The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Samuel
by William Garden Blaikie · English · Gutenberg #39394 · 754,421 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Samuel
Author: William Garden Blaikie
Editor: Sir W. Robertson Nicoll
Release date: April 7, 2012 [eBook #39394]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39394
Credits: Produced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian
Libraries)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL ***
Produced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian
Libraries)
[Transcriber's Note:
_Italic_ words have been enclosed in underscores.
As the oe ligature cannot be included in this format, it has been
replaced with the separate letters in "coelo" and "Syrophoenician".
A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected.
The Table of Contents refers to original page numbers.]
THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.
EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A.,
_Editor of "The Expositor."_
THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL.
BY
W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.
TORONTO:
WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPOT,
CORNER OF YONGE AND TEMPERANCE STREETS.
1888.
THE FIRST BOOK
OF
SAMUEL.
BY THE REV. PROFESSOR
W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D., LL.D.,
NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH.
TORONTO:
WILLARD TRACT DEPOSITORY AND BIBLE DEPOT,
CORNER OF YONGE AND TEMPERANCE STREETS.
1888.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
HANNAH'S TRIAL AND TRUST 1
CHAPTER II.
HANNAH'S FAITH REWARDED 14
CHAPTER III.
HANNAH'S SONG OF THANKSGIVING 25
CHAPTER IV.
ELI'S HOUSE 37
CHAPTER V.
SAMUEL'S VISION 49
CHAPTER VI.
THE ARK OF GOD TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES 61
CHAPTER VII.
THE ARK AMONG THE PHILISTINES 73
CHAPTER VIII.
REPENTANCE AND REVIVAL 85
CHAPTER IX.
NATIONAL DELIVERANCE--THE PHILISTINES SUBDUED 97
CHAPTER X.
THE PEOPLE DEMAND A KING 109
CHAPTER XI.
SAUL BROUGHT TO SAMUEL 121
CHAPTER XII.
FIRST MEETING OF SAMUEL AND SAUL 133
CHAPTER XIII.
SAUL ANOINTED BY SAMUEL 145
CHAPTER XIV.
SAUL CHOSEN KING 157
CHAPTER XV.
THE RELIEF OF JABESH-GILEAD 169
CHAPTER XVI.
SAMUEL'S VINDICATION OF HIMSELF 181
CHAPTER XVII.
SAMUEL'S DEALINGS WITH THE PEOPLE 193
CHAPTER XVIII.
SAUL AND SAMUEL AT GILGAL 205
CHAPTER XIX.
JONATHAN'S EXPLOIT AT MICHMASH 217
CHAPTER XX.
SAUL'S WILFULNESS 229
CHAPTER XXI.
THE FINAL REJECTION OF SAUL 241
CHAPTER XXII.
DAVID ANOINTED BY SAMUEL 253
CHAPTER XXIII.
DAVID'S EARLY LIFE 265
CHAPTER XXIV.
DAVID'S CONFLICT WITH GOLIATH 278
CHAPTER XXV.
SAUL'S JEALOUSY--DAVID'S MARRIAGE 292
CHAPTER XXVI.
SAUL'S FURTHER EFFORTS AGAINST DAVID 305
CHAPTER XXVII.
DAVID AND JONATHAN 317
CHAPTER XXVIII.
DAVID AT NOB AND AT GATH 329
CHAPTER XXIX.
DAVID AT ADULLAM, MIZPEH, AND HARETH 341
CHAPTER XXX.
DAVID AT KEILAH, ZIPH, AND MAON 354
CHAPTER XXXI.
DAVID TWICE SPARES THE LIFE OF SAUL 366
CHAPTER XXXII.
DAVID AND NABAL 378
CHAPTER XXXIII.
DAVID'S SECOND FLIGHT TO GATH 391
CHAPTER XXXIV.
SAUL AT ENDOR 404
CHAPTER XXXV.
DAVID AT ZIKLAG 416
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE DEATH OF SAUL 429
CHAPTER I.
_HANNAH'S TRIAL AND TRUST._
1 SAMUEL i 1-18.
The prophet Samuel, like the book which bears his name, comes in as a
connecting link between the Judges and the Kings of Israel. He belonged
to a transition period. It was appointed to him to pilot the nation
between two stages of its history: from a republic to a monarchy; from a
condition of somewhat casual and indefinite arrangements to one of more
systematic and orderly government. The great object of his life was to
secure that this change should be made in the way most beneficial for
the nation, and especially most beneficial for its spiritual interests.
Care must be taken that while becoming like the nations in having a
king, Israel shall not become like them in religion, but shall continue
to stand out in hearty and unswerving allegiance to the law and covenant
of their fathers' God.
Samuel was the last of the judges, and in a sense the first of the
prophets. The last of the judges, but not a military judge; not ruling
like Samson by physical strength, but by high spiritual qualities and
prayer; not so much wrestling against flesh and blood, as against
principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world,
and spiritual wickedness in high places. In this respect his function
as judge blended with his work as prophet. Before him, the prophetic
office was but a casual illumination; under him it becomes a more steady
and systematic light. He was the first of a succession of prophets whom
God placed side by side with the kings and priests of Israel to supply
that fresh moral and spiritual force which the prevailing worldliness of
the one and formalism of the other rendered so necessary for the great
ends for which Israel was chosen. With some fine exceptions, the kings
and priests would have allowed the seed of Abraham to drift away from
the noble purpose for which God had called them; conformity to the world
in spirit if not in form was the prevailing tendency; the prophets were
raised up to hold the nation firmly to the covenant, to vindicate the
claims of its heavenly King, to thunder judgments against idolatry and
all rebellion, and pour words of comfort into the hearts of all who were
faithful to their God, and who looked for redemption in Israel. Of this
order of God's servants Samuel was the first. And called as he was to
this office at a transition period, the importance of it was all the
greater. It was a work for which no ordinary man was needed, and for
which no ordinary man was found.
Very often the finger of God is seen very clearly in connection with the
birth and early training of those who are to become His greatest agents.
The instances of Moses, Samson, and John the Baptist, to say nothing of
our blessed Lord, are familiar to us all. Very often the family from
which the great man is raised up is among the obscurest and least
distinguished of the country. The "certain man" who lived in some quiet
cottage at Ramathaim-Zophim would never probably have emerged from his
native obscurity but for God's purpose to make a chosen vessel of his
son. In the case of this family, and in the circumstances of Samuel's
birth, we see a remarkable overruling of human infirmity to the purposes
of the Divine will. If Peninnah had been kind to Hannah, Samuel might
never have been born. It was the unbearable harshness of Peninnah that
drove Hannah to the throne of grace, and brought to her wrestling faith
the blessing she so eagerly pled for. What must have seemed to Hannah at
the time a most painful dispensation became the occasion of a glorious
rejoicing. The very element that aggravated her trial was that which led
to her triumph. Like many another, Hannah found the beginning of her
life intensely painful, and as a godly woman she no doubt wondered why
God seemed to care for her so little. But at evening time there was
light; like Job, she saw "the end of the Lord;" the mystery cleared
away, and to her as to the patriarch it appeared very clearly that "the
Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy."
The home in which Samuel is born has some points of quiet interest about
it; but these are marred by serious defects. It is a religious
household, at least in the sense that the outward duties of religion are
carefully attended to; but the moral tone is defective. First, there is
that radical blemish--want of unity. No doubt it was tacitly permitted
to a man in those days to have two wives. But where there were two wives
there were two centres of interest and feeling, and discord must ensue.
Elkanah does not seem to have felt that in having two wives he could do
justice to neither. And he had but little sympathy for the particular
disappointment of Hannah. He calculated that a woman's heart-hunger in
one direction ought to be satisfied by copious gifts in another. And as
to Peninnah, so little idea had she of the connection of true religion
and high moral tone, that the occasion of the most solemn religious
service of the nation was her time for pouring out her bitterest
passion. Hannah is the only one of the three of whom nothing but what is
favourable is recorded.
With regard to the origin of the family, it seems to have been of the
tribe of Levi. If so, Elkanah would occasionally have to serve the
sanctuary; but no mention is made of such service. For anything that
appears, Elkanah may have spent his life in the same occupations as the
great bulk of the people. The place of his residence was not many miles
from Shiloh, which was at that time the national sanctuary. But the
moral influence from that quarter was by no means beneficial; a decrepit
high priest, unable to restrain the profligacy of his sons, whose vile
character brought religion into contempt, and led men to associate gross
wickedness with Divine service,--of such a state of things the influence
seemed fitted rather to aggravate than to lessen the defects of
Elkanah's household.
Inside Elkanah's house we see two strange arrangements of Providence, of
a kind that often moves our astonishment elsewhere. First, we see a
woman eminently fitted to bring up children, but having none to bring
up. On the other hand, we see another woman, whose temper and ways are
fitted to ruin children, entrusted with the rearing of a family. In the
one case a God-fearing woman does not receive the gifts of Providence;
in the other case a woman of a selfish and cruel nature seems loaded
with His benefits. In looking round us, we often see a similar
arrangement of other gifts; we see riches, for example, in the very
worst of hands; while those who from their principles and character are
fitted to make the best use of them have often difficulty in securing
the bare necessaries of life. How is this? Does God really govern, or do
time and chance regulate all? If it were God's purpose to distribute His
gifts exactly as men are able to estimate and use them aright, we should
doubtless see a very different distribution; but God's aim in this world
is much more to try and to train than to reward and fulfil. All these
anomalies of Providence point to a future state. What God does we know
not now, but we shall know hereafter. The misuse of God's gifts brings
its punishment both here and in the life to come. To whom much is given,
of them much shall be required. For those who have shown the capacity to
use God's gifts aright, there will be splendid opportunities in another
life. To those who have received much, but abused much, there comes a
fearful reckoning, and a dismal experience of the "the unprofitable
servant's doom."
The trial which Hannah had to bear was peculiarly heavy, as is well
known, to a Hebrew woman. To have no child was not only a
disappointment, but seemed to mark one out as dishonoured by God,--as
unworthy of any part or lot in the means that were to bring about the
fulfilment of the promise, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the
families of the earth be blessed." In the case of Hannah, the trial was
aggravated by the very presence of Peninnah and her children in the same
household. Had she been alone, her mind might not have brooded over her
want, and she and her husband might have so ordered their life as almost
to forget the blank. But with Peninnah and her children constantly
before her eyes, such a course was impossible. She could never forget
the contrast between the two wives. Like an aching tooth or an aching
head, it bred a perpetual pain.
In many cases home affords a refuge from our trials, but in this case
home was the very scene of the trial. There is another refuge from
trial, which is very grateful to devout hearts--the house of God and the
exercises of public worship. A member of Hannah's race, who was
afterwards to pass through many a trial, was able even when far away, to
find great comfort in the very thought of the house of God, with its
songs of joy and praise, and its multitude of happy worshippers, and to
rally his desponding feelings into cheerfulness and hope. "Why art thou
cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in
God, for I shall yet praise Him for the health of His countenance." But
from Hannah this resource likewise was cut off. The days of high
festival were her days of bitter prostration.
It was the custom in religious households for the head of the house to
give presents at the public festivals. Elkanah, a kind-hearted but not
very discriminating man, kept up the custom, and as we suppose, to
compensate Hannah for the want of children, he gave her at these times a
worthy or double portion. But his kindness was inconsiderate. It only
raised the jealousy of Peninnah. For her and her children to get less
than the childless Hannah was intolerable. No sense of courtesy
restrained her from uttering her feeling. No sisterly compassion urged
her to spare the feelings of her rival. No regard for God or His worship
kept back the storm of bitterness. With the reckless impetuosity of a
bitter heart she took these opportunities to reproach Hannah with her
childless condition. She knew the tender spot of her heart, and, instead
of sparing it, she selected it as the very spot on which to plant her
blows. Her very object was to give Hannah pain, to give her the greatest
pain she could. And so the very place that should have been a rebuke to
every bitter feeling, the very time which was sacred to joyous
festivity, and the very sorrow that should have been kept furthest from
Hannah's thoughts, were selected by her bitter rival to poison all her
happiness, and overwhelm her with lamentation and woe.
After all, was Hannah or Peninnah the more wretched of the two? To
suffer in the tenderest part of one's nature is no doubt a heavy
affliction. But to have a heart eager to inflict such suffering on
another is far more awful. Young people that sting a comrade when out of
temper, that call him names, that reproach him with his infirmities, are
far more wretched and pitiable creatures than those whom they try to
irritate. It has always been regarded as a natural proof of the holiness
of God that He has made man so that there is a pleasure in the exercise
of his amiable feelings, while his evil passions, in the very play of
them, produce pain and misery. Lady Macbeth is miserable over the
murdered king, even while exulting in the triumph of her ambition. Torn
by her heartless and reckless passions, her bosom is like a hell. The
tumult in her raging soul is like the writhing of an evil spirit. Yes,
my friends, if you accept the offices of sin, if you make passion the
instrument of your purposes, if you make it your business to sting and
to stab those who in some way cross your path, you may succeed for the
moment, and you may experience whatever of satisfaction can be found in
gloated revenge. But know this, that you have been cherishing a viper
in your bosom that will not content itself with fulfilling your desire.
It will make itself a habitual resident in your heart, and distil its
poison over it. It will make it impossible for you to know anything of
the sweetness of love, the serenity of a well-ordered heart, the joy of
trust, the peace of heaven. You will be like the troubled sea, whose
waters cast up mire and dirt. You will find the truth of that solemn
word, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked."
If the heart of Peninnah was actuated by this infernal desire to make
her neighbour fret, it need not surprise us that she chose the most
solemn season of religious worship to gratify her desire. What could
religion be to such a one but a form? What communion could she have, or
care to have, with God? How could she realize what she did in disturbing
the communion of another heart? If we could suppose her realizing the
presence of God, and holding soul-to-soul communion with Him, she would
have received such a withering rebuke to her bitter feelings as would
have filled her with shame and contrition. But when religious services
are a mere form, there is absolutely nothing in them to prevent, at such
times, the outbreak of the heart's worst passions. There are men and
women whose visits to the house of God are often the occasions of
rousing their worst, or at least very unworthy, passions. Pride, scorn,
malice, vanity--how often are they moved by the very sight of others in
the house of God! What strange and unworthy conceptions of Divine
service such persons must have! What a dishonouring idea of God, if they
imagine that the service of their bodies or of their lips is anything to
Him. Surely in the house of God, and in the presence of God, men ought
to feel that among the things most offensive in His eyes are a foul
heart, a fierce temper, and the spirit that hateth a brother. While, on
the other hand, if we would serve Him acceptably, we must lay aside all
malice and all guile and hypocrisies, envies and all evil speakings.
Instead of trying to make others fret, we should try, young and old
alike, to make the crooked places of men's hearts straight, and the
rough places of their lives plain; try to give the soft answer that
turneth away wrath; try to extinguish the flame of passion, to lessen
the sum-total of sin, and stimulate all that is lovely and of good
report in the world around us.
But to return to Hannah and her trial. Year by year it went on, and her
sensitive spirit, instead of feeling it less, seemed to feel it more. It
would appear that, on one occasion, her distress reached a climax. She
was so overcome that even the sacred feast remained by her untasted. Her
husband's attention was now thoroughly roused. "Hannah, why weepest
thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I
better to thee than ten sons?" There was not much comfort in these
questions. He did not understand the poor woman's feeling. Possibly his
attempts to show her how little cause she had to complain only
aggravated her distress. Perhaps she thought, "When my very husband does
not understand me, it is time for me to cease from man." With the double
feeling--my distress is beyond endurance, and there is no sympathy for
me in any fellow-creature--the thought may have come into her mind, "I
will arise and go to my Father." However it came about, her trials had
the happy effect of sending her to God. Blessed fruit of affliction! Is
not this the reason why afflictions are often so severe? If they were of
ordinary intensity, then, in the world's phrase, we might "grin and bear
them." It is when they become intolerable that men think of God. As
Archbishop Leighton has said, God closes up the way to every broken
cistern, one after another, that He may induce you, baffled everywhere
else, to take the way to the fountain of living waters. "I looked on my
right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me; refuge
failed me, no man cared for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord; I said,
Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living."
Behold Hannah, then, overwhelmed with distress, in "the temple of the
Lord" (as His house at Shiloh was called), transacting solemnly with
God. "She vowed a vow." She entered into a transaction with God, as
really and as directly as one man transacts with another. It is this
directness and distinctness of dealing with God that is so striking a
feature in the piety of those early times. She asked God for a man
child. But she did not ask this gift merely to gratify her personal
wish. In the very act of dealing with God she felt that it was His glory
and not her personal feelings that she was called chiefly to respect. No
doubt she wished the child, and she asked the child in fulfilment of her
own vehement desire. But beyond and above that desire there arose in her
soul the sense of God's claim and God's glory, and to these high
considerations she desired to subordinate every feeling of her own. If
God should give her the man child, he would not be hers, but God's. He
would be specially dedicated as a Nazarite to God's service. No razor
should come on his head; no drop of strong drink should pass his lips.
And this would not be a mere temporary dedication, it would last all
the days of his life. Eagerly though Hannah desired a son, she did not
wish him merely for personal gratification. She was not to make herself
the end of her child's existence, but would sacrifice even her
reasonable and natural claims upon him in order that he might be more
thoroughly the servant of God.
Hannah, as she continued praying, must have felt something of that peace
of soul which ever comes from conscious communion with a prayer-hearing
God. But probably her faith needed the element of strengthening which a
kindly and favourable word from one high in God's service would have
imparted. It must have been terrible for her to find, when the high
priest spoke to her, that it was to insult her, and accuse her of an
offence against decency itself from which her very soul would have
recoiled. Well meaning, but weak and blundering, Eli never made a more
outrageous mistake. With firmness and dignity, and yet in perfect
courtesy, Hannah repudiated the charge. Others might try to drown their
sorrows with strong drink, but she had poured out her soul before God.
The high priest must have felt ashamed of his rude and unworthy charge,
as well as rebuked by the dignity and self-possession of this much-tried
but upright, godly woman. He sent her away with a hearty benediction,
which seemed to convey to her an assurance that her prayer would be
fulfilled. As yet it is all a matter of faith; but her "faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Her
burden is completely removed; her soul has returned to its quiet rest.
This chapter of the history has a happy ending--"The woman went her way
and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad."
Is not this whole history just like one of the Psalms, expressed not in
words but in deeds? First the wail of distress; then the wrestling of
the troubled heart with God; then the repose and triumph of faith. What
a blessing, amid the multitude of this world's sorrows; that such a
process should be practicable! What a blessed thing is faith, faith in
God's word, and faith in God's heart, that faith which becomes a bridge
to the distressed from the region of desolation and misery to the region
of peace and joy? Is there any fact more abundantly verified than this
experience is--this passage out of the depths, this way of shaking one's
self from the dust, and putting on the garments of praise? Are any of
you tired, worried, wearied in the battle of life, and yet ignorant of
this blessed process? Do any receive your fresh troubles with nothing
better than a growl of irritation--I will not say an angry curse? Alas
for your thorny experience! an experience which knows no way of blunting
the point of the thorns. Know, my friends, that in Gilead there is a
balm for soothing these bitter irritations. There is a peace of God that
passeth all understanding, and that keeps the hearts and minds of His
people through Christ Jesus. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."
