Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 12:6
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.
6. It is the Lord ] Or, Yea Jehovah [is witness]. This verse forms the transition to what follows. Samuel proceeds to identify Jehovah, to whom they were now appealing as witness, with the God who brought their fathers out of the bondage of Egypt.
advanced ] Appointed. Lit. made, cp. Heb 3:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Advanced – In the sense of appointing them to their office. It is, literally, made (see the margin; 1Ki 12:31; Heb 3:2). Samuels purpose is to impress the people with the conviction that Yahweh was their God, and the God of their fathers; that to Him they owed their national existence and all their national blessings, and that faithfulness to Him, to the exclusion of all other worship 1Sa 12:21 was the only safety of the newly-established monarchy. Observe the constant reference to the Exodus as the well-known turning-point of their national life (see 1Sa 4:8; 1Sa 6:6).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 12:6-25
And Samuel maid unto the people.
Samuels dealings with the people
Having vindicated himself (in the first five verses of this chapter), Samuel now proceeds to his second point, and takes the people in hand. But before proceeding to close quarters with them, he gives a brief review of the history of the nation, in order to bring out the precise relation in which they stood to God, and the duty resulting from that relation (1Sa 12:6-12).
1. First, he brings out the fundamental fact of their history. Its grand feature was this: It is the Lord who advanced Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. The fact could not be disputed–their existence as a people and their settlement in Canaan were due to the special mercy of the Lord. And yet there was a want of cordiality on the part of the people in acknowledging it. They were partly at least blind to its surpassing lustre. How strange it is, Richard Baxter says in substance somewhere, that men can see beauty in so many things–in the flowers, in the sky, in the sun–and yet be blind to the highest beauty of all the fountain and essence of all beauty, the beauty of the Lord! Having emphatically laid down the fundamental fact in the history of Israel, Samuel next proceeds to reason upon it. The reasoning rests on two classes of facts: the first, that whenever the people forsook God they had been brought into trouble; the second, that whenever they repented and cried to God. He delivered them out of their trouble. Now, what, was it that had recently occurred? They had had trouble from the Ammonites. Now, from what Samuel says here, it would appear that this annoyance from the Ammonites was the immediate occasion of the people wishing to have a king. Here let us observe what their natural course would have been, in accordance with former precedent. It would have been to cry to the Lord to deliver them from the Ammonites. But instead of that, they asked Samuel to give them a king, that he might deliver them. You see from this what cause Samuel had to charge them with rejecting God for their King. You see at the same time how much forbearance God exercised in allowing Samuel to grant their request.
2. Samuel is specially concerned to press on the people; and this he does in the remaining verses (1Sa 12:13-25), that they were to remember that their having a king in no serene and in no degree exempted them from their moral and spiritual obligations to God. He would show them there and then, under their very ayes, what agencies of destruction God held in His hand, and how easily He could bring these to bear on them and on their property. Oh, what folly it was to offer an affront to the great God, who had such complete control over fire and hail, anew and vapours, stormy wind fulfilling His word! What blindness to think they could in any respect be better with another king! Thus it is that in their times of trial Gods people in all ages have been brought to feel their entire dependence on Him.
3. But now, the humble and contrite spirit having been shown by the people, see how Samuel hastens to comfort and reassure them. Now that they have begun to fear, he can say to them, Fear not. Now that they have shown themselves alive to the evils of Gods displeasure, they are assured that there is a clear way of escape from these evils. Samuel, moreover, reminds them that it was not they that had chosen God; it was God that had chosen them. The Lord will not forsake His people, for His great names sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. This was a great ground of comfort for Israel.
4. Once more, in answer to the peoples request that he would intercede for them, Samuel is very earnest. God forbid that I should sin again it the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. The great emphasis with which he says this shows how much his heart is in it. What should I do, if I had not the privilege of intercessory prayer for you? There is a wonderful revelation of love to the people here. I bless God, said Mr. Flavel, one of the best and sweetest of the old Puritan divines, on the death of his father–I bless God 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. How many a man has been deeply impressed even by the very thought that someone was praying for him! Is it not strange, he has said to himself, that he should pray for me far more than I pray for myself? What can induce him to take such an interest in me? Every Christian ought to think much of intercessory prayer, and practise it greatly. Think how Moses interceded for the whole nation after the golden calf, and it was spared. Think how Daniel interceded for his companions in Babylon, and the spirit was revealed to him. Think how Elijah interceded for the widow, and her son was restored to life. Think how Paul constantly interceded for all his Churches, and how their growth and spiritual prosperity evinced that his prayer was not in vain. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
That for your sakes raised, constituted, and exalted Moses and Aaron to that great power and reputation which they had, and used, to deliver you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Samuel said unto the people,…. Having cleared and established his own character, he proceeds to lay before the people some of the great things God had done for them formerly, and quite down to the present time, the more to aggravate their ingratitude in rejecting God as their King:
[it is] the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron; raised them from a low estate, the one in a foreign country in Midian, the other in bondage in Egypt, to be deliverers, guides, and governors of his people Israel. Kimchi thinks this refers to what goes before, and that the sense is, that God, that raised Moses and Aaron to great honour and dignity, was a witness between him and the people; in which he is followed by some Christian interpreters. Ben Gersom makes mention of the same, but rather approves of the connection of the words with what follows, as does Abarbinel, and is doubtless most correct; the Targum is,
“who hath done mighty things by the hands of Moses and Aaron:”
and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt; when they were in bondage there, and that by the means of Moses and Aaron, by whose hands he wrought signs and wonders and inflicted plagues on the Egyptians, which made them willing at last to let Israel go.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6 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. 7 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. 8 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. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12 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. 13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. 14 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: 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.
