The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 270

mont of a people also plays an important part. This use of national judgments is constantly l'ecognised in the language of Scripture. "The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of e,II the nations" (Isa. Iii. 10). "Put them in fear, 0 Lord, that the n'otions may know themselves to be but men " (Ps. ix. 20). .At the same time the j11dgfuents which on earth come on nations as such do not necessarily foreclose hope to the young and innocent among them of a personal salvation from the woe due to the personally guilty in another life. 5. God is the 0'!1lfy true Judge of the actual demerits of a guilty nation. We cannot rightly estimate the intrinsic evil even of our own personal sins. "The Ju'dge of all the earth" must decide what is appro- priate punishment for national crime; for he only knows the degree of enmity in the minds of Sodomites·and Amalekites. None but he can see the intricate bearings of their sin and of their continued existence as a people. He also knows best what blessed deterrent influence will arise to mankind from the conspicuous character of the judgment exeouted. 6. The means by which judgment is executed appear to be determined by conditions known to God. Judgruent works inwardly through t}.e conscience and the mental faculties in general. They bear the curse of the sin com- mitted. It a:lso works externally by the pressure against the sinner of the order of nature, which is in league with righteousness, and ultimately makes '' the way of transgressors hard." Nations have not a very lively conscience.· The force of DivinE: judgments usually comes from without. The instrumentality used is evi- dently connected with the actual presence of forces which, acting in a natural way under the preordained direction of the Omniscient, become "his arm.'' Doubtless there were physical conditions of earth and atmosphere which rendered destruction by a deluge both natural and yet conspicuously of God. The Sodomites were de- stroyed not by water, nor slow plague, nor famine, but by the natural combnstibl!;' materials close at hand. The .Amalekites were not left to die out by internal anarchy, or famine, or pestilence, but were given up to the action of that international hostility which was as real an element of destruction close at hand as was the volcanic force at Sodom. He who in his vast prevision, seeing the co-existence of the vices of antediluvians with certain fluvial conditions of a portion of the earth, and the co-existence of the sin of Sodom with certain volcanic oonditions, used them for this purpose, may have ·also given full freedom to the play of national sentiment in the minds of Israel ,co-existing at that juncture with the fit time for the execution of a purpose to obliterate a guilty nation. Had pestilence or earthquake carried them off, it would have been God's act as truly as when the soldiers of Saul were the executioners of a decree. The employment of an executioner gives no right, but the reverse, to others to go •and do the same. 7. Tlie fo1'1n of punishment on communi- ties under tlie Old· Testament dispensation is evidently suggestive of tlie danger of !Lntagonism to Olirist. The sin of Amulek was that of deliberate attempt to destroy the people of God (Exod. xvii. 8-16; Deut. xxv. 17-19). That means to prevent the realisation of salvation in the "seed of Abraham." If .Amalek knew, as is cer- tainly possible, the lofty claims of Israel, the crime was most fearful. That in th& mind of God and of Israel such was the nature of the sin is seen in the discrimina- tion made in favour of the Kenites because they showed kindness to Israel (ver. 6), It is at a)] events clear that God would have men learn that it was the sin of obstruct- ing his purposes of mercy for mankind that was so obnoxious in his sight. The terrible national destruction which this sin brought on is a clear intimation of the " destruction from the presence of the Lord II which must come on the individuals who set themselves in antagonism to Christ and his pul'poses of mercy to the world. A more terrible sin than that cannot be concei,ed; a rnore terrible act of judgruent cannot be imagined than that which will come when Christ sha11 say, "Depart from me, ye cursed 11 (Matt. xxv. 41). "It is a fearful thing," even under the gospel dispensation, "to fall into the hands of the living God II after a life of deliberate antag·onism to the very Saviour he has sent to redeem us. Although, therefore, there may be much in the recorded "terrible acts II of God which weighs 011 our spirit and demands of us reverence and humility, still we are not without some gle:u!'.~ of light to sustain our faith both in the sacred records and the righteousness l",hich never fails. Ge11eml lessons :--1. ,v e see how judgment does surely rome, though for genera· 2i2 THE .l"IRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [cR. XV. 1-M,