But let those who profess to be Christ's see that they are consistent
here. A fretful, complaining Christian is a contradiction in terms. How
unlike to Christ! How forgetful such a one is of the grand argument, "He
that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things?" "Be patient, brethren,
for the coming of the Lord draweth near." Amid the agitations of life
often steal away to the green pastures and the still waters, and they
will calm your soul. And while "the trial of your faith is much more
precious than of gold that perisheth, although it be tried with fire,"
it shall be "found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ."
CHAPTER II.
_HANNAH'S FAITH REWARDED._
1 SAMUEL i. 19-28.
In all the transactions recorded in these verses, we see in Hannah the
directing and regulating power of the family; while Elkanah appears
acquiescing cordially in all that she proposes, and devoutly seconding
her great act of consecration,--the surrender of Samuel to the perpetual
service of God. For a moment it might be thought that Hannah assumed a
place that hardly belonged to her; that she became the leader and
director in the house, while her proper position was that of a helpmeet
to her husband. We are constrained, however, to dismiss this thought,
for it does not fit in to the character of Hannah, and it is not in
keeping with the general tone of the passage. There are two reasons that
account sufficiently for the part she took. In the first place, it was
she that had dealt with God in the matter, and it was with her too that
God had dealt. She had been God-directed in the earlier part of the
transaction, and therefore was specially able to see what was right and
proper to be done in following up God's remarkable acknowledgment and
answer of her prayer. The course to be taken came to her as an
intuition,--an intuition not to be reasoned about, not to be exposed to
the criticism of another, to be simply accepted and obeyed. As she gave
no heed to those impulses of her own heart that might have desired a
different destination for her child, so she was disposed to give none to
the impulses of any other. The name, and the training, and the life-work
of a child given so remarkably were all clear as sunbeams to her godly
heart; and in such a matter it would have been nothing but weakness to
confer with flesh and blood.
And in the second place, Elkanah could be in no humour to resist his
wife, even if he had had any reason to do so. For he was in a manner
reproved of God for not being more concerned about her sadness of
spirit. God had treated her sorrow more seriously than he had. God had
not said to her that her husband was better to her than ten sons. God
had recognised the hunger of her heart for a son as a legitimate
craving, and when she brought her wish to Him, and meekly and humbly
asked Him to fulfil it, He had heard her prayer, and granted her
request. In a sense Hannah, in the depth of her sorrow, had appealed
from her husband to a higher court, and the appeal had been decided in
her favour. Elkanah could not but feel that in faith, in lofty
principle, in nearness of fellowship with God, he had been surpassed by
his wife. It was no wonder he surrendered to her the future direction of
a life given thus in answer to her prayers. Yet in thus surrendering his
right he showed no sullenness of temper, but acted in harmony with her,
not only in naming and dedicating the child, but in taking a vow on
himself, and at the proper moment fulfilling that vow. The three
bullocks, with the ephah of flour and the bottle of wine brought to
Shiloh when the child was presented to the Lord, were probably the
fulfilment of Elkanah's vow.
But to come more particularly to what is recorded in the text.
1. We notice, first, the fact of the answer to prayer. The answer was
prompt, clear, explicit. It is an important question, Why are some
prayers answered and not others? Many a good man and woman feel it to be
the greatest trial that their prayers for definite objects are not
answered. Many a mother will say, Why did God not answer me when I
prayed Him to spare my infant's life? I am sure I prayed with my whole
heart and soul, but it seemed to make no difference, the child sank and
died just as if no one had been praying for him. Many a wife will say,
Why does God not convert my husband? I have agonized, I have wept and
made supplication on his behalf, and in particular, with reference to
his besetting infirmity, I have implored God to break his chain and set
him free; but there he is, the same as ever. Many a young person under
serious impressions will say, Why does God not hear my prayer? I have
prayed with heart and soul for faith and love, for peace in believing,
for consciousness of my interest in Christ; but my prayers seem directed
against a wall of brass, they seem never to reach the ears of the Lord
of hosts. In spite of all such objections and difficulties, we maintain
that God is the hearer of prayer. Every sincere prayer offered in the
name of Christ is heard, and dealt with by God in such way as seems good
to Him. There are good reasons why some prayers are not answered at all,
and there are also good reasons why the visible answer to some prayers
is delayed. Some prayers are not answered because the spirit of them is
bad. "Ye ask but receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume
it upon your lusts." What is asked merely to gratify a selfish feeling
is asked amiss. It is not holy prayer; it does not fit in with the
sacred purposes of life; it is not asked to make us better, or enable us
to serve God better, or make our life more useful to our fellows; but
simply to increase our pleasure, to make our surroundings more
agreeable. Some prayers are not answered because what is asked would be
hurtful; the prayer is answered in spirit though denied in form. A
Christian lady, over the sick bed of an only son, once prayed with
intense fervour that he might be restored, and positively refused to
say, "Thy will be done." Falling asleep, she seemed to see a panorama of
her son's life had he survived; it was a succession of sorrows, rising
into terrible agonies,--so pitiful a sight that she could no longer
desire his life to be prolonged, and gave up the battle against the will
of God. Some prayers are not answered at the time, because a discipline
of patience is needed for those who offer them; they have to be taught
the grace of waiting patiently for the Lord; they have to learn more
fully than hitherto to walk by faith, not by sight; they have to learn
to take the promise of God against all appearances, and to remember that
heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's word shall not pass away.
But whatever be the reasons for the apparent silence of God, we may rest
assured that hearing prayer is the law of His kingdom. Old Testament and
New alike bear witness to this. Every verse of the Psalms proclaims it.
Alike by precept and example our Lord constantly enforced it. Every
Apostle takes up the theme, and urges the duty and the privilege. We may
say of prayer as St. Paul said of the resurrection--if prayer be not
heard our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain. And what true
Christian is there who cannot add testimonies from his own history to
the same effect? If the answer to some of your prayers be delayed, has
it not come to many of them? Come, too, very conspicuously, so that you
were amazed, and almost awed? And if there be prayers that have not yet
been answered, or in reference to which you have no knowledge of an
answer, can you not afford to wait till God gives the explanation? And
when the explanation comes, have you not much cause to believe that it
will redound to the praise of God, and that many things, in reference to
which you could at the time see nothing but what was dark and terrible,
may turn out when fully explained to furnish new and overwhelming
testimony that "God is love?"
2. The next point is the name given by Hannah to her son. The name
Samuel, in its literal import, does not mean "asked of the Lord," but
"heard of the Lord." The reason assigned by Hannah for giving this name
to her son is not an explanation of the word, but a reference to the
circumstances. In point of fact, "heard of the Lord" is more expressive
than even "asked of the Lord," because it was God's hearing (in a
favourable sense), more than Hannah's asking, that was the decisive
point in the transaction. Still, as far as Hannah was concerned, he was
asked of the Lord. The name was designed to be a perpetual memorial of
the circumstances of his birth. For the good of the child himself, and
for the instruction of all that might come in contact with him, it was
designed to perpetuate the fact that before his birth a solemn
transaction in prayer took place between his mother and the Almighty.
The very existence of this child was a perpetual witness, first of all
of the truth that God exists, and then of the truth that He is a
prayer-hearing God. The very name of this child is a rebuke to those
parents who never think of God in connection with their children, who
never thank God for giving them, nor think of what He would like in
their education and training. Even where no such special transaction by
prayer has taken place as in the case of Samuel's mother, children are
to be regarded as sacred gifts of God. "Lo, children are the heritage of
the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward." Many a child has had
the name Samuel given him since these distant days in Judaea under the
influence of this feeling. Many a parent has felt what a solemn thing it
is to receive from God's hands an immortal creature, that may become
either an angel or a devil, and to be entrusted with the first stage of
a life that may spread desolation and misery on the one hand, or joy and
blessing wherever its influence reaches. Do not treat lightly, O
parents, the connection between God and your children! Cherish the
thought that they are God's gifts, God's heritage to you, committed by
Him to you to bring up, but not apart from Him, not in separation from
those holy influences which He alone can impart, and which He is willing
to impart. What a cruel thing it is to cut this early connection between
them and God, and send them drifting through the world like a ship with
a forsaken rudder, that flaps hither and thither with every current of
the sea! What a blessed thing when, above all things, the grace and
blessing of God are sought by parents for their children, when all the
earnest lessons of childhood are directed to this end, and before
childhood has passed into youth the grace of God rules the young heart,
and the holy purpose is formed to live in His fear through Jesus Christ,
and to honour Him for evermore!
3. Hannah's arrangements for the child. From the very first she had
decided that at the earliest possible period he should be placed under
the high priest at Shiloh. Hannah's fulfilment of her vow was to be an
ample, prompt, honourable fulfilment. Many a one who makes vows or
resolutions under the pressure and pinch of distress immediately begins
to pare them down when the pinch is removed, like the merchant in the
storm who vowed a hecatomb to Jupiter, then reduced the hecatomb to a
single bullock, the bullock to a sheep, the sheep to a few dates; but
even these he ate on the way to the altar, laying on it only the stones.
Not one jot would Hannah abate of the full sweep and compass of her vow.
She would keep the child by her only till he was weaned, and then he
should be presented at Shiloh. It is said that Jewish mothers sometimes
suckled their children to the age of three years, and this was probably
little Samuel's age when he was taken to Shiloh. Meanwhile, she resolved
that till that time was reached she would not go up to the feast. Had
she gone before her son was weaned she must have taken him with her, and
brought him away with her, and that would have broken the solemnity of
the transaction when at last she should take him for good and all. No.
The very first visit that she and her son should pay to Shiloh would be
the decisive visit. The very first time that she should present herself
at that holy place where God had heard her prayer and her vow would be
the time when she should fulfil her vow. The first time that she should
remind the high priest of their old interview would be when she came to
offer to God's perpetual service the answer to her prayer and the fruit
of her vow. To miss the feast would be a privation, it might even be a
spiritual loss, but she had in her son that which itself was a means of
grace to her, and a blessed link to God and heaven; while she remained
with him God would still remain with her; and in prayer for him, and the
people whom he might one day influence, her heart might be as much
enlarged and warmed as if she were mingling with the thousands of
Israel, amid the holy excitement of the great national feast.
4. Elkanah's offering at Shiloh. When Elkanah heard his wife's plan with
reference to Samuel, he simply acquiesced, bade her remain at Shiloh,
"only the Lord establish His word." What word? Literally, the Lord had
spoken no word about Samuel, unless the word of Eli to Hannah "The God
of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him" could be
regarded as a word from God. That word, however, had already been
fulfilled; and Elkanah's prayer meant, The Lord bring to pass those
further blessings of which the birth of Samuel was the promise and the
prelude; the Lord accept, in due time, the offering of this child to His
service, and grant that out of that offering there may come to Israel
all the good that it is capable of yielding.
The cordiality with which Elkanah accepted his wife's view of the case
is seen further in the ample offering which he took to Shiloh--three
bullocks, an ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine. One bullock would
have sufficed as a burnt-offering for the child now given for the
service of God, and in ver. 25 special mention is made of one being
slain. The other two were added to mark the speciality of the occasion,
to make the offering, so to speak, round and complete, to testify the
ungrudging cordiality with which the whole transaction was entered into.
One might perhaps have thought that in connection with such a service
there was hardly any need of a bloody sacrifice, A little child of two
or three years old--the very type and picture of innocence--surely
needed little in the way of expiation. Not so, however, the view of the
law of Moses. Even a newborn infant could not be presented to the Lord
without some symbol of expiation. There is such a virus of corruption in
every human soul that not even infants can be brought to God for
acceptance and blessing without a token of atonement. Sin has so
separated the whole race from God, that not one member of it can be
brought near, can be brought into the region of benediction, without
shedding of blood. And if no member of it can be even accepted without
atonement, much less can any be taken to be God's servant, taken to
stand before Him, to represent Him, to be His organ to others, to speak
in His name. What a solemn truth for all who desire to be employed in
the public service of Jesus Christ! Remember how unworthy you are to
stand before him. Remember how stained your garments are with sin and
worldliness, how distracted your heart is with other thoughts and
feelings, how poor the service is you are capable of rendering. Remember
how gloriously Jesus is served by the angels that excel in strength,
that do His commandments, hearkening to the voice of His word. And when
you give yourselves to Him, or ask to be allowed to take your place
among His servants, seek as you do so to be sprinkled with the blood of
cleansing, own your personal unworthiness, and pray to be accepted
through the merit of His sacrifice!
5. And now, the bullock being slain, they bring the child to Eli. Hannah
is the speaker, and her words are few and well chosen. She reminds Eli
of what she had done the last time she was there. Generous and
courteous, she makes no allusion to anything unpleasant that had passed
between them. Small matters of that sort are absorbed in the solemnity
and importance of the transaction. In her words to Eli she touches
briefly on the past, the present, and the future. What occurred in the
past was, that she stood there a few years ago praying unto the Lord.
What was true of the present was, that the Lord had granted her
petition, and given her this child for whom she had prayed. And what was
going to happen in the future was (as the Revised Version has it), "I
have granted him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he is granted to the
Lord."
It is interesting to remark that no word of Eli's is introduced. This
Nazarite child is accepted for the perpetual service of God at once and
without remark. No remonstrance is made on the score of his tender
years. No doubt is insinuated as to how he may turn out. If Samuel's
family was a Levitical one, he would have been entitled to take part in
the service of God, but only occasionally, and at the Levitical age. But
his mother brings him to the Lord long before the Levitical age, and
leaves him at Shiloh, bound over to a lifelong service. How was she able
to do it? For three years that child had been her constant companion,
had lain in her bosom, had warmed her heart with his smiles, had amused
her with his prattle, had charmed her with all his engaging little ways.
How was she able to part with him? Would he not miss her too as much as
she would miss him? Shiloh was not a very attractive place, Eli was old
and feeble, Hophni and Phinehas were beasts, the atmosphere was
offensive and pernicious. Nevertheless, it was God's house, and if a
little child should be brought to it, capable of rendering to God real
service, God would take care of the child. Already he was God's child.
Asked of God, and heard of God, he bore already the mark of his Master.
God would be with him, as He had been with Joseph, as He had been with
Moses--"He shall call on Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him
in trouble, I will be with him and honour him."
Noble in her spirit of endurance in the time of trial, Hannah is still
more noble in the spirit of self-denial in the time of prosperity. It
was no common grace that could so completely sacrifice all her personal
feelings, and so thoroughly honour God. What a rebuke to those parents
that keep back their children from God's service, that will not part
with their sons to be missionaries, that look on the ministry of the
Gospel as but a poor occupation! What a rebuke, too, to many Christian
men and women who are so unwilling to commit themselves openly to any
form of Christian service,--unwilling to be identified with religious
work! Yet, on the other hand, let us rejoice that in this our age, more
perhaps than in any other, so many are willing, nay eager, for Christian
service. Let us rejoice that both among young men and young women
recruits for the mission-field are offering themselves in such numbers.
After all, it is true wisdom, and true policy, although not done as a
matter of policy. It will yield far the greatest satisfaction in the
end. God is not unrighteous to forget the work and labour of love of His
children. And "every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My
name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting
life."
CHAPTER III.
_HANNAH'S SONG OF THANKSGIVING._
1 SAMUEL ii. 1-10.
The emotion that filled Hannah's breast after she had granted Samuel to
the Lord, and left him settled at Shiloh, was one of triumphant joy. In
her song we see no trace of depression, like that of a bereaved and
desolate mother. Some may be disposed to think less of Hannah on this
account; they may think she would have been more of a true mother if
something of human regret had been apparent in her song. But surely we
ought not to blame her if the Divine emotion that so completely filled
her soul excluded for the time every ordinary feeling. In the very first
words of her song we see how closely God was connected with the emotions
that swelled in her breast. "My heart rejoiceth _in the Lord_, mine horn
is exalted _in the Lord_." The feeling that was so rapturous was the
sense of God's gracious owning of her; His taking her into partnership,
so to speak, with Himself; His accepting of her son as an instrument for
carrying out His gracious purposes to Israel and the world. Only those
who have experienced it can understand the overwhelming blessedness of
this feeling. That the infinite God should draw near to His sinful
creature, and not only accept him, but identify Himself with him, as it
were, taking him and those dearest to him into His confidence, and using
them to carry out His plans, is something almost too wonderful for the
human spirit to bear. This was Hannah's feeling, as it afterwards was
that of Elizabeth, and still more of the Virgin Mary, and it is no
wonder that their songs, which bear a close resemblance to each other,
should have been used by the Christian Church to express the very
highest degree of thankfulness.
The emotion of Hannah was intensified by another consideration. What had
taken place in her experience was not the only thing of this kind that
had ever happened or that ever was to happen. On the contrary, it was
the outcome of a great law of God's kingdom, which law regulated the
ordinary procedure of His providence. Hannah's heart was enlarged as she
thought how many others had shared or would share what had befallen her;
as she thought how such pride and arrogance as that which had tormented
her was doomed to be rebuked and brought low under God's government; how
many lowly souls that brought their burden to Him were to be relieved;
and how many empty and hungry hearts, pining for food and rest, were to
find how He "satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul
with goodness."
But it would seem that her thoughts took a still wider sweep. Looking on
herself as representing the nation of Israel, she seems to have felt
that what had happened to her on a small scale was to happen to the
nation on a large; for God would draw nigh to Israel as He had to her,
make him His friend and confidential servant, humble the proud and
malignant nations around him, and exalt him, if only he endeavoured
humbly and thankfully to comply with the Divine will. Is it possible
that her thoughts took a more definite form? May not the Holy Spirit
have given her a glimpse of the great truth--"Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given"? May she not have surmised that it was to be
through one born in the same land that the great redemption was to be
achieved? May she not have seen in her little Samuel the type and symbol
of another Child, to be more wonderfully born than hers, to be dedicated
to God's service in a higher sense, to fulfil all righteousness far
beyond anything in Samuel's power? And may not this high theme, carrying
her far into future times, carrying her on to the end of the world's
history, bearing her up even to eternity and infinity, have been the
cause of that utter absence of human regret, that apparent want of
motherly heart-sinking, which we mark in the song?
When we examine the substance of the song more carefully, we find that
Hannah derives her joy from four things about God:--1. His nature (vv.
2-3); 2. His providential government (vv. 4-8); 3. His most gracious
treatment of His saints (v. 9); 4. The glorious destiny of the kingdom
of His anointed.
1. In the second and third verses we find comfort derived from (1) God's
holiness, (2) His unity, (3) His strength, (4) His knowledge, and (5)
His justice.