Samuel, having sufficiently secured his own reputation, instead of upbraiding the people upon it with their unkindness to him, sets himself to instruct them, and keep them in the way of their duty, and then the change of the government would be the less damage to them.
I. He reminds them of the great goodness of God to them and to their fathers, gives them an abstract of the history of their nation, that, by the consideration of the great things God had done for them, they might be for ever engaged to love him and serve him. “Come,” says he (v. 7), “stand still, stand in token of reverence when God is speaking to you, stand still in token of attention and composedness of mind, and give me leave to reason with you.” Religion has reason on its side, Isa. i. 18. The work of ministers is to reason with people, not only to exhort and direct, but to persuade, to convince men’s judgments, and so to gain their wills and affections. Let reason rule men, and they will be good. He reasons of the righteous acts of the Lord, that is, “both the benefits he hath bestowed upon you, in performance of his promises, and the punishments he has inflicted on you for your sins.” His favours are called his righteous acts (Judg. v. 11), because in them he is just to his own honour. He not only puts them in mind of what God had done for them in their days, but of what he had done of old, in the days of their fathers, because the present age had the benefit of God’s former favours. We may suppose that his discourse was much larger than as here related. 1. He reminds them of their deliverance out of Egypt. Into that house of bondage Jacob and his family came down poor and little; when they were oppressed they cried unto God, who advanced Moses and Aaron, from mean beginnings, to be their deliverers, and the founders of their state and settlement in Canaan, 1Sa 12:6; 1Sa 12:8. 2. He reminds them of the miseries and calamities which their fathers brought themselves into by forgetting God and serving other gods, v. 9. They enslaved themselves, for they were sold as criminals and captives into the hand of oppressors. They exposed themselves to the desolation of war, and their neighbours fought against them. 3. He reminds them of their fathers’ repentance and humiliation before God for their idolatries: They said, We have sinned, v. 10. Let not them imitate the sins of their fathers, for what they had done amiss they had many a time wished undone again. In the day of their distress they had sought unto God, and had promised to serve him; let their children then reckon that good at all times which they found good in bad times. 4. He reminds them of the glorious deliverances God had wrought for them, the victories he had blessed them with, and their happy settlements, many a time, after days of trouble and distress, v. 11. He specifies some of their judges, Gideon and Jephthah, great conquerors in their time; among the rest he mentions Bedan, whom we read not of any where else: he might be some eminent person, that was instrumental of salvation to them, though not recorded in the book of Judges, such a one as Shamgar, of whom it is said that he delivered Israel, but not that he judged them, Judg. iii. 31. Perhaps this Bedan guarded and delivered them on one side, at the same time when some other of the judges appeared and acted for them on another side. Some think it was the same with Jair (so the learned Mr. Poole), others the same with Samson, who was Ben Dan, a son of Dan, of that tribe, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him Be-Dan, inn Dan, in the camp of Can. Samuel mentions himself, not to his own praise, but to the honour of God, who had made him an instrument of subduing the Philistines. 5. At last he puts them in mind of God’s late favour to the present generation, in gratifying them with a king, when they would prescribe to God by such a one to save them out of the hand of Nahash king of Ammon, 1Sa 12:12; 1Sa 12:13. Now it appears that this was the immediate occasion of their desiring a king: Nahash threatened them; they desired Samuel to nominate a general; he told them that God was commander-in-chief in all their wars and they needed no other, that what was wanting in them should be made up by his power: The Lord is your king. But they insisted on it, Nay, but a king shall reign over us. “And now,” said he, “you have a king, a king of your own asking–let that be spoken to your shame; but a king of God’s making–let that be spoken to his honour and the glory of his grace.” God did not cast them off, even when they in effect cast him off.
