstead, washes his face in a Northern bowl, dries his face on a Northern towel, brushes his hair and teeth with Northern brushes, puts on Northern clothes; goes into his dining room and site down at a Northern dining table covered by a Northern table-cloth, on which are Northern cups, saucers, plates, knives, forks, and in a Southern hog-country eats Northern bacon. Then he goes out and hitches his horse to a Northern plow; or to a Northern buggy; or having tied around his neck a Northern cravat, he goes to pay his address to his girl, who is dressed in Northern dimity and calicoes, and when he comes to die, he is wrapped in a Northern shroud, his grave is dug with a Northern spade and mattock, and the only thing he has which is Southern is the hole in the ground where be is buried.”
Now, as a consequence, just as soon as the war broke out, having no factories, having no railroads running east and west, having no control of the land and water transportation, in six months they were on the verge of starvation. I saw several companies of Sibley’s brigade start to New Mexico armed with lances old-fashioned lances, a long, dressed pole with a rude point to it. They took the old-fashioned flint and steel muskets, and fixed them so they could use percussion caps; they did not have a breech-loading gun. Having no paper factories, the newspapers were being printed within six months on wallpaper the printing on one side and coloring on the other. I paid $22 in Mexican silver for a hatful of coffee that was smuggled over from Mexico (I could not bear to see my mother do without coffee), but all over the South they were drinking parched sweet potatoes for coffee, and using sassafras tea, and catnip tea, and when they were sick they used boneset tea, and woe to the man who had to take it I
If all this is true among nations, you can understand what I mean when I said woe to the South, where the people have the views of sound doctrine, when it sends its preaching implements to a Northern radical-critic grindstone in order to put on point or edge. I tell you, we ought never to cease praying that God will bless our Southwestern Seminary, and establish it in the hearts of the people.
From a comparison of 1Sa 13:1-2 , and 1Sa 14:47-52 we must suppose:
1. That the text of 1Sa 13:1 is defective. Note the difference in the rendering between the common version and the revised version a very considerable difference.
2. That according to the summary given in 1Sa 14:47-52 , there is no record of the details of many of Saul’s campaigns.
3. As Saul was a young man when made king, and now comes before us with a grown son, Jonathan, already a hero, we must suppose that for years after he became king his reign was prosperous and according to the charter of the kingdom. In this prosperous part of his reign must always be placed to Saul’s credit the fact that under the most trying conditions he proved himself a great hero in war against mighty odds, while possessing amiable characteristics which endeared him to his family, to the people, and to Samuel. According to David’s eulogy, he found the women of his people in rags and clothed them in scarlet, and put on their apparel ornaments of gold. He taught an unwarlike, undisciplined militia to become mighty warriors. His whole life was one series of battles, beating back the enemies who were pouring in on every side. Then considering these odds against him, his only hope lay in strict obedience to the charter of his kingdom, thus keeping Jehovah as his friend. He never began to fall until he made God his enemy.
QUESTIONS
1. Is the reference to Saul’s “another heart” equivalent to the “new heart” of Eze 36:26 ? In what was Saul like Judas, and in what was he unlike him?
2. Why do believers in apostasy use the life of Saul to prove apostasy?
3. What does Paul mean in Gal 5:4 : “Ye are fallen away from grace”?
4. What, particularly, were the steps of the people’s preparation to accept Saul, and how gradually was the acceptance, in glorious climax, made complete?
5. Distinguish in meaning the words “seer” and “prophet,” used as synonymous in 2Sa 9:7 .
6. What humorous play on the common version of 1Sa 10:14 did a deacon once make to an indiscreet preacher?
7. How old was Saul when he began to reign?
8. What was his personal appearance?
9. What were the hard conditions of his reign?
10. What are his limited resources?
11. Recite the passage that shows the pitiable condition of the people as to artificers, implements of industry, and arms.
12. What great lessons are derivable from this statement?
13. What must we suppose from a comparison of chapters 1Sa 13:1-2 and 1Sa 14:47-52 ?
14. In this prosperous part of his reign, what must always be placed to Saul’s credit?
15. Considering these odds against him, wherein lay his only hope?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1Sa 12:1 And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
Ver. 1. And Samuel said unto all Israel ] In this most excellent chapter the people giveth testimony to Samuel’s innocency, heareth his wisdom, seeth his patience, admireth his power with God.
Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 Samuel
SAMUEL’S CHALLENGE AND CHARGE
1Sa 12:1 – 1Sa 12:15
The portion of Samuel’s address included in this passage has three main sections: his noble and dignified assertion of his official purity, his summary of the past history, and his solemn declaration of the conditions of future wellbeing for the nation with its new king.
I. Probably the war with the Ammonite king Nahash, which had postponed the formal inauguration of the king, had been carried on in the neighbourhood of the Jordan valley; and thus Gilgal would be a convenient rendezvous. But it was chosen for other reasons also, and, as appears from 1Sa 10:8 , had been fixed on by Samuel at his first interview with Saul. There the Covenant had been renewed, after the wanderers had crossed the river, with Joshua at their head, and it was fitting that the beginnings of the new form of the national life should be consecrated by worship on the same site as had witnessed the beginnings of the national life on the soil of the promised land. Perhaps the silent stones, which Joshua reared, stood there yet. At all events, sacred memories could scarcely fail, as the rejoicing crowd, standing where their fathers had renewed the Covenant, saw the blackened ruins of Jericho, and the foaming river, now, as then, filling all its banks in the time of harvest, which their fathers had crossed with the ark, that was now hidden at Kirjath-jearim, for their guide. The very place spoke the same lessons from the past which Samuel was about to teach them.
There is just a faint trace of Samuel’s disapproval of the new order in his first words. He takes care to throw the whole responsibility on the people; but, at the same time, he assumes the authoritative tone which becomes him, and quietly takes the position of superiority to the king whom he has made. 1Sa 11:15 seems to imply that he took no part in the rejoicings. It was ‘Saul and all the men of Israel’ who were so glad. He was still hesitant as to the issue, and obeyed the divine command with clearer insight into its purpose than the shouting crowd and the proud young king had. There is something very pathetic in the contrast he draws between Saul and himself. ‘The king walketh before you,’ in all the vigour of his young activity, and delighting all your eyes, and ‘I am old and gray-headed,’ feeble, and fit for little more work, and therefore, as happens to such worn-out public servants, cast aside for a new man. Samuel was not a monster of perfection without human feelings. His sense of Israel’s ingratitude to himself and practical revolt from God lay together in his mind, and colour this whole speech, which has a certain tone of severity, and an absence of all congratulation. Probably that accounts for the mention of his sons. The elders’ frank statement of their low opinion of them had been a sore point with Samuel, and he cannot help alluding to it. It was not for want of possible successors in his own house that they had cried out for a king. If this be not the bearing of the allusion to his sons, it is difficult to explain; and this obvious explanation would never have been overlooked if Samuel had not been idealised into a faultless saint. The dash of human infirmity and fatherly blindness gives reality to the picture. ‘I have walked before you from my youth unto this day.’ Note the recurrence of the same expression as is applied to Saul in the former part of the verse. It is as if he had said, ‘Once I was as he is now,-young and active in your sight, and for your service. Remember these past years. May your new fancy’s record be as stainless as mine is, when he is old and grayheaded!’ The words bring into view the characteristic of Samuel’s life which is often insisted on in the earlier chapters,-its calm, unbroken continuity and uniformity of direction, from the long-past days when he wore ‘the little coat’ his mother made him, with so many tears dropped on it, till this closing hour. While everything was rushing down to destruction in Eli’s time, and his sons were rioting at the Tabernacle door, the child was growing up in the stillness; and from then till now, amid all changes, his course had been steady, and pointed to one aim. Blessed they whose age is but the fruitage of the promise of their youth! Blessed they who begin as ‘little children,’ with the forgiveness of sin and the knowledge of the Father, and who go on, as ‘young men,’ to overcome the Evil One, and end, as ‘fathers,’ with the deeper knowledge of Him who is ‘from the beginning,’ which is the reward of childhood’s trust and manhood’s struggles!