(1) The _holiness_, the spotlessness of God is a source of
comfort,--"There is none holy as the Lord." To the wicked this attribute
is no comfort, but only a terror. Left to themselves, men take away this
attribute, and, like the Greeks and Romans and other pagans, ascribe to
their gods the lusts and passions of poor human creatures. Yet to those
who _can_ appreciate it, how blessed a thing is the holiness of God! No
darkness in Him, no corruption, no infirmity; absolutely pure, He
governs all on the principles of absolute purity; He keeps all up, even
in a sinful, crumbling world, to that high standard; and when His
schemes are completed, the blessed outcome will be "the new heavens and
the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
(2) His _unity_ gives comfort,--"There is none besides Thee." None to
thwart His righteous and gracious plans, or make those to tremble whose
trust is placed in Him. He doeth according to His will in the army of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His
hand, or say unto Him, "What doest Thou?"
(3) His _strength_ gives comfort,--"Neither is there any rock like our
God." "If God be for us, who can be against us?" "Hast thou not known,
hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, nor is weary? There is no searching
of His understanding? He giveth power to the faint, and to them that
have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be
weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; but they that wait on the
Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not
faint."
(4) His _knowledge_ gives comfort,--"The Lord is a God of knowledge." He
sees all secret wickedness, and knows how to deal with it. His eye is on
every plot hatched in the darkness. He knows His faithful servants, what
they aim at, what they suffer, what a strain is often put on their
fidelity. And He never can forget them, and never can desert them, for
"the angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear Him, and
delivereth them."
(5) His _justice_ gives comfort. "By Him actions are weighed." Their
true quality is ascertained; what is done for mean, selfish ends stands
out before Him in all its native ugliness, and draws down the
retribution that is meet. Men may perform the outward services of
religion with great regularity and apparent zeal, while their hearts are
full of all uncleanness and wickedness. The hypocrite may rise to
honour, the thief may become rich, men that prey upon the infirmities or
the simplicity of their fellows may prosper; but there is a God in
heaven by Whom all evil devices are weighed, and Who in His own time
will effectually checkmate all that either deny His existence or fancy
they can elude His righteous judgment.
2. These views of God's holy government are more fully enlarged on in
the second part of the song (vv. 3-8). The main feature of God's
providence dwelt on here is the changes that occur in the lot of certain
classes. The class against whom God's providence bears chiefly is the
haughty, the self-sufficient, the men of physical might who are ready to
use that might to the injury of others. Those again who lie in the path
of God's mercies are the weak, the hungry, the childless, the beggar.
Hannah uses a variety of figures. Now it is from the profession of
soldiers--"the bows of the mighty are broken"; and on the other hand
they that for very weakness were stumbling and staggering are girded
with strength. Now it is from the appetite for food--they that were full
have had to hire out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry are
hungry no more. Now it is from family life, and from a feature of family
life that came home to Hannah--"the barren hath borne seven, and she
that had many children is waxed feeble." And these changes are the doing
of God, "The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the
grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He bringeth
low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth
up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make
them inherit the throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are the
Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them." If nothing were taught
here but that there are great vicissitudes of fortune among men, then a
lesson would come from it alike to high and low--let the high beware
lest they glory in their fortune, let the low not sink into dejection
and despair. If it be further borne in mind that these changes of
fortune are all in the hands of God, a further lesson arises, to beware
how we offend God, and to live in the earnest desire to enjoy His
favour. But there is a further lesson. The class of qualities that are
here marked as offensive to God are pride, self-seeking,
self-sufficiency both in ordinary matters and in their spiritual
development. Your tyrannical and haughty Pharaohs, your high-vaunting
Sennacheribs, your pride-intoxicated Nebuchadnezzars, are objects of
special dislike to God. So is your proud Pharisee, who goes up to the
temple thanking God that he is not as other men, no, nor like that poor
publican, who is smiting on his breast, as well such a sinner may. It is
the lowly in heart that God takes pleasure in. "Thus saith the high and
lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy: I dwell in
the high and in the holy place, but with him also that is of a humble
and contrite heart; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive
the heart of the contrite one."
When we turn to the song of the Virgin we find the same strain--"He hath
showed strength with His arm, He hath scattered the proud in the
imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their
seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with
good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away." Undoubtedly these
words have primary reference to the social conditions of men. Thanks are
given that the highest privilege that God could bestow on a creature had
been conferred not on any one rolling in luxury, but on a maiden of the
lowest class. This meaning does not exhaust the scope of the
thanksgiving, which doubtless embraces that law of the spiritual kingdom
to which Christ gave expression in the opening words of the Sermon on
the Mount, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Yet it is plain that both the song of Hannah and the song of
Mary dwell with complacency on that feature of providence by which men
of low degree are sometimes exalted, by which the beggar is sometimes
lifted from the dunghill, and set among princes to inherit the throne of
glory. Why is this? Can God have any sympathy with the spirit which
often prevails in the bosom of the poor towards the rich, which rejoices
in their downfall just because they are rich, and in the elevation of
others simply because they belong to the same class with themselves? The
thought is not to be entertained for a moment. In God's government there
is nothing partial or capricious. But the principle is this. Riches,
fulness, luxury are apt to breed pride and contempt of the poor; and it
pleases God at times, when such evil fruits appear, to bring down these
worthless rich men to the dust, in order to give a conspicuous rebuke to
the vanity, the ambition, the remorseless selfishness which were so
conspicuous in their character. What but this was the lesson from the
sudden fall of Cardinal Wolsey? Men, and even the best of men, thanked
God for that fall. Not that it gave them pleasure to see a poor wretch
who had been clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously
every day, reduced to so pitiful a plight; but because they felt it a
righteous thing and a wholesome thing that so proud and so wicked a
career should be terminated by a conspicuous manifestation of the
displeasure of God. The best instincts of men's nature longed for a
check to the monstrous pride and wicked avarice of that man; and when
that check was given, and given with such tremendous emphasis, there was
not an honest man or woman in all England who did not utter a hearty
"Praise God!" when they heard the terrible news.
So also it pleases God to give conspicuous proofs from time to time that
qualities that in poor men are often associated with a hard-working,
humble career are well-pleasing in His sight. For what qualities on the
part of the poor are so valuable, in a social point of view, as
industry, self-denying diligence, systematic, unwearying devotion even
to work which brings them such scanty remuneration? By far the greater
part of such men and women are called to work on, unnoticed and
unrewarded, and when their day is over to sink into an undistinguished
grave. But from time to time some such persons rise to distinction. The
class to which they belong is ennobled by their achievements. When God
wished in the sixteenth century to achieve the great object of punishing
the Church which had fallen into such miserable inefficiency and
immorality, and wrenching half of Europe from its grasp, he found his
principal agent in a poor miner's cottage in Saxony. When he desired to
summon a sleeping Church to the great work of evangelising India, the
man he called to the front was Carey, a poor cobbler of Northampton.
When it was his purpose to present His Church with an unrivalled picture
of the Christian pilgrimage, its dangers and trials, its joys, its
sorrows, and its triumphs, the artist appointed to the task was John
Bunyan, the tinker of Elstow. When the object was to provide a man that
would open the great continent of Africa to civilisation and
Christianity, and who needed, in order to do this, to face dangers and
trials before which all ordinary men had shrunk, he found his agent in a
poor spinner-boy, who was working twelve hours a day in a cotton mill on
the banks of the Clyde. In all such matters, in humbling the rich and
exalting the poor, God's object is not to punish the one because they
are rich, or to exalt the other because they are poor. In the one case
it is to punish vices bred from an improper use of wealth, and in the
other to reward virtues that have sprung from the soil of poverty. "Poor
_and_ pious parents," wrote David Livingstone on the tombstone of his
parents at Hamilton, when he wished to record the grounds of his
thankfulness for the position in life which they held. "I would not
exchange my peasant father for any king," said Thomas Carlyle, when he
thought of the gems of Christian worth that had shone out all the
brighter amid the hard conditions of his father's life. Riches are no
reproach, and poverty is no merit; but the pride so apt to be bred of
riches, the idleness, the injustice, the selfishness so often associated
with them, is what God likes to reprove; and the graces that may be
found in the poor man's home, the unwearied devotion to duty, the
neighbourliness and brotherly love, and above all the faith, the hope,
and the charity are what He delights to honour.
In the spiritual sense there is no more important ingredient of
character in God's sight than the sense of emptiness, and the conviction
that all goodness, all strength, all blessing must come from God. The
heart, thus emptied, is prepared to welcome the grace that is offered to
supply its needs. Air rushes into an exhausted receiver. Where the idea
prevails either that we are possessed of considerable native goodness,
or that we have only to take pains with ourselves to get it, there is no
welcome for the truth that "by grace are ye saved." Whoever says, "I am
rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing," knows not that
"he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
Miserable they who live and die in this delusion! Happy they who have
been taught, "In me dwelleth no good thing." "All my springs are in
Thee." Jesus Christ "is made to us of God wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption." "Out of His fulness have we all
received, and grace for grace."
3. The third topic in Hannah's song is God's very gracious treatment of
His saints. "He will keep the feet of His saints." The term "feet" shows
the reference to be to their earthly life, their steps, their course
through the world. It is a promise which others would care for but
little, but which is very precious to all believers. To know the way in
which God would have one to go is of prime importance to every godly
heart. To be kept from wandering into unblest ways, kept from trifling
with temptation, and dallying with sin is an infinite blessing. "Oh that
my ways were directed to keep Thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed
when I have respect unto all Thy commandments." "He will keep the feet
of His saints."
4. And lastly, Hannah rejoices in that dispensation of mercy that was
coming in connection with God's "king, His anointed" (v. 10). Guided by
the Spirit, she sees that a king is coming, that a kingdom is to be set
up, and ruled over by the Lord's anointed. She sees that God's blessing
is to come down on the king, the anointed, and that under him the
kingdom is to prosper and to spread. Did she catch a glimpse of what was
to happen under such kings as David, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah?
Did she see in prophetic vision the loving care of such kings for the
welfare of the people, their holy zeal for God, their activity and
earnestness in doing good? And did the glimpse of these coming benefits
suggest to her the thought of what was to be achieved by Him who was to
be the anointed one, the Messiah in a higher sense? We can hardly avoid
giving this scope to her song. It was but a small measure of these
blessings that her son personally could bring about. Her son seems to
give place to a higher Son, through whom the land would be blessed as no
one else could have blessed it, and all hungry and thirsty souls would
be guided to that living bread and living water of which whosoever ate
and drank should never hunger or thirst again.
What is the great lesson of this song? That for the answer to prayer,
for deliverance from trial, for the fulfilment of hopes, for the
glorious things yet spoken of the city of our God, our most cordial
thanksgivings are due to God. Every Christian life presents numberless
occasions that very specially call for such thanksgiving. But there is
one thanksgiving that must take precedence of all--"Thanks be unto God
for His unspeakable gift." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us
again unto a living hope, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in
the last day."
CHAPTER IV.
_ELI'S HOUSE._
1 SAMUEL ii. 11-36.
The notices of little Samuel, that alternate in this passage with the
sad accounts of Eli and his house, are like the green spots that vary
the dull stretches of sand in a desert; or like the little bits of blue
sky that charm your eye when the firmament is darkened by a storm. First
we are told how, after Elkanah and Hannah departed, the child Samuel
ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest (v. 11); then comes an
ugly picture of the wickedness practised at Shiloh by Eli's sons (vv.
12-17); another episode brings Samuel again before us, with some details
of his own history and that of his family (vv. 18-21); this is followed
by an account of Eli's feeble endeavours to restrain the wickedness of
his sons (vv. 22-25). Once more we have a bright glimpse of Samuel, and
of his progress in life and character, very similar in terms to St.
Luke's account of the growth of the child Jesus (v. 26); and finally the
series closes with a painful narrative--the visit of a man of God to
Eli, reproving his guilty laxity in connection with his sons, and
announcing the downfall of his house (vv. 27-36). In the wickedness of
Eli's sons we see the enemy coming in like a flood; in the progress of
little Samuel we see the Spirit of the Lord lifting up a standard
against him. We see evil powerful and most destructive; we see the
instrument of healing very feeble--a mere infant. Yet the power of God
is with the infant, and in due time the force which he represents will
prevail. It is just a picture of the grand conflict of sin and grace in
the world. It was verified emphatically when Jesus was a child. How
slender the force seemed that was to scatter the world's darkness, roll
back its wickedness, and take away its guilt! How striking the lesson
for us not to be afraid though the apparent force of truth and goodness
in the world be infinitesimally small. The worm Jacob shall yet thresh
the mountains; the little flock shall yet possess the kingdom; "there
shall be a handful of corn on the top of the mountains, the fruit
thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish
like grass of the earth."
It is mainly the picture of Eli's house and the behaviour of his family
that fills our eye in this chapter. It is to be noticed that Eli was a
descendant, not of Eleazar, the elder son of Aaron, but of Ithamar, the
younger. Why the high priesthood was transferred from the one family to
the other, in the person of Eli, we do not know. Evidently Eli's claim
to the priesthood was a valid one, for in the reproof addressed to him
it is fully assumed that he was the proper occupant of the office. One
is led to think that either from youth or natural feebleness the proper
heir in Eleazar's line had been unfit for the office, and that Eli had
been appointed to it as possessing the personal qualifications which the
other wanted. Probably therefore he was a man of vigour in his earlier
days, one capable of being at the head of affairs; and if so his loose
government of his family was all the more worthy of blame. It could not
have been that the male line in Eleazar's family had failed; for in the
time of David Zadok of the family of Eleazar was priest, along with
Abiathar, of the family of Ithamar and Eli. From Eli's administration
great things would seem to have been expected; all the more lamentable
and shameful was the state of things that ensued.
1. First our attention is turned to the gross wickedness and scandalous
behaviour of Eli's sons. There are many dark pictures in the history of
Israel in the time of the Judges,--pictures of idolatry, pictures of
lust, pictures of treachery, pictures of bloodshed; but there is none
more awful than the picture of the high priest's family at Shiloh. In
the other cases members of the nation had become grossly wicked; but in
this case it is the salt that has lost its savour--it is those who
should have led the people in the ways of God that have become the
ringleaders of the devil's army. Hophni and Phinehas take their places
in that unhonoured band where the names of Alexander Borgia, and many a
high ecclesiastic of the Middle Ages send forth their stinking savour.
They are marked by the two prevailing vices of the lowest natures--greed
and lechery. Their greed preys upon the worthy men who brought their
offerings to God's sanctuary in obedience to His law; their lechery
seduces the very women who, employed in the service of the place (see
Revised Version), might have reasonably thought of it as the gate to
heaven rather than the avenue of hell. So shameless were they in both
kinds of vice that they were at no pains to conceal either the one or
the other. It mattered nothing what regulations God had made as to the
parts of the offering the priest was to have; down went their fork into
the sacrificial caldron, and whatever it drew up became theirs. It
mattered not that the fat of certain sacrifices was due to God, and that
it ought to have been given off before any other use was made of the
flesh; the priests claimed the flesh in its integrity, and if the
offerer would not willingly surrender it their servant fell upon him and
wrenched it away. It is difficult to say whether the greater hurt was
inflicted by such conduct on the cause of religion or on the cause of
ordinary morality. As for the cause of religion, it suffered that
terrible blow which it always suffers whenever it is dissociated from
morality. The very heart and soul is torn out of religion when men are
led to believe that their duty consists in merely believing certain
dogmas, attending to outward observances, paying dues, and "performing"
worship. What kind of conception of God can men have who are encouraged
to believe that justice, mercy, and truth have nothing to do with His
service? How can they ever think of Him as a Spirit, who requires of
them that worship Him that they worship Him in spirit and in truth? How
can such religion give men a real veneration for God, or inspire them
with that spirit of obedience, trust, and delight of which he ought ever
to be the object? Under such religion all belief in God's existence
tends to vanish. Though His existence may continue to be acknowledged,
it is not a power, it has no influence; it neither stimulates to good
nor restrains from evil. Religion becomes a miserable form, without
life, without vigour, without beauty--a mere carcase deserving only to
be buried out of sight.
And if such a condition of things is fatal to religion, it is fatal to
morality too. Men are but too ready by nature to play loose with
conscience. But when the religious heads of the nation are seen at once
robbing man and robbing God, and when this is done apparently with
impunity, it seems foolish to ordinary men to mind moral restraints.
"Why should we mind the barriers of conscience" (the young men of Israel
might argue) "when these young priests disregard them? If we do as the
priest does we shall do very well." Men of corrupt lives at the head of
religion, who are shameless in their profligacy, have a lowering effect
on the moral life of the whole community. Down and down goes the
standard of living. Class after class gets infected. The mischief
spreads like dry rot in a building; ere long the whole fabric of society
is infected with the poison.
2. And how did the high priest deal with this state of things? In the
worst possible way. He spoke against it but he did not act against it.
He showed that he knew of it, he owned it to be very wicked; but he
contented himself with words of remonstrance, which in the case of such
hardened transgression were of no more avail than a child's breath
against a brazen wall. At the end of the day, it is true that Eli was a
decrepit old man, from whom much vigour of action could not have been
expected. But the evil began before he was so old and decrepit, and his
fault was that he did not restrain his sons at the time when he ought
and might have restrained them. Yes, but even if Eli was old and
decrepit when the actual state of things first burst on his view, there
was enough of the awful in the conduct of his sons to have roused him to
unwonted activity. David was old and decrepit, lying feebly at the edge
of death, when word was brought to him that Adonijah had been proclaimed
king in place of Solomon, for whom he had destined the throne. But
there was enough of the startling in this intelligence to bring back a
portion of its youthful fire to David's heart, and set him to devise the
most vigorous measures to prevent the mischief that was so ready to be
perpetrated. Fancy King David sending a meek message to Adonijah--"Nay,
my son, it is not on your head but on Solomon's that my crown is to
rest; go home, my son, and do nothing more in a course hurtful to
yourself and hurtful to your people." But; it was this foolish and most
inefficient course that Eli took with his sons. Had he acted as he
should have acted at the beginning, matters would never have come to
such a flagrant pass. But when the state of things became so terrible,
there was but one course that should have been thought of. When the
wickedness of the acting priests was so outrageous that men abhorred the
offering of the Lord, the father ought to have been sunk in the high
priest; the men who had so dishonoured their office should have been
driven from the place, and the very remembrance of the crime they had
committed should have been obliterated by the holy lives and holy
service of better men. It was inexcusable in Eli to allow them to
remain. If he had had a right sense of his office he would never for one
moment have allowed the interest of his family to outweigh the claims of
God. What! Had God in the wilderness, by a solemn and deadly judgment,
removed from office and from life the two elder sons of Aaron simply
because they had offered strange fire in their censers? And what was the
crime of offering strange fire compared to the crime of robbing God, of
violating the Decalogue, of openly practising gross and daring
wickedness, under the very shadow of the tabernacle? If Eli did not take
steps for stopping these atrocious proceedings, he might rely on it
that steps would be taken in another quarter--God Himself would mark His
sense of the sin.
