'And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the
Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and
sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. 2. And it came
to pans, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long;
for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the
Lord. 3. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye
do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange
gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the
Lord, and serve Him only: and He will deliver you out of the hand of
the Philistines. 4. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and
Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only. 5. And Samuel said, Gather all
Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. 6. And they
gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before
the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned
against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
7. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were
gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up
against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were
afraid of the Philistines. 8. And the children of Israel said to
Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will
save us out of the hand of the Philistines. 9. And Samuel took a
sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt-offering wholly unto the Lord:
and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him. 10.
And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering, the Philistines drew
near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great
thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them: and
they were smitten before Israel. 11. And the men of Israel went out of
Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came
under Beth-car. 12. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh
and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath
the Lord helped us.'-1 SAMUEL vii 1-12.
The ark had spread disaster in Philistia and Beth-shemesh, and the
willingness of the men of Kirjath-jearim to receive it was a token of
their devotion. They must have been in some measure free from idolatry
and penetrated with reverence. The name of the city (_City of the
Woods_, like our _Woodville_) suggests the situation of the little
town, 'bosomed high in tufted trees,' where the ark lay for so long,
apparently without sacrifices, and simply watched over by Eleazar, who
was probably of the house of Aaron. Eli's family was exterminated;
Shiloh seems to have been destroyed, or, at all events, forsaken; and
for twenty years internal disorganisation and foreign oppression,
relieved only by Samuel's growing influence, prevailed. But during
these dark days a better mind was slowly appearing among the people.
'All ... Israel lamented after the Lord.' Lost blessings are precious.
God was more prized when withdrawn. Happy they to whom darkness
brightens that Light which brightens all darkness! Our text gives us
three main points,--the preparation for victory in repentance and
return (verses 3-9); the victory (verses 10, 11); the thankful
commemoration of victory (verse 12).
I. We have first the preparation for victory in repentance and return.
At the time of the first fight at Eben-ezer, Israel was full of
idolatry and immorality. Then their preparation for battle was the mere
bringing the ark into the camp, as if it were a fetish or magic charm.
That was pure heathenism, and they were idolaters in such worship of
Jehovah, just as much as if they had been bowing to Baal. Many of us
rely on our baptism or on churchgoing precisely in the same spirit, and
are as truly pagans. Not the name of the Deity, but the spirit of the
worshipper, makes the 'idolater.'
How different this second preparation! Samuel, who had never been named
in the narrative of defeat, now reappears as the acknowledged prophet
and, in a sense, dictator. The first requirement is to come back to the
Lord 'with the whole heart,' and that return is to be practically
exhibited in the complete forsaking of Baal and the Ashtoreths. 'Ye
cannot serve God and mammon.' It must be 'Him only,' if it is Him at
all. Real religion is exclusive, as real love is. In its very nature it
is indivisible, and if given to two is accepted by neither. So there
was some kind of general and perhaps public giving up of the idols, and
some, though probably not the fully appointed, public service of
Jehovah. If we are to have His strength infused for victory, we must
cast away our idols, and come back to Him with all our hearts. The
hands that would clasp Him, and be upheld by the clasp, must be emptied
of trifles. To yield ourselves wholly to God is the secret of strength.
The next step was a solemn national assembly at Samuel's town of
Mizpeh, situated on a conspicuous hill, north-west of Jerusalem, which
still is called 'the prophet Samuel.' Sacrifices were offered, which
are no part of the Mosaic ritual. A significant part of these consisted
in the pouring out of water 'before the Lord,' probably as emblematic
of the pouring out of soul in penitence; for it was accompanied by
fasting and confession of sin. The surest way to the true victory,
which is the conquest of our sins, is confessing them to God. When once
we have seen any sin in its true character clearly enough to speak to
Him about it, we have gone far to emancipate ourselves from it, and
have quickened our consciences towards more complete intolerance of its
hideousness. Confession breaks the entail of sin, and substitutes for
the dreary expectation of its continuance the glad conviction of
forgiveness and cleansing. It does not make a stiff fight unnecessary;
for assured freedom from sin is not the easy prize of confession, but
the hard-won issue of sturdy effort in God's strength. But it is like
blowing the trumpet of revolt,--it gives the signal for, and itself
begins, the conflict. The night before the battle should be spent, not
in feasting, but in prayer and lowly shriving of our souls before the
great Confessor.
