The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 156

,ource of sin 11nd woe. The cause of truth 11nd righteousness in the world is greatly d11mnged when those who should be the guides of the ignorant and the wicked become their servile followers. 11 Palestine in ancient times was pre-eminently a land of kings. Every district, nay, every considerable city, had its king and its court. In most cases the king w11s 11n autorrat, absolute and irresponsibl':l, lawgiver, judge, and executor, the source of 1111 honours, offices, and emoluments, the commander of the army, the dispenser of favours, the awarder of punishment. The rights, claims, and pre- rogatives of royalty extended to every person, and to every relation of life. The king was the master, the people were his subjects, nay, slaves-his property. In 'L better sense he was the common father of the community, they his children, with all the kindlier duties and obligations implied and included in this most sacred of human relations. Royalty thus constituted and administered was selected by Jehovah as tbe synonym and exemplar of his special relation to the Hebrew people" (Thomson, 'Bibliotheca Sacra,' vol. xxx.). (4) The threatening attitude of the Philistines (eh. ix. 16) and the Ammonites (eh. xii. 12), which was doubtless referred to in the inter- view of the elders with Samuel. But the Lord of hosts, who had hitherto deliverer! them, was able to do so still; and to rely upon a new institution for safety instead of upon him was to lean upon a broken reed. 11 Instead of seeking for the cause of the misfortunes which had hitherto befallen them in their own sin and want of fidelity toward Jehovah, they searched for it in the faulty constitution of the nation it~elf" (Keil). 2. Its real grounds were blameworthy. (1) Dissatisfaction with the govern- ment which had been Divinely appointed and sanctioned. When the hearts of men are right with God they are not disposed to complain of his ordinances. (2) Dis- trust of the presence and might of their invisible King. '' God was not sufficient for them without a creature prop." 11 Their demand of a visible earthly sovereign was in disparagement of that extraordinary Providence which had distingu:shed them from the nations of the earth, and taken them by a privilege under an immediate theocracy. Their sin was founded in a revolt from God, in the abdication of 9 perfect trust nn,I reliance upon his providential government in that method in which with respect to them he had ordered it. But their fault, though uncommon in its form, is not at all in its principle. Something to see and nothing to believe is the wish and propensity of more than the Israelites" (Davison 'on Prophecy'). (3) Impatience, presumption, and self-will. " God g·ave them judges, ... and afterwards they desired a king " (Acts xiii. 20, 21). Instead of first seeking to know the will of God, and then wait- ing his time for a change, if it should seem g·ood in his sight, they thought that they knew what was best, took counsel of their own hearts, 11nd, having chosen their course independently of him, proceeded forthwith to follow it up, and resolved to have their own way. They were thus disloyal to their Divine King, to whose direction and con- trol they were bound to submit. (4) The love of worldly pleasure, power, nnd glory. They desired a king not merely (a) that he might judge them without interruption, by the law of hereditary descent; but also (b) that" he might go out before them and fight their battles" (ver. 20); and, still further (c), that be might hold a splendid court, and gratify their ambition and lust of shining or making a boastful display. They wished to be thought in no respect inferior to the surround- i11g nations. It was a result to which prosperity too often leads. The worldliness. from which the misconduct of Samuel's sons proceeded was but a symptom of " widespread evil. ·"The secret spring of their rebellion was the ambition of their leaders, who could live no longer without the splendour of a regal court and house- hold. 'Give me' (say they, as the prophet Hosea makes them speak, eh. xiii. 10) • a king and princes,' where every one of them might shine a distinguished olliccr of stnte. They could get nothing·, when their affairs led them to their judge's po1r residence in the schools of the prophets, but the gift of the Holy Ghost (eh. x. 10; xix.), whieh a courtier, I suppose, would not prize even at the rate of Simon MagLt~, or think it worth the bribing for a piece of mc,ney. This it w.is, and only this, th it made their demand criminal" (Warburton,' Div. Leg.,' Book V.). How often his their sin been repeated in the history of nations I "All the tragical wars of the Greeks or barbarians, whether civil or foreign, have flowed from one fountain-from the desire either of riches, or of g·lory, or of plensure; for in pursuit of these thing.i- the human race brings on its own destruction" (Philo Jud., 'In Decal ,g.'). ·154 THE FIUST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [ci:. 1111. 1-- 22.