It may be that when the tribes of Israel feel the throb of nationality they will demand a king. Will Samuel refuse to give them a king ? Will he plead that they have no king but Jehovah ? He may have to give them a king. For God's ways are not as our ways. Through the gift of a king, a King may come.
Moreover, the war is still with the Philistines. And the Philistines are now more formidable than they were in the days of Samson. It may be, not only that the tribes of Israel must be gathered into a nation, but also that the nation requires a leader. And when Saul presented himself — look at him, head and shoulders taller, and a king every inch of him, for it is still the world's youth and the physical has more than its value — when Saul appeared, Samuel anointed him king. Samuel doubted the wisdom of it. But we see now that in that self- effacing act Samuel had become to his people as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3. Let Isaiah come third. If Samson used his power with the hand, and Samuel with the head, Isaiah reached the heart. But first his own heart must be reached. He must himself come into right relation with God before he can begin to do the work which God has given him to do. Is this a new departure in God's leading ? It is most momentous.
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Samson had a personal feud with the Philistines, and that personal feud was the occasion (shall we say the opportunity ?) for the exercise of the gift which God had given him, that the Philistines might be kept in check. Samuel was a patriot. The personal feud was swallowed up in the national quarrel. Now, the first duty of the patriot is obedience. But obedience to whom ? Obedience to the superior. One man has soldiers under him, and he says to this one Go, and he goeth, and to another Come, and he cometh. But he himself is also set under authority. And when it comes to the king at last, even he has his superior in Jehovah. Samuel had to teach Saul that to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
And it sometimes happens that stern things have to be done by the patriot in the name of obedience. " Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal."
But there is a greater sphere than the patriot's. It is the sphere of the prophet. And there is a greater virtue than obedience. It is reverence. Isaiah learns first of all that the God of Israel is a holy God ; and then he learns that the God of Israel is the God not of Israel only, but of the whole earth.
He learns that the God of Israel is a holy God. Samson was not concerned with holiness in God, or with its immediate consequence, righteousness in man. A rude sense of justice he had, but little sense of obligation to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before his God. Even Samuel was more concerned with the welfare of the nation than with his own moral approach to God. Isaiah can do nothing until his lips have been touched with the live coal from off the altar. It is most momentous.
And as soon as he learns that God is a God of holiness, Isaiah learns also that He is the God of the whole earth. The same God who reaches to the heart stands in the centre of the Universe. And ludicrous as it will appear in moments of unbelief, he sees that his message is to the inhabitants of Sidon
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and to the men of Babylon, and he answers at once, " Here am I, send me."
4. The last is Paul. The athlete, the statesman, the prophet — beyond these there is a higher, the Christian. John the Baptist was a prophet — there hath not arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptist. Nevertheless he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he.
What is the Christian's secret ? It is love. Samson did not understand it. He considered neither the Philistines nor the foxes when he sent the burning brands through the com. Samuel did not understand it. " I remember what Amalek did to Israel " — and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord. Isaiah did not understand it. But stay — Isaiah had at least a glimpse of it. Or if not Isaiah, then that other who said, " Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows."
For if love is the secret of the Christian, the secret of love is self-sacrifice. " Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels (and of prophets), and have not love, I am nothing. Love suffereth long and is kind."