The first king. thing more than these had been. His call was after a different manner from that of the older Judges. He had shared in the Prophetic inspiration of the time. He had shared in an inward as well as an outward change. "God," we are told, "gave him another heart," and "he became another man." The three tokens which Samuel foretold to him well expressed the significance of the change, which, in modern language, would be called his "conversion." He was the first of the long succession of Jewish Kings. He was the first recorded instance of inauguration, by that singular ceremonial which, in imitation of the Hebrew rite, has descended to the coronation of our own sovereigns. The sacred oil 2 was used for his ordination as for a Priest. He was the "Lord's Anointed" in a peculiar sense, that invested his person with a special sanctity. And from him the name of "the Anointed One" was handed on till it received in the latest days of the Jewish Church its very highest application, — in Hebrew, or Aramaic, the Messiah; in Greek, the Christ. Regal state gradually gathered round him. Ahijah, the surviving representative of the doomed house of Ithamar, was always at hand, in the dress of the sacred Ephod, to answer his questions. The Ephod was the substitute for the exiled Ark. A new sanctuary arose not far from Gibeah, at Nob, on the northern shoulder of Olivet, where the Tabernacle was again set up,-where the shewbread was still kept, and where the trophies of the Philistine war were suspended within the sacred tent.5 1 See pp. 8, 9. 3 2 Comp. 1 Sam. x. 1; xiv. 13. xiv. 18, where the LXX. by reading "ephod" for "ark," corrects an ob 3 2 Sam. i. 14, 21; 1 Sam. xxiv. 6, vious mistake. 10; xxvi. 9, 16. 4 Comp. 1 Chr. xiii. 3; 1 Sam. 5 1 Sam. xxi. 9. The beginnings of a "host"1 are now first indicated. The office of "captain of the host" is filled by His court. his kinsman, the generous and princely Ab ner.2 6 5 - Now also is established the body-guard, always round the King's person, selected from his own tribe,' for their stature and beauty, and at their head the second officer of the kingdom, one who united with the arts of war the noblest gifts of peace, one whom we shall recognize elsewhere than in the court of Saul, David, the son of Jesse. And, closely bound with this high officer is the heir of the throne, the great archer of the tribe of Benjamin, the heroic Jonathan. These three sat at the King's table. Another inferior officer appears incidentally: "the keeper of the royal mules " 8 and chief of the household slaves-the "comes stabuli" -the "constable" of the King, such as appears in the later monarchy.10 He is the first instance of a foreigner employed in a high function in Israel, being an Edomite or Syrian," of the name of Doeg, according to Jewish tradition 12 the steward who accompanied Saul in his pursuit after the asses, who counselled him to send for David, and whose son ultimately slew him ;-according to the sacred narrative, a person of vast and sinister influence in his master's counsels. The King himself was distinguished by marks of royalty not before observed in the nation. His tall spear, already noticed, was always by his side, in repose,1 at his meals, when sleeping," when in battle.* He wore a diadem round his brazen helmet and a bracelet on his arm.5 His victories soon fulfilled the hopes for which his office was created. Moab, Edom, Ammon, Amalek, and even the distant Zobah, felt his power. The Israelite women met him on his return from his wars with songs of greeting; and eagerly looked out for the scarlet robes and golden ornaments which he brought back as their prey." From these signs of hope and life in the house of Saul, we turn to the causes of its downfall. fect conver sion. If Samuel is the great example of an ancient saint His imper- growing up from childhood to old age without a sudden conversion, Saul is the first direct example of the mixed character often produced by such a conversion, a call coming in the midway of life to rouse the man to higher thoughts than the lost asses of his father's household, or than the tumults of war and victory. He became "another man," yet not entirely. He was, as is so often the case, half-converted, half-roused. His mind moved unequally and disproportionately in its new sphere. Backwards and forwards in the names of his children, we see alternately the signs of the old heathenish superstition, and of the new purified religion of JEHOVAH. Jonathan, his first-born, is "the gift of Jehovah;" Melchi-shua is “the help of Moloch;" his grandson Merib-baal is "the soldier of 1 1 Sam. xviii. 10; xix. 9. 2 Ibid. xx. 23; in A. V. mistranslated “javelin," and the article omitted. 31 Sam. xxvi. 11. 4 2 Sam. i. 6. 5 Ibid. i. 10; 1 Sam. xvii. 38. 7 Ibid. xviii. 6; 2 Sam. i. 24. as "Baal;" and his fourth son, Ish-baal, "the man of Baal;' and here again "Baal" is swept out, and appears only "Bosheth," the "shame or reproach," Mephibosheth, Ish-bosheth. He caught the Prophetic inspiration, not continuously, but only in fitful gusts. Passionately he would enter into it for the time, as he came within the range of his better associations, tear off his clothes, and lie stretched on the ground under its influence for a night and a day together. But then he would be again the slave of his common pursuits. His religion was never blended with his moral nature. It broke out in wild, ungovernable acts of zeal and superstition, and then left him more a prey than ever to his own savage disposition. With the prospects and the position of a David, he remained to the end a Jephthah or a Samson, with this difference,- that, having outlived the age of Jephthah and of Samson, he could not be as they; and the struggle, therefore, between what he was and what he might have been, grew fiercer as years went on; and the knowledge of Samuel, and the companionship of David, become to him a curse instead of a blessing. sition to the Of all the checks on the dangers incident to the growth of an Oriental monarchy in the Jewish His opponation, the most prominent was that which Prophets. Providence supplied in the contemporaneous growth of the Prophetical office. But it was just this far-reaching vision of the past and future, which Saul was unable to understand. At the very outset of his career, Samuel, the great representative of the Prophetical order, had warned him not to enter on his kingly duties till he should appear to inaugurate them and to instruct him in them. It would seem to have been almost immedi 1 1 Sam. xiv. 4, 9; xxxi. 2; 1 Chr. viii. 33. ately after his first call, that the occasion arose. The war with the Philistines was impending. He could not restrain the vehemence of his religious emotions. As King, he had the right to sacrifice. Without a sacrifice it seemed to him impossible to advance to battle. He sacrificed, and by that ritual zeal defied the warning of the Prophetic monitor. It was the crisis of his trial.1 He had shown that he could not understand the distinction between moral and ceremonial duty, on which the greatness of his people depended. It was not because he sacrificed, but because he thought sacrifice greater than obedience, that the curse descended upon him. 3 Again, in the sacred war against Amalek, there is no reason to suppose that Saul spared the king for any other reason than that for which he retained the spoil, namely, to make a more splendid show at the sacrificial thanksgiving. Such was the Jewish tradition preserved by Josephus, who expressly says that Agag was saved for his stature and beauty; and such is the general impression left by the description of the celebration of the victory. Saul rides to the southern Carmel in a chariot, never mentioned elsewhere, and sets up a monument there, which, according to the Jewish traditions,5 was a triumphal arch of olives, myrtles, and palms. The name given to God on the occasion is taken from this crowning triumph, The "Victory of Israel." This second act of disobedience calls down the second curse, in the form of that Prophetic truth which stands out 11 Sam. xiii. 8, compared with 1 Sam. x. 8, with which it must be taken in close connection. See Thenius ad loc. and Ewald. 21 Sam. xv. 21 Ant. vi. 7, § 2. 4 1 Sam. xv. 12 (LXX.). 5 Jerome, Qu. Heb. ad loc. 61 Sam. xv. 29 (Heb.); Vulg "triumphans:" and comp. 1 Chr xxix. 11. |