II. He shows them that they are now upon their good behaviour, they and their king. Let them not think that they had now cut themselves off from all dependence upon God, and that now, having a king of their own, the making of their own fortunes (as men foolishly call it) was in their own hands; no, still their judgment must proceed from the Lord. He tells them plainly,
1. That their obedience to God would certainly be their happiness, v. 14. If they would not revolt from God to idols, nor rebel against him by breaking his commandments, but would persevere in their allegiance to him, would fear his wrath, serve his interests, and obey his will, then they and their king should certainly be happy; but observe how the promise is expressed: Then you shall continue following the Lord your God; that is, (1.) “You shall continue in the way of your duty to God, which will be your honour and comfort.” Note, To those that are sincere in their religion God will give grace to persevere in it: those that follow God faithfully will be divinely strengthened to continue following him. And observe, Following God is a work that is its own wages. It is the matter of a promise as well as of a precept. (2.) “You shall continue under the divine guidance and protection:” You shall be after the Lord, so it is in the original, that is, “he will go before you to lead and prosper you, and make your way plain. The Lord is with you while you are with him.“
2. That their disobedience would as certainly be their ruin (v. 15): “If you rebel, think not that your having a king will secure you against God’s judgments, and that having in this instance made yourselves like the nations you may sin at as cheap a rate as they can. No, the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers when they offended him, in the days of the judges.” We mistake if we think that we can evade God’s justice by shaking off his dominion. If God shall not rule us, yet he will judge us.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Review and Preview, vs. 6-15
As Samuel continued his address to the people, gathered to renew the coronation of Saul as their king, he very pointedly stressed some things of importance they should consider and keep in mind. The first of these is that heretofore when Israel needed a leader God had selected him and sent him to their rescue. Moses and Aaron were a case in point. Moses will now reason to the gathering from this basis, and he calls God as his witness therein.
When the people in bondage in Egypt became in earnest about wanting deliverance the Lord raised up Moses and Aaron, delivered them from the land, led them to Canaan, and gave them that land, wherein they were presently dwelling. This brought Samuel to his second major point. The Lord allowed chastisement to come upon them every time they turned away from Him. Thus they fell into the hands of Sisera, the Philistines, the Moabites, who fought against them and subjected them.
The third point of Samuel was that the Lord always delivered them out of the hand of their oppressors, when they got their hearts right and acknowledged that they had sinned in worshipping the Baalim and the Ashtaroth. They would make their pledge to serve the Lord alone, and the Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them. These included Jerubbaal (or Gideon), who delivered them from the Philistines (Judges, chapters 6-8); Bedan, who may have been the minor judge Abdon (Jdg 12:13-15), but more likely is the same as Barak (Judges, chapters 4-5); Jephthah, who delivered them from the Ammonites (Judges, chapters 10:6-12:7); Samuel, who delivered them from the Philistines (1 Samuel, chap. 7).
Samuel’s fourth point is that the Israelites have again gone contrary to the Lord. When Nahash, the Ammonite king, began to make depredations against them they did not wait for the Lord to rescue them, nor did they seemingly bother to confess their sins, but instead took things into their own hands and requested a king to lead them. They now have their king whom they chose instead of the Lord. He is the king of their choice, and they are called on to look him over and see that he is exactly the kind of man they desired, very manly and good to look at.
The next point is that, though they have rejected the Lord, He has not rejected them. He still stands ready to hear their cries to Him. They are still expected to reverence the Lord and keep His commandments. If they and their king continue following the Lord He will bless their land, but if they rebel against Him they will suffer just as did their fathers before them when they rebelled against the Lord.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Israels History Reviewed. 1Sa. 12:6-15
6 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.
7 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.
8 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.
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 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.
13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have desired! and, behold, the Lord hath set a king over you.
14 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:
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.
5.
Why did Samuel rehearse Israels history? 1Sa. 12:6-9
History is a great teacher. It has been facetiously said that the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn from history. Many people forget their past history and make the same mistakes that their forefathers made. Those who are wise will look into their past and see mistakes which have been made. They will profit by good examples which have been set for them. In reviewing their history they learn how to live in the present and to lay plans for the future. Samuels use of Israels history was of such nature as to remind them that their forefathers turned their backs on God. God sold them into the hand of such people as Sisera and into the hand of the Philistines, as He did in the days of Samson. When Israel was reminded of these things, they would learn from the experiences.
6.
When had Israel been delivered into the hand of the king of Moab? 1Sa. 12:9
The Moabites were descendants of Lots older daughter by Lot himself. Israel had only recently been engaged in a war with the Ammonites, descendants of Lot by his younger daughter (1Sa. 11:1). The Moabites had afflicted Israel in the days of Ehud, a judge from the tribe of Benjamin (Jdg. 3:12). Since Saul, their new king, was from Benjamin, this reminder of how they were oppressed in the days of a Benjamite judge would be a particularly helpful lesson to the Israelites.