Samuel is still a prophet, but he is ceasing to be the sole authority, and, in his conscious integrity, calls for a public, full discharge, in the presence of the king. Note that 1Sa 12:3 gives the first instance of the use of the name ‘Messiah,’ and think of the contrast between Saul and Jesus. Observe, too, the simple manners of these times, when ‘ox and ass’ were the wealth. They would be poor plunder nowadays. Note also the various forms of injustice of which he challenges any one to convict him. Forcible seizure of live stock, fraud, harsh oppression, and letting suitors put gold on his eyes that he might not see, are the vices of the Eastern ruler to-day, and rampant in that unhappy land, as they have been ever since Samuel’s time. I think I have heard of politicians in some other countries further west than Gilgal, who have axes to grind and logs to roll, and of the wonderful effects, in many places of business, of certain circular gold discs applied to the eyes. This man went away a poor man. He does not seem to have had salary, or retiring pension; but he carried away a pair of clean hands, as the voice of a nation witnessed.
II. Having cleared himself, Samuel recounts the outlines of the past, in order to emphasise the law that cleaving to God had ever brought deliverance; departure, disaster; and penitence, restoration. It is history with a purpose, and less careful about chronology than principles. Facts are good, if illuminated by the clear recognition of the law which they obey; but, without that, they are lumber. The ‘philosophy of history’ is not reached without the plain recognition of the working of the divine will. No doubt the principles which Samuel discerned written as with a sunbeam on the past of Israel were illustrated there with a certainty and directness which belonged to it alone; but we shall make a bad use of the history of Israel, if we say, ‘It is all miraculous, and therefore inapplicable to modern national life.’ It would be much nearer the mark to say, ‘It is all miraculous, and therefore meant as an exhibition for blind eyes of the eternal principles which govern the history of all nations.’ It is as true in Britain to-day as ever it was in Judea, that righteousness and the fear of God are the sure foundations of real national as of individual prosperity. The kingdoms of this world are not the devil’s, though diplomatists and soldiers seem to think so. If any nation were to live universally by the laws of God, it might not have what the world calls national success; it would have no story of wholesale robbery, called military glory, but it would have peace within its borders, and life would go nobly and sweetly there. ‘Happy is the people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is the people, whose God is the Lord.’
The details of Samuel’s resume need not occupy much time. Note the word in 1Sa 12:7 , ‘reason,’ or, as the Revised Version renders, ‘plead.’ He takes the position of God’s advocate in the suit, and what he will prove for his client is the ‘righteousness’ of his dealings in the past. The story, says he, can be brought down to very simple elements,-a cry to God, an answer of deliverance, a relapse, punishment, a renewed cry to God, and all the rest of the series as before. It is like a repeating decimal, over and over again, each figure drawing the next after it. The list of oppressors in 1Sa 12:9 , and that of deliverers in 1Sa 12:11 , do not follow the same order, but that matters nothing. Clearly the facts are assumed as well known, and needing only summary reference. The new-fashioned way of treating Biblical history, of course, takes that as an irrefutable proof of the late date and spuriousness of this manufactured speech put into Samuel’s mouth. Less omniscient students will be content with accepting the witness to the history. Nobody knows anything of a judge named Bedan, and the conjectural emendation ‘Barak’ is probable, especially remembering the roll-call in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where Gideon, Barak, and Jephthah appear in the same order, with the addition of Samson. The supposition that ‘Samuel,’ in this verse, is an error for ‘Samson,’ is unnecessary; for the prophet’s mention of himself thus is not unnatural, in the circumstances, and is less obtrusive than to have said ‘me.’
The retrospect here given points the lesson of the sin and folly of the demand for a king. The old way had been to cry to God in their distresses, and the old experience had been that the answer came swift and sufficient; but this generation had tried a new method, and fear of ‘Nahash the Ammonite’ had driven them to look for a man to help them. The experience of God’s responses to prayer does not always wean even those who receive them from casting about for visible helpers. Still less does the experience of our predecessors keep us from it. Strange that after a hundred plain instances of His aid, the hundred and first distress should find us almost as slow to turn to Him, and as eager to secure earthly stays, as if there were no past of our own, or of many generations, all crowded and bright with tokens of His care! We are always disposed to doubt whether the power that delivered from Sisera, Philistines, and Moab, will be able to deliver us from Nahash. The new danger looks the very worst of all, and this time we must have a king. All the while Israel had God for its king. Our dim eyes cannot see the realities of the invisible world, and so we cleave to the illusions of the visible, which, at their best, are but shadows of the real, and are often made, by our weak hearts, its rival and substitute. What does the soldier, who has an impenetrable armour to wear, want with pasteboard imitations, like those worn in a play? It is doubtful wisdom to fling away the substance in grasping at the shadow. Saul was brave, and a head and shoulders above the people, and he had beaten Nahash for them; but Saul for God is a poor exchange. Do we do better, when we hanker after something more tangible than an unseen Guide, Helper, Stay, Joy, and Peace-bringer for our hearts, and declare plainly, by our eager race after created good, that we do not reckon God by Himself enough for us?
III. The part of Samuel’s address with which we are concerned here closes with the application of the history to the present time. The great point of the last three verses is that the new order of things has not changed the old law, which bound up well-being inseparably with obedience. They have got their king, and there he stands; but if they think that that is to secure their prosperity, they are much mistaken. There is a touch of rebuke, and possibly of sarcasm, in pointing to Saul, and making so emphatic, as in 1Sa 12:13 , the vehemence of their anxiety to get him. It is almost as if Samuel had said, ‘Look at him, and say whether he is worth all that eagerness. Do you like him as well, now that you have him, as you did before?’ There are not many of this world’s goods which stand that test. The shell that looked silvery and iridescent when in the sea is but a poor, pale reminder of its former self, when we hold it dry in our hands. One object of desire, and only one, brings no disappointment in possessing it. He, and only he, who sets his hope on God, will never have to feel that he is not so satisfied with the fulfilment as with the dream.
Israel had rejected God in demanding a king; but the giver of their demand had been God, and their rejection had not abolished the divine government, nor altered one jot of the old law. They and their king were equally its subjects. There is great emphasis in the special mention of ‘your king’ as bound to obedience as much as they; and, if we follow the Septuagint reading of 1Sa 12:15 , the mention is repeated there in the threatening of punishment. No abundance of earthly supports or objects of our love or trust in the least alters the unalterable conditions of well-being. Whether surrounded with these or stripped of all, to fear and serve the Lord and to hearken to His voice is equally the requisite for all true blessedness, and is so equally to the helper and the helped, the lover and the loved. We are ever tempted to think that, when our wishes are granted, and some dear or strong hand is stretched out for aid, all will be well; and we are terribly apt to forget that we need God as much as before, and that the way of being blessed has not changed. Those whose hearts and homes are bright with loved faces, and whose lives are guarded by strong and wise hands, have need to remember that they and their dear ones are under the same conditions of well-being as are the loneliest and saddest; and they who ‘have none other that fighteth for’ them have no less need to remember that, if God be their companion, they cannot be utterly solitary, nor altogether helpless if He be their aid.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 12
Now in the twelfth chapter Samuel is now sort of stepping down because they have now proclaimed the king. So his career as the judge over Israel has pretty much come to an end, as the reigns of government are now turned over from the theocracy, Samuel the judge speaking for God to the people, now to a monarchy where Saul is ruling. So Samuel is stepping down. This is more or less his farewell speech to the people. He is going to go into pretty much political obscurity after this point. He’s gonna step into the background. He will be dealing not with the people; he will be dealing with Saul and with individuals, but no longer the public figure in leading Israel. So this is his last, final speech to Israel in chapter twelve.
Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in that you have asked that I should set a king over you. And now, behold, the king is walking there before you: and I am old, I’m gray-haired; and my sons are with you: and I have walked with you from my childhood to this day ( 1Sa 12:1-2 ).
So you do remember that he started out his career extremely early. As soon as he was weaned he was a public figure. He was there in the place of worship. The people who would gather for worship saw this little boy year by year as he grew and as he developed. They recognized that God’s hand was upon this young man. He just sort of naturally grew into the position of leadership and judge over Israel.
Now [He declares] here I am: and I want you to witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? whose donkey have I taken? [“Who have I defrauded?”] who have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes? tell me and I will restore it ( 1Sa 12:3 ).
In other words, he is declaring his innocency before the people. “Look, I didn’t take from you at all. I didn’t take from you your oxen, your donkeys. I didn’t accept bribes. I’ve not oppressed you. If anyone feels that I’ve oppressed you, anyone feels I’ve defrauded, step forward, and I will pay.” Really Samuel did have a very beautiful and remarkable career as the judge of Israel. Extremely outstanding person.
So they answered, You haven’t defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything from us. And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. And they answered, God is witness ( 1Sa 12:4-5 ).
“If you swear God is witness, I’ve not taken anything from you.” “That’s right, we swear to that.
So Samuel said unto the people, [Rehearsing now their history a little bit.] It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and they brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt. Now stand still, for a minute that I might reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts which the Lord did to you and your fathers ( 1Sa 12:6-7 ).
Now he is seeking now to justify God. He’s justified himself; “Look I’ve taken nothing.”
“Right.”
“I’m clean.”
“Right.”
“Now I want to show you that the Lord is also clean, that the Lord has treated you right. That He has never mistreated you or your fathers. That which the Lord has done has been fair and just.”
When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, and they brought your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place. And when your fathers forgot the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, who was the captain of the host of Hazor, and then into the hand of the Philistines, and then into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and we have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelled safely. And when you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said unto me, No; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king ( 1Sa 12:8-12 ).
“Now I want you to acknowledge this that God was fair and just. Your father Jacob went down to Egypt, and there your fathers were oppressed. They cried unto God, God sent Moses and Aaron who brought them out of Egypt, and to this place. But when your fathers began to forsake God, then they were forsaken of God. It was only after they had forsaken God that their enemies came in and began to oppress them. But they cried unto God, and God sent deliverers.” these various judges.
He names some of the judges that God used as the deliverer, finally Himself. But now you are faced with another crisis and rather than crying out unto God for His deliverance, you are now asking for a king. In thus doing, you are rejecting God from being king. So you are going from a theocracy, a people governed by God, to a monarchy, people governed by an earthly king.
Now therefore behold the king that you have chosen, and you have desired. [“Here he is, take a look at him.”] and, behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against his commandment, then shall both you and the king that reigns over you continue following the Lord your God: But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, and you rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers.
Now I want you to stand and see this great thing, which the Lord is gonna do before your eyes. Today is the day of the wheat harvest. I’m gonna call unto the Lord, and he’s gonna send thunder and rain; that you might perceive and know that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord; the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil thing, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: you have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain ( 1Sa 12:13-21 ).
So Samuel says, “Look you’ve done an evil thing in asking for a king. That you might know how wicked it is, God’s gonna show you a wonder. I’m gonna ask God to send thunder and rain upon your wheat harvest.”
There in the sight of the people God sent thunder and rain. So as the thunder began to clap around them, and the rain began to fall, they said, “Oh we’ve sinned, we’ve done wickedly. Pray that God not destroy us.”
Now it is interesting, they aren’t really repenting. The repentance means a change, a true repentance they would’ve said, “Oh get rid of Saul. We’ll let God serve us or reign over us. We’ll serve God.” That would’ve been repentance. But theirs is, “Oh we’re sorry, but we still want our king.”
Now there is a difference between sorrow and repentance. The Lord requires repentance from sin, not just a sorrow for sin. So often we have a sorrow because of the consequences of our sin, but we go on doing it. God wants repentance, that is a turning away from the evil in our lives. God requires repentance.
So they said, “Pray that we will not die.”
Samuel said to them, “You’re not gonna die, but just make sure that you don’t quit serving the Lord, for if you do, you’re gonna start serving other gods, vain things, which cannot profit or deliver.”
Now he declared this because he knew the nature of man. You’ve got to serve somebody. If you are not serving God, you’re going to be serving some vain thing that really can’t help you or deliver you, that is really no profit to you. We look around the world today and we see the vain things that men are worshiping or serving. But you cannot serve God and mammon. They are mutually exclusive. If you forsake serving the Lord, because you’ve got to serve somebody, you’re gonna start serving vain things, which when your time of trouble and peril arises, they’ll not be able to profit you or to deliver you.
But if you serve the Lord he will not forsake you for his great name’s sake; because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people ( 1Sa 12:22 ).
“Now for God’s reasons He’s pleased to make you His people. If you’ll just serve Him, He will not forsake you.”
Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and right way ( 1Sa 12:23 ):
Now here Samuel brings up something that to me is quite interesting. They said, when they realized their wickedness, they said, “Pray for us that we not die.” In response to that Samuel said, “As for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.” In other words, not praying is sinful. Not praying is sinning against the Lord. “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you.”
Now if God has commanded us to pray one for another, then our failure to pray for one another is disobedient to the command of God, and disobedience to God’s command is sin. The Lord has told us we are to pray one for another. Therefore we are all of us required to pray for each other. God forbid that we should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for one another. Oh, that we would realize the awful sin of prayerlessness in our lives. That not to pray, not to spend time in prayer with the Lord is actually sinning against the Lord. It’s sinning against His commands to us.
Only fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he has done for you. [Just consider the wonderful things God has done for you, and then serve Him with all your heart.] But if you continue in wickedness, just know you’re gonna be consumed, both you and your king ( 1Sa 12:24-25 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
In Samuels old age, the people desired to have a king; and though it went much against the grain, yet, by the Lords advice, Samuel consented to it.
Here he makes his last protest.
1Sa 12:1. And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
I have not stood in your way. I have not sought mine own honour. I have at once frankly resigned my office among you.
1Sa 12:2. And now, behold, the king walketh before you: and I am old and grayheaded; and behold, my sons are with you and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.
My sons come here today, not as my successors, but as fellow-subjects with you of your newly-chosen king; they are not in opposition to him any more than I am. Like an old servant who is about to be dismissed, Samuel asks them to bear witness to his character; and this he does, partly as a lesson to the king who had taken his place, and partly as a clearance of himself in rendering up his charge.
