THE MAN AFTER THE FLESH. PART II. THE KING OF MAN'S CHOICE.

Chapter 6:THE CALL OF THE KING. (1 Sam. 9:,-10:16.)

(Continued from page 158.)

The people having definitely decided to have a king, in face of all the warnings given by the prophet, nothing remains but to give them their desire according the fullest thought of it. Had the choice of the ruler been left to a few, he would not have been really the expression of the people's wish. This difficulty is constantly encountered in the effort to secure a ruler who shall represent the desires of the people. The nearest that can be done is to let the majority decide. This at best but gives the preference of that majority, in which the rest of the nation has to acquiesce, and so man can never get the ideal ruler of his choice.

For Israel, God mercifully intervenes and, as we might say, puts at the disposal of the people His omniscience in selecting the ruler, not after His heart, but who He knows will meet their desires. This is an interesting and important point, one too that has a New Testament illustration, which, if understood, will throw light upon that which has been a difficulty for many.

The people had already turned against God and rejected Him from being their Ruler. Most certainly, then, their mind was .not in accord with His. The king of their ideal would be a far different man from any whom God would Himself select. They had in their minds a ruler like those of the nations, whose first thought was the welfare of the people and the overthrow of their enemies. God's thought would be a man who first of all sought His glory, and was in subjection to Himself. We must remember that He is not choosing a king for Himself, but for the people. He does for them that which it would have been impossible for them to do for themselves, so that the result is exactly what they would have done had they been able.

The New Testament illustration of this is the selection of Judas Iscariot as an apostle. It has been said, did not the Lord know at the beginning that Judas was a traitor? We are distinctly told so in the sixth chapter of John, and may be certain that our blessed Lord was neither deceived nor disappointed -save in divine and holy sorrow over a lost soul- in the result. But this does not mean that our Lord put Judas in a position against his will or for which he was not in the judgment of men specially fitted. Judas himself had taken the place of a disciple. It was, therefore, simply selecting one who had already taken this place, and not imposing upon him a profession which he had not assumed for himself. Nay, more, the position of apostle was calculated to foster, if it existed at all, the faith of the disciple. The twelve were in the place of special privilege and nearness to the Lord, constantly under His influence, with His example before them; as we know with much individual instruction according to the need of each. Who could associate with such a Master and witness His deeds of love, the flashing out of His holy soul, His tender heart of compassion, His sympathy, and not be made a better man if there were anything of grace in his soul at all? If Judas apostatized and the wickedness of his heart came out in face of all this, we may be sure it is only a special proof of the hopeless corruption of a heart that has not been visited by God's grace. At the same time our Lord would not be violating in the least the free 'agency of the man or compelling him into anything counter to his nature.

Returning now to the king of Israel's choice, we will see in what is before us how divine care and foresight gave the fullest expression to the desire of the people, so that the result was one upon whom all the desire of the nation was fixed. But while man's self-will was thus at work and his rejection of God's mild and loving authority showed the determined alienation of his heart from Him, on the other hand, God was working out His own counsels, and His purposes were being unfolded too. The thought of a king was in His heart as well as that of the people, but how different a king! Hannah had given expression to this divine desire for a Ruler for His people at the close of her song,' which is fittingly so like that of Mary, the mother of .the true King.

The main theme of that song (chap. 2:i-x) is that God raises up the poor and the lowly, and overcomes all pride. Thus His enemies and those of His believing people are overthrown, and the needy and the afflicted are raised up. " He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dung-hill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory." Our blessed Lord laid aside all heaven's glory, and, so far as earthly greatness was concerned, associated Himself with the poor rather than those who occupied the throne. The throne, so far as it could any longer be called that, was occupied by a Herod, while back of him was the power of imperial Rome, the sceptre having passed over to the Gentiles. The One '' born King of the Jews" was to be found in a. stable, and faith alone could recognize Him as the Man of God's choice. But faith does recognize Him, and Hannah looks forward not merely to him who was to be the type of Christ, but to the Lord's Anointed Himself. She closes her song with the triumphant strain:" He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointed."

