1 Samuel
The two books of Samuel constitute
one account. The first gives the history of the transition from Theocracy to
Monarchy. The inwardness of that transition is revealed by a paragraph in the
eighth chapter "Then all the elders
of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah: and they
said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now
make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased
Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the
Lord. And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in
all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have
rejected Me, that I should not be King over them." Two brief
statements from that passage, "Make
us a king to judge us like all the nations," and "They have rejected Me, that I should not be King over them,"
tell the account of the transition, as to the human desire which produced it,
and as to the Divine attitude towards it. The nation asked for "a king to judge us like all the
nations." The reason for their existence as a nation was that they
should be unlike the nations. The unlikeness consisted in the fact that this
nation had as its only King Jehovah. The real meaning of their request is
therefore interpreted by the language of Jehovah to Samuel, "They have rejected Me, that I should
not be King over them." The days of the judges were days of religious
apostasy, political disorganization, and social chaos; and religious apostasy
in the case of these people meant that they refused to obey the King eternal,
immortal, invisible. This attitude expressed itself in the request they
brought to Samuel, "Make us a king
to judge us like all the nations." Sin forever issues in an attempt to
substitute the false for the true. That is the history of idolatry. Every idol
is witness to man's need of God. The lack of God creates the necessity for
putting something in His place. These men, turning from God as King, desired a
king like the nations. The first book of Samuel tells the account of the immediate
issues of this desire.
The permanent values of the book
may be exclusively expressed in two statements. Its highest revelation is that
of Jehovah reigning by adaptation, in order to advance. Its second value is
that it reveals the fact that, under this government of God, men cooperate with
Him towards the final issues, either by failure or by loyalty. It would appear
as though the first of these statements—namely, that Jehovah reigns by
adaptation in order to advance—contradicts His declaration concerning the
people, "They have rejected Me, that
I should not be King over them," and yet it is by no means a contradiction.
It is one thing to reject Jehovah, but it is quite another to dethrone
Him. The first is possible. The second
is impossible. This is the ultimate lesson of the book. The people,
chosen to exhibit the breadth, the beauty, and the beneficence of His
government, rejected Him from being King, but they did not dethrone Him. As I
watch the movement of this account, gathering around the three central figures,
Samuel, Saul and David, the highest revelation is not of these men, but of
Jehovah reigning by the adaptation of His method to the requirements of the
hour, and so through disobedience or obedience, through success or failure, through
men loyal or rebellious, moving quietly, steadily, and surely on. As our
analysis of the book suggests, the whole movement gathers round three personalities,
and centering our attention upon them for the purpose of this article, we must
yet keep in mind the prevailing conditions.
The account of Samuel is introduced
by that of Hannah. Hannah was a woman whose faith became Jehovah's foothold,
and whose song became Jehovah's interpretation. While it is the glad
thanksgiving of a woman whose prayer has been heard and answered, it is
infinitely more. All the values of the book are gathered up into this song of
the God who reigns, and concerning whom she affirms in 1 Sam 2:6-10 knowing He
was a Despot:
"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, He also lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
He lifteth up the needy from the dunghill,
To make them sit with princes,
And inherit the throne of glory."
The song moves on:
"They that strive with the Lord shall be broken to pieces;
Against them shall He thunder in heaven:
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth;
And He shall give strength unto His king,
And exalt the horn of His anointed."
Samuel was a prophet. Peter,
speaking in the presence of the assembled multitude in Jerusalem, said, "The prophets from Samuel and them that
followed after." In that reference he included the whole of the Hebrew
prophets, beginning with Samuel. There is a sense in which there had been
prophets before him; indeed, Moses himself was a prophet of whom it is said
there never arose another like him. Yet, in one particular respect, Samuel was
the first of the prophetic order. The kings were never mediators between God
and man. The people rejected Jehovah from being King, and so passed out of
close communion and intimate relationship with Him; and He consented in order
to the fulfilling of His purpose, but He never recognized the king as standing
between Himself and them He chose their kings for them, He allowed the lust for
a king to work itself out in the ultimate disaster of the centuries, but He
never spoke to men through the king, but always through the prophets.
With Samuel, then, the prophet
emerges as the authoritative representative of Jehovah. Samuel, as prophet,
became the king-maker, finding Saul, and anointing him; finding David, and
anointing him; and from that point forward, when a Divine message had to be
delivered to the people, it did not come directly from God to the king, but to
the king and all the people, through the prophet. In the economy of God, the
prophet's office was always superior to that of the king. Thus, when Jehovah
was rejected by the will of the people, and they clamored for a king like the
other nations, He took this man, the child of a woman's simple faith, trained
him through quiet days in the temple courts, called him while yet a boy, and
gave him a strange message to deliver, and made him at last the one to anoint
Saul a king after the people's own heart, and David a king after God's own
heart. The prophets became the mediators, the messengers, the interpreters of
the law. They stood between God and the people. Thus Jehovah reigned; and
adapting His methods, found Samuel, equipped him for his work, and delivered
His message through him.
The history of Saul is one of the
most tragic recorded in the Bible, full of fascination and of tremendous power
in its appeal to individual life. In placing this man upon the throne, God answered
the prayer of the people's rebellion, "Make
us a king to judge us like all the nations." Consequently, in the
economy of God, Saul became a revelation, an interpretation, and a discipline.