1Sa 12:3. Behold, here I am: witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
It is so usual a thing, among Oriental judges and rulers, to expect bribes, that you cannot, in those countries, take a single step in a court of law without bribery. It was therefore a very unusual circumstance that Samuel should be able to challenge anybody to say that he had ever wrongfully taken so much as a single farthing. And the great rulers, in those countries, are accustomed to enrich themselves by levying heavy taxes upon the people. But Samuel affirmed that his services had been perfectly gratuitous, so that all he had done for the people had cost them nothing. If they had any fault to find with his government, it could only be because it had been so just and also so cheap; his yoke had indeed been easy to their necks. What a fine sight it is to see an old man able thus to challenge all who had known him, throughout a long life, to testify that he had not led a selfish life, or studied his own interests even in the least degree!
1Sa 12:4-5. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken ought of any mans hand. And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found ought in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.
In the most solemn way, they cleared him; when he rendered to them the account of his stewardship, they all bore witness that everything had been done, not merely according to strict rectitude, but in the most generous spirit of self-consecration. May all of us be enabled so to live that, when our sun goes down, it shall be as cloudless a sunset as was that of Samuel!
1Sa 12:6-8. And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your Fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the LORD, then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place.
A remembrance of past mercies is very profitable to us. National mercies ought not to be forgotten, and personal favors should always be fresh in our memory. Alas! the old proverb is only too true, Bread that is eaten is soon forgotten. So is it even with the bread which God gives us; we eat it, yet soon forget the hand that fed us. Let it not be so with us.
1Sa 12:9-11. And when they forgat the LORD their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephtah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe.
They oft transgressed, and were as often afflicted; but whenever they returned to the Lord with their confession of sin, and again sought his mercy, he was always quick to deliver them. Let us profit by their experience. Have we brought ourselves into trouble through sin? Have we wandered and backslidden, and are our hearts therefore heavy? Let us return unto the Lord, and confess our sin, for he hath not cast us away, He will not turn against the voice of our cry; he will forgive us, and graciously receive us unto himself again.
1Sa 12:12-13. And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the LORD your God was your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.
He has consented to your request, though it was a foolish one. Remember, brethren, it is not every answer to prayer that is a token of Gods favor. If our prayers are very foolish, and even if there is sin in them, God may sometimes give us what we ask in order to show us our folly, and make us smart for having offered such a prayer. Though, under Gods government, they had been most highly privileged, they must needs have a king, like the nations which were not so favored. So now, says Samuel, God has given you this king, so do your best with him. Samuel had a hopeful spirit; and he hoped that, though the circumstances were not as he would have wished them to be, yet that the people might do well after all.
1Sa 12:14-17. If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD your God: But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king.
This was to be a token to them that Samuel was Gods prophet. On a previous occasion, in answer to his prayer, God had thundered against the Philistines but, this time, his thunder was his voice against Israel. In reading the Bible, we must always remember that it was not written in England but in Palestine. Wheat harvest there takes place about the month of May, when the weather is usually settled, and such things as thunder and rain are almost unknown. It was extraordinary, therefore, as we speak of a bolt out of the blue.
1Sa 12:18-19. So Samuel called unto the LORD; and the LORD sent thunder a and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.
That thunderstorm was a powerful preacher to them, and the rain drops,
that fell so copiously, brought the tear drops into their eyes. The phenomena of nature frequently impress men with a sense of Gods power,
and prostrate them before him.
1Sa 12:20-22. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great names sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
How gently the old prophet speaks! What a change from the pealing thunder to this gracious voice! It seems like the clear shining after rain.
1Sa 12:23-25. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way: Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed both ye and your king.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
At the confirmation of the king appointed by God by the consent of the nation, Samuel delivered what was practically his last address to them.
It was of the nature of a farewell message, in which was there a touch of pathos in his speaking of his past relation with the people.
He first challenged them as to his conduct during the period in which he had walked before them, and then proceeded solemnly to warn them, in view of the new departure in their history now taking place.
In a rapid survey of that history he reminded them of two things; first, the consistent faithfulness of God; and, second, their constant failure. The incident is full of dramatic force as Samuel, in the presence of Saul, charged people with having sinned, in that they had sought a king; and it is the more remarkable because he so spoke to them as to bring home a consciousness of wrong.
However, the thing was done, and he now charged them still to serve and follow Jehovah, and promised tenderly that he would continue to pray for them and instruct them in the right way. His final word was to warn them that if they continued in their waywardness their king would not be able to save them.
It is evident how clear Samuel’s vision was of the fundamental truth concerning the people-that they were, and could be, great only as they remained a people governed by God and obedient to Him.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Samuels Last Message to Israel
1Sa 12:1-13
An end must come to the longest and most useful service. Before his long sleep Samuel made protestation of his innocence before God and the people. Yes, the long sleep will come to us all, and happy are they who, before they lay down their heads upon the pillow of death, are able to extend their hands and to bare their hearts before those who have known them best, and say, These are clean. The people bore double witness to the truth of Samuels challenge, and the old man was comforted. Yes, God was witness, as well as the people, to his absolute integrity. See Act 24:16.
Then Samuel pressed home, upon that dense mass of people, the sin of which they had been guilty in demanding a king instead of waiting for a heaven-sent deliverer. But we are liable to the same mistake. We look to the visible and forget the invisible. We forget that the invisible Christ stands waiting to succor, prepared to save unto the uttermost. In this faith the Apostle found his abiding peace and steadfastness. See 2Co 1:10. Let us, also, set our hope on Him who has delivered, and will deliver.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
1Sa 12:20
It is the special and most perilous curse of sin that it obscures, or blots out altogether, or terribly distorts the vision of God in our hearts; it gradually reduces us to that most desolate of all conditions “having no hope and without God in the world.”
I. Those who need friends most are those who have fallen most and are in the most sore condition; but if even man despises, and finds no forgiveness for our faults, is there any hope that He in whose sight the very heavens are not clean-that He will pity us, and take us to His breast, and suffer us to live in the glory of His presence? Will He, who is the Friend of the innocent, be a Friend of the guilty too?
II. God loathes our sins, but knowing that we are but dust, He loves our souls. He sent His Son to seek and save the lost. When that blessed Son had taken our nature upon Him, He lived with the aged and the withered, the homeless and the diseased, with the palsied and the demoniac, with the ignorant and the blind.
III. Each new day is to you a new chance. Return to God and use it rightly, letting the time past of your life suffice you to have walked in the hard ways of sin and shame. The mistakes, the follies, the sins, the calamities, of the past may, if you use them rightly, be the pitying angels to guide you through the future. If you put off the present time for repentance, the convenient season may never come. As yet the door stands open before you; very soon it will be too late, and the door be shut.
F. W. Farrar, The Fall of Man, p. 364.
Notice four things:-
I. We have sinned some sins which we cannot repair. God, in His great love, takes us still as we are; takes us back to His bosom; only asks one thing: that at least we will go on in simplicity and sincerity now.
II. Though the temporal punishment may remain, it yet may be no sign that the sin is unforgiven. It is a difficulty in our way raised by ourselves. God takes us back though we are fallen. Let us serve Him still, though the vigour of the old days is gone.
III. This punishment is a sign, a sure sign, of destruction following unforgiven sin. If God so punish those whom He receives as repentant, what will befall us if we repent not? Surely nothing else than that “we shall be consumed.”
IV. What an argument with us ought His longsuffering to be! What peace is in the thought of forgiveness so large, so full, so free, as God has promised! Not friends, nor repose, nor confession, nor resolution avails anything without the very presence of God; but each of these things in Him may work us weal, and He in them can bring us absolution and perfect peace.
Archbishop Benson, Boy Life: Sundays in Wellington College, p. 227.
