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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."