Samuel - His Final Public Address
Anonymous
1 Samuel 12
We need not dwell on Samuel’s challenge as to his own conduct among them from childhood. It evidently afforded no excuse for their sin in desiring a king, and this they own (vs. 1–5). He was free therefore to remind them of the faithful and merciful ways of the Lord with them, and for this the prophet was eminently fitted, not only by his gifts but by his experiences. His memorial (Ebenezer) tells us how he loved to recall past help and deliverances, and he could well bid them ‘stand still, that [he] might reason with [them] before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to [them] and to [their] fathers’ (v. 7). It is probable that we have only a brief summary of this address, but the scope of the retrospect which he takes is complete. He begins with Jacob going down into Egypt, and he continues to his own time when, notwithstanding all their sins, the Lord ‘delivered [them] out of the hand of [their] enemies on every side, and [they] dwelled safe’ (vs. 8–11). What a moment to manifest their distrust of Him! What a time to desire a man to take the place of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel!
With intense solemnity Samuel told them that, although the Lord will never change His purposes, He assuredly would change His method of procedure with them, and God accompanied the warning with thunder and rain, although it was wheat-harvest, a sign that, if it reminded them of the discomfiture of the Philistines at Mizpah, also bore witness to their own danger of provoking the anger of the Lord as they had done. As to the divine purpose he said, ‘The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people’ (v. 22). This is absolute; the sovereign purpose of love which nothing can change. Israel is ‘the dearly beloved of [his] soul’ (Jer. 12:7). But, as they had desired a king and thrown off their allegiance to the Lord, Samuel told them plainly that in this self-chosen position all would depend on their conduct: ‘If ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king’ (v. 25).
And here we may again pause, because, for abiding peace and humble submission under the mighty hand of God, it is most important for every Christian to distinguish, as Samuel did here, between the purposes of God for His people and His ways with them. In His absolute and unchanging grace He will not forsake them, though in His dealings in government He will consume them. According to the conclusions of the natural mind these two principles are so opposed that any attempt to reconcile them would appear to be hopeless. Yet to faith there is no difficulty, for faith brings in God. They simply resolve themselves into this: is the Lord not to use the rod with a people whom He loves and saves? Or shall He not save a people on whom He may indict the rod? In the case of Israel we also must bear in mind that when their salvation is spoken of it is as a nation and for the earth, while the salvation which the gospel offers is of individuals and for heaven; but these two principles apply to both. Israel is now cast out of their land, scattered among the nations, and often made to suffer under exceptional oppression. The question is raised in Romans 11: are they cast off as well as cast out? Paul admits the latter, but denies the former. He says that severity characterises the dealings of God with them now because of their unbelief; but he also says, ‘all Israel shall be saved’ (Rom. 11:26).[1] Severity is the dealing of God in government. Salvation is His purpose, the fruit of His grace. They, having forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters, have to learn experimentally the evil of hewing them out cisterns that can hold no water. How soon they proved it in their first king, Saul. His desired reign ended in disaster and death. They are proving it now under the Gentile yoke, which they wickedly preferred to the Prince of life, heartlessly saying to Pilate, to force him to crucify Jesus, ‘We have no king but Caesar’ (John 19:15). And they will finally and more bitterly prove it when they receive the one of whom the Lord spoke in John 5, who shall come in his own name (v. 43), the king who shall do according to his will (Dan. 11:36–39).
And now as to individual souls, the first truth of the gospel is extremely simple: God is just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). When we read in Galatians 6:7, ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’, we are clearly upon other ground, the ground of the righteous government of God in respect of conduct here. He will visit faults now which He has forgiven for eternity. Hence the Christian’s duty is to keep a close watch on himself, for ‘if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world’ (1 Cor. 11:31, 32). The chastenings referred to here are weakness, sickness and death (v. 30), and are purely temporal; while condemnation, from which they are distinguished, is eternal.
A brief word now as to Samuel himself. There was real nobility of character displayed in him at this time, and all by grace. Whatever the ingratitude of the people in desiring his deposition after he had served them from childhood with spotless integrity and sincere devotion; whatever the secret sorrow of his heart for having listened to nature in his old age in making his sons judges, instead of leaving it with the Lord; whatever the shame brought on him by those sons, nothing of self appears. He would still serve the people of God in the only way left: he would not cease to pray for them. He was a man of prayer, an intercessor of whom the Spirit makes honourable mention in later times (Ps. 99:6; Jer. 15:1). Once indeed he failed, in the matter of his sons, and the elders of Israel took occasion of an aged man’s faults to accomplish what their unbelieving hearts were set upon, making it the ostensible reason for asking for a king. The plea was a weak one even if true, but it was not true. It was their utter want of faith in God in the presence of some threatened attack of the Ammonites (1 Sam. 12:12); Ebenezer was lost on them. They chose their own method of deliverance to their shame and subsequent ruin. Samuel went patiently on, seeking the good of the nation and their king; and the Lord was with him. Saul’s course made this unselfish path most difficult and distressing; but in it Samuel was brought to know the man after God’s own heart, the king of His sovereign choice, and to share in his rejection: ‘So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth’ (19:18). It was a beautiful close to a remarkable life. All confidence in the flesh was gone. The difficult lesson of true separation from it was learned, and Samuel now found all his rest in communion with David at a time when, in his experiences, he was a remarkable type of Him who was ‘despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’ (Isa. 53:3).
Author unknown[2]
[1] What is meant by ‘all Israel’ he shows from Isaiah (Rom. 9:27).
[2] The Bible Treasury (1891) vol. 18 p. 356.
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From: Truth & Testimony, 2020