1 Samuel 11

11 14 THEN said Samuel to the people, Come and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there. And all the people went to Gilgal ; and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal ; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace-offerings before the LORD ; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. 12 1 And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh before you : and I am old and grayheaded ; and, behold, my sons are with you : and I have walked before you from my youth unto this day. Here I am : witness against me before the LORD, and before his anointed : whose ox have I taken ? or whose ass have I taken ? or whom have I defrauded ? whom have I oppressed ? or of whose hand have I taken a ransom to blind mine eyes therewith ? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand. And he said unto them, The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they said, He is witness. And Samuel said unto the people, It is the LORD that appointed Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before the LORD concerning all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the LORD, then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place. But they forgot the LORD their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the LORD, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD, and have served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth : but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled in safety. And when ye saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us : when the LORD your God was your king. Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom ye have asked for : and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you. If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and hearken unto his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and both ye and also the king that reigneth over you be followers of the LORD your God, well : but if ye will not hearken unto the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be against you, as it was against your fathers. Now therefore stand still and see this great thing, which the LORD will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest to-day ? I will call unto the LORD, that he may send thunder and rain ; and ye shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the LORD ; and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day : and all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the LORD thy God, that we die not : for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not : ye have indeed done all this evil : yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart ; and turn ye not aside : for then should ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake : because it hath pleased the LORD to make you a people unto himself. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you : but I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart : for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.

14. Go to Gilgal.** This was almost certainly the Gilgal between Bethel and Shiloh, the place of Joshua’s long encampment, not the Gilgal near Jericho. The movement is “to,” not “down to” Gilgal. This Gilgal is central and easily accessible to the tribes, while the other is not. B.—The assembly now held after the general levy for the war was probably larger and more representative of the whole nation than the previous one at Mizpah. A. F. K.

15. Jabesh-Gilead was saved; and Saul was brought before the people as their hero, their king, owned of God, and competent to lead their armies on to glorious victory. It was the moment for renewing the kingdom to Saul; so Samuel leads the whole army to Gilgal where they performed the services of a solemn inauguration; sacrificed their peace-offerings before the Lord and rejoiced with great joy. Saul was now king of Israel indeed, with all the prestige for a successful reign that any monarch could desire. H. C.—The choice of Saul as king, privately made by God through Samuel, and publicly confirmed by the election at Mizpah, had received an unmistakable ratification in his victory over Nahash. His detractors were silenced, and the unanimous consent of the people accepted him.

The assembly at Gilgal marks an important epoch in Jewish history. It ratified the work of the assembly at Mizpah, finally closed the period of the Judges, and formally inaugurated the New Monarchy. Samuel, though he was still to retain his influence and authority as Prophet, now resigned his office as Judge, and in doing so delivered a solemn address to the assembled people. He challenges them to impeach his official purity (1-3), and is answered by the unanimous confirmation of his integrity (4, 5). Recalling Jehovah’s past mercies, he upbraids them with unbelief and ingratitude in demanding a king (6-12). And now their future depends upon their bearing toward Jehovah, in confirmation of which he appeals to a miraculous sign (13-18). Finally Samuel consoles the terrified people (19), by assuring them of Jehovah’s faithfulness (20-22), and his own continued intercession (23), and concludes with a reiterated warning (24, 25). A. F. K.

In laying down his power in the presence of the assembled states, it surely became him to declare the principle of the Divine government

—to vindicate his own administration—to pronounce his view of the present condition of the nation—and give solemn cautions and warnings as to the future. He spoke only as he had always spoken; and he might now finally, and once for all, declare his mind the more freely, seeing that the authority of the king was now fully established, and that the monarchy was to be taken as an accomplished fact—a fact accomplished through his own instrumentality. His object was not to lead them to recall the step they had taken, but to insure their good conduct and their proper subservience to Jehovah, as still not only their spiritual, but their political Lord, under the new institutions. Kit.

3-5. It was not so much the trial of his carriage that Samuel appealed for, as his justification; not for his own comfort, so much as their conviction. His innocence hath not done him service enough, unless it shame them, and make them confess themselves faulty. In so many years wherein Samuel judged Israel, it cannot be but many thousand causes passed his hands, wherein both parties could not possibly be pleased; yet so clear doth he find his heart and hands, that he dare make the grieved part judges of his judgment. Bp. II.