References: 1Sa 12:20.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 105; E. H. Plumptre, King’s College Sermons, p. 60.
1Sa 12:23
Notice: (1) Some of the reasons for intercessory prayer, and (2) some of its encouragements.
I. Why is intercessory prayer a great thing? (1) St. Paul lays it down as a positive command, and makes it the primary obligation of every Christian. (2) We are never walking so exactly and so closely in the footsteps of Jesus Christ as when we are praying for any one. (3) We never more effectually benefit ourselves than when we pray for others. (4) We nave no talent of greater usefulness than the talent of intercessory prayer. Every other channel of good is circumscribed, and illness and absence take their place. But this has no limit. Wherever we are, under whatever circumstances, we can do it; and in doing it, we can reach those otherwise perfectly inaccessible to us-the guiltiest and the farthest off from God.
II. The encouragements to intercessory prayer are also four. (1) The first lies in the character of God, that all we bring in are dear to Him, that “He willeth not that any should perish, but that all should be saved,” and that it must be a thing very dear to God when one of His children brings another of His children and lays that child at their common Father’s feet. (2) The second great encouragement is in the fact that there is never a commandment in which there is not rolled up a promise. We have seen that it is commanded, “Pray for one another;” we safely argue that it would never have been commanded if it were not in God’s mind to grant the thing which we are told to ask. (3) Thirdly, the general promise of prayer is exceedingly large. Whatsoever is of faith is sure. The success of that prayer is covenanted. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive.” (4) Fourthly, almost all our Lord’s miracles were done in answer to intercessory prayer. There is no positive promise to intercessory prayer, but, short of the actual undertaking of God, there is everything to give hope and all but certainty when we ask for any one of those things which we know are after the mind of God to give to His children, and which Christ has purchased with His own blood.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 333.
References: 1Sa 12:23.-J. Harrison, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 49; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1537; J. Keble, Sermons, Academical and Occasional, p. 127. 1Sa 12:23-25.-G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 253. 1Sam 12-Parker, vol. vi., p. 315. 1Sa 13:1.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 164. 1Sa 13:3.-J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. i., p. 269. 1Sa 13:7.-Parker, vol. vii., p. 67.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
5. Samuels Witness and Warning
CHAPTER 12
1. His witness to his own integrity (1Sa 12:1-5)
2. His warning (1Sa 12:6-15)
3. Heavens answer (1Sa 12:16-19)
4. His words of comfort (1Sa 12:20-25)
What a scene! The man of God, the man of prayer, now advanced in years, stands before them. I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Here was not a Nazarite who had failed like Samson, but one who had lived out his Nazariteship in the fullest sense of the word. What unselfish service he had rendered and how he loved his own people! In all this he is a type of that greatest servant who came in the fulness of time not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. His witness to his own integrity reminds us also of Pauls words in the Epistle to the Corinthians (2Co 11:6-9; 2Co 12:14-17). The whole nation acknowledged Samuels integrity. A brief historical retrospect follows in which Samuel points out their sin of forgetting Jehovah. (Bedan in verse 11 should be Barak.) Their present condition was like that of their fathers, unbelief and disobedience.
It was the time of the wheat harvest. Samuel prayed for a witness from heaven upon his words. Then it thundered and rained. It never thunders and rains in Palestine at that time of the year (May and June). A guilty fear seized upon them and they requested intercession. This reminds us of that coming harvest, the end of the age (Mat 13:39). Then Jehovah will thunder in judgment and the repentance of the people of Israel will follow. However true repentance did not take place here when Samuel prayed. Beautiful are his words of comfort. How he manifests the work and character of a true prophet! Here is also the assurance for Israel. For Jehovah for His great names sake will not forsake His people, because it hath pleased Jehovah to make you His people. His gifts and calling are without repentance.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Behold: 1Sa 8:5-8, 1Sa 8:19-22
have made: 1Sa 10:1, 1Sa 10:24, 1Sa 11:14, 1Sa 11:15
Reciprocal: 1Sa 7:15 – judged
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 12:1. Samuel said unto all Israel While they were assembled together in Gilgal. And this is another instance of Samuels great wisdom and integrity. He would not reprove the people for their sin, in desiring a king, while Saul was unsettled in his kingdom; lest, through their accustomed levity, they should as hastily cast off their king, as they had passionately desired him; and therefore he chooseth this season for it, because Sauls kingdom was now confirmed by an eminent victory, and because the people rejoiced greatly, applauded themselves for their desires of a king, and interpreted the success which God had given them as a divine approbation of those desires. Samuel, therefore, thinks fit to temper their joys, and to excite them to that repentance which he saw wanting in them, and which he knew to be necessary to prevent the curse of God upon their new king and the whole kingdom.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 12:2. I am old and grey-headed. Some think Samuel was now seventy three or eighty years of age; others think he was but sixty three. Ushers chronology is much embarrassed here.
1Sa 12:11. Bedan, that is, Ben-dan, the son of Dan, or Samson the Danite, as in the Targum, the only judge of that tribe. Samuel omits his name because of his moral errors, or rather because the tongue prefers to shorten long names.
1Sa 12:17. Thunder and rain. Perhaps no man then alive could remember thunder and rain in the beginning of June; this, with the loudness of the reports, made the people afraid of death. And Samuel made a hallowed use of their terrors to excite them to loyalty, and a detestation of idolatry.
1Sa 12:23. God forbid. Moses, David, Isaiah, and Jonah prayed for their country in the time of trouble, and the neglect of that duty is a great sin. Jeremiah enjoins the Jews to pray for the countries which retained them as captives. Jer 29:7.
REFLECTIONS.
Turning now from the rejoicing of Saul and all Israel in Gilgal, we fix our eye on the venerable Samuel. He could not so heartily participate of that joy, for his heart feared for the people. He therefore stood forth to utter all the feelings of his soul, having reserved his grief till he had fully accomplished his duty in the inauguration of the king. He commenced his discourse by pointing to their king, in whom were now their power and their hope; and proceeded to attest his own integrity and purity as judge. He had taken no mans ox or ass; and here so great was his confidence, that he made the people both judge and party in his cause. With one voice they acknowledged the truth of all he said. Hence all princes, magistrates and ministers, should learn of Samuel purity of principle; for the most laudable actions, proceeding from unworthy motives, lose all their lustre in the eyes of God and of discerning men.
The wounded prophet having cleared himself, next proceeds to exculpate the God of Israel from all want of fidelity to his covenant. He had indeed at various periods punished them for their sins; but on their crying for pardon and deliverance, he had not only raised them up judges, but given them many miraculous victories. The victory at Mizpeh, under his presidency, was a most signal one, and fresh in their memory. Hence on seeing the preparations of Nahash, they should have cried again for divine aid, and not sought help in an arm of flesh by asking a king. This was plain talk. It was justifying the Lord, and accusing the people. It was a charge of unbelief, to which they could make no defence.
Having thus convicted them of distrust, he instantly proceeded to chastise their sin: for guilt developed at the bar of heaven is followed by immediate punishment. And to demonstrate the greatness of the sin, which man seldom acknowledges, till he feels the rod, he asked; Is it not wheat harvest to-day? The most settled season of all the year? Were tremendous tempests ever known at this time? I will call on the name of the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain. And dreadful to say, Samuel had scarcely closed his speech before the heavens were clothed in sackcloth. His voice had scarcely ceased to be heard, before the Lord uttered his indignation in the loudest peals of thunder that the oldest man had ever heard. The affrighted people now acknowledged their error, and trembled for what they had done. And Samuel most wisely took occasion from their sorrows to enforce new obedience, encouraging them to it by the promises of the covenant. How happy was Israel under so divine a tutor!