For what were the interests of his sons compared with the credit of the
national worship? What mattered it that the sudden stroke would fall on
them with startling violence? If it did not lead to their repentance and
salvation it would at least save the national religion from degradation,
and it would thus bring benefit to tens of thousands in the land. All
this Eli did not regard. He could not bring himself to be harsh to his
own sons. He could not bear that they should be disgraced and degraded.
He would satisfy himself with a mild remonstrance, notwithstanding that
every day new disgrace was heaped on the sanctuary, and new
encouragement given to others to practise wickedness, by the very men
who should have been foremost in honouring God, and sensitive to every
breath that would tarnish His name.
How differently God's servants acted in other days! How differently
Moses acted when he came down from the mount and found the people
worshipping the golden calf! "It came to pass, as soon as he came nigh
unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing: and Moses' anger
waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and brake them
beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt
it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water,
and made the children of Israel drink of it.... And Moses stood in the
gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto
me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. And
he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his
sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate through the camp,
and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every
man his neighbour." Do we think this too sharp and severe a retribution?
At all events it marked in a suitable way the enormity of the offence of
Aaron and the people, and the awful provocation of Divine judgments
which the affair of the golden calf implied. It denoted that in presence
of such a sin the claims of kindred were never for a moment to be
thought of; and in the blessing of Moses it was a special commendation
of the zeal of Levi, that "he said unto his father, and to his mother, I
have not seen him; neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his
own children." It was the outrageous character of the offence in the
matter of the golden calf that justified the severe and abrupt
procedure; but it was Eli's condemnation that though the sin of his sons
was equally outrageous, he was moved to no indignation, and took no step
to rid the tabernacle of men so utterly unworthy.
It is often very difficult to explain how it comes to pass that godly
men have had ungodly children. There is little difficulty in accounting
for this on the present occasion. There was a fatal defect in the method
of Eli. His remonstrance with his sons is not made at the proper time.
It is not made in the fitting tone. When disregarded, it is not followed
up by the proper consequences. We can easily think of Eli letting the
boys have their own will and their own way when they were young;
threatening them for disobedience, but not executing the threat; angry
at them when they did wrong, but not punishing the offence; vacillating
perhaps between occasional severity and habitual indulgence, till
by-and-bye all fear of sinning had left them, and they coolly calculated
that the grossest wickedness would meet with nothing worse than a
reproof. How sad the career of the young men themselves! We must not
forget that, however inexcusable their father was, the great guilt of
the proceeding was theirs. How must they have hardened their hearts
against the example of Eli, against the solemn claims of God, against
the holy traditions of the service, against the interests and claims of
those whom they ruined, against the welfare of God's chosen people! How
terribly did their familiarity with sacred things react on their
character, making them treat even the holy priesthood as a mere trade, a
trade in which the most sacred interests that could be conceived were
only as counters, to be turned by them into gain and sensual pleasure!
Could anything come nearer to the sin against the Holy Ghost? No wonder
though their doom was that of persons judicially blinded and hardened.
They were given up to a reprobate mind, to do those things that were not
convenient. "They hearkened not to the voice of their father, because
the Lord would slay them." They experienced the fate of men who
deliberately sin against the light, who love their lusts so well that
nothing will induce them to fight against them; they were so hardened
that repentance became impossible, and it was necessary for them to
undergo the full retribution of their wickedness.
3. But it is time we should look at the message brought to Eli by the
man of God. In that message Eli was first reminded of the gracious
kindness shown to the house of Aaron in their being entrusted with the
priesthood, and in their having an honourable provision secured for
them. Next he is asked why he trampled on God's sacrifice and offering
(marg. Revised Version), and considered the interests of his sons above
the honour of God? Then he is told that any previous promise of the
perpetuity of his house is now qualified by the necessity God is under
to have regard to the character of his priests, and honour or degrade
them accordingly. In accordance with this rule the house of Eli would
suffer a terrible degradation. He (this includes his successors in
office) would be stript of "his arm," that is, his strength. No member
of his house would reach a good old age. The establishment at Shiloh
would fall more and more into decay, as if there was an enemy in God's
habitation. Any who might remain of the family would be a grief and
distress to those whom Eli represented. The young men themselves, Hophni
and Phinehas, would die the same day. Those who shared their spirit
would come crouching to the high priest of the day and implore him to
put them into one of the priest's offices, not to give them the
opportunity of serving God, but that they might eat a piece of bread.
Terrible catalogue of curses and calamities! Oh, sin, what a brood of
sorrows dost thou bring forth! Oh, young man, who walkest in the ways of
thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes, what a myriad of distresses
dost thou prepare for those whom thou art most bound to care for and to
bless! Oh, minister of the gospel, who allowest thyself to tamper with
the cravings of the flesh till thou hast brought ruin on thyself,
disgrace on thy family, and confusion on thy Church, what infatuation
was it to admit thy worst foe to the sanctuary of thy bosom, and allow
him to establish himself in the citadel till thou couldst not get quit
of him, so that thou art now helpless in his hands, with nothing but
sadness for thy present inheritance, and for the future a fearful
looking for of judgment and fiery indignation!
One word, in conclusion, respecting that great principle of the kingdom
of God announced by the prophet as that on which Jehovah would act in
reference to His priests--"Them that honour Me I will honour, but they
that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." It is one of the grandest
sayings in Scripture. It is the eternal rule of the kingdom of God, not
limited to the days of Hophni and Phinehas, but, like the laws of the
Medes and Persians, eternal as the ordinances of heaven. It is a law
confirmed by all history; every man's life confirms it, for though this
life is but the beginning of our career, and the final clearing up of
Divine providence is to be left to the judgment-day, yet when we look
back on the world's history we find that those that have honoured God,
God has honoured them, while they that have despised Him have indeed
been lightly esteemed. However men may try to get their destiny into
their own hands; however they may secure themselves from this trouble
and from that; however, like the first Napoleon, they may seem to become
omnipotent, and to wield an irresistible power, yet the day of
retribution comes at last; having sown to the flesh, of the flesh also
they reap corruption. While the men that have honoured God, the men that
have made their own interests of no account, but have set themselves
resolutely to obey God's will and do God's work; the men that have
believed in God as the holy Ruler and Judge of the world, and have
laboured in private life and in public service to carry out the great
rules of His kingdom,--justice, mercy, the love of God and the love of
man,--these are the men that God has honoured; these are the men whose
work abides; these are the men whose names shine with undying honour,
and from whose example and achievements young hearts in every following
age draw their inspiration and encouragement. What a grand rule of life
it is, for old and young! Do you wish a maxim that shall be of high
service to you in the voyage of life, that shall enable you to steer
your barque safely both amid the open assaults of evil, and its secret
currents, so that, however tossed you may be, you may have the assurance
that the ship's head is in the right direction, and that you are moving
steadily towards the desired haven; where can you find anything more
clear, more fitting, more sure and certain than just these words of the
Almighty, "Them that honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me
shall be lightly esteemed"?
CHAPTER V.
_SAMUEL'S VISION._
1 SAMUEL iii.
It is evident that Samuel must have taken very kindly to the duties of
the sanctuary. He was manifestly one of those who are sanctified from
infancy, and whose hearts go from the first with sacred duties. There
were no wayward impulses to subdue, no hankerings after worldly freedom
and worldly enjoyment; there was no necessity for coercive measures,
either to restrain him from outbursts of frivolity or to compel him to
diligence and regularity in his calling. From the first he looked with
solemn awe and holy interest on all that related to the worship of God;
that, to him, was the duty above all other duties, the privilege above
all other privileges. God to him was not a mere idea, an abstraction,
representing merely the dogmas and services of religion. God was a
reality, a personality, a Being who dealt very closely with men, and
with whom they were called to deal very closely too. We can easily
conceive how desirous little Samuel would be to know something of the
meaning of the services at Shiloh; how scrupulous to perform every duty,
how regular and real in his prayers, and how full of reverence and
affection for God. He would go about all his duties with a grave,
sweet, earnest face, conscious of their importance and solemnity; always
thinking more of them than of anything else,--thinking perhaps of the
service of the angels in heaven, and trying to serve God as they served
Him, to do God's will on earth as it was done in heaven.
At the opening of this chapter he seems to be the confidential servant
of the high priest, sleeping near to him, and in the habit of receiving
directions from him. He must be more than a child now, otherwise he
would not be entrusted, as he was, with the opening of the doors of the
house of the Lord.
The evil example of Hophni and Phinehas, so far from corrupting him,
seems to have made him more resolute the other way. It was horrid and
disgusting; and as gross drunkenness on the part of a father sometimes
sets the children the more against it, so the profligacy of the young
priests would make Samuel more vigilant in every matter of duty. That
Eli bore as he did with the conduct of his sons must have been a great
perplexity to him, and a great sorrow; but it did not become one at his
time of life to argue the question with the aged high priest. This
conduct of Eli's did not in any respect diminish the respectful bearing
of Samuel towards him, or his readiness to comply with his every wish.
For Eli was God's high priest; and in engaging to be God's servant in
the tabernacle Samuel knew well that he took the high priest as his
earthly master.
1. The first thing that engages our special attention in this chapter is
the singular way in which Samuel was called to receive God's message in
the temple.
The word of God was rare in those days; there was no open vision, or
rather no vision that came abroad, that was promulgated to the nation
as the expression of God's will. From the tone in which this is referred
to, it was evidently looked on as a want, as placing the nation in a
less desirable position than in days when God was constantly
communicating His will. Now, however, God is to come into closer contact
with the people, and for this purpose He is to employ a new instrument
as the medium of His messages. For God is never at a loss for suitable
instruments--they are always ready when peculiar work has to be done. In
the selection of the boy Samuel as his prophet there is something
painful, but likewise something very interesting. It is painful to find
the old high priest passed over; his venerable years and venerable
office would naturally have pointed to him; but in spite of many good
qualities, in one point he is grossly unfaithful, and the very purpose
of the vision now to be made is to declare the outcome of his
faithlessness. But it is interesting to find that already the child of
Hannah is marked out for this distinguished service. Even in his case
there is opportunity for verifying the rule, "Them that honour Me I will
honour." His entire devotion to God's service, so beautiful in one of
such tender years, is the sign of a character well adapted to become the
medium of God's habitual communications with His people. Young though he
is, his very youth in one sense will prove an advantage. It will show
that what he speaks is not the mere fruit of his own thinking, but is
the message of God. It will show that the spiritual power that goes
forth with his words is not his own native force, but the force of the
Holy Spirit dwelling in him. It will thus be made apparent to all that
God has not forsaken His people, corrupt and lamentably wicked though
the young priests are.
Both Eli and Samuel sleep within the precincts of the tabernacle. Not,
however, in the sanctuary itself, but in one of those buildings that
opened into its courts, which were erected for the accommodation of the
priests and Levites. Eli's sight was failing him, and perhaps the care
of the lamp as well as the door was entrusted to Samuel. The lamp was to
burn always (Exod. xxvii. 20), that is, it was to be trimmed and lighted
every morning and evening (Exod. xxx. 7, 8); and to attend to this was
primarily the high priest's duty. The lamp had doubtless been duly
trimmed, and it would probably continue burning through a good part of
the night. It was not yet out when a voice fell on the ears of Samuel,
loud enough to rouse him from the profound slumber into which he had
probably fallen. Thinking it was Eli's, he ran to his side; but Eli had
not called him. Again the voice sounded, again Samuel springs to his
feet and hastens to the high priest; again he is sent back with the same
assurance. A third time the voice calls; a third time the willing and
dutiful Samuel flies to Eli's side, but this time he is sent back with a
different answer. Hitherto Samuel had not known the Lord--that is, he
had not been cognisant of His way of communicating with men in a
supernatural form--and it had never occurred to him that such a thing
could happen in his case. But Eli knew that such communications were
made at times by God, and, remembering the visit of the man of God to
himself, he may have surmised that this was another such occasion. The
voice evidently was no natural voice; so Samuel is told to lie down once
more, to take the attitude of simple receptiveness, and humbly invite
God to utter His message.
There are some lesser traits of Samuel's character in this part of the
transaction which ought not to be passed over without remark. The
readiness with which he springs from his bed time after time, and the
meekness and patience with which he asks Eli for his orders, without a
word of complaint on his apparently unreasonable conduct, make it very
clear that Samuel had learned to subdue two things--to subdue his body
and to subdue his temper. It is not an easy thing for a young person in
the midst of a deep sleep to spring to his feet time after time. In such
circumstances the body is very apt to overcome the mind. But Samuel's
mind overcame the body. The body was the servant, not the master. What
an admirable lesson Samuel had already learned! Few parts of early
education are so important as to learn to keep the body in subjection.
To resist bodily cravings, whether greater or smaller, which unfit one
for duty; temptations to drink, or smoke, or dawdle, or lie in bed, or
waste time when one ought to be up and doing; to be always ready for
one's work, punctual, methodical, purpose-like, save only when sickness
intervenes,--denotes a very admirable discipline for a young person, and
is a sure token of success in life. Not less admirable is that control
over the temper which Samuel had evidently acquired. To be treated by
Eli as he supposed that he had been, was highly provoking. Why drag him
out of bed at that time of night at all? Why drag him over the cold
stones in the chill darkness, and why tantalise him first by denying
that he called him and then by calling him again? As far as appears,
Samuel's temper was in no degree ruffled by the treatment he appeared to
be receiving from Eli; he felt that he was a servant, and Eli was his
master, and it was his part to obey his master, however unreasonable
his treatment might be.
2. We proceed now to the message itself, and Samuel's reception of it.
It is substantially a repetition of what God had already communicated to
Eli by the man of God a few years before; only it is more peremptory,
and the bearing of it is more fixed and rigid. When God denounced His
judgment on Eli's house by the prophet, he seems to have intended to
give them an opportunity to repent. If Eli had bestirred himself then,
and banished the young men from Shiloh, and if his sons in their
affliction and humiliation had repented of their wickedness, the
threatened doom might have been averted. So at least we are led to
believe by this second message having been superadded to the first. Now
the opportunity of repentance has passed away. God's words are very
explicit--"I have sworn unto the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's
house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever." After
the previous warning, Eli seems to have gone on lamenting but not
chastising. Hophni and Phinehas seem to have gone on sinning as before,
and heedless of the scandal they were causing. In announcing to Samuel
the coming catastrophe, God shows Himself thoroughly alive to the
magnitude of the punishment He is to inflict, and the calamity that is
to happen. It is such that the ears of every one that heareth it shall
tingle. God shows also that, painful though it is, it has been
deliberately determined, and no relenting will occur when once the
terrible retribution begins. "In that day will I perform against Eli all
that I have spoken concerning his house; when I begin I will also make
an end." But terrible though the punishment will be, there is only too
good cause for it. "For I have told him that I will judge his house for
ever, for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made
themselves vile, and he restrained them not." There are some good
parents whose sons have made themselves vile, and they would fain have
restrained them but their efforts to restrain have been in vain. The
fault of Eli was, that he might have restrained them and he did not
restrain them. In those times fathers had more authority over their
families than is given them now. The head of the house was counted
responsible for the house, because it was only by his neglecting the
power he had that his family could become openly wicked. It was only by
Eli neglecting the power he had that his sons could have become so vile.
Where his sons were heirs to such sacred functions there was a double
call to restrain them, and that call he neglected. He neglected it at
the time when he might have done it, and that time could never be
recalled.
So, there is an age when children may be restrained, and if that age is
allowed to pass the power of restraining them goes along with it. There
are faults in this matter on the part of many parents, on the right hand
and on the left. Many err by not restraining at all. Mothers begin while
their children are yet infants to humour their every whim, and cannot
bear to hold back from them anything they may wish. It is this habit
that is liable to have such a terrible reaction. There are other parents
that while they restrain do not restrain wisely. They punish, but they
do not punish in love. They are angry because their children have broken
their rules; they punish in anger, and the punishment falls merely as
the blow of a stronger person on a weaker. It does not humble, it does
not soften. What awful consequences it often brings! What skeletons it
lodges in many a house! God has designed the family to be the nurse of
what is best and purest in human life, and when this design is crossed
then the family institution, which was designed to bring the purest joy,
breeds the darkest misery. And this is one of the forms of retribution
on wickedness which we see carried out in their fulness in the present
life! How strange, that men should be in any doubt as to God carrying
out the retribution of wickedness to the bitter end! How singular they
should disbelieve in a hell! The end of many a career is written in
these words:--"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy
backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore, and see that it is an
evil thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that
My fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts."
3. And now we go on to the meeting of Eli and Samuel. Samuel is in no
haste to communicate to Eli the painful message he has received. He has
not been required to do it, and he lies till the morning, awake we may
believe, but staggered and dismayed. As usual he goes to open the doors
of God's house. And then it is that Eli calls him. "What is the thing
that He hath said unto thee?" he asks. He adjures Samuel to tell him
all. And Samuel does tell him all. And Eli listens in silence, and when
it is over he says, with meek resignation, "It is the Lord; let Him do
what seemeth Him good."
We are touched by this behaviour of Eli. First we are touched by his
bearing toward Samuel. He knows that God has conferred an honour on
Samuel which He has not bestowed on him, but young though Samuel is he
feels no jealousy, he betrays no sign of wounded pride. It is not easy
for God's servants to bear being passed over in favour of others, in
favour of younger men. A feeling of mortification is apt to steal on
them, accompanied with some bitterness toward the object of God's
preference. This venerable old man shows nothing of that feeling. He is
not too proud to ask Samuel for a full account of God's message. He will
not have him leave anything out, out of regard to his feelings. He must
know the whole, however painful it may be. He has learned to reverence
God's truth, and he cannot bear the idea of not knowing all. And Samuel,
who did not wish to tell him anything, is now constrained to tell him
the whole. "He told him every whit, and hid nothing from him." He did
not shun to declare to him the whole counsel of God. Admirable example
for all God's servants! How averse some men are to hear the truth! And
how prone are we to try to soften what is disagreeable in our message to
sinners--to take off the sharp edge, and sheathe it in generalities and
possibilities. It is no real kindness. The kindest thing we can do is to
declare God's doom on sin, and to assure men that any hopes they may
cherish of His relenting to do as He has said are vain hopes--"When I
begin," says God, "I will also make an end."
And we are touched further by Eli's resignation to God's will. The words
of Samuel must have raised a deep agony in his spirit when he thought of
the doom of his sons. Feeble though he was, there might have arisen in
his heart a gust of fierce rebellion against that doom. But nothing of
the kind took place. Eli was memorable for the passive virtues. He could
bear much, though he could dare little. He could submit, but he could
not fight. We find him here meekly recognizing the Divine will. God has
a right to do what He will with His own; and who am I that I should cry
out against Him? He is the Supreme Disposer of all events; why should a
worm like me stand in His way? He submits implicitly to God. "The thing
formed must not say to Him that formed him, Why hast Thou formed me
thus"? What God ordains must be right. It is a terrible blow to Eli, but
he may understand the bearings of it better in another state. He bows to
that Supreme Will which he has learned to trust and to honour above
every force in the universe.