7.
Who was Bedan? 1Sa. 12:11
Bedan is a name of one of Israels former leaders. His name is not given in this form in any of the canonical history. Jerubbaal is another name for Gideon. Jephthah is a later judge in the history of Israel. Since Bedan occurs between the two names, it is generally concluded that this is another name for Barak. Barak had helped Deborah in their war against Sisera (Jdg. 4:6). The earlier mention of Sisera by Samuel in this passage lends credence to the belief that this is a reference to Barak.
8.
What additional reason does Samuel give for their asking for a king? 1Sa. 12:12
The reason emphasized the most by the Israelites was that they wanted to be like all the other nations. They had excused themselves by saying that Samuel was old and that his sons were not following in his good ways. The ascendancy of Nahash to a place of prominence on Israels eastern border evidently aggravated their request for a king. Nahash threatened the national security of the people. They had this added reason for asking for a military and political leader under whose authority they might unite.
9.
What was the condition of their future prosperity? 1Sa. 12:14-15
Samuel solemnly threatened the people that they would prosper only if they obeyed God, served Him, and feared Him. Gods voice would be made known to them through those prophets who spoke for God. Israel already had many ordinances and statutes to keep as they served God in regular worship. Their fear of the Lord would be reverence for Him and His appointments. Samuel warned them that if they rebelled against the commandments their national existence would be threatened. The king was not exempt from these conditions. He was another man in the sight of God and would be subject to the same frailties as the others. He would be expected to fear God, serve Him, and obey His voice.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(6) It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron.The Hebrew should be rendered, even the Eternal that advanced Moses and Aaron. The elders of Israel (1Sa. 12:5) had with one consent cried out, in reply to Samuels solemn calling God and the king to witness, He is witness. Then Samuel takes up their words with great emphasis, even the Eternal that advanced Moses, &c. The English rendering greatly weakens the dramatic force of the original Hebrew. The LXX. has caught accurately the thought by supplying the word witness : thus, The Lord is witness, &c.
The Exodus is mentioned in this and in many places in these ancient records of the people as the great call of love by which the Eternal assumed the sovereignty over Israel. The Talmud here comments: It is the Lord that made Moses and Aaron (1Sa. 12:6); and it is said (1Sa. 12:11), And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel. Scripture balances in the same scale the three least important with the three most important personages, in order to teach thee that Jerrubbaal in his generation was like Moses in his, Bedan (said to be Samson) like Aaron, and Jephthah like Samuel. Hence the most insignificant man, if appointed a ruler of the congregation, has the same authority as the most important personage.Treatise Rosh-Hashanah, fol. 25, Colossians 2.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. It is the Lord In the Hebrew the word LORD is without expressed grammatical connexion, but it is most natural to regard it as a repetition from the preceding verse. Thus: Jehovah is witness, etc. even Jehovah, who advanced Moses and Aaron. Literally, who made Moses and Aaron; that is, made them what they were.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Samuel First Briefly Recounts The History of YHWH’s Goodness In Appointing Deliverers In Order To Deliver Them (The Way In Which He Has Chosen To Rule Them), And Yet Even Then They Have Continually Failed To Respond To Him, Something Which Has Finally Come To A Head In Their Replacing YHWH With An Earthly King ( 1Sa 12:6-12 ).
The people having borne witness to his faithfulness and integrity before YHWH as their witness, he now turns the tables on them and bears witness to their faithlessness and lack of integrity in the eyes of God when God acted as their Judge, first of their fathers, and then of themselves. For after He had delivered them from Egypt they had failed Him constantly. And yet even so they had also constantly depended on Him when they were in trouble, and at such times He had appointed Saviours for them. And He had done this even to the last, in appointing Saul as their present war-leader and deliverer, and in doing so He had tried to point them in the way of making him only their war-leader (nagid), and continuing in the old way. But they had refused and had rather chosen to make him their full-blown king.
1Sa 12:6-7
‘ And Samuel said to the people, “It is YHWH who appointed Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before YHWH concerning all the righteous acts of YHWH, which he did to you and to your fathers.” ’
The one ‘on trial’ has suddenly become the accuser. He reminds them of God’s method of saving and ruling His people, that when they were in bondage in Egypt it was YHWH Who had appointed Moses and Aaron to be His people’s deliverers and bring them out of the land of Egypt. YHWH had not failed them then. And he asks them to stand and listen while he goes on to demonstrate before YHWH concerning all the righteous things that YHWH has done for them and their fathers, after which he lists some of YHWH’s appointments in terms of the names of the ones whom He sent.
1Sa 12:8
“ When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried to YHWH, then YHWH sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place.”
