Strayed Asses—1Sa_11:3
The circumstances of Saul’s first interview with Samuel are very remarkable and interesting, not only in themselves, but from the indications of ancient usages which the, afford.
The future king of Israel had hitherto known no other employment than such as the charge of his father’s estate, and particularly the superintendence of the cattle, afforded. This, however, was an occupation held in much esteem. It was regarded as the proper office of a son, and by no means implies the smallness of Kish’s possessions, or the want of servants by whom such duties might have been discharged. Men were in those days in the habit of thinking that the affairs were best looked after which they attended to themselves, and, therefore, persons of substance and consideration were in the habit of discharging in their own persons, or in the persons of their sons, duties which, in a more refined age, are entrusted to slaves or hired servants.
Among cattle in the East at all times—and especially in times ere horses were in use for riding, asses were of very much importance; and when, therefore, it was found one morning that some of Kish’s asses were missing, Saul himself, accompanied by a servant, at once set out in search of them. If such an incident now happened in Palestine, it would be at once concluded that the animals had been stolen; and it speaks well for the state of society in the time of Samuel, that this suspicion never crossed the mind of Saul or his father. It was simply concluded that the asses had strayed.
A long and weary chase they had after the asses—so long, that Saul, with a tender regard for his father, which impresses us with a favorable idea of his character, began to think of abandoning the pursuit, and returning home, lest Kish should from such protracted absence suppose that some evil had happened to his son.
By this time they were near the town in which Samuel resided. The servant mentioned this circumstance, and advised that he should be consulted before they abandoned the search. The terms in which the man described the prophet are remarkable enough—“Behold, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; peradventure he can show us the way that we should go.” Considering that Saul belonged to Benjamin, within the small territory of which tribe Samuel constantly abode, and to which his circuits were confined, it is somewhat surprising that Saul should need this information concerning Samuel—for it seems clear that the servant speaks under the impression that his master knew nothing of him. It shows, at least, that Saul had too much occupied himself with his father’s affairs, to take much heed to public matters. It might, indeed, seem that there were few public matters to engage attention; and that the office of Samuel being to decide differences between man and man, Saul, having no such differences with his neighbors to decide, had no occasion to become acquainted with the person or character of Samuel. Even in our assize towns, how little is known or thought of the judge, of assize, except by those who have matters before them for judgment. But one would have thought that the recent agitation for a king, must have stirred all the tribes, and would have drawn general attention to Samuel, who was required to take so important a part in their transactions, and upon whose further movements in the matter, we should suppose that the attention of all Israel, or at least of the southern tribes, would with deep anxiety be fixed. Yet Saul seems to have been quite uninformed on these matters, or to have had only some vague impression that the people wanted a king. And if it be said, that although he must have known Samuel as judge, he did not know him as a prophet; it is answered, that it was not only as judge but as prophet that he had in this great matter been applied to by the people, and the result had shown that he had access to the sacred oracles of God. The ignorance of Saul as to Samuel is further shown by the fact, which presently appears, that he was altogether unacquainted with his person, which we should have supposed to have been well known to almost every man in Benjamin. We cannot solve this further, than to see that it proves how little interest in public matters had hitherto been taken by the man who was destined to become the first king to Israel.
The manner in which the servant brings Samuel to the notice of Saul, is also very remarkable. The character he gives of the man of God is correct so far as it goes; but one would scarcely collect from it, that he is speaking of the man who was the acknowledged ruler of the land. The practical conclusion also surprises us—that seeing he was a man of God whose word failed not to come to pass; he was the person to be consulted respecting the lost asses. We may fancy that the man and his master either entertained a very high sense of the importance of their asses, or a very low one of the prophetic office; but the man would scarcely have reached this conclusion unless it were notorious that Samuel had often been consulted respecting things lost or stolen. We may therefore infer that at the commencement of the prophetic office in the person of Samuel, it was usual, in order to encourage confidence in their higher prophecy and to prevent that dangerous resort to heathenish divinations to which people are in such cases more than in any other addicted—for the prophets to afford counsel, when required, in such matters of private concernment.
Saul was willing to follow the suggestion of his servant, but a difficulty occurred to him, which strikes those imperfectly informed of eastern customs somewhat strangely. Then, as now, in the East, it would have been the height of rudeness and indecorum for any one to present himself before a superior or equal, especially if he had any request to make, without some present, more or less, according to his degree—not by any means as a fee or bribe, but in testimony of his homage, his respect, or his compliments. Of the numerous examples of this custom which have occurred in our reading, or have come under our own notice in the East, the one which has most impressed itself upon our minds, is that which Plutarch records of the Persian king, Artaxerxes Mnemon. One time a poor husbandman, seeing every one give the king a present of some sort or other, as he passed by them, but having nothing at hand that seemed proper to give, ran to a stream that was near, and filling both his hands with water, came and offered it to the king, who was so gratified with the inventive spontaneity of this act of homage, that he ordered to be given to the man a thousand darics, and a cup of massive gold. This same “king of kings” always received with satisfaction the smallest and most trifling gifts which evinced the zeal and attention of the offerers; and in a country where we have ourselves bought six of the finest possible pomegranates for a penny, he evinced the utmost pleasure on receiving from a man named Romises the finest pomegranate his garden yielded. A present equally small would have enabled Saul to pay his respects to Samuel; but it would be as impossible for him to appear empty-handed, as it would be for us to enter a gentleman’s parlor with covered heads. He lamented that owing to the length of the way they had been led, there was not a morsel left of the bread they had taken with them, clearly intimating that one of the small cakes or loaves into which eastern bread is made, would in his view have been a suitable offering. The servant informed him, however, that he had sixpence Note: A quarter of a shekel—rather more than a sixpence. in his pocket, which could be applied to this purpose. Here is another difference from our ideas. With us, to offer a small sum of money to a superior or a public man, or even to an equal, would be a gross affront. Even we might take a small matter—an orange, a flower, or a little book, with satisfaction and acknowledgment; but money—that must not be named. All this is different in the East, where a small coin is as acceptable as a mark of respectful attention, as its value in any other shape. Travellers in the East might spare the solicitude they often evince to provide or select suitable presents for the persons to whom they have to show respect. Money is quite as acceptable as anything that money could buy. It is often more acceptable; and it is not uncommon for a stranger to be desired to retain his present, and give the value of it in money. This was the general practice of no less a personage than Futteh Ali Shah —not many years ago king of Persia—who, when the customary presents were offered to him, would often, in his later years, ask—“What may these things be worth?” and, on being told, would answer—“Keep them, and give me the money.” Had there been any feeling in the mind of Saul, that aught else would have been better than money as a present to the man of God, it would have been easy for him to have spent his sixpence in the town for the purchase of something more suitable as an offering; but that this did not occur to him shows that money had then, nominally as well as really, that universal fitness for all such purposes which it still possesses in the East; and which indeed it possesses really, but not nominally, in the West also.
Autor: JOHN KITTO