The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 516

easily cond\1cted in proportion as men are honest and simple in word and deed. 8. Those only who learn the lessons of trouble in their early stage will escape later evils. 4. We should be thankful to God for hedgi11g our erring steps with difficulties. 5. It is a comfort to the holy that the principles ruling in their souls are destined to finally subdue all things to their truest welfare. Vers. 6-14.-Man's appeal from God to man. The £nets are-1. Saul in his trouble seeks in vain guidance from God. 2, In despair he has recourse to the witch ?f End~r, promising her ~hat no harm sl~ould come to her for assisting him with her mcantation~ .. 3. Saul desires of ]ier to bnng up. Sam~1el. 4. On Samuel coming forth the woman 1s m terror, and also d1sco1-crs Saul's identity. 5. By the aid of the woman Saul recognises Samuel, and bows himself to the earth. The strange events here narrated awaken feelings of wonder, and, in minds not acquiescent in God's methods of developing his purpose in connection with the Hebrew race, some degree of in- -credulity; but the important spiritual teaching is obvioos, and the difficulties of the subject, also, arc not without their practical value. We have here an instance of- I. A MAN RIGHTEOUSLY LEFT OF Gon IN TIME OF DISTRESS. The triple reference to dreams, prophets, and Urim indicates the intense desire of Saul to obtain some intimation of the Divine will ; and this renders the futility of his endeavour the more iml?ressive. Outwardly he conformed to the ~sages of a ruler in Israel, and, were he Judged by men who ha,e regard only or cluefly to the zeal which meets the eye, he would be regarded as, so far, a religious man, and within the range of blessing. ·To those who are ·unfamiliar with Scripture it may seem painfully strange that a 111an presumably in earnest should be so utterly left of God; but, as in other instances, ·a little more knowledge will afford a solution of the fact and justify the ways of God. 1. It is a fact that men are left to themselves. Divine guidance had been withheld from Saul from the day of his rebellion (eh. xv. 20-23) up to the date of this event. Tl,e antediluvians and, at one stage of history, Israel were abandoned to their de,·ices (Gen. vi. 1-3; Isa. i. 15). Pharisees were left to the blindness of their hearts notwithstanding their many prayers. When men deliberately darken the light that is in them God does not enable them to see the" Light of the world." 2. There -are moral reasons for such abandonment. In Saul's case there was an absence of that state of mind which alone would render attention to his cry for help honourable to God and blessed to mankind. There was no penitential recognition of his former sin, nor of the years of persistent impenitence, nor of his cruelty to David ; his desire for God's guidance and help sprang entirely from fear of military disaster, of loss of influence, and of the fulfilment of the prediction outstanding against him (eh. xv. -28, 29). The response of God to man's cry is based on law as beautiful in its orderliness as anything in the physical world. The notion that God must help every one in trouble is based on sheer ignorance, and is profoundly unscientific. Even in "home and society we recognise the necessity of moral conditions of receiving atten- tion and favour. Divine mercy is free, but is righteous in its flow. It never sets a premium on sellishness and impenitence; it is never exercised in such a way as to. do violence to our radical sense of right and moral propiiety. This will account for the deaf ear which God is represented as turning to bad men when, in desperation, they cry to him in adversity, and when, at the end of life, they seek him in vain; for they do not care for God, for holiness, for anything but selfish deliverance from uncom- fortable circumstances and great danger. Hence-3. The abandonment is in liar- mony with tlie current of God's promises. Again and again we are encourag·ed to seek the Lord. Nothing is more certain tlian that God delights to answer our cry for help. The appeal of David later on in life, and the dumb pleading of the Magdalene, wer.e freely answered ; but the fifty-first Psalm reveals the contrast of David's spirit with that of Saul, and the tears of the unholy woman told of a heart altogether turned toward God. II. THE SUPERHUMAN CHARACTER Oil' GoD's WAYS. There is in some minds a feeling of surprise that such a narrative as this should find a place in a book supposed to be written or compiled under Divine inspiration for the instrnction of the world in .1,piritual truth ; and, aBsuming that its fitness in such a book can be made out, it ia ·deemed incredible that God shoulJ allow his servant to come from the illl'i~ible world .{JB, xxvm. 1-25.J THE FIHST BOOK OF SAMUEL.