The watchful Philistines seem to have had their attention attracted by
the unusual stir among their turbulent subjects, and especially by this
suspicious gathering at Mizpeh, and they come suddenly up the passes
from their low-lying territory to disperse it. A whiff of the old
terror blows across the spirits of the people, not unwholesomely; for
it sets them, not to desire the outward presence of the ark, not to run
from their post, but to beseech Samuel's intercession. They are afraid,
but they mean to fight all the same, and, because they are afraid, they
long for God's help. That is the right temper, which, if a man cherish,
he will not be defeated, however many Philistines rush at him. Twenty
years of slavery had naturally bred fear in them, but it is a wise fear
which breeds reliance on God. Our enemy is strong, and no fault is more
fatal than an underestimate of his power. If we go into battle singing,
we shall probably come out of it weeping, or never come out at all. If
we begin bragging, we shall end bleeding. It is only he who looks on
the advancing foe, and feels 'They are too strong for me,' who will
have to say, as he watches them retreating, 'He delivered me from my
strong enemy.' We should think much of our foes and little of
ourselves. Such a temper will lead to caution, watchfulness, wise
suspicion, vigorous strain of all our little power, and, above all, it
will send us to our knees to plead with our great Captain and Advocate.
Samuel acts as priest and intercessor, offering a burnt-offering,
which, like the pouring out of water, is no part of the Mosaic
sacrifices. The fact is plain, but it is neither unaccountable nor
large enough to warrant the sweeping inferences which have been drawn
from it and its like, as to the non-existence at this period of the
developed ceremonial in Leviticus. We need only remember Samuel's
special office, and the seclusion in which the ark lay, to have a
sufficient explanation of the cessation of the appointed worship and
the substitution of such 'irregular' sacrifices. We are on surer ground
when we see here the incident to which Psalm xcix. 6 refers ('Samuel
among them that call upon His name. They called upon the Lord, and He
answered them'), and when we learn the lesson that there is a power in
intercession which we can use for one another, and which reaches its
perfection in the prevailing prayer of our great High-priest, who, like
Samuel and Moses, is on the mountain praying, while we fight in the
plain.
II. We have next the victory on the field of the former defeat. The
battle is joined on the old ground. Strategic considerations probably
determined the choice as they did in the case of the many battles on
the plain of Esdraelon, for instance, or on the fields of the
Netherlands. Probably the armies met on some piece of level ground in
one of the wadies, up which the Philistines marched to the attack. At
all events, there they were, face to face once more on the old spot. On
both sides might be men who had been in the former engagement.
Depressing remembrances or burning eagerness to wipe out the shame
would stir in those on the one side; contemptuous remembrance of the
ease with which the last victory had been won would animate the other.
God Himself helped them by the thunderstorm, the solemn roll of which
was 'the voice of the Lord' answering Samuel's prayer. The ark had
brought only defeat to the impure host; the sacrifice brings victory to
the penitent army. Observe that the defeat is accomplished before 'the
men of Israel went out of Mizpeh.' God scattered the enemy, and Israel
had only to pursue flying foes, as they hurried in wild confusion down
the pass, with the lightning flashing behind them. The same pregnant
expression is used for the rout of the Philistines as for the previous
one of Israel. 'They were smitten _before_,' not _by_, the victors. The
true victor was God.
The story gives boundless hope of victory, even on the fields of our
former defeats. We can master rooted faults of character, and overcome
temptations which have often conquered us. Let no man say: 'Ah! I have
been beaten so often that I may as well give up the fight altogether.
Years and years I have been a slave, and everywhere I tread on old
battlefields, where I have come off second-best. It will never be
different. I may as well cease struggling.' However obstinate the
fault, however often it has re-established its dominion and dragged us
back to slavery, when we thought that we had made good our
escape,--that is no reason to 'bate one jot of heart or hope.' We have
every reason to hope bravely and boundlessly in the possibility of
victory. True, we should rightly despair if we had only our own powers
to depend on. But the grounds of our confidence lie in the
inexhaustible fulness of God's Spirit, and the certain purpose of His
will that we should be purified from all iniquity, as well as in the
proved tendency of the principles and motives of the gospel to produce
characters of perfect goodness, and, above all, in the sacrifice and
intercession of our Captain on high. Since we have Christ to dwell in
us, and be the seed of a new life, which will unfold into the likeness
of that life from which it has sprung; since we have a perfect Example
in Him who became like us in lowliness of flesh, that we might become
like Him in purity of spirit; since we have a gospel which enjoins and
supplies the mightiest motives for complete obedience; and since the
most rooted and inveterate evils are no part of ourselves, but 'vipers'
which may be 'shaken from the hand' into which they have struck their
fangs, we commit faithless treason against God, His message, and
ourselves, when we doubt that we shall overcome all our sins. We should
not, then, go into the fight downhearted, with our banners drooping, as
if defeat sat on them. The belief that we shall conquer has much to do
with victory. That is true in all sorts of conflicts. So, though the
whole field may be strewed with relics, eloquent of former disgrace, we
may renew the struggle with confidence that the future will not always
copy the past. We 'are saved by hope'; by hope we are made strong. It
is the very helmet on our heads. The warfare with our own evils should
be waged in the assurance that every field of our defeat shall one day
see set up on it the trophy of, not our victory, but God's in us.
