"And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel". (1 Sam.8.1)

There is a world of tragedy enshrined in those few words; tragedy, because the sons of Samuel were not fit for such exalted office. It is one of the most puzzling things in Scriptural history that the man who owed his own position of leadership to his predecessor's failure in the training of his children should, after a lifetime of honoured service, have himself failed in the same respect. The man who saved the nation and gave it its first ordered system of justice and administration did not restrain his own sons from going on the wrong path. Joel and Abiah had not followed in the upright course of their father; they had no share in the piety and godliness of their grandparents, Manoah and Hannah, by now long since laid to rest. They were of a more modern generation and largely heedless of their father's and grandfather's God. So the chronicler records, doubtless sorrowfully, that when they had been promoted to leading positions in Israel, they "turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment".

Whether it was Samuel's judgement that was at fault, or his advancing age—he would now be about seventy-five—or some secret hope that God would honour his family for his own work's sake, and make his descendants pre-eminent in Israel, we do not know. What is certain is that his choice did not meet with the approval of the elders in Israel, and they were not slow to express the fact. It is plain that Samuel's authority was on the wane; perhaps for some time now the people had maintained their allegiance out of gratitude and for sentiment's sake, remembering what great things he had done for them in the days of his maturity, but at this, the first sign that he was in process of relinquishing his personal direction of he nation's affairs, long-suppressed thoughts came to the top, and they gave voice to the desire they had refrained from broaching to him before. "Behold, thou art old " they said "and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations."

In a way, their request was a testimonial to Samuel's own faithfulness to the interests of his people. In the days of Eli apparently no one had cared whether the High Priest's sons were profligate or not, and it had required the labours of Samuel's lifetime to awaken Israel to a sense of responsibility. Is it that they had at least learned that lesson; that they did wish for strong and decisive leadership and looked with some dismay upon the prospect of another disaster such as had happened in those bygone days, half a century earlier, when the Ark of God had been taken and the country plunged into anarchy? We must not be too unsympathetic toward these men's desire for a king; there might very well have been laudable elements in the mixture of thoughts that led them to make this request of Samuel.

How plain it is that leadership cannot be handed down; the mantle cannot be awarded; it must fall upon the shoulders of the one who is ready to wear it. "If thou see me when I am taken from thee" said Elijah to the man who had prayed for a double portion of his spirit "it shall be so...but if not, then it shall not be so." That Elisha was such a man, ready to carry on the work begun by his master and mentor, and to exalt it to greater heights, is evidenced by the admission of his companions "the mantle of Elijah is fallen upon Elisha." We may have been blessed with great privilege in the Lord's service while we enjoy the full use of our powers, but when the time that we must go hence is come, it is the Lord who determines what shall be done with the remnants of the work that has been our joy and care.

Samuel was disappointed. He did not take readily to the request of the elders, and he took the matter in prayer to his God. The answer is kindly; it is sympathetic; but it is firm. "Hearken unto the people in what they say, for they have not rejected thee; but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them." That does not mean, as is so often assumed, that the people had rejected God in desiring a king. David and others in after times "sat on the throne of the Lord" with full Divine approval and endorsement. The nature of the Messianic prophecies that were yet to be given required that a king reign in Israel to give colour and form to those prophecies, and in order that attention might be focused on the king who one day should "reign in righteousness". Their refusal to accept the overlording of Samuel's sons because they were not upright men must also have had the approval of the Most High. And their loyalty to Samuel himself, God's appointed man, was not in question. Their rejection of God lay in the fact that, now Samuel was manifestly nearing the end of his life, they were not prepared to trust God himself to raise up a successor who would lead the nation in right ways. They had forgotten that all they then enjoyed of national peace and prosperity was the result of God having raised up one to serve them, one who had been but a small boy in the Tabernacle, unnoticed by and unknown to the nation until the time of need had come. Now, instead of waiting upon God for a further manifestation of his overruling providence, they had rushed in with their own desire that a man of their own choosing and acceptance be installed as king over them. The homage and obedience they should have reserved for God they were anxious now to render to a man of themselves, like the nations that were around them. The terms of the Covenant were largely forgotten, the fact that they could never be quite like the nations about them, but must always be a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, set apart to illustrate in this world and Age the principles that are to govern the next world and Age, when all the world is to come to the throne of Jesus and worship him as King and Lord. They had forgotten all this—or perhaps had never really believed it—and it was this failure that constituted their rejection of God. Samuel they knew and honoured for his past works' sake, but God they did not know.

Thus it was that Samuel was brought into contact with Saul—Israel's first earthly king. The circumstances of their meeting show more vividly than ever how much the star of Samuel was in the descendant. Saul, a comparatively unknown young man, had left his home district to seek his father's lost asses. In company with his servant, he had explored the countryside fruitlessly when suddenly the servant had an idea. "There is in this village," said he, "a man of God—now let us go thither; peradventure he can show us our way that we should go." Neither Saul nor the servant knew the name of this man of God; they only knew that one who was somewhat renowned for his sanctity lived there, and the thought came to them that he might be induced to use his supernatural knowledge or insight to tell them at once the whereabouts of the straying animals. A biting commentary on the religious state of Israel at the time is afforded by the fact that Saul did not anticipate the small service to be rendered for nothing; the "man of God" would expect some appropriate remuneration for services rendered; and so a quarter shekel of silver (today's value equivalent to about ten pounds) which the servant had on his person was set aside to flavour the deal. It would appear that Samuel's professional skill was not rated very highly.