First, when Jacob had brought the people into Egypt they had cried to YHWH in the time of bondage that had resulted from this, and He had then sent Moses and Aaron who had brought their fathers out of Egypt into this very place that they now were. That they were there at all was due to YHWH.
1Sa 12:9
“ But they forgot YHWH their God; and 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.”
But they had then forgotten YHWH their God, and so He had, as it were, sold them as slaves into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor (Judges 4-5), and into the hand of the Philistines (Jdg 3:31), and into the hand of Moab (Jdg 3:12-30), and they had come and fought against them. Note that Samuel here lists them in reverse order as compared with the Book of Judges, while after 1Sa 12:10 the next three will be listed forwards. This deliberately centres all the emphasis on their failure described in verse 10, pointing to it like an arrow from both sides.
1Sa 12:10
“ And they cried to YHWH, and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken YHWH, and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you’.”
Here was the crunch of the matter. Each time they had forsaken YHWH and had served other gods. But when they were in distress and those gods could not help them they had called on YHWH, and had admitted their sin and idolatry, and had then prayed for deliverance and had promised to serve Him. And each time YHWH had heard them.
1Sa 12:11
“ And YHWH sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety.”
And the result of their pleas was that YHWH had sent Jerub-baal (Gideon – Judges 6-8), Bedan (‘Abdon – Jdg 13:13? or Barak – Judges 4-5?), Jephthah (Judges 11-12) and Samuel, and each time He had delivered them from the hands of their enemies so that they dwelt in safety. The mention of Samuel’s own name may suggest that he was figuratively ticking off the names of the Judges on a mental list with which the people were familiar, possibly one cited at the annual feasts. It was, of course, important that his name be mentioned because it brought the deliverances right up to date. And yet the citing of his name suggested that he wanted to avoid making it personal.
Jerub-baal was an alternative name given to Gideon (Jdg 6:31-32; Jdg 7:1). Bedan (bdn meaning ‘corpulent’) may have been a well known judge and deliverer, known to all Israel and not to us (otherwise he is out of order). It may have been a variant of ‘Abdon (‘bdn) who had seventy offspring who rode on seventy asses (Jdg 12:13-14). Or it may be a humerous twisting of the name of Barak (in the Hebrew Bedan and Barak look fairly similar) possibly because Barak was remembered in the tradition as corpulent (this thus being given as a nick name, ‘fatty’). However, against the idea that it refers to Barak is the fact that the earlier judges, of which he was one, have already been dealt with previously without being named. Or it has even been suggested that it could be an abbreviation of ben-Dan (son of Dan) referring to Samson, but it seems unlikely. Jephthah we know of from Judges 11-12.
1Sa 12:12
“ And when you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when YHWH your God was your king.”
And when they had seen Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon, coming against them they had been provided with Saul as a war-leader (nagid – 1Sa 9:16), but had demanded rather that they might have him as a king, even though YHWH their God was their King. (This verse presents what has been said previously, in abbreviated form). So the line of deliverers right up to the present day had ended in the rejection of YHWH as their King.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
(6) 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. (7) 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.
We may consider this discourse of the prophet, as a beautiful example of ancient preaching. He takes up the subject from its beginning, and pints out the divine hand, as the Founder of every blessing. Nothing can be more sweet in our holy gospel, than when we trace the whole plan of redemption, with all its eventual happy consequences, back to its source in the everlasting love of God; and discover free grace, in its rise out of the spring of infinite mercy. It is sweet and precious on many accounts. Sweet and precious, in that it manifests the unchangeable purposes of God in Christ Jesus. Sweet also, in the assurance, that a dispensation so founded in infinite wisdom and mercy, must have made every suitable provision for it, in all its consequences. And sweet, and precious also, in that, all the future events of it are equally, and securely provided for. Think of this, reader, whenever doubts or misgivings arise in your mind.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 12:6 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.
Ver. 6. It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron. ] Heb., That made them; not only made them men, but great men. See the like, Deu 32:6 Isa 43:7 Eph 2:10 Rev 1:6 .
And that brought your fathers.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is the Lord: Exo 6:26, Neh 9:9-14, Psa 77:19, Psa 77:20, Psa 78:12-72, Psa 99:6, Psa 105:26, Psa 105:41, Isa 63:7-14, Hos 12:13, Mic 6:4
advanced: or, made
Reciprocal: Exo 3:10 – General 1Sa 12:8 – sent Moses Psa 136:11 – brought out Heb 3:2 – appointed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Samuel’s review of God’s faithfulness 12:6-12
Neither had God given the people occasion to demand a king. He had delivered them in the past from all their enemies when they confessed their sins, repented, and sought His help. They had been unfaithful to God and had disobeyed His Law, but He remained faithful to His commitment and promises to them.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XVII.