III. We have here the grateful commemoration of victory. Where that
gray stone stands no man knows to-day, but its name lives for ever.
This trophy bore no vaunts of leader's skill or soldier's bravery. One
name only is associated with it. It is 'the stone of help,' and its
message to succeeding generations is: 'Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us.' That Hitherto' is the word of a mighty faith. It includes as parts
of one whole the disaster no less than the victory. The Lord was
helping Israel no less by sorrow and oppression than by joy and
deliverance. The defeat which guided them back to Him was tender
kindness and precious help. He helps us by griefs and losses, by
disappointments and defeats; for whatever brings us closer to Him, and
makes us feel that all our bliss and wellbeing lie in knowing and
loving Him, is helpful beyond all other aid, and strength-giving above
all other gifts.
Such remembrance has in it a half-uttered prayer and hope for the
future. 'Hitherto' means more than it says. It looks forward as well as
backward, and sees the future in the past. Memory passes into hope, and
the radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path.
God's 'hitherto' carries 'henceforward' wrapped up in it. His past
reveals the eternal principles which will mould His future acts. He has
helped, therefore he will help, is no good argument concerning men; but
it is valid concerning God.
The devout man's 'gratitude' is, and ought to be, 'a lively sense of
favours to come.' We should never doubt but that, as good John Newton
puts it, in words which bid fair to last longer than Samuel's gray
stone:--
'Each sweet Ebenezer I have in review
Confirms His good pleasure to help me quite through.'
We may write that on every field of our life's conflicts, and have it
engraved at last on our gravestones, where we rest in hope.
The best use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at
the moment the divine help which has filled our lives. Like some track
on a mountain side, it is less discernible to us, when treading it,
than when we look at it from the other side of the glen. Many parts of
our lives, that seemed unmarked by any consciousness of God's help
while they were present, flash up into clearness when seen through the
revealing light of memory, and gleam purple in it, while they looked
but bare rocks as long as we were stumbling among them. It is blessed
to remember, and to see everywhere God's help. We do not remember
aright unless we do. The stone that commemorates our lives should bear
no name but one, and this should be all that is read upon it: 'Now unto
Him that kept us from falling, unto Him be glory!'
'MAKE US A KING'
'Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came
to Samuel, onto Ramah, 5. And 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. 6. But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give
us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord. 7. 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 reign over them. 8. According to all the works
which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt
even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken Me, and served other
gods, so do they also unto thee. 9. Now therefore hearken unto their
voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner
of the king that shall reign over them. 10. And Samuel told all the
words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king. 11. And he
said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He
will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots,
and to be his horsemen: and some shall run before his chariots, 12. And
he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties;
and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to
make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 13. And
he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and
to be bakers. 14. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and
your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and
give to his officers, and to his servants. 16. And he will take your
men-servants, and your maid-servants, and your goodliest young men, and
your asses, and put them to his work. 17. He will take the tenth of
your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18. And ye shall cry out in
that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the
Lord will not hear you in that day. 19. Nevertheless the people refused
to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a
king over us; 20. 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.'--I
SAMUEL viii. 4-20.
The office of judge was as little capable of transmission from father
to son as that of prophet, so that Samuel's appointment of his sons as
judges must be regarded as contrary to its true idea. It was God who
made the judges, and the introduction, in however slight a degree, of
the hereditary principle, was not only politically a blunder, but
religiously wrong. Our narrative, like Scripture generally, pronounces
no opinion on the facts it records, but its unfavourable judgment may
be safely inferred from its explanation that Samuel was 'old' when he
made the appointment, and that his sons were corrupt and unjust. Our
text deals with the unexpectedly wide consequences of that act, in the
clamour for a king.
