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12:13); David the king after God's own heart, not because of his greater piety or
goodness, but because, despite his failings and his sins, he fully embodied the Divine
idea of Israel's kingdom; and for this reason also he and his kingdom were the type
of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His kingdom.
In what has been said the second great difficulty, which almost instinctively rises in
our minds on reading this history, has in part been anticipated. It will easily be
understood that this great question had, if ever, to be tested and decided at the very
commencement of Saul's reign, and before he engaged in any great operations, the
success or failure of which might divert the mind. If to be tried at all, it must be on
its own merits, and irrespective of results. Still, it must be admitted, that the first
feeling with most of us is that, considering the difficulties of Saul's position, the
punishment awarded to him seems excessive. Yet it only seems, but is not such.
Putting aside the idea of his personal rejection and dethronement, neither of which
was implied in the words of Samuel, the sentence upon Saul only embodied this
principle, that no monarchy could be enduring in Israel which did not own the
supreme authority of God. As Adam's obedience was tested in a seemingly small
matter, and his failure involved that of his race, so also in the case of Saul. His
partial obedience and his anxiety to offer the sacrifices as, in his mind, in themselves
efficacious, only rendered it the more necessary to bring to the foreground the great
question of absolute, unquestioning, and believing submission to the will of the
Heavenly King. Saul's kingdom had shown itself not to be God's kingdom, and its
continuance was henceforth impossible. However different their circumstances, Saul
was as unfit for the inheritance of the kingdom, with the promises which this implied
and the typical meaning it bore, as Esau had been for the inheritance of the first-
born, with all that it conveyed in the present, in the near, and in the distant future.
(^)