SAMUELS DEALINGS WITH THE PEOPLE.
1Sa 12:6-25.
2. HAVING vindicated himself (in the first five verses of this chapter, 1Sa 12:1-5), Samuel now proceeds to his second point, and takes the people in hand. But before proceeding to close quarters with them, he gives a brief review of the history of the nation, in order to bring out the precise relation in which they stood to God, and the duty resulting from that relation (1Sa 12:6-12 vers.).
First, he brings out the fundamental fact of their history. Its grand feature was this: “It is the Lord who advanced Moses and Aaron, and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. The fact was as indisputable as it was glorious. How would Moses ever have been induced to undertake the task of deliverance from Egypt if the Lord had not sent him? Was he not most unwilling to leave the wilderness and return to Egypt? What could Aaron have done for them if the Lord had not guided and anointed him? How could the people have found an excuse for leaving Egypt even for a day if God had not required them? How could Pharaoh have been induced to let them go, when even the first nine plagues only hardened his heart, or how could they have escaped from him and his army, had the Lord not divided the sea that His ransomed might pass over? The fact could not be disputed – their existence as a people and their settlement in Canaan were due to the special mercy of the Lord. If ever a nation owed everything to the power above, Israel owed everything to Jehovah. No distinction could even approach this in its singular glory.
And yet there was a want of cordiality on the part of the people in acknowledging it. They were partly at least blind to its surpassing lustre. The truth is, they did not like all the duties and responsibility which it involved. It is the highest honour of a son to have a godly father, upright, earnest, consistent in serving God. Yet many a son does not realize this, and sometimes in his secret heart he wishes that his father were just a little more like the men of the world. It is the brightest chapter in the history of a nation that records its struggles for God’s honour and man’s liberty; yet there are many who have no regard for these struggles, but denounce their champions as ruffians and fanatics. Close connection with God is not, in the eyes of the world, the glorious thing that it is in reality. How strange that this should be so! ”O righteous Father,” exclaimed Christ in His intercessory prayer, ”the world hath not known Thee.” He was distressed at the world’s blindness to the excellence of God. ”How strange it is,” Richard Baxter says in substance somewhere, “that men can see beauty in so many things – in the flowers, in the sky, in the sun – and yet be blind to the highest beauty of all, the fountain and essence of all beauty, the beauty of the Lord! “Never rest, my friends, so long as this is true of you. Is not the very fact that to you God, even when revealed in Jesus Christ, may be like a root out of a dry ground, having no form or comeliness or any beauty wherefore you should desire Him – is not that, if it be a fact, alike alarming and appalling? Make it your prayer that He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness would shine in your heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Having emphatically laid down the fundamental fact in the history of Israel, Samuel next proceeds to reason upon it. The reasoning rests on two classes of facts: the first, that whenever the people forsook God they had been brought into trouble; the second, that whenever they repented and cried to God He delivered them out of their trouble. The prophet refers to several instances of both, but not exhaustively, not so as to embrace every instance. Among those into whose hand God gave them were Sisera, the Philistines, and the Moabites; among those raised up to deliver them when they cried to the Lord were Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, The name Bedan does not occur in the history, and as the Hebrew letters that form the word are very similar to those which form Barak, it has been supposed, and I think with reason, that the word Bedan is just a clerical mistake for Barak. The use the prophet makes of both classes of facts is to show how directly God was concerned in what befell the nation. The whole course of their history under the judges had shown that to forsake God and worship idols was to bring on the nation disaster and misery; to return to God and restore His worship was to secure abundant prosperity and blessing. This had been made as certain by past events as it was certain that to close the shutters in an apartment was to plunge it into darkness, and that to open them was to restore light. Cause and effect had been made so very plain that any child might see how the matter stood.
Now, what was it that had recently occurred? They had had trouble from the Ammonites. At ver. 1Sa 12:12 the prophet indicates – what is not stated before – that this trouble with the Ammonites had been connected with their coming to him to ask a king. Evidently, the siege of Jabesh-Gilead was not the first offensive act the Ammonites had committed. They had no doubt been irritating the tribes on the other side of Jordan in many ways before they proceeded to attack that city. And if their attack was at all like that which took place in the days of Jephthah, it must have been very serious and highly threatening. (See Jdg 10:8-9.) Now, from what Samuel says here, it would appear that this annoyance from the Ammonites was the immediate occasion of the people wishing to have a king. Here let us observe what their natural course would have been, in accordance with former precedent. It would have been to cry to the Lord to deliver them from the Ammonites. As they had cried for deliverance when the Ammonites for eighteen years vexed and oppressed all the tribes settled on the east side of Jordan, and when they even passed over Jordan to fight against Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim, and the Lord raised up Jephthah, so ought they to have cried to the Lord at this time, and He would have given them a deliverer. But instead of that they asked Samuel to give them a king, that he might deliver them. You see from this what cause Samuel had to charge them with rejecting God for their King. You see at the same time how much forbearance God exercised in allowing Samuel to grant their request. God virtually said, ”I will graciously give up My plan and accommodate myself to theirs. I will give up the plan of raising up a special deliverer in special danger, and will let their king be their deliverer. If they and their king be faithful to My covenant, I will give the same mercies to them as they would have received had things remained as they were. It will still be true, as I promised to Abraham, that I will be their God and they shall be My people.”