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1 Samuel 12. Samuels Farewell.From the Deuteronomic document, where it separated the two clauses of 1Sa 10:25, which see.
1Sa 12:1-6 a (to witness). In response to a solemn adjuration from Samuel, the people agree that his administration has been pure.
1Sa 12:3. to blind mine eyes therewith: LXX even a pair of shoes? Answer against me, and I will, etc. (mg.).
1Sa 12:6 a 1Sa 12:11. Samuel briefly reviews the history of Israel, showing the gracious dealings of Yahweh with His people and their ingratitude. The author forgot that he was composing a speech for Samuel, and mentions him in the third person, as one of the deliverers of Israel.
1Sa 12:8. made them: read with LXX, He (Yahweh) made.
1Sa 12:11. Bedan: read Barak, with LXX.
1Sa 12:12-25. Samuel reproaches the people for their disloyalty to Yahweh in asking for a king; in the future obedience will be rewarded, and disobedience punished. At Samuels prayer, a miraculous thunderstorm (cf. 1Sa 7:10), at a time (wheat-harvest, May-June) when thunder was unusual, confirms his words. The terror-stricken people beg for Samuels intercession. He reassures them, and promises to pray for them and guide them.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
This chapter intervenes in the history as a solemn reproof to Israel and a warning of the dangers to which they had exposed themselves by asking for a king The voice of the prophet is not to be put in the background because the people have a king, Samuel brings to Israel’s attention some plain facts, the significance of which they ought to seriously consider. They had been given their way, with a king established over them, Now he had become old.
He invites their criticism. Had he used the place God had giver him for his own advantage? Had he taken anything from anyone? Had he defrauded anyone? Had he oppressed anyone? Had he ever received a bribe? He addressed this publicly to all Israel and spoke as in the presence of God. Was there even one who could point the finger at him?
Their answer is clear and decisive to the effect that he had not been guilty of any aberration whatever in his relationship with the people, To more deeply impress this on them, Samuel invokes the witness of the Lord, to which they respond, “He is witness.” Sad it is to say that not many men in authority could stand up to a test of this kind. But Samuel had learned early in life to depend upon the pure grace of God, the result being a steady, consistent life of truth and stability. This showed be true of every servant of God.
He speaks then of Moses and Aaron whom God had put in the Place of leader bring Israel out of Egypt. It was no less true that it was without any official appointment. He did not say this, but they ought to have recognized it without his claiming it. He asks them to stand still and pay close attention to his reasoning with them before the Lord, not concerning his life before them, but concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord by which Israel had been blessed.
When the family of Jacob had been in Egypt (of course for some time) they cried to the Lord because of their bondage, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them with the object of bringing them into their own land. This was an accomplishment, the conducting of (probably) between two and three million people for fourty years through the wilderness and establishing them in a land from which God had to drive out the previous inhabitants. History has never seen anything like it. At the time, and later time, and later Israel accepted it as a matter of fact, but hardly realized the wonder of the grace of God in so dealing with them in marvelous blessing.
Verse 9 refers to the book of Judges, chapter 4:1-2 as well as chapter 13-1 and 3-12. Samuel does not use chronological order here, for which he has no doubt a reason, but in the cases of all those enemies it was Israel’s disobedience to God that led to Israel’s captivity. In each case God heard their prayers when their distress became sufficient to make them cry to Him in confession of their sin and in entreaty for deliverance. How faithful and gracious He had been in spite of their unfaithfulness! Three men are singled out whom God sent as deliverers, Jerubaal (or Gideon), Bedan and Jeohthah. These were military leaders in contrast to Samuel himself, whom God sent for Israel’s deliverance also by means of spiritual and moral power rather than by warfare. The deliverance was effective in enabling Israel to dwell safely.
However, he tells them that when they feared an attack by Nahash the Ammonite, instead of realizing that only their own sin would leave them vulnerable, and therefore appealing in confession and faith to their faithful Creator, they demanded a king! This was virtually telling God that He was no longer to be trusted as their king!
Yet they did not think they were displacing God: they thought they could have their king and serve God too. So Samuel tells them that if they will obey the Lord and serve Him, not rebelling against any of His commandments, now that they have their king, then so long as they did this, they and their king would continue following the Lord. If they think it is an actual advantage to have a king, let them prove it by their obedience to God. On the other hand, they are solemnly warned that if they will not obey the Lord, then the hand of the Lord would be against them in serious discipline, just as had been the case with their fathers when they had been guilty of rebelling against the commandments of God.
However, it was necessary that Samuel’s words should be confirmed by a clear public sign from God in order to press these facts solemnly upon their consciences. He calls upon them to stand and see the great thing that God would do. During wheat harvest in Israel a thunder storm was unheard of. Samuel told them that he would pray and the Lord would send such a storm in order that they might realize that their wickedness was great in asking a king. There was no suggestion that they change their minds now; for since they have received their king, they may not get rid of him again, but must learn the consequences of their own folly. God answers the prayer of Samuel in sending thunder and rain, a sign so clear that the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
They ask for Samuel’s prayers for themselves, that they should not die on account of their sin, a sin added to many more. At least their consciences were reached, and Samuel reassures them, telling them to fear not. For in spite of their having done wickedly they can depend on the faithfulness of God; and he urges them not to turn from following Him, but to serve Him with all their heart. Thus he stirs their sober exercise, whether or not he had confidence that they would thoroughly obey. They are told to avoid those vain things that too often become idols, totally unable to deliver anyone from bondage, and devoid of value. The encouragement he gives is based on the faithfulness of God. He would not forsake His people: the honor of His own name was involved in His continuing to care for them.
Verse 23 shows the seriousness with which Samuel considered his responsibility to pray for the people. To cease to pray for them would be sin in his estimation. Let us remember that sins of omission are not to be lightly regarded. Together with prayer, he would teach them the good and right way, for if one honestly prays for others, he is most concerned that they should be guided in the ways of the Lord. He therefore urges them to fear the Lord and to serve Him in truth with all their heart. He based this exhortation upon the abundance of God’s grace to them in the past He had done great things for them, just as we today have been blessed beyond measure by virtue of the great sacrifice of Christ. May we well consider what great things He has done for us, and respond with willing obedience to Him. On the other hand, Samuel warns them faithfully that if they choose to still act wickedly, they can expect to be consumed by it, and their king also. The scales of God’s justice are right and equal.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
12:1 And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have {a} hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
(a) I have granted your petition.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Samuel’s second warning to the people ch. 12
The writer wrote chapters 12-15 very skillfully to parallel chapters 8-11. Each section begins with Samuel warning the people about the dangers of their requesting a king (chs. 8 and 12). Each one also follows with a description of Saul’s exploits (chs. 9-10 and 13-14) and ends with Saul leading Israel in battle (chs. 11 and 15). This parallel structure vividly sets off the contrast between Saul’s early success as Israel’s king and his subsequent failure. The reason he failed is the primary theological lesson of these chapters, and it advances the fertility motif.
Chapter 12 is another most important theological passage in Samuel along with 1 Samuel 7 and 2 Samuel 7. Here Samuel explained Israel’s future relationship with Yahweh and the Mosaic Law, since the people insisted on having a king and had rejected Yahweh and Samuel.
"With this address Samuel laid down his office as judge, but without therefore ceasing as prophet to represent the people before God, and to maintain the rights of God in relation to the king." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 115.]
