Wilfulness of Israel in Rejecting Samuel. 17

you." To the same effect was the dying injunction of Joshua, "Be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left." And in a later age, when the Moabites and Ammonites made war against Jehoshaphat, the prophet Jahaziel was inspired to encourage the people in these words :— "Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem." Once more-When Israel and Syria came against Judah, the prophet Isaiah was directed to meet Ahaz, and to say to him, "Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted."1 Presumption—that is, the determination to act of themselves, or self-will-was placed in the number of the most heinous sins. "The man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die, and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.” 2

While, however, this entire surrender of themselves to their Almighty Creator was an especial duty enjoined on the chosen people, a deliberate and obstinate transgression of that duty is one of the especial characteristics of their history. They failed most conspicuously in that very point in which obedience was most strictly enjoined them. They were told never to act of them

1 Ex. xiv. 13, 14; Deut. i. 29, 30; Josh. xxiii. 6; 2 Chron. xx. 15, 17; Isa. vii. 4. 2 Deut. xvii. 12.

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selves, and (as if out of mere perverseness) they were for ever acting of themselves; and, if we look through the series of their punishments, we shall find them inflicted, not for mere indolent disobedience, or for frailty under temptation, but for deliberate, shameless presumption, running forward just in that very direction in which the providence of God did not lead them, and from which it even prohibited them.

First, they made a molten image to worship, and this just after receiving the command to make to themselves no emblems of the Divine Majesty, and while Moses was still in the Mount. Then they would take to themselves a captain, and return to Egypt, instead of proceeding into the land of promise. When forbidden to go forward, then they at once attempted to do so. At last, when they had entered it, instead of following God's guidance, and destroying the guilty inhabitants, they adopted a plan of their own, and put their conquered enemies under tribute. Next followed their self-willed purpose of having a king like the nations around them.

It is observable, moreover, that they were the most perversely disobedient at those times when Divine had aided them in some remarkable way. For mercy instance, in the lifetime of Moses. Again, when Samuel was raised up to bring back the age of Moses, and to complete what he had begun, then they ran counter to God's design most signally; at the very time,

I

say, when God was visiting them in their low estate, and renewing His mercies, their very first act, on gain

ing a little strength, and recovering from their despair,

was to reject God's government over them, and ask a king like other nations.

This is the part of their history to which I wish now particularly to draw your attention, the times of Samuel; the main circumstances to be considered being thesethe renewal of God's mercies to them after their backslidings; His single demand in return, that they should submit themselves to His guidance; and, lastly, their plain refusal to do so, or rather their impetuous and deliberate movement in another direction.

When Moses was nigh his death, he foretold that a prophet was one day to arise like unto him in his place, a promise which was properly fulfilled in Christ's coming, but which had a prior accomplishment in the line of prophets from Samuel down to the captivity. A period, however, of four hundred years intervened between Moses' age and this first fulfilment of the prediction. The people were at first ruled by judges. At length, in the midst of the distress which their sins had brought upon them, when the Philistines had overrun the country, God visited them according to the promise. He raised up Samuel as His first prophet, and him not as a solitary messenger of His purposes, but as the first of many hundreds in succession.

Now, let us consider the circumstances under which Samuel, the first of the prophets, was raised up. We shall find that his elevation was owing simply to God's will and power. He, like Moses, was not a warrior, yet by his prayers he saved his people from their enemies, and established them in a settled government. "Be still, and know that I am God." The principle of

this command had been illustrated in the giving of the Law, and now it was enforced in the beginning of the Prophetical Dispensation, as also in later ages, after the captivity, and when Christ came, according to the words of Zechariah, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."1

Observe, Samuel was born, in answer to his mother's earnest prayer for a son. Hannah, "in bitterness of soul, had prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore, and vowed a vow,” viz.—that if God would give her a son, he should be dedicated to Him. This should be noticed, for Samuel was thus marked from his birth as altogether an instrument of the Lord's providing. A similar providence is observable in the case of other favoured objects and ministers of God's mercy, in order to show that that mercy is entirely of grace. Isaac was the child of Divine power, so was John the Baptist; and Moses, again, was almost miraculously saved from the murderous Egyptians in his infancy.

According to his mother's vow, Samuel was taken into the service of the temple from his earliest years; and, while yet a child, was made the organ of God's sentence of evil upon Eli the high priest. God called him, in the sacred time, between night and morning, "Samuel, Samuel," and pronounced through him a judgment against Eli, for his sinful indulgence towards his sons. Here, again, was a lesson to the Israelites, how entirely the prophetic spirit, with which the nation was henceforth to be favoured, was from God. Had Samuel grown to manhood before he was inspired, it would not

1 Zech. iv. 6.

have clearly appeared how far the work was immediately Divine; but when an untaught child was made to prophesy against Eli, the aged high priest, the people were reminded, as in the case of Moses, who was slow of speech, that it was the Lord who "made man's mouth, the dumb, or deaf, the seeing, or the blind;" and that age and youth were the same with Him when His purposes required an instrument.

"1

Samuel thus grew up to manhood, with the presages of greatness on him from the first. It is written, "Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba" (i.e., from one end of the land to the other), "knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord."2

After this, when he was about thirty years old, the battle took place with the Philistines, in which thirty thousand Israelites fell. The ark of God was taken, and Eli, on hearing the news, fell from off his seat backward, and was killed. Thus Samuel was raised to the supreme power, in his country's greatest affliction. Still, even in his elevation, he was not allowed to do any great action himself. The ark of God was taken, yet he was not to rescue it. God so ordered it that His name "should be exalted among the heathen, and should be exalted in the earth."

The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod, and placed

1 Exod. iv. 11.

2 1 Sam. iii. 19-21.