I. Note the ill-omened request. A formal delegation of the
representatives of the nation comes to Ramah, unsummoned by Samuel,
with the demand for a king. There must have been much talk through
Israel before the general mind could have been ascertained, and this
step taken. Not a whisper of what was passing seems to have reached
Samuel, and the request is flung at him in harsh language. It is not
pleasant for any one, least of all for a ruler, to be told that
everybody sees that he is getting old, and should provide for what is
to come next. Fathers do not like to be told that their sons are
disreputable, but Samuel had to hear the bitter truth. The old man was
pained by it, and felt that the people were tired of him, as is plain
enough from the divine words which followed, and bade him look beyond
the ingratitude displayed towards himself, to that shown to God. But
from the 'practical' point of view, there was a great deal to be said
for the reasonableness and political wisdom of the elders' suggestion.
Samuel had shown that he felt the danger of leaving the nation without
a leader, by his nomination of his sons, and the proposal of a king is
but carrying his policy a little farther. The hereditary principle once
admitted, a full-blown king was evidently the best. There were many
inconveniences in the rule by judges. They had no power but that of
force of personal character and the authority of an unseen Lord. They
left no successors; and long intervals had elapsed, and might again
elapse, between the death of one and the rise of another, during which
the nation appeared to have no head to guide nor arm to defend it.
Examples of strong monarchies surrounded them, and they wanted to have
a centre of unity and a defender in the person of a king.
Samuel's displeasure seems to have been mainly on the ground of the
insult to himself in the proposal, and its bearing on the rule of
Jehovah over the people does not seem to have occurred to him till it
was pointed out by the divine voice. But, like a good and wise man, he
took his perplexity and trouble to God; and there he got light. The
divine judgment of the request cuts down to its hidden, and probably
unconscious, motive, and shows Samuel that weariness of him was only
its surface, while the true bottom of it was rejection of God. The
parallel drawn with idolatry is very instructive. The two things were
but diverse forms of the same sense-ridden disposition: the one being
an inability to grasp the thought of the unseen God; the other, a
precisely similar inability to keep on the high level of trust in an
unseen defender, and obedience to an unseen monarch. They wished for a
king 'to go out before them' and 'fight their battles' (v. 20). Had
they forgotten Eben-ezer, and many another field, where they and their
fathers had but to stand still and see the Lord fight for them?
The very same difficulty in living in quiet reliance on a power which
is perceptible by no sense, besets us. We too are ever being tempted to
prefer the solid security, as our foolish senses call it, of visible
supports and delights, to the shadowy help of an unseen Arm. How many
of us would feel safer with a good balance at our banker's than with
God's promises! How many of us live as if we thought that men or women
were better recipients of our love and of our trust than God! How few,
even of professing Christians, really and habitually 'walk by faith,
not by sight'! Do we not see ourselves in the mirror of this story? If
we do not, we should. Note that the elders had, apparently, no idea
that they were rejecting God in wanting a king. Samuel says nothing of
the sort to them, and they could scarcely have made the request so
boldly and briefly if they had been conscious that it was upsetting the
very basis of their national life. Men are slow to appreciate the full
force of their craving for visible good. The petitioners could plead
many strong reasons, and, no doubt, fancied themselves simply taking
proper precautions for the future. A great deal of unavowed and
unconscious unbelief wears the mask of wise foresight. We rather pride
ourselves on our prudence, when we should be ashamed of our distrust.
Note, too, that we cannot combine reliance on the seen and the unseen.
Life must be moulded by one or the other. The craving for a king was
the rejection of Jehovah. We must elect by which we shall live, and
from which we shall draw our supreme good.
The desire to be like their neighbours was another motive with the
elders. It is hard to be singular, and to foster reliance on the
invisible, when all around us are dazzling examples of the success
attending the other course. One of the first lessons which we have to
learn, and one of the last which we have to practise, is a wholesome
disregard of other people's ways. If we are to do anything worth doing,
we must be content to be in a minority of one, if needful.
II. Note God's concession of the foolish wish. The divine word to
Samuel throws light on the nature of prophetic inspiration. He is
bidden to 'hearken to the people's voice'--a procedure directly
opposite to his own ideas. This is not a case of subsequent reflection
modifying first impressions, but of an authoritative voice discerned by
the hearer to be not his own, contradicting his own thoughts, and
leaving no room for further consideration.