3. This is the third thing that Samuel is specially concerned to press on the people; and this he does in the remaining verses (1Sa 12:13-25). They were to remember that their having a king in no sense and in no degree exempted them from their moral and spiritual obligations to God. It did not give them one atom more liberty either in the matter of worship, or in those weightier matters of the law – justice, mercy, and truth. It did not make it one iota less sinful to erect altars to Baal and Ashtaroth, or to join with any of their neighbours in religious festivities in honour of these gods. “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.”
There is nothing very similar to this in the circumstances in which we are placed. And yet it is often needful to remind even Christian people of this great truth: that no change of outward circumstances car ever bring with it a relaxation of moral duty, or make that lawful for us which in its own nature is wrong. Nothing of moral quality can be right for us on ship-board which is wrong for us on dry land. Nothing can be allowable in India which could not be thought of in England or Scotland. The law of the Sabbath is not more elastic on the continent of Europe than it is at home. There is no such thing as a geographical religion or a geographical Christianity. Burke used to say, looking to the humane spirit that Englishmen showed at home and the oppressive treatment they were often guilty of to the natives of other countries, that the humanity of England was a thing of points and parallels. But a vocal humanity is no humanity. Those who act as if t were, make public opinion their god, instead of the eternal Jehovah. They virtually say that what public opinion does not allow in England is wrong in England, and must be avoided. If public opinion allows it on the continent of Europe, or in India, or in Africa, it may be done. Is this not dethroning God, and abrogating His immutable law? If God be our King, His will must be our one unfailing rule of life and duty wherever we are. Truly, there is little recognition of a mutable public opinion affecting the quality of our actions, in that sublime psalm that brings out so powerfully the omniscience of God, – the hundred and thirty-ninth, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven. Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.”
It was Samuel’s purpose, then, to press on the people that the change involved in having a king brought no change as to their duty of invariable allegiance to God. The lessons of history had been clear enough; but they were always a dull-sighted people, and not easily impressed except by what was palpable and even sensational. For this reason Samuel determined to impress the lesson on them in another way. He would show them there and then, under their very eyes, what agencies of destruction God held in His hand, and how easily He could bring these to bear on them and on their property. “Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” You are gathering or about to gather that important crop, and it is of vital importance that the weather be still and calm. But I will pray the Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain, and you will see how easy it is for Him in one hour to ruin the crop which you have been nursing so carefully for months back. ”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.” It was an impressive proof how completely they were in God’s hands. What earthly thing could any of them or all of them do to ward off that agent of destruction from their crops? There were they, a great army, with sword and spear, young, strong, and valiant, yet they could not arrest in its fall one drop of rain, nor alter the course of one puff of wind, nor extinguish the blaze of one tongue of fire. Oh, what folly it was to offer an affront to the great God, who had such complete control over “fire and hail, snow and vapours, stormy wind fulfilling His word”! What blindness to think they could in any respect be better with another king!
Thus it is that in their times of trial God’s people in all ages have been brought to feel their entire dependence on Him. In days of flowing prosperity, we have little sense of that dependence. As the Psalmist puts it in the thirtieth Psalm; ”In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.” When all goes well with us, we expect the same prosperity to continue; it seems stereotyped, the fixed and permanent condition of things. When the days run smoothly, “involving happy months, and these as happy years,” all seems certain to continue. But a change comes over our life. Ill-health fastens on us; death invades our circle; relatives bring us into deep waters; our means of living fail; we are plunged into a very wilderness of woe. How falsely we judged when we thought that it was by its own inherent stability our mountain stood strong! No, no; it was solely the result of God’s favour, for all our springs are in Him; the moment He hides His face we are most grievously troubled. Sad but salutary experience! Well for you, my afflicted friend, if it burns into your very soul the conviction that every blessing in life depends on God’s favour, and that to offend God is to ruin all!