3. A rare example of such virtues, in these days especially, Samuel’s hands were as clear of bribes as of blood. The public good his only object, he neither aimed at political ascendancy nor pecuniary aggrandizement. Neither animated with the love of power nor of money, he made no use of the opportunities his office afforded to enrich himself. His hands were clean. No stain tarnished the brightness of the old man’s name; nor, though feeling, no doubt, all the partialities of a father for his children, did he attempt to palliate their crimes, or screech them from public indignation. Walking in his integrity; fearing God, but no man’s face; upright; the soul of honor; his bosom glowing with the purest patriotism, how grand is his last appearance on the stage of public life! Guthrie.—The public officer, who, like Samuel, can challenge the most rigid scrutiny of his life, and can appeal to all the world for a verdict of his integrity, has a prouder name than office could bestow, and a richer inheritance for his children than all the spoils of office could yield. J. P. T.

17,18. The harvest in Judea began about the end of June or the beginning of July, in which season thunder and rain were never known: the seasons of rain are only in the spring and autumn; the one called the former, the other the latter rain. Therefore Samuel, by this preamble,

“Is it not wheat harvest to-day?” meant to signify the greatness of the miracle which God was about to work; that he could at a time when they least of all expected it deprive them of all the comforts of life, as they justly deserved for their great wickedness in rejecting him and his prophet. Stackhouse.—And therefore when, at the prayer of Samuel, the Lord sent thunder and rain in the time of wheat harvest, such an unusual phenomenon happening immediately according to the prophet’s prediction, was justly considered as an authentic sign of his having spoken by the Divine authority. Blaney.

Samuel called unto the Lord, and, in answer to his prayer, even while he was yet speaking, the Lord sent thunder and rain. By this Samuel made it to appear, not only what a powerful influence God has upon this earth, that he could, of a sudden, when natural causes did not work toward it, produce this dreadful rain and thunder, and bring them out of his treasures, but also what a powerful interest he had in heaven, that God would thus hearken to the voice of a man, and answer him in the secret place of thunder (Ps. 81:7). Samuel, that son of prayer, was still famous for success in prayer. H.

19. No sooner hath Samuel’s voice ceased, than God’s voice begins: every bolt of thunder spake judgment against the rebellious Israelites, and every drop of rain was a witness of their sin; and now they found they had displeased him, which ruleth in the heaven, by rejecting the man that ruled for him on earth. The thundering voice of God, that had lately in their sight confounded the Philistines, they now understood to speak fearful things against them. No marvel, if now they fell upon their knees, not to Saul whom they had chosen, but to Samuel; who, being thus cast off by them, is thus countenanced in heaven. Bp. H.

The point that most impresses us is that in his person mortal man stands so very near to God. We see him continually made the vehicle of communication from God to men. Over against this, he bears up words of prayer and of confession from men to God. The people recognize his wonderful power with God in prayer and put all confidence in his success before the throne. The time had then fully come in the history of the nation when there was need of such a medium of words from God to men, and also from men back to God. Such men are a great moral power in whatever age they appear. H. C.—This illustrious prophet, like his predecessor Moses, was mighty to intercede for his backsliding people, and has placed the duty of public intercession on its firmest basis, the sin incurred by neglecting it on the part of the ministers of religion, and of the guardians of the State. Hales.

22. Samuel reminds them that it was not they that had chosen God; it was God that had chosen them. “The Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name’s sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people.” This was a great ground of comfort for Israel. The eternal God had chosen them and made them His people for great purposes of His own. It was involved in this very choice and purpose of God that He would keep His hand on them, and preserve them from all such calamities as would prevent them from fulfilling His purpose. Fickle and changeable, they might easily be induced to break away from Him; but, strong and unchangeable, He could never be induced to abandon His purpose in them. And if this was a comfort to Israel then, there is a corresponding comfort to the spiritual Israel now. W. G. B.

23. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. Paul lays down intercessory prayer as a positive command, and makes it the primary obligation of every Christian. We are never walking so exactly and so closely in the footsteps of Jesus Christ as when we are praying for others. We never more effectually benefit ourselves than when we pray for others. We have no talent of greater usefulness than the talent of intercessory prayer. Every other channel of good is circumscribed, and illness and absence take their place. But this has no limit. Wherever we are, under whatever circumstances, we can do it; and in doing it, we can reach those otherwise perfectly inaccessible to us—the guiltiest and the farthest off from God. Vaughan.