Further, the granting to Israel of the king whom they desired, is but
one instance of the law which is exemplified in God's dealing with
nations and individuals, according to which He lets them have their own
way, that they may 'be filled with their own devices.' Such experience
is the best teacher, though her school fees are high. The surest way to
disgust men with their own folly, is to let it work out its
results,--just as boys in sweetmeat shops are allowed to eat as much as
they like at first, and so get a distaste for the dainties. 'Try it,
then, and see how you like it,' is not an unkind thing to say, and God
often says it to us. When argument and appeals to duty and the like
fail, there is nothing more to be done but to let us have our request,
and find out the poison that lurked under the fair outside. The
prodigal son gets his coveted portion, and is allowed to go into the
far country, that he may prove how good and happy it is to starve among
the swine, not because his father is angry with him, but because such
experience is the only way to re-awaken his dormant love, and to make
him long for the despised place in his father's house. There are some
fevers of the desires which must run their course before the patient
can be well again. Let us keep a careful watch over ourselves, that we
entertain no wishes but such as run parallel with God's manifest will,
lest He may have in His anger, which is still love, to give us our
request, that we may find out our error by the bitter fruits of a
granted desire.
III. Note the obstinacy that, with eyes open to the consequences,
persists in its demands. Samuel is bidden to 'show them the manner of
the king that shall reign over them.' He sketches, in sombre outline,
the picture of an Eastern despot, the only kind of king which the world
then knew. The darker features of these monarchies are not included.
There is no harem, nor cruelty, nor monstrous vice, in the picture; but
the diversion of labour to minister to royal pomp, the establishment of
a standing army, the alienation of land to officials, heavy taxation
and forced labour make up the items. To these is added (v. 18) that the
royalty, now so eagerly desired, would sooner or later become a burden,
and that then they or their sons would find it was easier to put on
than to put off the yoke; for 'the Lord will not hear you in that day,'
in reference, that is, to the removal of the king. They were exchanging
an unseen King who gave all things for one who would take, and not
give. A wise exchange! The consequences of our wishes are not always
drawn out so clearly before us as in this instance; but we are not left
in darkness as to the broad issues, and we all know enough to make our
persistence in evil, after such warnings, the deepest mystery and most
flagrant sin. The drunkard is not deterred by his knowledge that there
is such a thing as _delirium tremens_; nor the thief, by the certainty
that the officer's hand will be laid on his shoulder one day or other;
nor the young profligate, by the danger that his bones shall be 'full
of the sin of his youth'; nor are any of us kept from our sins, by the
clear sight of their end. 'I have loved strangers, and after them will
I go,' notwithstanding all knowledge of the fatal issue. Surely there
is nothing sadder than that power of neglecting the most certain known
result of our acts. Wilfully blind, and hurried on by lust, passion, or
other impulse, like bulls which shut their eyes when they charge, we
rush at our mark, and often dash ourselves to pieces on it. If a man
saw the consequences of his sin at the moment of temptation, he would
not do it; but this is the wonder, that he does not see them, though he
knows them well enough, and that the knowledge has no power to restrain
him.
IV. Note the divine purpose which uses man's sin as its instrument in
advancing its designs. God had promised Israel a king (Deut. xvii. 14,
etc.), and the elders may have thought that they were only asking for
what was in accordance with His plan. So they were; but their motive
was wrong, and so their prayer, though for what God meant to give, was
wrong. In this case, as always, God uses men's sins as occasions for
the furtherance of His own eternal purpose, as that profound saying has
it, 'Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee.' The kingly office was
a step in advance, and gave occasion to the development of Messianic
expectations of the true King of Israel and of men, which would have
been impossible without it, In many ways it was for the good of the
nation, and the holders of the office were 'the Lord's anointed.'
Modern criticism has found traces of two opposite views in this story,
as compared with the passage in Deuteronomy above referred to; but
surely it is a more sober, though less novel, view, to regard the whole
incident as illustrating the two truths, that men may wish for right
things in a wrong way, and that God uses sin as well as obedience as
His instrument. No barriers can stop the march of His great purpose
through the ages, any more than a bit of glass can stay a sunbeam.
However the currents run and the storms howl, they carry the ship to
the haven; for He holds the helm, and all winds help. The people
rejected Him, and in seeking a king followed but their own earthly
minds; but they prepared the way for David and David's Son. Their
children long after, moved by the same spirit, shouted, 'We have no
king but Caesar!' but they prepared the throne for the true King, for
whom they destined a Cross. Man's greatest sin, the rejection of the
visible King of the world, brought about the firm establishment of His
dominion on earth and in heaven. The cross is the great instance of the
same law as is embodied in this history,--the overruling providence
which bends the antagonism of men into a tool for effecting the purpose
of God.
Alas for those who only thus carry on God's designs! They perish, and
their work is none the less their sin, because God has used it. How
much better to enter with a willing heart and a clear intelligence into
sympathy with His designs, and, delighting to do His will, to share in
the eternal duration of His triumphant purpose! 'The world passeth
away, and the fashion thereof: but he that doeth the will of God
abideth for ever.'