"This chapter . . . formally marks the end of the period of the judges . . ." [Note: Gordon, p. 125.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Samuel’s self-vindication 12:1-5
Why did Samuel feel the need to justify his behavior publicly? Perhaps he knew that because the people had rebelled against God by demanding a king, they would experience discipline from the Lord. When it came, he did not want anyone to think he was responsible for it. Also, it is likely that Samuel took the people’s request for a king as a personal rejection of himself. [Note: Wood, Israel’s United . . ., p. 70.] He probably wanted to show the people that they had no reason to reject him because of his behavior. Samuel’s words may seem to expose personal pride. I think more probably they express his concern that no one should conclude that living a life of commitment to God, as he had lived, would bring God’s discipline. The discipline to come would be a result of the sin of the people, not Samuel’s. Furthermore, by his life and ministry among them, Samuel had given the people no reason for demanding a king. He was also seeking to vindicate the type of rule he represented that was God’s will for Israel then.
"Here, as in 1Sa 8:11-18, a keyword is the verb take: if kingship was to be characterized by the tendency to take rather than to give, it was otherwise with the prophet. As he stepped down from high office, Samuel’s hands were empty (1Sa 12:5)." [Note: David Payne, pp. 57-58.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XVI.
SAMUEL’S VINDICATION OF HIMSELF.
1Sa 12:1-5.
IT was a different audience that Samuel had to address at Gilgal from either that which came to him to Ram ah to ask for a king, or that which assembled at Mizpeh to elect one. To both of these assemblies he had solemnly conveyed his warning against the act of distrust in God implied in their wishing for a king at all, and against any disposition they might feel, when they got a king, to pay less attention than before to God’s will and covenant. The present audience represented the army, undoubtedly a great multitude, that had gone forth with Saul to relieve Jabesh-Gilead, and that now came with Samuel to Gilgai to renew the kingdom. As the audience now seems to have been larger, so it very probably represented more fully the whole of the twelve tribes of Israel. This may explain to us why Samuel not only returned to the subject on which he had spoken so earnestly before, but enlarged on it at greater length, and appealed with more fullness to his own past life as giving weight to the counsels which he pressed upon them. Besides this, the recognition of Saul as king at Gilgal was more formal, more hearty, and more unanimous than at Mizpeh, and the institution of royalty was now more an established and settled affair. No doubt, too, Samuel felt that, after the victory at Jabesh-Gilead, he had the people in a much more impressible condition than they had been in before; and while their minds were thus so open to impression, it was his duty to urge on them to the very uttermost the truths that bore on their most vital well-being.
The address of Samuel on this occasion bore on three things: 1. his own personal relations to them in the past (1Sa 12:1-5); 2. the mode of God’s dealing with their fathers, and its bearing on the step now taken (1Sa 12:6-12); and 3. the way in which God’s judgments might be averted and His favour and friendship secured to the nation in all time coming (1Sa 12:13-25).
1. The reason why Samuel makes such explicit reference to his past life and such a strong appeal to the people as to its blameless character is, that he may establish a powerful claim for the favourable consideration of the advice which he is about to give them. The value of an advice no doubt depends simply on its own intrinsic excellence, but the effect of an advice depends partly on other things; it depends, to a great extent, on the disposition of people to think favourably of the person by whom the advice is given. If you have reason to suspect an adviser of a selfish purpose, if you know him to be a man who can plausibly represent that the course which he urges will be a great benefit to you, while in reality he has no real regard for any interest but his own, then, let him argue as he pleases, you do not allow yourselves to be moved by anything he may say. But if you have good cause to know that he is a disinterested man, if he has never shown himself to be selfish, but uniformly devoted to the interests of others, and especially of yourselves, you feel that what such a man urges comes home to you with extraordinary weight. Now, the great object of Samuel in his reference to his past life was to bring the weight of this consideration to bear in favour of the advice he was to give to the people. For he could appeal to them with the greatest confidence as to his absolute disinterestedness. He could show that, with ever so many opportunities of acting a selfish part, no man could accuse him of having ever been guilty of crooked conduct in all his relations to the people. He could -establish from their own mouths the position that he was as thoroughly devoted to the interests of the nation as any man could be. And therefore he called on them to give their most favourable and their most earnest attention to the advice which he was about to press on them, the more so that he was most profoundly convinced that the very existence of the nation in days to come depended on its being complied with.
The first consideration he urged was, that he had listened to their voice in making them a king. He had not obstructed nor baulked them in their strong feeling, though he might reasonably enough have done so. He had felt the proposal keenly as a reflection on himself, but he had waived that objection and gone on. He had regarded it as a slur on the Almighty, but the Almighty Himself had been pleased to forgive it, and he had transacted with Him on their behalf in the same way as before. Nothing that he had done in this matter could have an unfriendly aspect put on it. He had made the best of an objectionable proposal; and now they had not only got their wish, but along with it, objectionable though it was, a measure of the sanction of God. ”And now, behold, the king walketh before you.”
In the next place, Samuel adverts to his age. “I am old and grey-headed; and, behold, my sons are with you, and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.” You have had abundant opportunities to know me, and my manner of life. You know how I began, and you know how I have gone on, till now the circle of my years is nearly completed; a new generation has grown up; my sons are your contemporaries; I am old and grey-headed. You know how my childhood was spent in God’s house in Shiloh, how God called me to be His prophet, and how I have gone on in that exalted office, trying ever to be faithful to Him that called me. What Samuel delicately points to here is the uniformity of his life. He had not begun on one line, then changed to another. He had not see- sawed nor zigzagged, one thing at one time, another at another; but from infancy to grey hairs he had kept steadfastly to the same course, he had ever served the same Master. Such steadiness and uniformity throughout a long life genders a wonderful weight of character. The man that has borne an honoured name through all the changes and temptations of life, through youth and middle age, and even to hoar hairs, that has served all that time under the same banner and never brought discredit on it, has earned a title to no ordinary esteem. It is this that forms the true glory of old age. Men instinctively pay honour to the hoary head when it represents a career of uniform and consistent integrity; and Christian men honour it all the more when it represents a lifetime of Christian activity and self- denial. Examine the ground of this reverence, and you will find it to be this: such a mature and consistent character could never have been attained but for many a struggle, in early life, of duty against inclination, and many a victory of the higher principle over the lower, till at length the habit of well-doing was so established, that further struggles were hardly ever needed. Men think of him as one who has silently but steadily yielded up the baser desires of his nature all through his life to give effect to the higher and the nobler. They think of him as one who has sought all through life to give that honour to the will of God in which possibly they have felt themselves sadly deficient, and to encourage among their fellow-men, at much cost of self-denial, those ways of life which inflict no damage on our nature and bring a serene peace and satisfaction. Of such a mode of life, Samuel was an admirable representative. Men of that stamp are the true nobles of a community. Loyal to God and faithful to man; denying themselves and labouring to diffuse the spirit of all true happiness and prosperity; visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, and keeping themselves unspotted by the world – happy the community whose quiver is full of them! Happy the Church, happy the country, that abounds in such worthies! – men, as Thomas Carlyle said of his peasant Christian father, of whom one should be prouder in one’s pedigree than of dukes or kings, for what is the glory of mere rank or accidental station compared to the glory of Godlike qualities, and of a character which reflects the image of God Himself?
