Bible Commentaries

Saul's Early Efforts

1 Samuel 13:5); it was not likely, therefore, that a people so vast and so accustomed to war under their kings and princes should be immediately struck by panic. The picture presented by Israel is remarkable for its light and shade. Look at King Saul in the first flush of royal pride and ambition, responding to what he believed to be a divine vocation, and aboundingly confident of immediate and complete success; he was a man who regarded his own progress as the rush of a mighty wind, and looked upon his sword as the very lightning of God. But his people were unaccustomed to his leadership; many a stout battle had Israel fought, and not a few victories had Israel won, but in this case a new element enters into the calculation. It is true that Saul had overwhelmed Nahash; but compared with the Philistines gathered in their full strength Nahash was indeed a contemptible foe. On the other side, therefore, we have a misgiving people, faint-hearted, filled with the distracting fear which weakens all whom it agitates, and trembling with apprehension. If the case had to be argued from the condition of the people, no special sagacity would be required to predict the result. Is it not so also in the great moral conflict of the world? Judging by what is seen in the spirit and action of nominal Christians, who could justly regard them as men of intrepidity and invincible resoluteness? What trembling, what hesitation, what nightmare fancies, what ghostly noises in the night, what nameless spectres have combined to make the Church afraid! What a genius the Church has for creating fears! How afraid the Church is of sensationalism, offending the weak, annoying the sensitive, disturbing the slumbering! What wonder if amid all this unworthy hesitation the war should be going against the divine standard! But we must not look at the people: our eyes must be upon the Captain of our salvation. In his heart there is no misgiving; he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet; he never turns back from the war; his sword is always highest in the air, pointing the road to danger and to victory.

It is no injustice to say that today the Church is trembling in face of the scepticism, the selfishness, the cupidity, and the unspiritual philosophy, which signalise the times. Blessed are we, even in the midst of all this faint-heartedness, if we can get one glimpse of Christ as he himself presses on to the point where the fight is deadliest, and grows in strength as the battle grows in fierceness.

We now come upon one of the mistakes of Saul's first campaign. He had been ordered to go down to Gilgal before Samuel ( 1 Samuel 10:8): "And behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings." Saul was to wait in Gilgal seven days for the coming of the prophet. A remarkable point should be noted here, namely, that Samuel even after his valedictory address did not wholly abandon his supremacy in Israel. Saul waited as he supposed the seven days, and then in his impatience he commanded to have brought to him a burnt offering and peace offerings, and he then by his own hand, or by the hand of the priest who was with him, offered the burnt offering. Alas for Saul! No sooner had an end been made of offering the burnt offering than behold Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him that he might salute him. But Samuel was an earnest 1 Samuel 14:24). Jonathan was unaware of the order, so in going through a wood where there was honey upon the ground, Jonathan put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in an honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. On being informed of the order of the king, Jonathan denounced the action of Saul, and in very deed it was irrational and intolerable. Afterwards when a lot was drawn between Saul and Jonathan, Jonathan was taken, and on being interrogated he confessed saying, "I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in mine hand, and lo, I must die." But the people would not have it so. The king was taught that day his first lesson as to the power of the democracy. Even kings must under some circumstances be the subjects of their people Israel was at that juncture a people to be found ready. Their appeal was nobly conceived and nobly expressed. "And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day" ( 1 Samuel 14:45). Trust the people. There are occasions on which the proverb is true: Vox populi, vox Dei. The instincts of a great people are never to be lightly treated. Saul might on this occasion indeed be secretly inclined to concur with the popular verdict, but whether he was or not, the popular verdict, in so far as it is right, must always overrule the arbitrary and oppressive decrees of kings.

We have reserved for a concluding paragraph a memorable incident recorded in the fourteenth chapter. Dealing as we now are with the early efforts of Saul, we must point out with especial vividness that in connection with this war Saul built his first altar: "And Saul built an altar unto the Lord: the same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord" ( 1 Samuel 14:35). Some have regarded this as an act kindred to the service which Samuel condemned. Whether that may be so or not in a technical sense, the fact of the altar being the "first altar" is full of beautiful significance. We read in the Gospel of John of the first miracle that Jesus did. In Genesis we have read of Abraham returning to the altar which he built at the first. What a noble vision is opened up by the very words—first altar, first miracle, first war, first victory. Some of us have not yet begun to build an altar. Some of us have not sat down for the first time at the table of the Lord. Some of us have yet to make a real beginning in life! Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

"... all the people followed him trembling."— 1 Samuel 13:7.

We are reminded of the words—"Faint, yet pursuing."—The people were trembling, yet even in their trembling they were following their king and leader—"The men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in the rocks, and in high places, and in pits."—It is in extremities that the quality of men is tested.—Saul was now overborne; yet he was called upon to take some definite action, and the people, though with great misgiving and trembling of heart, went after him.—There is a following that is the mere expression of despair; it is either attempting to follow, or it is dying in solitude and starvation; the very path seems to be but a choice of evils; no great credit therefore is due to the men who simply preferred one form of extinction to another.—Here is the press of military discipline, even in this state of disorganisation.—Saul was at the head, Saul was in his right place, and the people were following, though in great weakness and trepidation.—It must be so with the followers of Christ; he is the Captain of our salvation; he is not to be superseded, or overrun, or in any way displaced: even when he seems to be going forth to a fruitless war he is to be followed by stout hearts.—Trembling is permitted even in Christian experience. There is a trembling that is significant of reverence; there is also a trembling which means self-misgiving or self-distrust.—When we are weak, then are we strong.—If so be we renounce our own strength, and place absolute confidence in God, we may tremble so far as we are personally concerned, yet under all the trembling there is a rock of assurance, a complete and steadfast faith in the ultimate rule of God.—"Perfect love casteth out fear."—A man may either pray that the Philistines may be diminished in strength, or that his own courage may be stimulated to a higher degree: the latter is the nobler prayer: to conquer simply because our enemies have been decimated by fire or tempest or plague is a very poor victory: but to rise to the occasion by the inspiration of love, by the confidence of growing faith, and to smite sharply and heavily in the strength of God,—this is the victory which all Christians should seek to realise; this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.—Where faith is strong, one will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight. Our prayer should not be that our enemies may be diminished, but that we may be the more perfectly qualified to encounter and overthrow them.—This is also a call to victory over our own passions: we are not to wait until old age has cooled the blood, or until many infirmities have taken away all desire for the delights of sin; in the very heyday of life, when the blood is at fullest heat, when temptations are a thousand strong, all plying the soul with continual importunity,—it is even then that we may rise to a sense of supreme strength, it is even then that we may live the noble and beneficent life.—The great Christian lesson is that we are to follow Christ, however extreme the danger, however improbable the success, however hopeless the issue so far as our own strength is concerned,—we go forward, we go to the battle in the name and strength of the Lord God, and though the Philistine be very strong, though bis tread seems to shake the earth, though his staff be as a weaver's beam, yet we shall, being nerved by the Holy One, strike him with a deadly stroke.—The battle is not ours, but God's.