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line, as unfit to be "captains" over "Jehovah's people" - such was the sentence which
Samuel had to announce on that day.
The "folly" of Saul's conduct must, indeed, have been evident to all. He had not
waited long enough, and yet too long, so far as his following was concerned, which,
after the sacrifice, amounted to only about six hundred men (1 Samuel 13:15). On
the other hand, the only motive which, even politically speaking, could have brought
numbers to his ranks or fired them with courage, was a religious belief in the help of
Jehovah, of which Saul's breach of the Divine command and the defection of Samuel
would threaten to deprive Israel. But still there are questions involved in the Divine
punishment of Saul which require most earnest attention, not only for the
vindication, but even for the proper understanding of this history. To the first
question which arises, why Samuel thus unduly delayed his journey to Gilgal,
apparently without necessary reason, we can, in fairness, only return the answer, that
his delay seems to have been intentional, quite as much as that of our blessed Lord,
after He had heard of the sickness of Lazarus, and when He knew of his death (John
11:6, 14, 15). But if intentional, its object can only have been to test the character of
Saul's kingdom. Upon this, of course, the permanency of that kingdom would
depend. We have already seen that Saul represented the kind of monarchy which
Israel wished to have established. Saul's going down to Gilgal to offer sacrifices, and
yet not offering them properly; his unwillingness to enter on the campaign without
having entreated the face of Jehovah, and yet offending Him by disobedience; his
waiting so long, and not long enough; his trust in the help of Jehovah, and yet his
distrust when his followers left him; his evident belief in the absolute efficacy of
sacrifices as an outward ordinance irrespective of the inward sacrifice of heart and
will - are all exactly representative of the religious state of Israel. But although Israel
had sought, and in Saul obtained a monarchy "after their own heart," yet, as Samuel
had intimated in Gilgal (12:14, 20- 22, 24), the Lord, in His infinite mercy, was
willing to forgive and to turn all for good, if Israel would only "fear the Lord and
serve Him in truth." Upon this conversion, so to speak, of Israel's royalty into the
kingdom of God the whole question turned. For, either Israel must cease to be the
people of the Lord, or else the principle on which its monarchy was founded must
become spiritual and Divine; and consequently any government that contravened
this must be swept away to give place to another. If it be asked, what this Divine
principle of monarchy was to be, we have no hesitation in answering, that it was
intended to constitute a kingdom in which the will of the earthly should be in
avowed subjection to that of the heavenly King. This was right in itself; it was
expressive of the covenant-relationship by which Jehovah became the God of Israel,
and Israel the people of Jehovah; and it embodied the typical idea of the kingdom of
God, to be fully realized in the King of the Jews, Who came not to do His own will,
but that of His Father in heaven, even to the bitter agony of the cup in Gethsemane
and the sufferings of Golgotha. Saul was the king after Israel's own heart (1 Samuel
(^)