Yes, we are touched by Eli's meekness and submission. And yet, though
Eli had in him the stuff that martyrs are often made of, his character
was essentially feeble, and his influence was not wholesome. He wanted
that resolute purpose which men like Daniel possessed. His will was too
feeble to control his life. He was too apprehensive of immediate
trouble, of present inconvenience and unpleasantness, to carry out firm
principles of action against wickedness, even in his own family. He was
a memorable instance of the soundness of the principle afterwards laid
down by St. Paul: "If a man know not how to rule his own house, how
shall he take care of the Church of God?" He greatly needed the
exhortation which God gave to Joshua--"Be strong and of a good courage."
It is true his infirmity was one of natural temperament. Men might say
he could not help it. Neither can one overcome temperament altogether.
But men of feeble temperament, especially when set over others, have
great need to watch it, and ask God to strengthen them where they are
weak. Divine grace has a wonderful power to make up the defects of
nature. Timid, irresolute Peter was a different man after his fall.
Divine grace turned him into a rock after all. The coward who had shrunk
from before a maiden got courage to defy a whole Sanhedrim. In the
ministers of God's house the timid, crouching spirit is specially
unseemly. They, at least, would need to rest on firm convictions, and to
be governed by a resolute will. "Finally, brethren, be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armour of God, that
ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand."
4. Samuel is now openly known to be the prophet of the Lord. "Samuel
grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to
the ground." Little didst thou think, Hannah, some twenty years ago,
that the child thou didst then ask of the Lord would ere long supersede
the high priest who showed so little tact and judgment in interpreting
the agitation of thy spirit! No, thou hast no feeling against the
venerable old man; but thou canst not but wonder at the ups and downs of
Providence; thou canst not but recall the words of thine own song, "He
bringeth low, and lifteth up." And Samuel has not to fight his way to
public recognition, or wait long till it come. "All Israel, from Dan
even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of
the Lord."
And by-and-bye other oracles came to him, by which all men might have
known that he was the recognized channel of communication between God
and the people. We shall see in our next chapter into what trouble the
nation was brought by disregarding his prophetic office, and recklessly
determining to drag the ark of God into the battlefield. Meanwhile we
cannot but remark what a dangerous position, in a mere human point of
view, Samuel now occupied. The danger was that which a young man
encounters when suddenly or early raised to the possession of high
spiritual power. Samuel, though little more than a boy, was now
virtually the chief man in Israel. Set so high, his natural danger was
great. But God, who placed him there, sustained in him the spirit of
humble dependence. After all he was but God's servant. Humble obedience
was still his duty. And in this higher sphere his career was but a
continuation of what had been described when it was said, "The child
Samuel ministered to the Lord in Shiloh."
CHAPTER VI.
_THE ARK OF GOD TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES._
1 SAMUEL iv.
We are liable to form an erroneous impression of the connection of
Samuel with the transactions of this chapter, in consequence of a clause
which ought to belong to the last chapter, being placed, in the
Authorized Version, at the beginning of this. The clause "And the word
of Samuel came to all Israel" belongs really to the preceding chapter.
It denotes that Samuel was now over all Israel the recognized channel of
communication between the people and God. But it does not denote that
the war with the Philistines, of which mention is immediately made, was
undertaken at Samuel's instance. In fact, the whole chapter is
remarkable for the absence of Samuel's name. What is thus denoted seems
to be that Samuel was not consulted either about the war or about the
taking of the ark into the battle. Whatever he may have thought of the
war, he would undoubtedly have been horrified at the proposal about the
ark. That whole transaction must have seemed to him a piece of
infatuation. Probably it was carried into effect in a kind of tumultuous
frenzy. But there can be no reasonable doubt that whatever Samuel could
have done to oppose it would have been done with the greatest
eagerness.
The history is silent about the Philistines from the days of Samson. The
last we have heard of them was the fearful tragedy at the death of that
great Judge of Israel, when the house fell upon the lords and the
people, and such a prodigious slaughter of their great men took place.
From that calamity they seem now to have revived. They would naturally
be desirous to revenge that unexampled catastrophe, and as Ebenezer and
Aphek are situated in the land of Israel, it would seem that the
Philistines were the aggressors. They had come up from the Philistine
plain to the mountainous country of Israel, and no doubt had already
sent many of the people to flight through whose farms they came. As the
Israelites had no standing army, the troops that opposed the Philistines
could be little better than an untrained horde. When they joined battle,
Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army
about four thousand men. In a moral point of view the defeat was
strange; the Philistines had made the attack, and the Israelites were
fighting for their homes and hearths; yet victory was given to the
invaders, and in four thousand homes of Israel there was lamentation and
woe.
But this was not really strange. Israel needed chastening, and the
Philistines were God's instruments for that purpose. In particular,
judgment was due to the sons of Eli; and the defeat inflicted by the
Philistines, and the mistaken and superstitious notion which seized on
the people that they would do well to take God's ark into the battle,
were the means by which their punishment came. How often Providence
seems to follow a retrograde course! And yet it is a forward course all
the time, although from our point of view it seems backward; just as
those planets which are nearer the sun than the earth sometimes seem to
us to reverse the direction of their movement; although if we were
placed in the centre of the system we should see very plainly that they
are moving steadily forward all the time.
Three things call for special notice in the main narrative of this
chapter--1. The preparation for the battle; 2. The battle itself; and 3.
The result when the news was carried to Shiloh.
1. The preparation for the battle was the sending for the ark of the
Lord to Shiloh, so that Israel might fight under the immediate presence
and protection of their God.
It seemed a brilliant idea. Whichever of the elders first suggested it,
it caught at once, and was promptly acted on. There were two great
objections to it, but if they were so much as entertained they certainly
had no effect given them. The first was, that the elders had no
legitimate control over the ark. The custody of it belonged to the
priests and the Levites, and Eli was the high priest. If the rulers of
the nation at any time desired to remove the ark (as David afterwards
did when he placed it on Mount Zion), that could only be done after
clear indications that the step was in accordance with the will of God,
and with the full consent of the priests. There is no reason to suppose
that any means were taken to find out whether its removal to the camp
was in accordance with the will of God; and as to the mind of the
priests, Eli was probably passed over as too old and too blind to be
consulted, and Hophni and Phinehas would be restrained by no scruples
from an act which every one seemed to approve. The second great
objection to the step was that it was a superstitious and irreverent use
of the symbol of God's presence. Evidently the people ascribed to the
symbol the glorious properties that belonged only to the reality. They
expected that the symbol of God's presence would do for them all that
might be done by His presence itself. And doubtless there had been
occasions when the symbol and the reality went together. In the
wilderness, in the days of Moses, "It came to pass, when the ark set
forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be
scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee" (Num. x. 35).
But these were occasions determined by the cloud rising and going before
the host, an unmistakable indication of the will of God (Num. ix.
15-22). God's real presence accompanied the ark on these occasions, and
all that was expressed in the symbol was actually enjoyed by the people.
There was no essential or inherent connection between the two; the
actual connection was determined merely by the good pleasure of God. It
pleased Him to connect them, and connected they were. But the ignorant
and superstitious elders forgot that the connection between the symbol
and the reality was of this nature; they believed it to be inherent and
essential. In their unthinking and unreasoning minds the symbol might be
relied on to produce all the effect of the reality. If only the ark of
God were carried into the battle, the same effect would take place as
when Moses said in the wilderness, "Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies
be scattered."
Could anything show more clearly the unspiritual tendencies of the human
mind in its conceptions of God, and of the kind of worship He should
receive? The idea of God as the living God is strangely foreign to the
human heart. To think of God as one who has a will and purpose of His
own, and who will never give His countenance to any undertaking that
does not agree with that will and purpose, is very hard for the
unspiritual man. To make the will of God the first consideration in any
enterprise, so that it is not to be thought of if He do not approve, and
is never to be despaired of if He be favourable, is a bondage and a
trouble beyond his ability. Yet even superstitious men believe in a
supernatural power. And they believe in the possibility of enlisting
that power on their side. And the method they take is to ascribe the
virtue of a charm to certain external objects with which that power is
associated. The elders of Israel ascribed this virtue to the ark. They
never inquired whether the enterprise was agreeable to the mind and will
of God. They never asked whether in this case there was any ground for
believing that the symbol and the reality would go together. They simply
ascribed to the symbol the power of a talisman, and felt secure of
victory under its shadow.
Would that we could think of this spirit as extinct even in Christian
communities! What is the Romish and the very High Church doctrine of the
sacraments but an ascription to them, when rightly used, of the power of
a charm? The sacraments, as Scripture teaches, are symbols of very
glorious realities, and wherever the symbols are used in accordance with
God's will the realities are sure to be enjoyed. But it has long been
the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and it is the doctrine of Churches,
with similar views, that the sacraments are reservoirs of grace, and
that to those who place no fatal obstacle in their way, grace comes from
them _ex opere operato_, from the very act of receiving them. It is the
Protestant and scriptural doctrine that by stimulating faith, by
encouraging us to look to the living Saviour, and draw from Him in whom
all fulness dwells, the sacraments bring to us copious supplies of
grace, but that without the presence of that living Saviour they would
be merely as empty wells. The High Church view regards them as charms,
that have a magic virtue to bless the soul. The superstitious mother
thinks if only her child is baptised it will be saved, the act of
baptism will do it, and she never thinks of the living Saviour and His
glorious grace. The dying sinner thinks, if only he had the last
sacraments, he would be borne peacefully and well through the dark
scenes of death and judgment, and forgets that the commandment of
Scripture is not, Look unto the last sacraments, but, "Look _unto Me_
and be ye saved." Alas! what will men not substitute for personal
dealings with the living God? The first book and the last book of the
Bible present sad proof of his recoil from such contact. In Genesis, as
man hears God's voice, he runs to hide himself among the trees of the
garden. In Revelation, when the Judge appears, men call on the mountains
to fall on them and hide them from Him that sitteth on the throne. Only
when we see God's face, beautiful and loving, in Christ, can this
aversion be overcome.
If the presence of the ark in the field of battle did much to excite the
hopes of the Israelites, it did not less to raise the fears of their
opponents. The shout with which its arrival was hailed by the one struck
something of consternation into the breasts of the other. But now, an
effect took place on which the Israelites had not reckoned. The
Philistines were too wise a people to yield to panic. If the Hebrew God,
that did such wonders in the wilderness, was present with their
opponents, there was all the more need for their bestirring themselves
and quitting them like men. The elders of Israel had not reckoned on
this wise plan. It teaches us, even from a heathen point of view, never
to yield to panic. Even when everything looks desperate, there may be
some untried resource to fall back on. And if this be a lesson to be
learnt from pagans, much more surely may it be thought of by believers,
who know that man's extremity is often God's opportunity, and that no
peril is too imminent for God not to be able to deliver.
2. And now the battle rages. The hope of misguided Israel turns out an
illusion. They find, to their consternation, that the symbol does not
carry the reality. It pleases God to allow the ark with which His name
is so intimately associated to be seized by the enemy. The Philistines
carry everything before them. The ark is taken, Hophni and Phinehas are
slain, and there fall of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
Can we fancy the feelings of the two priests who attended the ark as the
defeat of the army of Israel became inevitable? The ark would probably
be carried near the van of the army, preceded by some of the most
valiant troops of Israel. No doubt it had been reckoned on that as soon
as its sacred form was recognized by the Philistines, fear would seize
on them, and they would fly before it. It must have made the two priests
look grave when nothing of the kind took place, but the host of the
Philistines advanced in firm and intrepid phalanx to the fight. But
surely the first onset of the advanced guard will show with whose army
the victory is to lie. The advanced guards are at close quarters, and
the men of Israel give way. Was there conscience enough left in these
two men to flash into their minds that God, whose Holy Spirit they had
vexed, was turned to be their enemy, and was now fighting against them?
Did they, in that supreme moment, get one of those momentary glimpses,
in which the whole iniquities of a lifetime seem marshalled before the
soul, and the enormity of its guilt overwhelms it? Did they feel the
anguish of men caught in their own iniquities, every hope perished,
death inevitable, and after death the judgment? There is not one word,
either in this chapter or in what precedes it, from which the slightest
inference in their favour can be drawn. They died apparently as they had
lived, in the very act of dishonouring God. With the weapons of
rebellion in their hands, and the stains of guilt on their hearts, they
were hurried into the presence of the Judge. Now comes the right
estimate of their reckless, guilty life. All the arts of sophistry, all
the refuges of lies, all their daring contempt of the very idea of a
retribution on sin, are swept away in a moment. They are confronted with
the awful reality of their doom. They see more vividly than even Eli or
Samuel the truth of one part, certainly, of the Divine rule--"Them that
honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me shall be lightly
esteemed."
The time of guilty pleasure has passed for ever away; the time of
endless retribution has begun. Oh, how short, how miserable, how
abominable appears to them now the revelry of their evil life! what
infatuation it was to forswear all the principles in which they had been
reared, to laugh at the puritanic strictness of their father, to sit in
the seat of the scorner, and pour contempt on the law of God's house!
How they must have cursed the folly that led them into such awful ways
of sin, how sighed in vain that they had not in their youth chosen the
better part, how wished they had never been born!
3. But we must leave the field of battle and hasten back to Shiloh.
Since the ark was carried off Eli must have had a miserable time of it,
reproaching himself for his weakness if he gave even a reluctant assent
to the plan, and feeling that uncertainty of conscience which keeps one
even from prayer, because it makes one doubtful if God will listen. Poor
old man of ninety-eight years, he could but tremble for the ark! His
official seat had been placed somewhere on the wayside, where he would
be near to get tidings from the field of any one who might come with
them, and quite probably a retinue of attendants was around him. At last
a great shout of horror is heard, for a man of Benjamin has come in
sight with his clothes rent and earth upon his head. It is but too
certain a sign of calamity. But who could have thought of the extent of
the calamity which with such awful precision he crowded into his answer?
Israel is fled before the Philistines--calamity the first; there hath
been a great slaughter among the people--calamity the second; thy two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are slain--calamity the third; and last, and
most terrible of all, the ark of God is taken! The ark of God is taken!
The Divine symbol, with its overshadowing cherubim and its sacred light,
into which year by year Eli had gone alone to sprinkle the blood of
atonement on the mercy-seat, and where he had solemnly transacted with
God on behalf of the people, was in an enemy's hands! The ark, that no
Canaanite or Amalekite had ever touched, on which no Midianite or
Ammonite had ever laid his polluted finger, which had remained safe and
sure in Israel's custody through all the perils of their journeys and
all the storms of battle, was now torn from their grasp! And there
perishes with it all the hope of Israel, and all the sacred service
which was associated with it; and Israel is a widowed, desolate, godless
people, without hope and without God in the world; and all this has come
because they dragged it away from its place, and these two sons of mine,
now gone to their account, encouraged the profanation!
"And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he
fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck
brake, and he died; for he was an old man and heavy. And he had judged
Israel forty years."
This was calamity the fifth; but even yet the list was not exhausted.
"His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be
delivered; and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken,
and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself
and travailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her
death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast
born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she
named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel;
because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and
her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the
ark of God is taken."
Poor, good woman! with such a husband she had no doubt had a troubled
life. The spring of her spirit had probably been broken long ago; and
what little of elasticity yet remained was all too little to bear up
under such an overwhelming load. But it may have been her comfort to
live so near to the house of God as she did, and to be thus reminded of
Him who had commanded the sons of Aaron to bless the people saying, "The
Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee
and be gracious to thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and
give thee peace." But now the ark of God is taken, its services are at
an end, and the blessing is gone. The tribes may come up to the feasts
as before, but not with the bright eye or the merry shouts of former
days; the bullock may smoke on the altar, but where is the sanctuary in
which Jehovah dwelt, and where the mercy-seat for the priest to sprinkle
the blood, and where the door by which he can come out to bless the
people? Oh, my hapless child, what shall I call thee, who hast been
ushered on this day of midnight gloom into a God-forsaken and
dishonoured place? I will call thee Ichabod, for the glory is departed.
The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.
What an awful impression these scenes convey to us of the overpowering
desolation that comes to believing souls with the feeling that God has
taken His departure. Tell us that the sun is no longer to shine; tell us
that neither dew nor rain shall ever fall again to refresh the earth;
tell us that a cruel and savage nation is to reign unchecked and
unchallenged over all the families of a people once free and happy; you
convey no such image of desolation as when you tell to pious hearts that
God has departed from their community. Let us learn the obvious lesson,
to do nothing to provoke such a calamity. It is only when resisted and
dishonoured that the Spirit of God departs--only when He is driven away.
Oh, beware of everything that grieves Him--everything that interferes
with His gracious action on your souls. Beware of all that would lead
God to say, "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge
their offence and seek My face." Let our prayer be the cry of
David:--"Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy
Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me
with Thy free Spirit."
CHAPTER VII.
_THE ARK AMONG THE PHILISTINES._
1 SAMUEL v., vi.
Although the history in Samuel is silent as to the doings of the
Philistines immediately after their great victory over Israel, yet we
learn from other parts of the Bible (Psalm lxxviii. 60-64; Jeremiah vii.
12, xxvi. 9) that they proceeded to Shiloh, massacred the priests,
wrecked the city, and left it a monument of desolation, as it continued
to be ever after. Probably this was considered an appropriate sequel to
the capture of the ark--a fitting mode of completing and commemorating
their victory over the national God of the Hebrews. For we may well
believe that it was this unprecedented feature of their success that was
uppermost in the Philistines' mind. The prevalent idea among the
surrounding nations regarding the God of the Hebrews was that He was a
God of exceeding power. The wonders done by Him in Egypt still filled
the popular imagination (ch. vi. 6); the strong hand and the
outstretched arm with which He had driven out the seven nations of
Canaan and prepared the way for His people were not forgotten. Neither
in more recent conflicts had any of the surrounding nations obtained the
slightest advantage over Him. It was in His name that Barak and Deborah
had defeated the Canaanites; it was the sword of the Lord and of Gideon
that had thrown such consternation into the hearts of the Midianites.
But now the tide was completely turned; not only had the Hebrew God
failed to protect His people, but ruin had come on both Him and them,
and His very sanctuary was in Philistine hands. No wonder the
Philistines were marvellously elated. Let us sweep from the face of the
earth every trace and memorial of His worship, was their cry. Let us
inflict such humiliation on the spot sacred to His name that never again
shall His worshippers be able to regain their courage and lift up their
heads, and neither we nor our children shall tremble any more at the
mention of His terrible deeds.