The third point to which Samuel adverts is his freedom from all acts of unjust exaction or oppression, and from all those corrupt practices in the administration of justice which were so common in Eastern countries. “Behold; here I am; witness against me before the Lord and before His anointed; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it to you.” It was no small matter to be able to make this challenge, which is as fearless in tone as it is comprehensive in range, in the very midst of such a sea of corruption as the neighbouring kingdoms of the East presented. It would seem as if, down to this day, the people in most of these despotic countries had never known any other regime but one of unjust exaction and oppression. We have seen, in an earlier chapter of this book, how shamefully the very priests abused the privilege of their sacred office to appropriate to themselves the offerings of God. In the days of our Lord and John the Baptist, what was it that rendered ”the publicans” so odious but that their exactions went beyond the limits of justice and decency alike? Even to this day, the same system prevails as corrupt as ever. I have heard from an excellent American missionary a tale of a court of justice that came within his experience, even at a conspicuous place like Beirut, that shows that without bribery it is hardly possible to get a decision on the proper side. A claim had been made to a piece of land which he had purchased for his mission, and as he refused to pay what on the very face of it was obviously unjust, he was summoned before the magistrate. The delays that took place in dealing with the case were alike needless and vexatious, but the explanation came in a message from the authorities, slyly conveyed to him, that the wheels of justice would move much faster if they were duly oiled with a little American gold. To such a proposal he would not listen for a moment, and it was only by threatening an exposure before the higher powers that the decision was at last given where really there was not the shadow of a claim against him. From the same source I got an illustration of the exactions that are made to this day in the payment of taxes. The law provides that of the produce of the land one tenth shall belong to the Government for the public service. There is an officer whose duty it is to examine the produce of every farm, and carry off the share that the Government are entitled to. The farmer is not allowed to do anything with his produce till this officer has obtained the Government share. After harvest the farmers of a district will send word to the officer that their produce IS ready, and invite him to come and take his tenth. The officer will return word that he is very busy, and will not be able to come for a month. The delay of a month would entail incalculable loss and inconvenience on the farmers. They know the situation well; and they send a deputation of their number to say that if he will only come at once, they are willing to give him two tenths instead of one, the second tenth being for his own use. But this too they are assured that he cannot do. And there is nothing for them but to remain with him higgling and bargaining, till at last perhaps, in utter despair, they promise him a proportion which will leave no more than the half available for themselves.
And these are not exceptional instances – they are the common experiences of Eastern countries, at least in the Turkish empire. When such dishonest practices prevail on every side, it often happens that even good men are carried away with them, and seem to imagine that, being universal, it is necessary for them to fall in with them too. It was a rare thing that Samuel was able to do to look round on that vast assembly and demand whether one act of that kind had ever been committed by him, whether he had ever deviated even an hair-breadth from the rule of strict integrity and absolute honesty in all his dealings with them. Observe that Samuel was not like one of many, banded together to be true and upright, and supporting each other by mutual example and encouragement in that course. As far as appears, he was alone, like the seraph Abdiel, ”faithful found among the faithless, faithful only he.” What a regard he must have had for the law and authority of God! How rigidly he must have trained himself in public as in private life to make the will of God the one rule of his actions! What was it to him that slight peccadilloes would be thought nothing of by the public? What was it to him that men would have counted it only natural that of the money that passed through his hands a little should stick to his fingers, provided he was faithful in the main? What was it to him that this good man and that good man were in the way of doing it, so that, after all, he would be no worse than they? All such considerations would have been absolutely tossed aside. “Get thee behind me, Satan,” would have been his answer to all such proposals. Unbending integrity, absolute honesty, unswerving truth, was his rule on every occasion. “How can I do this wickedness,” would have been his question – ”How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Is there nothing here for us to ponder in these days of intense competition in business and questionable methods of securing gain? Surely the rule of unbending integrity, absolute honesty, and unswerving truth is as binding on the Christian merchant as it was on the Hebrew judge. Is the Christian merchant entitled to make use of the plea of general corruption around him in business any more than Samuel was? Some say, How else are we to make a living? We answer, No man is entitled even to make a living on terms which shut him out from using the Lord’s Prayer, – from saying, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Who would dare to say that bread obtained by dishonesty or deceit is God-given bread? Who could ask God to bless any enterprise or transaction which had not truth and honesty for its foundation? Better let bread perish than get it by unlawful means. For “man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” “The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it.” Instead of Christian men accepting the questionable ways of the world for pushing business, let them stand out as those who never can demean themselves by anything so unprincipled. No doubt Samuel was a poor man, though he might have been rich had he followed the example of heathen rulers. But who does not honour him in his poverty, with his incorruptible integrity and most scrupulous truthfulness, as no man would or could have honoured him had he accumulated the wealth of a Cardinal Wolsey and lived in splendour rivaling royalty itself? After all, it is the true rule, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
But ere we pass from the contemplation of Samuel’s character, it is right that we should very specially take note of the root of this remarkable integrity and truthfulness of his toward men. For we live in times when it is often alleged that religion and morality have no vital connection with each other, and that there may be found an “independent morality” altogether separate from religious profession. Let it be granted that this divorce from morality may be true of religions of an external character, where Divine service is supposed to consist of ritual observances and bodily attitudes and attendances, performed in strict accordance with a very rigid rule. Wherever such performances are looked on as the end of religion, they may be utterly dissociated from morality, and one may be, at one and the same time, strictly religious and glaringly immoral. Nay, further, where religion is held to be in the main the acceptance of a system of doctrine, where the reception of the doctrines of grace is regarded as the distinguishing mark of the Christian, and fidelity to these doctrines the most important duty of discipleship; you may again have a religion dissociated from moral life. You may find men who glory in the doctrine of justification by faith and look with infinite pity on those who are vainly seeking to be accepted by their works, and who deem themselves very safe from punishment because of the doctrine they hold, but who have no right sense of the intrinsic evil of sin, and who are neither honest, nor truthful, nor worthy of trust in the common relations of life. But wherever religion is spiritual and penetrating, wherever sin is seen in its true character, wherever men feel the curse and pollution of sin in their hearts and lives, another spirit rules. The great desire now is to be delivered from sin, not merely in its punishment, but in its pollution and power. The end of religion is to establish a gracious relation through Jesus Christ between the sinner and God, whereby not only shall God’s favour be restored, but the soul shall be renewed after God’s image, and the rule of life shall be to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Now we say. You cannot have such a religion without moral reformation. And, on the other hand, you cannot rely on moral reformation being accomplished without a religion like this. But alas! the love of sinful things is very deeply grained in the fallen nature of man.
Godlessness and selfishness are frightfully powerful in unregenerate hearts. The will of God is a terrible rule of life to the natural man – a rule against which he rebels as unreasonable, impracticable, terrible. How then are men brought to pay supreme and constant regard to that will? How was Samuel brought to do this, and how are men led to do it now? In both cases, it is through the influence of gracious, Divine love. Samuel was a member of a nation that God had chosen as His own, that God had redeemed from bondage, that God dwelt among, protected, restored, guided, and blessed beyond all example. The heart of Samuel was moved by God’s goodness to the nation. More than that, Samuel personally had been the object of God’s redeeming love; and though the hundred-and-third Psalm was not yet written, he could doubtless say, ”Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies, who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” It is the same gracious Divine action, the same experience of redeeming grace and mercy, that under the Christian dispensation draws men’s hearts to the will of God; only a new light has been thrown on these Divine qualities by the Cross of Christ. The forgiving grace and love of God have been placed in a new setting, and when it is felt that God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, a new sense of His infinite kindness takes possession of the souk Little truly does anyone know of religion, in the true sense of the term, who has not got this view of God in Christ, and has not felt his obligations to the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. And when this experience comes to be known, it becomes the delight of the soul to do the will of God. ”For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”