The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 268

HOMILETICS. Vere. 1-7.-God's terrible acts. The facts are-1. Saul is reminded that though a king he is but the servant of God, and bound to carry out his declared will. 2. llaul is commanded to utterly destroy Amalek in retribution for former sins. 3. In prosecuting his duty Saul discriminates in favour of the Kenites, then resident among the Amalekites, in consequence of their former kindness to Israel. It appears from xiv. 48 that, although the sin of Amalek in bygone time~ (Exod. xvii. 8-16) was the primary ground of the judgment about to be inflicted, the recent annoyance and injury caused to Saul's subjects was the occasion for the execution of the ancient sentence at this juncture. Those living under the mild and beneficent influences of the Christian dispensation are conscious of a shock to their sensibilities in reading the account of wholesale destruction brought by human instrumentality on an entire people; and the emotional disturbance is supplemented by intellectual perplexity on observing that the transaction was in obedience to a most explicit command of God. It is sometimes the practice, very easy for all who will not take pains to enter care- fully into the subject, to get rid of the emotion and the perplexity by rejecting the inspiration of the entire record, or else by saying that Samuel and Saul sincerely but ignorantly mistook their own views of policy and dispositions of heart for the voice of God. The question at issue is a large one, but as it embraces in principle the whole of what in the Psalms are called his "terrible acts," which, whenever occurring or read., tax our feelings and perplex our intellects, we may notice a few points applicat>le more or less to all God's righteous judgments. , I. THE SPIRIT WITH WHICH WE SHOULD ArPROACH THE CONSIDERATION OF Goo's "TERRI11LE ACTS." It is not improbable that an unteachable, self-assertive spirit-a spirit that will not repose in a higher wisdom and goodness than its own, or that chafes under its inability to square human views of sin and its relations with God's- is the moral cause of man's quarrel with some of the records of Old Testament history. Our present contention is not with atheists, who to get rid of one difficulty create many others, but with those who believe in an almighty, all-wise, and merciful God, who is the Author of the moral dnd physical laws, by the action of which the world finds bliss or woe. We cannot help finding ourselves face to face with events bringing sorrow and shame, material and moral desolation to multitudes, because God so willed one creature's condition to be affected by the conduct of another. Apart from all human conduct, there are awful events in which, so to speak, the reputation of God for goodness and tenderness seems to be at stake. This circum- stance should make the rejecter of Old Testament records pause ere he yields to the spirit of unbelief. There are " clouds and darkness" round about the throne ; and he who would flee from mystery may well seek to flee from the universe. The juclg- ment that condemns everything of which it does not see the reason is not qualified to exercise itself on the acts of an infinite Being. The cherubim and seraphim cover their faces, not presuming to attempt to pierce even with their clear and strong vision the ineffable glory ; and so when a great burden of fear rests on our heart becanse of the terrible things of God, it is for us to bow in lowliness and trustful- ness, saying for our comfort, because of what we know him to be, and not because we can solve the awful problems of existence, "Just and true are thy ways, thou ~ing of saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name ? " (Rev. 1v. 3, 4; cf. Ps. xxxvi. 6). II. FACTS AND PRINCIPLES THAT SHOULD WEIGH WITH US IN OUB THOU0HTS UPON GoD's II TERRIBLE ACTS." It is not possible to find a perfect solution of 1111 the acts  270 THE FIHSl' BOOK OF SAMUEL. [rH. XV. 1-86