We have not one word about Samuel in connection with all this. The news
from the battlefield, followed by the death of Eli and of the wife of
Phinehas, must have been a terrible blow to him. But besides being calm
of nature (as his bearing showed after he got the message about Eli's
house), he was habitually in fellowship with God, and in this habit
enjoyed a great help towards self-possession and promptitude of action
in sudden emergencies and perplexities. That the ill-advised scheme for
carrying the ark into battle implied any real humiliation of the God of
Israel, or would have any evil effect on the covenant sworn to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, he could not for a moment suppose. But the confusion
and trouble that would arise, especially if the Philistines advanced
upon Shiloh, was a very serious consideration. There was much left at
Shiloh which needed to be cared for. There were sacred vessels, and
possibly national records, which must not be allowed to fall into the
hands of the enemy. By what means Samuel was able to secure the safety
of these; by what means he secured his own personal safety when "the
priests fell by the sword" (Psalm lxxviii. 64), we cannot say. But the
Lord was with Samuel, and even in this hour of national horror He
directed his proceedings, and established upon him the work of his
hands.
The fact to which we have drawn attention, that it was over the God of
Israel that the Philistines had triumphed, is the key to the
transactions recorded so minutely in the fifth and sixth chapters. The
great object of these chapters is to show how God undeceived the
Philistines on this all-important point. He undeceived them in a very
quiet, undemonstrative manner. On certain occasions God impresses men by
His great agencies,--by fire and earthquake and tempest, by "stormy wind
fulfilling His word." But these are not needed on this occasion.
Agencies much less striking will do the work. God will recover His name
and fame among the nations by much humbler forces. By the most trifling
exertion of His power, these Philistines will be brought to their wit's
end, and all the wisdom of their wisest men and all the craft of their
most cunning priests will be needed to devise some propitiation for One
who is infinitely too strong for them, and to prevent their country from
being brought to ruin by the silent working of His resistless power.
1. First of all, the ark is carried to Ashdod, where stood the great
temple of their God, Dagon. It is placed within the precincts of the
temple, in some place of subordination, doubtless, to the place of the
idol. Perhaps the expectation of the Philistines was that in the
exercise of his supernatural might their god would bring about the
mutilation or destruction of the Hebrew symbol. The morning showed
another sight. It was Dagon that was humiliated before the ark--fallen
to the ground upon his face. Next day a worse humiliation had befallen
him. Besides having fallen, his head and hands were severed from the
image, and only the stump remained. And besides this, the people were
suffering extensively from a painful disease, emerods or hemorrhoids,
and this too was ascribed to the influence of the God of the Hebrews.
The people of Ashdod had no desire to prolong the contest. They gathered
the lords of the Philistines and asked what was to be done. The lords
probably concluded that it was a case of mere local ill-luck. But what
had happened at Ashdod would not happen elsewhere. Let the ark be
carried to Gath.
2. To Gath, accordingly, the ark is brought. But no sooner is it there
than the disease that had broken out at Ashdod falls upon the Gittites,
and the mortality is terrible. The people of Gath are in too great haste
to call again on the lords of the Philistines to say what is to be done.
They simply carry the ark to Ekron.
3. And little welcome it gets from the Ekronites. It is now recognised
as the symbol of an angry God, whose power to punish and to destroy is
unlimited. The Ekronites are indignant at the people of Gath. "They have
brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our
people." The destruction at Ekron seems to have been more awful than at
the other places--"The cry of the city went up to heaven." The lords of
the Philistines are again convened, to deliberate over the failure of
their last advice. There is no use trying any other place in the
country. The idea of local ill-luck is preposterous. Let it go again to
its own place! is the cry. Alas that we have destroyed Shiloh, for where
can we send it now? We can risk no further mistakes. Let us convene the
priests and the diviners to determine how it is to be got quit of, and
with what gifts or offerings it is to be accompanied. Would only we had
never touched it!
The priests and the diviners give a full answer on all the points
submitted to them. First, the ark when sent away must contain an
offering, in order to propitiate the Hebrew God for the insults heaped
on Him. The offering was to be in the form of golden emerods and golden
mice. It would appear that in addition to the disease that had broken
out on the bodies of the people they had had in their fields the plague
of mice. These field-mice bred with amazing rapidity, and sometimes
consumed the whole produce of the field. There is a slight difficulty
about numbers here. There are to be five golden emerods and five golden
mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines (vi. 3);
but it is said after (ver. 18) that the number of the golden mice was
according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging
to the five lords, both of fenced cities and country villages. It is
surmised, however, that (as in the Septuagint) the number _five_ should
not be repeated in the middle of the first passage (vi. 4, 5), but that
it should run, "five golden emerods, according to the number of the
lords of the Philistines, and golden mice, images of the mice that
destroy the land." The idea of presenting offerings to the gods
corresponding with the object in connection with which they were
presented was often given effect to by heathen nations. "Those saved
from shipwreck offered pictures of the shipwreck, or of the clothes
which they had on at the time, in the Temple of Isis; slaves and
captives, in gratitude for the recovery of their liberty, offered chains
to the Lares; retired gladiators, their arms to Hercules; and in the
fifth century a custom prevailed among Christians of offering in their
churches gold or silver hands, feet, eyes, etc., in return for cures
effected in those members respectively in answer to prayer. This was
probably a heathen custom transferred into the Christian Church; for a
similar usage is still found among the heathen in India" (_Speaker's
Commentary_).
4. Next, as to the manner in which the ark was to be sent away. A new
cart was to be made, and two milch cows which had never been in harness
before were to be fastened to the cart. This was to be out of respect to
the God of Israel; new things were counted more honourable, as our Lord
rode on a colt "whereon never man had yet sat," and His body was laid in
a new sepulchre. The cows were to be left without guidance to determine
their path; if they took the road to Judea, the road up the valley to
Bethshemesh, that would be a token that all their trouble had come from
the God of the Hebrews; but if they took any other road, the road to any
place in the Philistine country, that would prove that there had only
been a coincidence, and no relation of cause and effect between the
capture of the ark and the evils that had befallen them. It was the
principle of the lot applied to determine a grave moral question. It was
a method which, in the absence of better light, men were ready enough to
resort to in those times, and which on one memorable occasion was
resorted to in the early Christian Church (Acts i.). The much fuller
light which God has given men on moral and religious questions greatly
restricts, if it does not indeed abolish, the lawful occasions of
resorting to such a method. If it be ever lawful, it can only be so in
the exercise of a devout and solemn spirit, for the apostles did not
make use of it by itself, but only after earnest prayer that God would
make the lot the instrument of making known His will.
At last the ark leaves the land of the Philistines. For seven terrible
months it had spread among them anxiety, terror, and death. Nothing but
utter ruin seemed likely to spring from a longer residence of the ark in
their territories. Glad were they to get rid of it, golden emerods,
golden mice, new cart, milch kine, and all. We are reminded of a scene
in Gospel history, that took place at Gadara after the devils drove the
herd of swine over the cliff into the lake. The people of the place
besought Jesus to depart out of their coasts. It is a solemn truth that
there are aspects of God's character, aspects of the Saviour's
character, in which He is only a terror and a trouble. These are the
aspects in which God is seen opposed to what men love and prize, tearing
their treasures away from them, or tearing them away from their
treasures. It is an awful thing to know God in these aspects alone. Yet
it is the aspect in which God usually appears to the sinner. It is the
aspect in which our consciences present Him when we are conscious of
having incurred His displeasure. And while man remains a sinner and in
love with his sin, he may try to disguise the solemn fact to his own
mind, but it is nevertheless true that his secret desire is to get rid
of God. As the apostle puts it, he does not like to retain God in his
knowledge (Rom. i. 28). He says to God, "Depart from us, for we desire
not the knowledge of Thy ways" (Job xxi. 14). Nay, he goes a step
further--"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Ps. xiv.
1). Where he still makes some acknowledgment of Him, he may try to
propitiate Him by offerings, and to make up for the transgressions he
commits in some things by acts of will-worship, or voluntary humiliation
in other things. But alas! of how large a portion even of men in
Christian lands is it true that they do not love God. Their hearts have
no yearning for Him. The thought of Him is a disturbing, uncomfortable
element. Heart communion with Him is a difficulty not to be overcome.
Forms of worship that leave the heart unexercised are a great relief.
Worship _performed_ by choirs and instruments and aesthetic rules comes
welcome as a substitute for the intercourse and homage of the soul.
Could anything demonstrate more clearly the need of a great spiritual
change? What but the vision of God in Christ reconciling the world to
Himself can effect it? And even the glorious truths of redemption are
not in themselves efficacious. The seed needs to fall on good soil. He
that commanded the light to shine out of darkness must shine in our
minds to give the light of the glory of God in the face of His Anointed.
But surely it is a great step towards this change to feel the need of
it. The heart that is honest with God, and that says, "O God Almighty, I
do not love Thee, I am not happy in Thy presence, I like life better
without Thee; but I am convinced that this is a most wretched condition,
and most sinful. Wilt Thou, in infinite mercy, have compassion on me?
Wilt Thou so change me that I may come to love Thee, to love Thy
company, to welcome the thought of Thee, and to worship Thee in spirit
and in truth?"--such a heart, expressing itself thus, will surely not be
forsaken. How long it may be ere its quest is granted we cannot tell;
but surely the day wall come when the new song shall be put in its
mouth--"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. 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."
5. And now the ark has reached Bethshemesh, in the tribe of Judah. The
lords of the Philistines have followed it, watching it, as Miriam
watched her infant brother on the Nile, to see what would become of it.
Nor do they turn back till they have seen the men of Bethshemesh welcome
it, till they have seen the Levites take it down from the cart, till
they have seen the cart cleft, and the cows offered as a trespass
offering, and till they have seen their own golden jewels, along with
the burnt-offerings and sacrifices of the people of Bethshemesh,
presented in due form to the Lord.
Thus far all goes well at Bethshemesh. The ark is on Hebrew soil. The
people there have no fear either of the emerods or of the mice that so
terribly distressed their Philistine neighbours. After a time of great
depression the sun is beginning to smile on Israel again. The men of
Bethshemesh are reaping their barley-harvest--that is one mercy from
God. And here most unexpectedly appears the sight that of all possible
sights was the most welcome to their eyes; here, unhurt and unrifled, is
the ark of the covenant that had been given up for lost, despaired of
probably, even by its most ardent friends. How could Israel hope to gain
possession of that apparently insignificant box except by an invasion of
the Philistines in overwhelming force--in such force as a nation that
had but lately lost thirty thousand men was not able to command? And
even if such an overwhelming expedition were to be arranged, how easy
would it not be for the Philistines to burn the ark, and thus annihilate
the very thing to recover which the war was undertaken? Yet here is the
ark back without the intervention of a single soldier. No ransom has
been given for it, no blow struck, nothing promised, nothing threatened.
Here it comes, as if unseen angels had fetched it, with its precious
treasures and still more precious memories just as before! It was like a
foreshadow of the return from the captivity--an experience that might
have found expression in the words, "When the Lord turned again the
captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream."
Happy men of Bethshemesh, for whom God prepared so delightful a
surprise. Truly He is able to do in us exceeding abundantly above all
that we ask or think. How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways
past finding out! Never let us despair of God, or of any cause with
which He is identified. "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;"
"The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought; He maketh the
devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth
for ever, and the thoughts of His heart to all generations."
But alas! the men of Bethshemesh did not act according to the benefit
received. Their curiosity prevailed above their reverence: they looked
into the ark of the Lord. As if the sacred vessel had not had enough of
indignity in the din of battle, in the temples of the uncircumcised
Philistines, and in the cart drawn by the kine, they must expose it to a
yet further profanation! Alas for them! their curiosity prevailed over
their reverence. And for this they had to pay a terrible penalty. "The
Lord smote of the men of Bethshemesh fifty thousand and three score and
ten men." It is the general opinion, however, that an error has slipped
into the text that makes the deaths amount to fifty thousand threescore
and ten. Bethshemesh was never more than a village or little town, and
could not have had anything like so great a population. Probably the
threescore and ten, without the fifty thousand, is all that was
originally in the text. Even that would be "a great slaughter" in the
population of a little town. It was a very sad thing that an event so
joyous should be clouded by such a judgment. But how often are times and
scenes which God has made very bright marred by the folly and
recklessness of men!
The prying men of Bethshemesh have had their counterparts many a time in
more recent days. Many men, with strong theological proclivities, have
evinced a strong desire to pry into the "secret things which belong to
the Lord our God." Foreknowledge, election, free will, sin's
punishment--men have often forgot that there is much in such subjects
that exceeds the capacity of the human mind, and that as God has shown
reserve in what He has revealed about them, so men ought to show a holy
modesty in their manner of treating them. And even in the handling of
sacred things generally, in the way of theological discussion, a want of
reverence has very often been shown. It becomes us all most carefully to
beware of abusing the gracious condescension which God has shown in His
revelation, and in the use which He designs us to make of it. It was an
excellent rule a foreign theologian laid down for himself, to keep up
the spirit of reverence--never to speak of God without speaking to God.
God has drawn very near to us in Christ, and given to all that accept of
Him the place and privileges of children. He allows us to come very
near to Him in prayer. "In everything," He says, "by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known unto God." But
while we gratefully accept these privileges, and while in the enjoyment
of them we become very intimate with God, never let us forget the
infinite distance between us, and the infinite condescension manifested
in His allowing us to enter into the holiest of all. Never let us forget
that in His sight we are "as dust and ashes," unworthy to lift up our
eyes to the place where His honour dwelleth. To combine reverence and
intimacy in our dealings with God,--the profoundest reverence with the
closest intimacy, is to realise the highest ideal of worship. God
Himself would have us remember, in our approaches to Him, that He is in
heaven and we on the earth. "Thus saith the High and Lofty One that
inhabiteth Eternity and whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place, but with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to
revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the hearts of the
contrite ones."
CHAPTER VIII.
_REPENTANCE AND REVIVAL._
1 SAMUEL vii. 1-9.
With the men of Bethshemesh the presence of the ark had become the same
terror as it had been successively at Ashdod, Gath, and Ekron. Instead
of the savour of life to life, it had proved a savour of death to death.
Instead of a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, it had become a stone
of stumbling and a rock of offence. They sent therefore to their
neighbours at Kirjath-jearim, and begged them to come down and remove
the ark. This they readily did. More timid men might have said, The ark
has brought nothing but disaster in its train; we will have nothing to
do with it. There was faith and loyalty to God shown in their readiness
to give accommodation to it within their bounds. Deeming a high place to
be the kind of situation where it should rest, they selected the house
of Abinadab in the hill, he being probably a Levite. To keep the ark
they set apart his son Eleazar, whose name seems to indicate that he was
of the house of Aaron. They seem to have done all they could, and with
due regard to the requirements of the law, for the custody of the sacred
symbol. But Kirjath-jearim was not turned into the seat of the national
worship. There is no word of sacrificial or other services being
performed there. There is nothing to indicate that the annual feasts
were held at this place. The ark had a resting-place there--nothing
more.
And this lasted for twenty years. It was a long and dreary time. A rude
shock had been given to the sacred customs of the people, and the comely
order of the Divine service among them. The ark and the other sacred
vessels were separated from each other. If, as seems likely (1 Sam.
xxi.), the daily offerings and other sacred services ordained by Moses
were offered at this time at Nob, a sense of imperfection could not but
belong to them, for the ark of the covenant was not there.
Incompleteness would attach to any public rites that might now be
celebrated. The service of Baal and Ashtaroth would have a less powerful
rival than when the service of Jehovah was conducted in all due form and
regularity at Shiloh. During these years the nation seems to have been
somewhat listless on the subject, and to have made no effort to remove
the ark to a more suitable place. Kirjath-jearim was not in the centre,
but on the very edge of the country, looking down into the territory of
the Philistines, not far from the very cities where the ark had been in
captivity, a constant reminder to the Israelites of its degradation.
That Samuel was profoundly concerned about all this we cannot doubt. But
he seems to have made no effort to remedy it, most probably because he
knew it to be God's order first to make the people sensible of their
wickedness, and only thereafter to restore to them free access to
Himself.
What then was Samuel doing during the twenty years that the ark was at
Kirjath-jearim? We can answer that question only conjecturally, only
from what we know of his general character. It cannot be doubted that
in some way or other he was trying to make the nation sensible of their
sins against God; to show them that it was to these sins that their
subjection to the Philistines was due; and to urge them to abandon their
idolatrous practices if they desired a return to independence and peace.
Perhaps he began at this period to move about from place to place,
urging those views, as he moved about afterwards when he held the office
of Judge (vii. 16). And perhaps he was laying the foundations of those
schools of the prophets that afterwards were associated with his name.
Whenever he found young men disposed to his views he would doubtless
cultivate their acquaintance, and urge them to steadfastness and
progress in the way of the Lord. There is nothing said to indicate that
Samuel was connected with the priestly establishment at Nob.
There are two great services for God and for Israel in which we find
Samuel engaged in the first nine verses of this chapter: 1. In exhorting
and directing them with a view to bring them into a right state before
God. 2. This being accomplished, in praying for them in their time of
trouble, and obtaining Divine help when the Philistines drew near in
battle.
1. In the course of time the people appear to have come to feel how sad
and desolate their national life was without any tokens of God's
presence and grace. "All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord."
The expression is a peculiar one, and some critics, not understanding
its spiritual import, have proposed to give it a different meaning. But
for this there is no cause. It seems to denote that the people, missing
God, under the severe oppression of the Philistines, had begun to grieve
over the sins that had driven Him away, and to long after Him, to long
for His return. These symptoms of repentance, however, had not shown
themselves in a very definite or practical form. Samuel was not
satisfied with the amount of earnestness evinced as yet. He must have
more decided evidence of sincerity and repentance. He insisted on it
that they must "put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among them,
and prepare their hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only."
Now the putting away of the strange gods and Ashtaroth was a harder
condition than we at first should suppose. Some are inclined to fancy
that it was a mere senseless and ridiculous obstinacy that drew the
Israelites so much to the worship of the idolatrous gods of their
neighbours. In reality the temptation was of a much more subtle kind.
Their religious worship as prescribed by Moses had little to attract the
natural feelings of the human heart. It was simple, it was severe, it
was self-denying. The worship of the pagan nations was more lively and
attractive. Fashionable entertainments and free-and-easy revelries were
superadded to please the carnal mind. Between Hebrew and heathen
worship, there was something of the contrast that you find between the
severe simplicity of a Puritan meeting and the gorgeous and fashionable
splendour of a great Romish ceremonial. To put away Baalim and Ashtaroth
was to abjure what was fashionable and agreeable, and fall back on what
was unattractive and sombre. Was it not, too, an illiberal demand? Was
it not a sign of narrowness to be so exclusively devoted to their own
religion that they could view that of their neighbours with no sort of
pleasure? Why not acknowledge that in other religions there was an
element of good, that the services in them were the expression of a
profound religious sentiment, and were therefore entitled to a measure
of praise and approval? It is very certain that with this favourite view
of modern liberalism neither Samuel nor any of the prophets had the
slightest sympathy. No. If the people were in earnest now, they must
show it by putting away every image and every object and ornament that
was connected with the worship of other gods. Jehovah would have their
homage on no other terms. If they chose to divide it between Him and
other gods, they might call on them for help and blessing; for it was
most certain that the God of Israel would receive no worship that was
not rendered to Him alone.
