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past, and Samuel prepared for what personally must have been the hardest duty ever
laid upon him. By his direction Agag was brought to him. The unhappy man,
believing that the bitterness of death, its danger and pang were past, and that
probably he was now to be introduced to the prophet as before he had been brought
to the king, came "with gladness."^152 So far as Agag himself was concerned, these
words of Samuel must have recalled his guilt and spoken its doom: "As thy sword
has made women childless, so be thy mother childless above (ordinary) women."^153
But for Israel and its king, who had transgressed the "ban" by sparing Agag, there
was yet another lesson, whatever it might cost Samuel. Rebellious, disobedient king
and people on the one side, and on the other Samuel the prophet and Nazarite alone
for God - such, we take it, was the meaning of Samuel having to hew Agag in pieces
before Jehovah in Gilgal.
From that day forward Samuel came no more to see Saul. God's ambassador was no
longer accredited to him; for he was no longer king of Israel in the true sense of the
term. The Spirit of Jehovah departed from him. Henceforth there was nothing about
him royal even in the eyes of men - except his death. But still Samuel mourned for
him and over him; mourned as for one cut off in the midst of life, dead while living,
a king rejected of God. And still "Jehovah repented that He had made Saul king over
Israel."
(^)