But now, the humble and contrite spirit having been shown by the people, see how Samuel hastens to comfort and reassure them. Now that they have begun to fear, he can say to them, “Fear not.” Now that they have shown themselves alive to the evils of God’s displeasure, they are assured that there is a clear way of escape from these evils. ”Turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.” If God be terrible as an enemy, He is glorious as a friend. No doubt you offered a slight to Him when you sought another king. But it is just a proof of His wonderful goodness that, though you have done this. He does not cast you off. He will be as near to you as ever He was if you are only faithful to Him. He will still deliver you from your enemies when you call upon Him. For His name and His memorial are still the same: ”The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and in truth, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.”
Samuel, moreover, reminds them that it was not they that had chosen God; it was God that had chosen them. “The Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people.” This was a great ground of comfort for Israel. The eternal God had chosen them and made them His people for great purposes of His own. It was involved in this very choice and purpose of God that He would keep His hand on them, and preserve them from all such calamities as would prevent them from fulfilling His purpose. Fickle and changeable, they might easily be induced to break away from Him; but, strong and unchangeable, He could never be induced to abandon His purpose in them. And if this was a comfort to Israel then, there is a corresponding comfort to the spiritual Israel now. If my heart is in any measure turned to God, to value His favour and seek to do His will, it is God that has effected the change. And this shows that God has a purpose with me. Till that purpose is accomplished. He cannot leave me. He will correct me when I sin. He will recover me when I stray. He will heal me when I am sick, He will strengthen me when I am weak; ”I am confident of this very thing: that He which hath begun a good work in me will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.”
Once more, in answer to the people’s request that he would intercede for them, Samuel is very earnest. “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” The great emphasis with which he says this shows how much his heart is in it. “What should I do, if I had not the privilege of intercessory prayer for you?” There is a wonderful revelation of love to the people here. They are dear to him as his children are dear to a Christian parent, and he feels for them as warmly as he feels for himself. There is a wonderful deepening of interest and affection when men’s relation to God is realized. The warmest heart as yet unregenerate cannot feel for others as the spiritual heart must do when it takes in all the possibilities of the spiritual state – all that is involved in the favour or in the wrath of the infinite God, in the predominance of sin or of grace in the heart, and in the prospect of an eternity of woe on the one hand or of glory, honour, and heavenly bliss on the other. How is it possible for one to have all these possibilities full in one’s view and not desire the eternal welfare of loved ones with an intensity unknown to others? We know from experience how hard it is to get them to do right. Even one’s own children seem sometimes to baffle every art and endeavour of love, and go off, in spite of everything, to the ways of the world. Entreaty and remonstrance are apparently in vain. The more one pleads, the less perhaps are one’s pleas regarded. One resource remains – intercessory prayer. It is the only method to which one may resort with full assurance of its ultimate efficacy for attaining the dearest object of one’s heart. Does the thought of giving up intercessory prayer come to one from any quarter? No wonder if the insinuation is met by a deep, earnest ”God forbid.”
”I bless God ” said Mr. Flavel, one of the best and sweetest of the old Puritan divines, on the death of his father – “I bless God 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.” How many a man has been deeply impressed even by the very thought that someone was praying for him! ”Is it not strange,” he has said to himself, ”that he should pray for me far more than I pray for myself? What can induce him to take such an interest in me?” Every Christian ought to think much of intercessory prayer, and practice it greatly. It is doubly blessed: blessed to him who prays and blessed to those for whom he prays. Nothing is better fitted to enlarge and warm the heart than intercessory prayer. To present to God in succession, one after another, our family and our friends, remembering all their wants, sorrows, trials, and temptations; to bear before Him the interests of this struggling Church and that in various parts of the world, this interesting mission and that noble cause; to make mention of those who are waging the battles of temperance, of purity, of freedom, of Christianity itself, in the midst of difficulty, obloquy, and opposition; to gather together all the sick and sorrowing, all the fatherless and widows, all the bereaved and dying, of one’s acquaintance, and ask God to bless them; to think of all the children of one’s acquaintance in the bright springtide of life, of all the young men and young women arrived or arriving at the critical moment of decision as to the character of their life, and implore God to guide them – O brethren, this is good for one’s self; it enlarges one’s own heart; it helps one’s self in prayer! And then what a blessing it is for those prayed for I Who can estimate the amount of spiritual blessing that has been sent down on this earth in answer to the fervent intercessions of the faithful? Think how Moses interceded for the whole nation after the golden calf, and it was spared. Think how Daniel interceded for his companions in Babylon, and the secret was revealed to him. Think how Elijah interceded for the widow, and her son was restored to life. Think how Paul constantly interceded for all his Churches, and how their growth and spiritual prosperity evinced that his prayer was not in vain. God forbid that any Christian should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for the Church which He hath purchased with His own blood. And while we pray for the Church, let us not forget the world that lieth in wickedness. For of all for whom the desires of the faithful should go up to heaven, surely the most necessitous are those who have as yet no value for heavenly blessings. What duty can be more binding on us than to “pray for her that prays not for herself”?