But the people were in earnest; and this first demand of Samuel was
complied with. We are to remember that the people of Israel, in their
typical significance, stand for those who are by grace in covenant with
God, and that their times of degeneracy represent, in the case of
Christians, seasons of spiritual backsliding, when the things of this
world are too keenly sought, when the fellowship of the world is
habitually resorted to, when the soul loses its spiritual appetite, and
religious services become formal and cold. Does there begin to dawn on
such a soul a sense of spiritual poverty and loneliness? Does the spirit
of the hymn begin to breathe from it--
"Return, O holy Dove, return,
Sweet Messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn
And drove Thee from my breast."
Then the first steps towards revival and communion must be the forsaking
of these sins, and of ways of life that prepare the way for them. The
sorrow for sin that is working in the conscience is the work of the Holy
Ghost; and if the Holy Ghost be resisted in this His first operation--if
the sins, or ways toward sin, against which He has given His warning be
persisted in, the Spirit is grieved and His work is stopped. The Spirit
calls us to set our hearts against these sins, and "prepare them unto
the Lord."
Let us mark carefully this last expression. It is not enough that in
church, or at some meeting, or in our closet, we experience a painful
conviction how much we have offended God, and a desire not to offend Him
in like manner any more. We must "prepare our hearts" for this end. We
must remember that in the world with which we mingle we are exposed to
many influences that remove God from our thoughts, that stimulate our
infirmities, that give force to temptation, that lessen our power of
resistance, that tend to draw us back into our old sins. One who has a
tendency to intemperance may have a sincere conviction that his acts of
drunkenness have displeased God, and a sincere wish never to be drunk
again. But besides this he must "prepare his heart" against his sin. He
must resolve to turn away from everything that leads to drinking, that
gives strength to the temptation, that weakens his power of resistance,
that draws him, as it were, within the vortex. He must fortify himself,
by joining a society or otherwise, against the insidious approaches of
the vice. And in regard to all that displeases God he must order his
life so that it shall be abandoned, it shall be parted with for ever.
You may say this is asking him to do more than he can do. No doubt it
is. But is not the Holy Spirit working in him? Is it not the Holy Spirit
that is urging him to do these things? Whoever is urged by the Holy
Spirit may surely rely on the power of the Spirit when he endeavours to
comply with His suggestions. When God works in us to will and to do of
His good pleasure, we may surely work out our own salvation with fear
and trembling.
Having found the people so far obedient to his requirements, Samuel's
next step was to call an assembly of all Israel to Mizpeh. He desired to
unite all who were like-minded in a purpose of repentance and
reformation, and to rouse them to a higher pitch of intensity by contact
with a great multitude animated by the same spirit. When the assembly
met, it was in a most proper spirit. They began the proceedings by
drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord, and by fasting. These
two acts being joined in the narrative, it is probable they were acts of
the same character. Now as fasting was evidently an expression of
contrition, so the pouring out of the water must have been so too. It is
necessary to remark this, because an expression not unlike to our text,
in Isa. xii., denotes an act of a joyful character, "With joy shall ye
draw water out of the wells of salvation." But what was done on this
occasion was to draw water and _pour it out before the Lord_. And this
seems to have been done as a symbol of pouring out before God
confessions of sin drawn from the depths of the heart. What they said in
connection with these acts was, "We have sinned against the Lord." They
were no longer in the mood in which the Psalmist was when he kept
silence, and his bones waxed old through his roaring all the day. They
were in the mood into which he came when he said, "I will confess my
transgressions to the Lord." They humbled themselves before God in deep
convictions of their unworthiness, and being thus emptied of self they
were in a better state to receive the gracious visitation of love and
mercy.
It is important to mark the stress which is laid here on the _public
assembly_ of the people. Some might say would it not have answered the
same end if the people had humbled themselves apart--the family of the
house of Levi apart, and their wives apart, every family apart, and
their wives apart, as in the great mourning of Zechariah (Zech. xii.
12-14)? We answer, the one way did not exclude the other; we do not need
to ask which is best, for both are best. But when Samuel convened the
people to a public assembly, he evidently did it on the principle on
which in the New Testament we are required not to forsake the assembling
of ourselves together. It is in order that the presence of people
like-minded, and with the same earnest feelings and purposes, may have a
rousing and warming influence upon us. No doubt there are other purposes
connected with public worship. We need constant instruction and constant
reminding of the will of God. But the public assembly and the social
prayer-meeting are intended to have another effect. They are intended to
increase our spiritual earnestness by the sight and presence of so many
persons in earnest. Alas! what a difference there often is between the
ideal and the real. Those cold and passionless meetings that our
churches and halls often present--how little are they fitted, by the
earnestness and warmth of their tone, to give those who attend them a
great impulse heavenward! Never let us be satisfied with our public
religious services until they are manifestly adapted to this great end.
Thus did Samuel seek to promote repentance and revival among his people,
and to prepare the way for a return of God's favour. And it is in this
very way that if we would have a revival of earnest religion, we must
set about obtaining it.
2. The next scene in the panorama of the text is--the Philistines
invading Israel. Here Samuel's service is that of an intercessor,
praying for his people, and obtaining God's blessing. It is to be
observed that the alleged occasion for this event is said to have been
the meeting held at Mizpeh. "When the Philistines heard that the
children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the
Philistines went up against Israel." Was not this most strange and
distressing? The blessed assembly which Samuel had convened only gives
occasion for a new Philistine invasion! Trying to do his people good,
Samuel would appear only to have done them harm. With the assembly at
Mizpeh, called as it was for spiritual ends, the Philistines could have
no real cause for complaint. Either they mistook its purpose and thought
it a meeting to devise measures to throw off their yoke, or they had an
instinctive apprehension that the spirit which the people of Israel were
now showing would be accompanied by some remarkable interposition on
their behalf. It is not rare for steps taken with the best of intentions
to become for a time the occasion of a great increase of evil,--just as
the remonstrances of Moses with Pharaoh led at first to the increase of
the people's burdens; or just as the coming of Christ into the world
caused the massacre of the babes of Bethlehem. So here, the first public
step taken by Samuel for the people's welfare was the occasion of an
alarming invasion by their cruel enemies. But God's word on such
occasions is, "Be still and know that I am God." Such events are
suffered only to stimulate faith and patience. They are not so very
overwhelming events to those who know that God is with them, and that
"none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate." Though the
Israelites at this time were not far advanced in spiritual life, they
betrayed no consternation when they heard of the invasion of the
Philistines. They knew where their help was to be found, and recognizing
Samuel as their mediator, they said to him, "Cease not to cry unto the
Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the
Philistines."
With this request Samuel most readily complies. But first he offers a
sucking lamb as a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, and only after this
are we told that "Samuel cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him."
The lesson is supremely important. When sinners approach God to entreat
His favour, it must be by the new and living way, sprinkled with atoning
blood. All other ways of access will fail. How often has this been
exemplified in the history of the Church! How many anxious sinners have
sought unto God by other ways, but have been driven back, sometimes
farther from Him than before. Luther humbles himself in the dust and
implores God's favour, and struggles with might and main to reform his
heart; but Luther cannot find peace until he sees how it is in the
righteousness of another he is to draw nigh and find the blessing,--in
the righteousness of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world. Dr. Chalmers, profoundly impressed with the sinfulness of his
past life, strives, with the energy of a giant, to attain conformity to
the will of God; but he too is only tossed about in weary
disappointment until he finds rest in the atoning mercy of God in
Christ. We may be well assured that no sense of peace can come into the
guilty soul till it accepts Jesus Christ as its Saviour in all the
fulness of His saving power.
Another lesson comes to us from Samuel's intercession. It is well to try
to get God's servants to pray for us. But little real progress can be
made till we can pray for ourselves. Whoever really desires to enjoy
God's favour, be it for the first time after he has come to the sense of
his sins; or be it at other times, after God's face has been hid from
him for a time through his backsliding, can never come as he ought to
come without earnest prayer. For prayer is the great medium that God has
appointed to us for communion with Himself. "Ask and ye shall receive,
seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you." If there
be any lesson written with a sunbeam alike in the Old Testament and in
the New, it is that God is the Hearer of prayer. Only let us take heed
to the quality and tone of our prayer. Before God can listen to it, it
must be from the heart. To gabble over a form of prayer is not to pray.
Saul of Tarsus had said many a prayer before his conversion; but after
that for the first time it was said of him, "Behold, he prayeth." To
pray is to ask an interview with God, and when we are alone with Him, to
unburden our souls to Him. Those only who have learned to pray thus in
secret can pray to any purpose in the public assembly. It is in this
spirit, surely, that the highest gifts of Divine grace are to be sought.
Emphatically it is in this way that we are to pray for our nation or for
our Church. Let us come with large and glowing hearts when we come to
pray for a whole community. Let us plead with God for Church and for
nation in the very spirit of the prophet: "For Zion's sake I will not
hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof
as a lamp that burneth."
CHAPTER IX.
_NATIONAL DELIVERANCE--THE PHILISTINES SUBDUED._
1 SAMUEL vii. 10-17.
It must have been with feelings very different from those of their last
encounter, when the ark of God was carried into the battle, that the
host of Israel now faced the Philistine army near Mizpeh. Then they had
only the symbol of God's gracious presence, now they had the reality.
Then their spiritual guides were the wicked Hophni and Phinehas; now
their guide was holy Samuel. Then they had rushed into the fight in
thoughtless unconcern about their sins; now they had confessed them, and
through the blood of sprinkling they had obtained a sense of
forgiveness. Then they were puffed up by a vain presumption; now they
were animated by a calm but confident hope. Then their advance was
hallowed by no prayer; now the cry of needy children had gone up from
God's faithful servant. In fact, the battle with the Philistines had
already been fought by Samuel on his knees. There can be no more sure
token of success than this. Are we engaged in conflict with our own
besetting sins? Or are we contending against scandalous transgression in
the world around us? Let us first fight the battle on our knees. If we
are victorious there we need have little fear of victory in the other
battle.
It was as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering that the Philistines
drew near to battle against Israel. There was an unseen ladder that day
between earth and heaven, on which the angels of God ascended and
descended as in Jacob's vision at Bethel. The smoke of the
burnt-offering carried up to God the confession and contrition of the
people, their reliance on God's method of atonement, and their prayer
for His pardon and His blessing. The great thunder with which God
thundered on the Philistines carried down from God the answer and the
needed help. There is no need for supposing that the thunder was
supernatural. It was an instance of what is so common, a natural force
adapted to the purpose of an answer to prayer. What seems to have
occurred is this: a vehement thunderstorm had gathered a little to the
east, and now broke, probably with violent wind, in the faces of the
Philistines, who were advancing up the heights against Mizpeh. Unable to
face such a terrific war of the elements, the Philistines would turn
round, placing their backs to the storm. The men of Israel, but little
embarrassed by it, since it came from behind them, and gave the greater
momentum to their force, rushed on the embarrassed enemy, and drove them
before them like smoke before the wind. It was just as in former
days--God arose, and His enemies were scattered, and they also that
hated Him fled before Him. The storm before which the Philistines
cowered was like the pillar of fire which had guided Israel through the
desert. Jehovah was still the God of Israel; the God of Jacob was once
more his refuge.
We have said that this thunderstorm may have been quite a natural
phenomenon. Natural, but not casual. Though natural, it was God's answer
to Samuel's prayer. But how could this have been? If it was a natural
storm, if it was the result of natural law, of atmospheric conditions
the operation of which was fixed and certain, it must have taken place
whether Samuel prayed or not. Undoubtedly. But the very fact that the
laws of nature are fixed and certain, that their operation is definite
and regular, enables the great Lord of Providence to make use of them in
the natural course of things, for the purpose of answering prayer. For
this fact, the uniformity of natural law, enables the Almighty, who sees
and plans the end from the beginning, to frame a comprehensive scheme of
Providence, that shall not only work out the final result in His time
and way, but that shall also work out every intermediate result
precisely as He designs and desires. "Known unto God are all His works
from the beginning of the world." Now if God has so adjusted the scheme
of Providence that the final result of the whole shall wonderfully
accomplish His grand design, may He not, must He not, have so adjusted
it that every intermediate part shall work out some intermediate design?
It is only those who have an unworthy conception of omniscience and
omnipotence that can doubt this. Surely if there is a general
Providence, there must be a special Providence. If God guides the whole,
He must also guide the parts. Every part of the scheme must fall out
according to His plan, and may thus be the means of fulfilling some of
His promises.
Let us apply this view to the matter of prayer. All true prayer is the
fruit of the Holy Spirit working in the human soul. All the prayer that
God answers is prayer that God has inspired. The prayer of Samuel was
prayer which God had inspired. What more reasonable than that in the
great plan of providence there should have been included a provision for
the fulfilment of Samuel's prayer at the appropriate moment? The
thunderstorm, we may be sure, was a natural phenomenon. But its
occurrence at the time was part of that great scheme of Providence which
God planned at the beginning, and it was planned to fall out then in
order that it might serve as an answer to Samuel's prayer. It was thus
an answer to prayer brought about by natural causes. The only thing
miraculous about it was its forming a part of that most marvellous
scheme--the scheme of Divine providence--a part of the scheme that was
to be carried into effect after Samuel had prayed. If the term
supernatural may be fitly applied to that scheme which is the sum and
substance of all the laws of nature, of all the providence of God, and
of all the works and thoughts of man, then it was a miracle; but if not,
it was a natural effect.
It is important to bear these truths in mind, because many have the
impression that prayer for outward results cannot be answered without a
miracle, and that it is unreasonable to suppose that such a multitude of
miracles as prayer involves would be wrought every day. If a sick man
prays for health, is the answer necessarily a miracle? No; for the
answer may come about by purely natural causes. He has been directed to
a skilful physician; he has used the right medicine; he has been treated
in the way to give full scope to the recuperative power of nature. God,
who led him to pray, foresaw the prayer, and in the original scheme of
Providence planned that by natural causes the answer should come. We do
not deny that prayer may be answered in a supernatural way. We would
not affirm that such a thing as supernatural healing is unknown. But it
is most useful that the idea should be entertained that such prayer is
usually answered by natural means. By not attending to this men often
fail to perceive that prayer has been answered. You pray, before you set
out on a journey, for protection and safe arrival at the end. You get
what you asked--you perform the journey in safety. But perhaps you say,
"It would have been all the same whether I had prayed for it or not. I
have gone on journeys that I forgot to pray about, and no evil befell
me. Some of my fellow-passengers, I am sure, did not pray for safety,
yet they were taken care of as much as I was." But these are sophistical
arguments. You should feel that your safety in the journey about which
you prayed was as much due to God, though only through the operation of
natural causes, as if you had had a hairbreadth escape. You should be
thankful that in cases where you did not pray for safety God had regard
to the habitual set of your mind, your habitual trust in Him, though you
did not specially exercise it at these times. Let the means be as
natural as they may--to those who have eyes to see the finger of God is
in them all the same.
But to return to the Israelites and the Philistines. The defeat of the
Philistines was a very thorough one. Not only did they make no attempt
to rally after the storm had passed and Israel had fallen on them, but
they came no more into the coast of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was
against them all the days of Samuel. And besides this, all the cities
and tracts of land belonging to Israel which the Philistines had taken
were now restored. Another mercy that came to Israel was that "there was
peace between Israel and the Amorites"--the Amorites being put here,
most likely, for the remains of all the original inhabitants living
among or around Israel. Those promises were now fulfilled in which God
had said to Moses, "This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and
the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who
shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble and be in anguish because
of thee" (Deut. ii. 25). "There shall no man be able to stand before
you; for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of
you upon all the land ye shall tread upon, as He hath said to thee." It
was so apparent that God was among them, and that the power of God was
irresistible and overwhelming, that their enemies were frightened to
assail them.
The impression thus made on the enemies of Israel corresponds in some
degree to the moral influence which God-fearing men sometimes have on an
otherwise godless community. The picture in the Song of Solomon--"Who is
she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the
sun, and _terrible as an army with banners_?"--ascribes even to the fair
young bride a terrifying power, a power not appropriate to such a
picture in the literal sense, but quite suitable in the figurative.
Wherever the life and character of a godly man is such as to recall God,
wherever God's image is plainly visible, wherever the results of God's
presence are plainly seen, there the idea of a supernatural Power is
conveyed, and a certain overawing influence is felt. In the great
awakening at Northampton in Jonathan Edwards' days, there was a complete
arrest laid on open forms of vice. And whensoever in a community God's
presence has been powerfully realized, the taverns have been emptied,
the gambling-table deserted, under the sense of His august majesty.
Would only that the character and life of all God's servants were so
truly godlike that their very presence in a community would have a
subduing and restraining influence on the wicked!
Two points yet remain to be noticed: the step taken by Samuel to
commemorate this wonderful Divine interposition; and the account given
of the prophet and his occupations in his capacity of Judge of Israel.
"Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the
name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."
The position of Shen is not known. But it must have been very near the
scene of the defeat of the Philistines--perhaps it was the very spot
where that defeat occurred. In that case, Samuel's stone would stand
midway between the two scenes of battle: the battle gained by him on his
knees at Mizpeh, and the battle gained by the Israelites when they fell
on the Philistines demoralised by the thunderstorm.
"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." The characteristic feature of the
inscription lies in the word "hitherto." It was no doubt a testimony to
special help obtained in that time of trouble; it was a grateful
recognition of that help; and it was an enduring monument to perpetuate
the memory of it. But it was more, much more. The word "hitherto"
denotes a series, a chain of similar mercies, an unbroken succession of
Divine interpositions and Divine deliverances. The special purpose of
this inscription was to link on the present deliverance to all the past,
and to form a testimony to the enduring faithfulness and mercy of a
covenant-keeping God. But was there not something strange in this
inscription, considering the circumstances? Could Samuel have forgot
that tragic day at Shiloh--the bewildered, terrified look of the
messenger that came from the army to bring the news, the consternation
caused by his message, the ghastly horror of Eli and his tragic death,
the touching death of the wife of Phinehas, and the sad name which she
had with such seeming propriety given to her babe? Was _that_ like God
remembering them? or had Samuel forgot how the victorious Philistines
soon after dashed upon Shiloh like beasts of prey, plundering,
destroying, massacreing, till nothing more remained to be done to
justify the name of "Ichabod"? How can Samuel blot that chapter out of
the history? or how can he say, with that chapter fresh in his
recollection, "_Hitherto_ hath the Lord helped us"?
