Page images
PDF
EPUB

SERMON XI.

SAMUEL'S DEPARTURE FROM SAUL.

1 SAMUEL XV. 34, 35.

"Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul: and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel."

A FEW years before the period to which this passage refers, the Israelites had determined to follow the example of the neighbouring nations, and to be governed by a king. This is mentioned as an act of great wickedness on the part of the people; because for many ages God Himself had been their king, and had appointed over them judges, as His own immediate servants and representatives. He condescended however to grant their desire, and Saul was anointed to be captain over the house of Israel. Every thing at first seemed to promise a long and prosperous reign: his appointment was

!*

directly from heaven; and when Samuel presented the new sovereign to the assembly, saying, See ye whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people; it came to pass that all the people shouted, and said, God save the king! But the hour of prosperity soon passed away; and the man whom the Almighty had chosen, and the prophet had anointed, and the people had blessed, was doomed to suffer the most terrible reverses. Notwithstanding the fair prospects with which his reign commenced, so unwarrantable, after a short time, was his conduct, that according to the emphatic language of the Scriptures, it repented the Lord that he Had set him up to be king :† and the friendly intercourse which had previously subsisted between Saul and the prophet Samuel, an intercourse highly conducive to the honour and welfare of the king, was publicly suspended a breach took place between them which never was repaired. Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul: and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death.

It may be useful to consider the circumstances which occasioned this great change in * 1 Samuel x. 24. † 1 Samuel xv. 11.

the condition of Saul, and to point out a few of those lessons which this history is suited to teach us.

I. The change which occurred in the circumstances of Saul, is to be traced entirely to his own misconduct: yet must it be admitted that his misconduct was not of that outrageous and aggravated description which we find in the history of many of his successors.

He did not, for instance, lead the people into idolatry; he did not offend the majesty of God by setting up calves of gold, and saying to the people, as Jeroboam afterwards did, Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!* On the contrary, he seems distinctly to have acknowledged the God of Israel as the alone object of worship, and thus far to have observed the commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Neither did he offend by an open and avowed contempt of the divine precepts. He wished to have the credit of obedience: it was not his practice, while he acknowledged the being of God, to proclaim an open contempt of His authority; there was evidently in the mind of this prince nothing hitherto of that audacious spirit which * 1 Kings xii. 28.

mocks at the will of the Lord, and triumphs in the violation of it; that is the character of persons far more, iniquitous than Saul; he would indisputably have disclaimed the imputation, and have declared it to be his wish, no less than his duty, to keep the commandments.

Among his successors on the throne, were some who shewed a marked disrespect to the inspired prophets, despising their admonitions, insulting their office, and even doing violence to their persons. But neither is this offence to be charged upon Saul. In common with the rest of the Israelites, he showed great deference to Samuel; and from the very chapter which concludes with the history of their separation, it is evident that in his intercourse with the prophet he deemed himself to receive honour rather than to confer it.

[ocr errors]

During this period of his life, therefore, there was little which, according to the common estimate of human conduct, might seem deserving of severe reprehension; and with regard to the character of many who followed him, he might in the spirit of the Pharisee have said, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are; no persecutor of the prophets, no worshipper of idols, no flagrant transgressor of

Thy law; I have offered sacrifices to Thy honour; I have reverenced Thine ark; I have asked counsel in Thy name." Yet, with all these circumstances in his favour, he was disowned by the prophet, and rejected by his God!

And here let us observe, how awful must be the condition of the flagrant sinner! The impression commonly made upon our minds, when when we look at those unhappy persons, who, enjoying the pure light of Christianity, run fearlessly to every excess of riot, as if there were no God to behold, and no justice to reach them, insensibly wears away; the frequency with which these things are presented to our view, seems almost to divest them of their enormity: yet to compare with the king of Israel under the old dispensation, the profligate despiser of the Most High under the dispensation of the gospel, would be to argue great ignorance of the character of Saul; he would have felt himself disgraced by the comparison, and have been ready to demand, what there was in his life and conduct which could deservedly subject him to such degradation? Yet Saul was rejected; God beheld him with aversion: what then shall be your doom, ye de

« PreviousContinue »