The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 271

tions it seems to linger. 2. It becomes us to inquire whether we by any conduct of ours are impeding the march of God's people. 3. We see how God remembers c>nd causes his se_rvants to remem?er, act_s of kindness rendered to the we11ry on thei; "·ay to the promised rest. 4. It IS a pamful duty to have to be executors of God's judgment;; ; _yet when men in ~ational and domestic affairs are really called to it, let rhem subordmate personal sentiment to solemn duty. 5. In all our painful thoughts over the woes that come on the universe, involving the young and old, let us seek grace to "be still," and to wait for the passing away of the night and the coming of the light that shall turn weeping into joy; for it will come. Vers. 8-11.-The limits of patience. The facts are-1. Saul, in disobedience to the command of God, spares A.gag and the best of the spoil. 2. God declares to Samuel that he can endure with Saul as king no longer. 3. Samuel, in his grief, ~ries unto God all night. It is never said that God changes his purpose absolutely. Where promises are given conditional on conduct they are revoked when conduct fails. \1Ve _cannot ascribe human feelings to God; yet it is only by the analogy of human feelings that we can know anything of the mind of God. The setting aside from kingly office of Saul was an act of the Divine mind conformable with the original purpose of making him king, since the condition of permanence bad not been fulfilled. Saul bad been borne with so long; now he is to be borne with no longer. Patience yields to judgment. I. THERE IS A LIMIT TO DIVINE PATIENCE. Patience bears relation to wrong- doing, or the sufl'erance of ill. In God it relates to the restraint he puts on him- self in the presence of that which merits his displeasure. That there is such a limit to Divine patience is clear. 1. The language of Scripture indicates it. The heart of God is represented as being under pressure of a moral force which can scarcely be resisted. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" (Hosea xi. 8). The retrospect of the past brings into view the overpowering considerations which withheld good and allowed calamity to come. "He should have fed them with the finest of the wheat'' (Ps. lxxxi. 16). "0 that my people had hearkened unto me I" (ibid. ver. 13). The persistence of men in sin, despite all counsel and mercy, raises the question of the length of time during which the hand of justice can be stayed. "How lung shall I bear with this evil congregation?" (Num. xiv. 27). A reference to love, tenderness, and care is set in sad contrast with the doom which the ingratitude so long endured is about to bring (Matt. xxiii. 37, 38). 2. Recorded facts illustrate it. The vices of the antediluvians were long endured, and it was after the Spirit had striven long with men, and they h.i.d refused the warnings of Noah, that patience vielded to the execution of judgment (1 Pet. iii. 20). The repeated warnings given fo Pharaoh reveal a patience which terminated in the overthrow in the Red Sea. Patience was "grieved" with the perverse g&neration in the wildernesa, but grief gave place to a "wrath" which barred their entrance into rest (Heh. iii. 9-12). God endured long with some of the seven Churches in Asia, but at last judgment came, and the candlesticks were removed from their place. 3. The close of tll4 Christian dispensation in a day of judgment is the most awful illustration of th• limit to God's patience. TLe plain teaching of that great event is that here m_en oave time to repent and obtain through Christ all that will qualify for a perfect life -that for the term of our earthly life God bears with our sins and provocations, and proves by thousands of favours that he" is s!ow to anger;_" but that t~e e'!d of all this must come, and judgment on the whole hfe ensue. His long-suffermg 1s great, But "it is appointed to men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Heh. ix. 27), II. THE GROUND OF THE LBJIT OF Goo's PATIENCE. The yielding of patience to judgment in the case of Saul was on the occasion of his clear and ~~liberate b~each of the command (vers. 1-3, 8, 9), and this too after other opportumhes of obedience had been abused. But the question arises how it is that a certain degree or persist- €nce in wrong is the occasion of the cesB'ation of patience. There i~ a va~ue impres- ~ion in some minds that because God is perfectly tender and loving Ins patience 1Jeed and ought never to fail. This kind of thinking springa from very defective views of the character of God and of his relation to a moral onler. It may not be .possible for us to give a perfect rationale of Divine procedure; but there is per, CH. XV, 1-35.] THE FIRST DOOK OF SAMUEL. 273