The Pulpit Commentary — Joshua — Section 18

who was, like him, both Nazarite and judge, Samson. The birth of both wns promised beforehand. Both were dedicated as Nazarites from their birth; not (11ccording to the common Nazarite vow) for a limited period, but for life. Both, in their way, prevailed. But here the likeness ends. Samsouwas a Nazarite in tho letter, but knew nothing of the Nazarite's spirit; Samuel was o. Naze.rite in heart and in life. Samson prevailed by superhuman strength over men's bodies; Samuel influenced their minds. The work of the one was to destroy and to slay; the work of the other to restore and to create. In Samson we see how a work, most manifestly blessed by God, may be man·ed by the self-will and self-indulgence of man; in Samuel we see what divine things can be wrought when a man of great gifts yjelds himself with self-sacrifice and devotion to work under and with the Almighty. It was the high privilege of Samuel to effect two reunions, impossible to over-rate in importance. He reunited the tribes among themselves ; he made united Israel once more at one 'Vith Jehovah. Under his leadership even Judah and Epbrai.qi work together ; at his urgent exhortation " the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Asbtaroth, and served the Lord only" (1 Sam. vii. 4). Tims what had been the weakness and curse of Israel under the earlier Judges, the political and religious dissolution was for the time at least cured. It was, possibly, to typify this new birth of the nation that Samuel " took a sucking lamb" as bis first public ~acrifice on behalf of the people. It was in contrast to the sacrilegious greed of Hophni and Phineas that he " offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord" (1 Sam. vii. 9). The answer was the victory of Aphek, or Ebenezer, already noticed. In the presence of this prophet, who received such immediate and visible answers to hi.s prayers, reunited Israel knew that it once more had the minister of Jehovah linng among them. The dreary interval during which God's voice had been heard so seldom had passed away, and as in the days of Moses their heavenly King in the person of His prophet was ever present to His people. At Ramab, bis birthplace, which he fixed upon as his abode, he "judged Israel all the days of his life," making circuits every yeOI to the sacred centres of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and thence returning to Ramah. For as yet there was no national centre ; each judge fixed bis own for himself. Personal and family ties were still paramount ; a fixed national metropolis arose first under the monarchy. Thus he continued, " spending and being spent" for Israel, with the care both of the whole Jewish Church and of the whole Jewish nation on his shoulders. As prophet be was the centre and organ of the religious life, a.s judge he was the centre and organ of the political life of the people. What many popes have claimed to be, what a few of the greatest of them have earnestly stri"t"en to be, Samuel, without any self-seeking or lust of power, was. We shall be altogether mistaken if we regard any portion of the Books of Samuel as a Liography of the prophet whose name they bear. They are not that any more than the Book of Joshua is a biography of Joshua, or the Book of Judges a series of lives of J ewisb leaders. None of the books of the Bible 11re th11t. The historical Looks 1,oth of the Old and New Testament are all alike in this, that they are his- tories not of individuals but of the kingdom of God. Hence, among other charac- teristics, the comparative neglect of chronology; for it is the exception when chronology has importance in the history of His kingdom, with whom "one day is as a thousand years, and a thouBand years as one day" (2 Peter iii. 8). We are once more without a date in the sacred narrative, and we once more have a blank which we can fill 011ly tentatively, JW1t 11,s µi ihe Gospels, "He went down with  JOSHUA TO NEHEMIAil. :rxi