The meaning of the psalmist's word is revealed in the method, (Psalm 106:15)
"He gave them their request;
But sent leanness into their soul."
Saul stands out upon the page of Israel's history, an
object lesson in the real meaning of their choice. He was a man of enormous
physical strength, yet fitful and failing from first to last; a man of
undoubted mental acumen, yet a man of moods, who presently became a madman; a
man as to spiritual life characterized from the very beginning by apathy and
slowness, and at last, so devoid of spiritual illumination and power, that he
turned his back upon Jehovah, and consulted a witch who muttered and worked
incantations. He was a revelation to the people of what the possession of a
king like the nations really meant.
Then look at the kingdom under
Saul. After he was chosen, for a time they were practically without a king. He
manifested his weakness by hiding among the stuff when he ought immediately to
have taken hold of the scepter. I am perfectly well aware that others interpret
that account differently. They affirm that Saul was a man of such extreme
modesty that after he was appointed he went back to work in quietness, without
taking the kingdom. Such modesty is sin. It is as great a sin to urge modesty,
and keep in the background when God calls to the foreground as it is to go to
the front, when God's appointment is in the rear. Then came the period of the
wars--wars ending ultimately in the most terrible disaster. Under Saul's reign
the kingdom became disorganized.
When we come to David again we see
adaptation and advance. Once again God gave His people a king, hut this time a
man after His own heart. The king of God's choosing was a shepherd, whose
youthful days had been spent in the fields; a courtier who, passing from the
fields to the palace, became Saul's son-in-law; an outlaw for long years, to
use his own graphic description, hunted like "a partridge in the mountains." Through all these
processes God was preparing him for a kingdom, not merely to reign over it, but
to realize it. As a shepherd, he loved the sheep under his care, and rescued
them from the paw of the lion and the bear. In the king's palace he became
accustomed to courtly ways. As an outlaw he was prepared through discipline,
and created a new type for the future strength of the kingdom. Thus God was remaking
the kingdom in a cave, while the nation was going to pieces round the king
after their own heart. The kingdom itself was thus being prepared for renewal
through disaster. The special note in all this is that of Jehovah reigning,
moving definitely forward, pressing into the service of His own progress,
towards the fulfillment of His purpose, Samuel, Saul, David; governing by
adaptation; taking hold of the child of faith and making him a prophet; taking
hold of physical magnificence, and by its failures making it a revelation of
the sin that had been committed; taking hold of the shepherd lad, and by
processes making him king. Thus God ever sits high enthroned, and moves in
victory across disaster towards ultimate purpose.
The second value of this book is
but the obverse side of the first, teaching that man cooperates with God by
failure, and by loyalty. Again our examination centers round the three personalities,
and its purpose is not so much to show the result of their attitude as the
process of God.
Samuel found his opportunity in
his parentage, his call, his appointment. He responded to his opportunity by
loyalty. The issues were that the messages of God were delivered to the people,
and the work of God was advanced.
Saul found his opportunity in his
call and anointing, in Samuel's friendship for him, and in his popularity and
personal equipment. He responded by vacillation, by self-will, by disobedience.
The issues were the revelation of his failure and the warning of his death.
David's opportunities were his
call and anointing, his long waiting and suffering, and finally the crisis of
the battle with Amalek in the hour of Saul's death. He responded by obedience
and patience and at the decisive moment by definite action. The issues were
that he became the instrument of Jehovah's progress, a man through whom God
moved forward towards ultimate realization.
That rapid survey shows that each
man had his opportunity; each man made his response to that opportunity; two of
them the response of obedience, one that of disobedience; but whether by
failure or by loyalty, men cooperate with God towards the final winning of His
victory. If a man does not cooperate with God loyally, he is compelled by the sovereignty
of His throne, by the sovereignty of His government, to cooperate even through
his own disaster and defeat.
I may quite briefly state the
living message of this book. The permanent values constitute that living
message. Let me state them in other terms. In this book I see the despotism of God
and the relation of man to that despotism. It first reveals the despotism of
God (Jude 4; 2 Pet. 2:1). There is no territory outside His jurisdiction; no
person beyond His control, or who finally escapes His government; no event
outside His consciousness, or beyond His overruling. This book not only
reveals these things, it interprets them. It shows that this despotism of God
is operating towards accomplishment, includes in its operation all adverse
facts and forces, and creates its own agents whenever it is necessary so to do.
It is this living message that we need tremendously today.
What, then, is the relation of man
to this despotism of God? The ultimate victory is independent of the attitudes
of individuals or peoples towards Him. Through Samuel, Saul and David, He moved
right on towards the Anointed and the ultimate Kingdom. The ultimate destiny of
individuals is dependent upon their attitude towards Him. Samuel was obedient,
and was used and saved. Saul was disobedient, and was used and destroyed. David
was obedient, and was used and saved. It does not at all matter what my
attitude towards God is, as to His ultimate victory. It matters everything as
to my ultimate destiny. Everything depends upon me as to my own destiny.
Nothing depends upon me ultimately as to His victory. He will press into His
service for His final victory all souls who are loyal to Him, and they will
share in the rapture of His victory. He will press into the service of His
ultimate victory all souls in rebellion, and they will share in the wrath of
His victory. So my responsibility must be, so far as my own destiny is
concerned, the responsibility of obedience. This book inspires a great song,
which can best be uttered in the words of the psalmist, "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice." (Psalms 97:1)
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