All that Samuel has considered well. Even amid the desolations of Shiloh
the Lord was helping them. He was helping them to know themselves,
helping them to know their sins, and helping them to know the bitter
fruit and woful punishment of sin. He was helping them to achieve the
great end for which he had called them--to keep alive the knowledge of
the true God and the practice of His worship, onward to the time when
the great promise should be realised,--when HE should come in whom all
the families of the earth were to be blessed. Samuel's idea of what
constituted the nation's glory was large and spiritual. The true glory
of the nation was to fulfil the function for which God had taken it into
covenant with Himself. Whatever helped them to do this was a blessing,
was a token of the Lord's remembrance of them. The links of the long
chain denoted by Samuel's "hitherto" were not all of one kind. Some were
in the form of mercies, many were in the form of chastenings. For the
higher the function for which Israel was called, the more need was
there of chastening. The higher the destination of a silver vessel, the
greater is the need that the silver be pure, and therefore that it be
frequently passed through the furnace. The destination of Israel was the
highest that could have been. So Samuel does not merely give thanks for
seasons of prosperity, but for checks and chastenings too.
Happy they who, full of faith in the faithfulness and love of God, can
take a similar view of His dealings! Happy they who, when special
mercies come, deem the occasion worthy to be commemorated by some
special memorial, but who can embrace their whole life in the grateful
commemoration, and bracket joys and sorrows alike under their
"hitherto"! It is not that sorrows are less sorrows to them than to
others; it is not that losses of substance entail less inconvenience, or
bereavements penetrate less deeply; but that all are seen to be embraced
in that gracious plan of which the final consummation is, as the apostle
puts it, "to present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing." And well is it for us, both in individual
life and in Church and national life, to think of that plan of God in
which mercies and chastenings are united, but all with a gracious
purpose! It is remarkable how often in Scripture tears are wiped away
with this thought. Zion saying, "The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God
hath forgotten me," is assured, "Behold, I have graven thee upon the
palms of My hands, thy walls are continually before Me." Rachel weeping
for her children, and refusing to be comforted, is thus addressed,
"Refrain thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears; for thy work
shall be rewarded, saith the Lord, and thy children shall come again
from the land of the enemy." "Weep not," said our Lord to the woman of
Nain; and His first words after His resurrection were, "Woman, why
weepest thou?" Vale of tears though this world is, there comes from
above a gracious influence to wipe them away; and the march Zionward has
in it something of the tread and air of a triumphant procession, for
"the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy on their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
We have yet to notice the concluding verses of the chapter (15-17),
which give a little picture of the public life of Samuel. He judged
Israel all the days of his life. The office of judge had a twofold
sphere, external and internal. Externally, it bore on the oppression of
the people by foreign enemies, and the judge became the deliverer of the
people. But in this sense there was now nothing for Samuel to do,
especially after the accession of Saul to the kingdom. The judge seems
to have likewise had to do with the administration of justice, and the
preservation of the peace and general welfare of the nation. It is very
natural to suppose that Samuel would be profoundly concerned to imbue
the people with just views of the purpose for which God had called them,
and of the law and covenant which He had given them. The three places
among which he is said to have made his circuit, Bethel, Gilgal and
Mizpeh, were not far from each other, all being situated in the tribes
of Benjamin and Judah,--in that part of the land which afterwards
constituted the kingdom of the two tribes. To these three places falls
to be added Ramah, also in the same neighbourhood, where was his house.
In this place he built an altar to the Lord. Whether this was in
connection with the tabernacle or not, we cannot say. We know that in
the time of David's wanderings "the house of God" was at Nob (Compare 1
Sam. xxi. 1 and Matt. xii. 4), but we have nothing to show us when it
was carried thither. All we can say is, that Samuel's altar must have
been a visible memorial of the worship of God, and a solemn protest
against any idolatrous rites to which any of the people might at any
time be attracted.
In this way Samuel spent his life like Him whose type he was, "always
about his Father's business." An unselfish man, having no interests of
his own, full of zeal for the service of God and the public welfare;
possibly too little at home, taking too little charge of his children,
and thus at last in the painful position of one, "whose sons walked not
in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and
perverted judgment" (ch. viii. 1). That Samuel attained the highest
reputation for sanctity, intercourse with God and holy influence, is
plain from various passages of Scripture. In Psalm xcix. 6, he is
coupled with Moses and Aaron, as having influence with God,--"they
called upon the Lord and He answered them." In Jeremiah xv. 1, his name
is coupled with that of Moses alone as a powerful intercessor, "Though
Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this
people." His mother's act of consecration was wonderfully fulfilled.
Samuel stands out as one of the best and purest of the Hebrew worthies.
His name became a perpetual symbol of all that was upright, pure and
Godlike. The silent influence of his character was a great power in
Israel, inspiring many a young heart with holy awe, and silencing the
flippant arrogance of the scoffer. Mothers, did not Hannah do well, do
nobly, in dedicating her son to the Lord? Sons and daughters, was it not
a noble and honourable life? Then go ye and do likewise. And God be
pleased to incline many a heart to the service; a service, which with
all its drawbacks, is the highest and the noblest; and which bequeaths
so blessed a welcome into the next stage of existence: "Well done, good
and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
CHAPTER X.
_THE PEOPLE DEMAND A KING._
1 SAMUEL viii.
Whatever impression the "Ebenezer" of Samuel may have produced at the
time, it passed away with the lapse of years. The feeling that, in
sympathy with Samuel, had recognized so cordially at that time the
unbroken help of Jehovah from the very beginning, waxed old and vanished
away. The help of Jehovah was no longer regarded as the palladium of the
nation. A new generation had risen up that had only heard from their
fathers of the deliverance from the Philistines, and what men only hear
from their fathers does not make the same impression as what they see
with their own eyes. The privilege of having God for their king ceased
to be felt, when the occasions passed away that made His interposition
so pressing and so precious. Other things began to press upon them,
other cravings began to be felt, that the theocracy did not meet. This
double process went on--the evils from which God did deliver becoming
more faint, and the benefits which God did not bestow becoming more
conspicuous by their absence--till a climax was reached. Samuel was
getting old, and his sons were not like himself; therefore they afforded
no materials for continuing the system of judges. None of them could
ever fill their father's place. The people forgot that God's policy had
been to raise up judges from time to time as they were needed. But would
it not be better to discontinue this hand-to-mouth system of government
and have a regular succession of kings? Why should Israel contrast
disadvantageously in this respect with the surrounding nations? This
seems to have been the unanimous feeling of the nation. "All the elders
of Israel gathered themselves together, and said to Samuel, Make us a
king to judge us like all the nations."
It seems to us very strange that they should have done such a thing. Why
were they not satisfied with having God for their king? Was not the roll
of past achievements under His guidance very glorious? What could have
been more wonderful than the deliverance from Egypt, and the triumph
over the greatest empire in the world? Had ever such victories been
heard of as those over Sihon and Og? Was there ever a more triumphant
campaign than that of Joshua, or a more comfortable settlement than that
of the tribes? And if Canaanites, and Midianites, and Ammonites, and
Philistines had vexed them, were not Barak and Deborah, Gideon and
Jephthah, Samson and Samuel, more than a match for the strongest of them
all? Then there was the moral glory of the theocracy. What nation had
ever received direct from God, such ordinances, such a covenant, such
promises? Where else were men to be found that had held such close
fellowship with heaven as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, and
Joshua? What other people had had such revelations of the fatherly
character of God, so that it could be said of them, "As an eagle
stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her
wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord did lead him,
and there was no strange god with him." Instead of wishing to change the
theocracy, we might have expected that every Israelite, capable of
appreciating solid benefits, would have clung to it as his greatest
privilege and his greatest honour.
But it was otherwise. Comparatively blind to its glories, they wished to
be like other nations. It is too much a characteristic of our human
nature that it is indifferent to God, and to the advantages which are
conferred by His approval and His blessing. How utterly do some leave
God out of their calculations! How absolutely unconcerned they are as to
whether they can reckon on His approval of their mode of life, how
little it seems to count! You that by false pretences sell your wares
and prey upon the simple and unwary; you that heed not what
disappointment or what pain and misery you inflict on those who believe
you, provided you get their money; you that grow rich on the toil of
underpaid women and children, whose life is turned to slavery to fulfil
your hard demands, do you never think of God? Do you never take into
your reckoning that He is against you, and that He will one day come to
reckon with you? You that frequent the haunts of secret wickedness, you
that help to send others to the devil, you that say, "Am I my brother's
keeper?" when you are doing your utmost to confirm others in debauchery
and pollution, is it nothing to you that you have to reckon one day with
an angry God? Be assured that God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap; for he that soweth to the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption, while he that soweth to the Spirit shall
of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
But the lesson of the text is rather for those who have the favour and
blessing of God, but are not content, and still crave worldly things.
You are in covenant with God. He has redeemed you, not with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.
You are now sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what you shall be.
There is laid up for you an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and
that fadeth not away. Yet your heart hankers after the things of the
world. Your acquaintances and friends are better off. Your bare house,
your homely furnishings, your poor dress, your simple fare distress you,
and you would fain be in a higher worldly sphere, enjoying more
consideration, and participating more freely in worldly enjoyments. Be
assured, my friends, you are not in a wholesome frame of mind. To be
depreciating the surpassing gifts which God has given you, and to be
exaggerating those which He has withheld, is far from being a wholesome
condition. You wish to be like the nations. You forget that your very
glory is not to be like them. Your glory is that ye are a chosen
generation, an holy nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, your
bodies temples of the Holy Ghost, your souls united to the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Yet again, there are congregations, which though in humble
circumstances, have enjoyed much spiritual blessing. Their songs have
gone up, bearing the incense of much love and gratitude; their prayers
have been humble and hearty, most real and true; and the Gospel has come
to them not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance. Yet a generation has grown up that thinks little of
these inestimable blessings, and misses fine architecture, and
elaborate music, and highly cultured services. They want to have a king
like the nations. However they may endanger the spiritual blessing, it
is all-important to have these surroundings. It is a perilous position,
all the more perhaps that many do not see the peril--that many have
little or no regard for the high interests that are in such danger of
being sacrificed.
This then, was the request of all the elders of Israel to Samuel--"Give
us a king to judge us like all the nations." We have next to consider
how it was received by the prophet.
"The thing displeased Samuel." On the very face of it, it was an affront
to himself. It intimated dissatisfaction with the arrangement which had
made him judge of the people under God. Evidently they were tired of
him. He had given them the best energies of his youth and of his
manhood. He had undoubtedly conferred on them many real benefits. For
all this, his reward is to be turned off in his old age. They wish to
get rid of him, and of his manner of instructing them in the ways of the
Lord. And the kind of functionary they wish to get in his room is not of
a very flattering order. The kings of the nations for the most part were
a poor set of men. Despotic, cruel, vindictive, proud--they were not
much to be admired. Yet Israel's eyes are turned enviously to them!
Possibly Samuel was failing more than he was aware of, for old men are
slow to recognise the progress of decay, and highly sensitive when it is
bluntly intimated to them. Besides this, there was another sore point
which the elders touched roughly. "Thy sons walk not in thy ways."
However this may have come about, it was a sad thought to their father.
But fathers often have the feeling that while they may reprove their
sons, they do not like to hear this done by others. Thus it was that
the message of the elders came home to Samuel, first of all, in its
personal bearings, and greatly hurt him. It was a personal affront, it
was hard to bear. The whole business of his life seemed frustrated;
everything he had tried to do had failed; his whole life had missed its
aim. No wonder if Samuel was greatly troubled.
But in the exercise of that admirable habit which he had learned so
thoroughly, Samuel took the matter straight to the Lord. And even if no
articulate response had been made to his prayer, the effect of this
could not but have been great and important. The very act of going into
God's presence was fitted to change, in some measure, Samuel's estimate
of the situation. It placed him at a new point of view--at God's point
of view. When he reached that, the aspect of things must have undergone
a change. The bearing of the transaction on God must have come out more
prominently than its bearing on Samuel. And this was fully expressed in
God's words. "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me."
Samuel was but the servant, God was the lord and king. The servant was
not greater than his lord, nor the disciple greater than his Master. The
great sin of the people was their sin against God. He it was to whom the
affront had been given; He, if any, it was that had cause to remonstrate
and complain.
So prone are even the best of God's servants to put themselves before
their Master. So prone are ministers of the Gospel, when any of their
flock has acted badly, to think of the annoyance to themselves, rather
than the sin committed in the holy eyes of God. So prone are we all, in
our families, and in our Churches, and in society, to think of other
aspects of sin, than its essential demerit in God's sight. Yet surely
this should be the first consideration. That God should be dishonoured
is surely a far more serious thing than that man should be offended. The
sin against God is infinitely more heinous than the sin against man. He
that has sinned against God has incurred a fearful penalty--what if this
should lie on his conscience for ever, unconfessed, unforgiven? It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Yet, notwithstanding this very serious aspect of the people's offence,
God instructs Samuel to "hearken to their voice, yet protest solemnly to
them, and show them the manner of the kingdom." There were good reasons
why God should take this course. The people had shown themselves
unworthy of the high privilege of having God for their king. When men
show themselves incapable of appreciating a high privilege, it is meet
they should suffer the loss of it, or at least a diminution of it. They
had shown a perpetual tendency to those idolatrous ways by which God was
most grievously dishonoured. A theocracy, to work successfully, would
need a very loyal people. Had Israel only been loyal, had it even been a
point of conscience and a point of honour with them to obey God's voice,
had they even had a holy recoil from every act offensive to Him, the
theocracy would have worked most beautifully. But there had been such a
habitual absence of this spirit, that God now suffered them to institute
a form of government that interposed a human official between Him and
them, and that subjected them likewise to many an inconvenience. Yet
even in allowing this arrangement God did not utterly withdraw His
loving-kindness from them. The theocracy did not wholly cease. Though
they would find that their kings would make many an exaction of them,
there would be among them some that would reign in righteousness, and
princes that would rule in judgment. The king would so far be approved
of God as to bear the name of "the Lord's anointed:" and would thus, in
a sense, be a type of the great Anointed One, the true Messiah, whose
kingdom, righteous, beneficent, holy, would be an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion from generation to generation.
The next scene in the chapter before us finds Samuel again met with the
heads of the people. He is now showing them "the manner of the
king"--the relation in which he and they will stand to one another. He
is not to be a king that gives, but a king that takes. His exactions
will be very multifarious. First of all, the most sacred treasures of
their homes, their sons and their daughters, would be taken to do hard
work in his army, and on his farms, and in his house. Then, their landed
property would be taken on some pretext--the vineyards and olive-yards
inherited from their fathers--and given to his favourites. The tenth
part of the produce, too, of what remained would be claimed by him for
his officers and his servants, and the tenth of their flocks. Any
servant, or young man, or animal, that was particularly handsome and
valuable would be sure to take his fancy, and to be attached for his
service. This would be ordinarily the manner of their king. And the
oppression and vexation connected with this system of arbitrary
spoliation would be so great that they would cry out against him, as
indeed they did in the days of Rehoboam, yet the Lord would not hear
them. Such was Samuel's picture of what they desired so much, but it
made no impression; the people were still determined to have their
king.
What a contrast there was between this exacting king, and the true King,
the King that in the fulness of the time was to come to His people, meek
and having salvation, riding upon the foal of an ass! If there be
anything more than another that makes this King glorious, it is His
giving nature. "The Son of God," says the Apostle, "loved me, and gave
Himself for me." Gave Himself! How comprehensive the word! All that He
was as God, all that He became as man. As prophet He gave Himself to
teach, as priest to atone and intercede, as king to rule and to defend.
"The Good Shepherd _giveth_ His life for the sheep." "This is My body
which is _given_ for you." "If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who it
is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of
Him, and He would have _given_ thee living water." With what kingly
generosity, while He was on earth, He scattered the gifts of health and
happiness among the stricken and the helpless! "Jesus went about all
Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease
among the people." See Him, even as He hung helpless on the cross,
exercising His royal prerogative by giving to the thief at His side a
right to the Kingdom of God--"Verily I say unto thee, this day shalt
thou be with Me in Paradise." See Him likewise, exalted on His throne
"at God's right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." How different the
attributes of this King from him whom Samuel delineated! The one
exacting all that is ours; the other giving all that is His!
The last scene in the chapter shows us the people deliberately
disregarding the protest of Samuel, and reiterating their wilful
resolution--"Nay, but we will have a king over us; that we also may be
like all the nations, and that our king may judge us, and go out before
us, and fight our battles." Once more, Samuel brings the matter to the
Lord--repeats all that he has heard; and once more the Lord says to
Samuel, "Hearken unto their choice and make them a king." The matter is
now decided on, and it only remains to find the person who is to wear
the crown.
On the very surface of the narrative we see how much the people were
influenced by the desire to be "like all the nations." This does not
indicate a very exalted tone of feeling. To be like all the nations was
surely in itself a poor and childish thing, unless the nations were in
this respect in a better condition than Israel. Yet how common and
almost irresistible is this feeling!
Singularity is certainly not to be affected for singularity's sake; but
neither are we to conform to fashion simply because it is fashion. How
cruel and horrible often are its behests! The Chinese girl has to submit
to her feet being bandaged and confined till walking becomes a living
torture, and even the hours of what should be rest and sleep, are often
broken by bitter pain. The women of Lake Nyassa insert a piece of stone
in their upper lip, enlarging it from time to time till speaking and
eating become most awkward and painful operations, and the very lip
sometimes is torn away. Our fathers had terrible experience of the
tyranny of the drinking customs of their day; and in spite of the
greater freedom and the greater temperance of our time, there is no
little tyranny still in the drinking laws of many a class among us. All
this is just the outcome of the spirit that made the Hebrews so desire
a king--the shrinking of men's hearts from being unlike others, the
desire to be like the world. What men dread in such cases is not
wrong-doing, not sin, not offending God; but incurring the reproof of
men, being laughed at, boycotted by their fellows. But is not this a
very unworthy course? Can any man truly respect himself who says, "I do
this not because I think it right, not even because I deem it for my
interest, but simply because it is done by the generality of people?"
Can any man justify himself before God, if the honest utterance of his
heart must be, "I take this course, not because I deem it well-pleasing
in Thy sight, but because if I did otherwise, men would laugh at me and
despise me?" The very statement of the case in explicit terms condemns
it. Not less is it condemned by the noble conduct of those to whom grace
has been given to withstand the voice of the multitude and stand up
faithfully for truth and duty. Was there ever a nobler attitude than
that of Caleb, when he withstood the clamour of the other spies, and
followed the Lord fully? or that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego,
when alone among myriads, they refused to bow down to the image of gold?
or that of Luther when, alone against the world, he held unflinchingly
by his convictions of truth?
Let the young especially ponder these things. To them it often seems a
terrible thing to resist the general voice, and hold by conscience and
duty. To confess Christ among a school of despisers, is often like
martyrdom. But think! What is it to _deny_ Christ? Can that bring any
peace or satisfaction to those who know His worth? Must it not bring
misery and self-contempt? If the duty of confessing Him be difficult,
seek strength for the duty. Pray for the strength which is made perfect
in your weakness. Cast your thoughts onward to the day of Christ's
second coming, when the opinion and practice of the world shall all be
reduced to their essential worthlessness, and the promises to the
faithful, firm as the everlasting hills, shall be gloriously fulfilled.
For in that day, Hannah's song shall have a new fulfilment: "He raiseth
up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the b
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