Samuel would not withdraw himself from all care for Israel’s future. There remained to him the two greatest weapons for moral effect—prayer and teaching. The one points to God in heaven, the other to men on the earth. Such are a prophet’s weapons, and they are mightier than a king’s sceptre or a warrior’s sword. That the intellectual and the moral are the highest forms of greatness and usefulness is a truth which has established itself throughout all history. The most illustrious and influential of the Hebrew race were the prophets. Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, none of the kings compare with these, except David and Solomon, and they because they had qualities resembling those of the prophets—the one of them a poet, and the other a sage. D. F.

24,25. Confronting them with their sins, and persuading them to heart-felt contrition, he points out to them anew the way of life. He sums up all in the clear, solemn words, “Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hath done for you. But if ye shall do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.” Thus in Gilgal a word is spoken for all time. Into that vital word nothing accidental or circumstantial enters. The law of national life is written as with the pen of the Medes and Persians. The basis of true national prosperity is revealed forevermore. In simplest paraphrase it stands now as then, that highest national well-being is only secured by hearty obedience to God. Let history be read with perceiving eyes. If one so chooses, let him, for the time, forego the word of Samuel and of Scripture. Let him seek, on any rational grounds, an interpretation of historic facts. The flood, as testified by universal tradition, coming upon a guilty, desperate world. Abraham founding a nation that honored righteousness, and that nation establishing itself in the midst of many and mighty foes. The Canaanitish peoples, inhuman and wicked, driven out of their land. Assyria sinking in corruption, and subjugated by the Chaldean Nabopolassar. Babylon yielding to unholy pride, and laid waste by Cyrus. Persia reckless of right, only to be scourged by Alexander, and possessed by the Moslem. Egypt mocking justice, and then trodden under foot by Cambyses, and degraded from her rank by Augustus Caesar. Macedon neglecting virtue, and soon the Roman plundering her cities and the Turk polluting her soil. The Greeks coming to put art and luxury above truth, and the dwellers by the Tiber and the Apennines threshing them as with flails. Rome, herself, mocking at purity and peace, until the Goths and the Huns sacked her treasures, and Constantine set the cross on the highest of her hills. Even the children of Abraham, in their disregard of righteousness, scattered and peeled and counted a reproach on the earth! How shall we explain those sober facts? What does it mean, that no nation which has followed holiness has been permanently devastated, and that no nation which has been prevalently wicked has permanently prospered? Why is it that to-day those nations are strongest which are most mindful of truth and most faithful to right? Why is it that the forces which are evidently destined to prevail have their home in Christian nations? Beyond peradventure, the rational answer is that which recognizes God as in it all, and as moving thus with determined purpose. That answer is the only solution of the observed facts. Let, then, the nations, in their full amenableness to God, heed the words of Samuel to Israel. Out of the whirlwind and tempest of our national disasters God has thundered his curse upon disobedience toward himself and his holy law. The basis of true national prosperity is given in the prophet’s words: “Fear the Lord, and serve him in truth with all your heart.” L. T. Chamberlain.

Samuel forms one of the noble trio concerning whom the Holy Ghost has recorded no actual transgression in the Scriptures. As partakers of the taint of Adam’s sin, they must have erred at least in thought, but the fact remains that of Joseph, Samuel, and Daniel, the faithful Scriptures record no fault. M. J.

What an example Samuel presents to our magistrates, our judges, our legislators, and to all intrusted with authority! And how should all who love their God and country pray that every post of honor and of public trust may be filled with a man of the type of Samuel! The fear of man bringeth a snare; but who, like Samuel, has the fear of God is raised above it. The favor of God is life; and who, like Samuel, seeks it will not be drawn aside by that of man. God is the judge of all, both of the quick and of the dead; and who, like Samuel, carries a sense of that to the bench of justice will keep the ermine of his robes unstained, and give righteous judgment; who, like Samuel, takes the Word of God for his rule, and looks to the recompense of reward, may meet with the ingratitude, but will never betray the interests of his country. Religion is the root of honor; piety the only true foundation of patriotism; and the best defence of a country, a people nursed up in godliness—of such virtue, energy, and high morale, animated with a courage which raises them above the fear of death. Guthrie.

GATHERING OF PHILISTINES IN MICHMASH. SAUL’S FIRST DISOBEDIENCE AT THE LOWER GILGAL. JONATHAN’S DEVOUT COURAGE LEADS TO A DIVINE DISCOMFITURE OF THE PHILISTINE HOSTS. SAUL’S RASH OATH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES TO THE FAINTING SOLDIERY. JONATHAN RESCUED FROM SAUL’S UNJUST CONDEMNATION.