It is evident that Saul did not know Samuel. Upon entering the village he inquired of a passer-by the whereabouts of the house of the seer (the older term for prophet). "I am the seer" was the reply. In the providence of God Saul had accosted the very man he had come to seek. Samuel was able to assure him that the asses were found, and safe; but he went on to tell Saul that his coming to Ramah was for something far more important than the recovery of a few farm animals. He had come, unwittingly, to be anointed king over Israel.

But how does the position of Samuel stand out in all this? At one time known by "all Israel from Dan...to Beersheba" (1 Sam.3.20) as a prophet of the Lord, and established as the first man in all the land, going annually on circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh to judge the people's causes, and so home again to Ramah (1 Sam.7.16) he had now evidently retired to a considerable extent from active service and contact with the people, and in consequence was quickly being forgotten by them, so that Saul, coming from less than a hundred miles away, knew him only by repute as a "man of God". Quite evidently Samuel had not been in Saul's home district for many years or the latter would surely have known him by sight. The handing over of judicial responsibilities to the two sons, Joel and Abiah, tells the same story. The conclusion seems to be that in his old age Samuel had commenced to "take things easy" as we would say. And the disruption of his life's work was beginning in consequence.

How many there are, Christian believers who have borne the heat and burden of the day in times gone past, who do this same thing. When the tale of years begins to mount and physical strength commences to ebb, they succumb to the ever present temptation to lay aside the privilege of active service and hard work for the Master, and turn instead to intensive contemplation of the written Word from the recesses of an armchair. So do they become progressively more and more out of touch with the realities of the Christian way. Our Lord has provided that our devotional life and our growth in the knowledge of his Word and his Plan shall be tempered with the experience and broadening effect of outward service, ministries to our brethren and evangelical ministry to the world. The Apostle Paul, notwithstanding his advancing years, his physical disabilities and his many deep excursions in the doctrinal teaching of the Word of God so manifest in his written works, at no time lost sight of that part of his commission which had to do with God's witness before the world. "Woe is unto me" he cried "if I preach not the Gospel". The zeal and assiduity with which he carried out the Christian's age-old commission is evidenced by the churches that sprang up wherever he went. If we believe, as we say we do, that we are "immortal until our work is finished", then surely we should continue with undiminished faith and zeal in doing with our might what our hands find to do, until we are physically able so to do no longer.

Reading between the lines, it does seem that this visit of Saul to Ramah had the effect of causing Samuel to bestir himself. He appears to come into the picture again and stand out more prominently in the affairs of Israel. Perhaps the communion he had with God over the matter of Saul's anointing caused him to realise the direction in which he had been tending to drift. Perhaps the demand for a king brought home to him such shortcoming in administration as could rightfully have been attributed to him. At any rate, we hear no more of his sons being judges over Israel. Evidently he brought that arrangement to an end, and from the 10th chapter of 1 Samuel onward, Samuel the aged is once again supreme in Israel and a name to be respected. But that same chapter is also a pointer to the outcome of Samuel's temporary lapse. The Philistines were once more in power in Israel. How long they had been there we know not, but in chapter 10.5. where Samuel is giving Saul his instructions, he refers, quite casually, to a place in the midst of the land "where there is a garrison of the Philistines" (RSV). Now the Philistines had been heavily defeated at Mizpeh thirty years back and had troubled Israel no more; for them to be thus in occupation again at this time means one thing, and one thing only. It means that the reformation initiated at Mizpeh had lost its force and the people had relapsed into apostasy and idolatry, for only thus under the terms of the Mosaic Covenant would their enemies have been able to overcome them again. Samuel's life ended, and Saul's reign began, under the same shadow that had covered the land when Samuel was a small boy in the service of Eli, the shadow of the Philistine occupation.

So once again Samuel, re-asserting his former authority, called the people to Mizpeh that he might formally present to them their king. This was a renunciation of authority of a different kind; as Saul's authority increased so that of Samuel must decrease. It must have been with a heavy heart that the aged judge recited in the ears of the people the past blessings they had enjoyed from their heavenly King, the future miseries they would experience at the hands of their chosen earthly king, and exhorted them nevertheless to continued faithfulness to their covenant that, ultimately, God could accomplish his purposes in and through them. Then Samuel wrote for them "the manner of the kingdom...in a book, and laid it up before the LORD" (1 Sam.10.25). In other words, he drafted the constitution of the monarchy, defining the duties and the privileges and the liberties of king and people respectively. It was the last great service he could render to the nation he loved; perhaps it was his greatest service. Perhaps, after all, the order of things that directed and moulded the ways of the kings of Israel for the next five hundred years, honoured to a considerable extent by good kings and probably to some extent at least by even the bad kings, played a great part in making the nation of Israel what it was when the time came for its true King to be presented in the way He came. The prophetic zeal of Samuel blazed up and performed a good work during his own lifetime, but it died away and was extinguished almost before he was dead; the kingdom of which he, under God, laid the foundations, must have owed its five hundred years of existence in great measure to the wisdom and foresight—and experience—that he had put into its constitution, "laid up before the Lord". The effects of that day's work are with us yet, and will never die.

(to be concluded)

AOH