The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 146

-else,where (1 Snm: •xv. 30 : 2 Sam. v. 3 ; been a casual authority. And it was Samuel's l Kings viii. 3, &c.), ,vc have tmccs of a high ollice to give the n1ttion this, while he populrtr nsscmbly, representing the Israelite also changed the outward Form of prophecy, nation, and composed probauly of the chiefs and made it too into an onlerly institution. and hends of fathers-houses. Already in A king to judge ue. /. e. to govern us, as Egypt (Exod.' iii. 16, &c.) we find some the shophet 01' judge harl <lone, only in a surh hodi' in existence, and it seems to more regularly - constituted manne1'. And hnvc lasted t11ioughciut the whole history of Samuel prayed unto Jehovah. There ha<l the nation; for it outlived the monarchy, bee,n no such submissinn to the will of Gori gained increased, power after the exile, and on the part of the. e1der3 ; but deeply as •continued clown to Ne,v Testament times. Samuel must have heen hurt by this tleter- The demand, tbe'refore, for a king, though a mination of the nation to take· the govern- sort of revolt against Samuel's authority, was ment out of the hands of himself and his sons, .at least made in a c,onstitutional manner, yet he leaves the decision to Jehovah. i\lore- and cai:ne before him 1v1itb all the weight of over, we must note that it was as prophet a formal decisi'on ori the part. of the repre- that he thus acted as mediator between the sentatives. of the nation: They put it also people and Go'.! ; and he gave them his ser- in the form of a request; for which they give vices in this his highest capacity as faith- two reasons. First, .·tb'e decay of his physical fully when the question was one injurious to powers·.:_ Behold, thou art" old: • Wise and himself as he had ever done on more plea.sing vigorous as his rul.e had been, yet with in- occasions. -ereasing' years therli" was less of energy ; and Ver. 7.-In prayer then the answer came to the events recotued ·as havin~ occurred· at him that the request of the people must be the beg41.ning of 'Saul's re1gn shciw, that iri gmnted, however wrongly it had been urged. order· to •check· the. increasing po#er of 'the In itself it was wrong ; for they have not Philistines; a leader was needed who was"at rejected thee, but they have rejected me, once •daring, ·resolute,· and skilful in' war. that I should not reign over them. As we But there was a further reason-Thy sons saw above, they wanted no theocratic king, walk not in thy ways. These 'words show whose first duty would be to maintain the that the elders had the most perfect confid- Mosaic law (Dent. xvii. 18, 19), and protect ence in Samuel. They felt that he wowd the priest and prophet in the discharge of not connive· at the wickedness cif his sons, their legitimate functions ; all they wanted but wowd do what was right by the nation. was a soldier who would put an end to their Thus the{' had everything to hope from state of anarchy, and enable them to culti- the fathers justice, ,vhile if they waited 'till vate their fields without the danger of seeing l1is death the sons might resist wh'at was the produce swept off by marauders. virtually their deposition. That the sons Vers. 8, 9.-According to all the works, of a judge possessed considerable power see &c. They showed in this the same want of Judges ix. 2. Make us a king to juage respect and affection for their own institu- us like all the nations. I. e. just as all the tions and religious privileges which had heathen nations have a king. The words marked all their history since the day when are those of Dent.' x:vii. 14,' and were probably Jehovah brought them up out of Egypt in tended to remind Samuel that 'tb!! ·nation And therefore Samuel was to proteat solelDllly was only' asking what had virtually been unto them, and show them. The two verbs pron;iiseil: ' do not menn different things, but the same. Ver. 6.....:But the thing· displeased Samuel, "To protest" is to testify, to bear witness, nnd justly s·o. For, in the first· place, they and warn them of the danger they were had determined to have a king without incurrin<>. And ns they were asking not consulting the will of Goel. Granting that for the development and perfecting of their it would give them the security necessary 01m institutions, but for 11 government for the nation's welfare and progress, yet so modelled upon the institutions of the heathen woighty a matter ought not to have been round them, Samuel shows whnt are the decided without an appeal to Jehovah. dangers inherent in the establishment of a Samuel did make it a matter of prayer ; despot such as the kings of the heathen the elders were actuated solely by political were. A.s n rule the kings of J udren did no, motives. And, secondly, they undervalued resemble the picture drawn by Samuel, hnL their own religious privileges. They wanted in spite of many blemishes remained trnc to a king such ns the heathen had, whereas their allegiance to Jehovah as thA supreme something far better and higher was possible Ruler of the nation, and confined themsch-"s for them, namely, n king who would be the within the limits marked out for them \,y representative of Jehovah, o.s the shophet the Mosaic law. Now therefore, at the had hitherto been. The nation's real need beginning of the verse, is in tho Hebrew was not a new power, but the permanent simply "And now." There is uo inference organisation of what up to this time had implied in it.  14-l THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [en. nu. 1--22..