Well did God know that there must be a ruler for His people. Everything had been temporary, even the giving of the law itself at Sinai. There could be no permanent relationship between a nation and God, save through a Mediator. The only ruler could be, not some human deliverer, type of Him to come, but One who truly delivered them from bondage worse than that of Pharaoh and from a captivity greater than any inflicted by the Canaanites. Thus Joshua, and Moses himself, were but types of Christ. The deliverer, too, must be priest as well as ruler, and from Aaron on, the high priests and their sacrifices were but shadows of that perfect Priest who offered up Himself to God. The King was to be also a Priest, and in one blessed Person was to embody all that the righteousness and glory of God, on the one hand, and the need of sinful man, on the other, required.

" All things that God or man could wish
In Thee most richly meet."

So the very unbelief of the people, expressing a desire for a ruler, was but the occasion for God to approach one step nearer the accomplishment of His own purposes; but He was not to be hurried into taking more than one step at a time. He does not,- reverently we would say, He cannot give His own King yet. He must let them work out and manifest all the results of their own desires, and so far from impelling them into that which would show the worst side of self-will, He guards them in every way from this. Thus He uses divine wisdom to select the best man according to their judgment, offering every facility, the machinery of divine Providence, we might say, to secure such a man, and when he is chosen, not withholding all aid, encouragement and warning. If the king of their choice does not succeed, the blame can never be laid upon God. This will be fully manifest. And may we not say the same as to the natural man in every way? If he manifests his corruption, his enmity of God, his hopeless alienation from Him, it is not because of the circumstances in which he is placed, but in spite of them. The very world which has been given over to Satan is still full of witness of God's power, wisdom and goodness. Everyman's life, with its history of mercies and of trials, is a witness that One is seeking to hide pride from him and to deliver him from his worst enemy,-himself. The whole providential government of the world and its long continuance in its present state is a witness of the same. God gives man a free hand to work out all that is in his own heart, while at the same time surrounding him with every inducement to turn to Himself.

This is particularly true of the last phase of His patience and longsuffering,-the present dispensation, where, in Christendom at least, the full blaze of revelation would guide and attract man into paths of pleasantness and peace. When all is over (and it seems now to be nearly the end) it will be seen that if there were anything good in man there had been just the atmosphere in which it would properly develop, and! so far from God being an indifferent spectator, or a hostile one to human progress and development, it will be clear that He has done all that He could to make the trial a successful one on man's part. It will be true of Israel as a nation, and her kings and the world at large as well, that but one answer could be given the question:"What could I have done more unto My vineyard that I have not done? " All has been done.

Our chapter opens with the genealogy of king Saul. It is traced back through five ancestors, whose names are given, and the significance of which ca/not fail to be suggestive. We must bear in mind that it is a genealogy of the flesh, as we may say, where that which is emphasized will be nature rather than grace. Saul himself means "asked" or "demanded." He represents the people's demand for a king, and in that way, nature's ideal. His father was Kish, which means "ensnaring," very suggestive of all that is of nature, which in its most attractive form cannot be trusted.

The next in line was Abiel,'' father of might," which seems to emphasize the thought of strength in which man does indeed glory, but which too often proves to be utter weakness. Zeror, the next, "compressed" or "contracted," suggests the reverse; we can readily understand how one, himself hedged in and oppressed, would seek a reaction and give expression to his desire in his son. Bechorath, his father, "primogeniture," is that which nature makes much of and which Scripture has frequently set aside. Nature says the elder shall rule. How often has Scripture declared that the elder shall serve the younger! Aphiah, " I will utter," would suggest that pride of heart which tells out its imagined greatness. The last person in the list is not named, but described as a Benjamite, a member of that tribe whose history had been one of such glorying self-will and rebellion.

Thus the genealogy of the man of the people's desire would suggest the pride, the self-will, the excellence of nature, together with its feebleness, too, and its deceit. These things are not looked upon as man would regard them, where many of the traits are considered valuable and important, but they are looked upon from God's point of view, and all that is great and excellent in nature is seen to be stained with decay. Thus Saul is described as "a choice young man and a goodly, and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people," surely a beau ideal of a king, in man's eyes; alas too soon to show the vanity of man's nature !

The man of the people's desire being now marked out, we are next shown the steps which lead up to his being presented. What trivial events apparently decide our whole after-course of life! It was comparatively an unimportant matter that the asses of Kish should have strayed away and Saul with a servant be sent in search of them, and yet God used this to bring to pass all that was hinging upon it. No doubt everything here has its lessons for us if we are able to read them aright. We are told that man is like a wild ass's colt, naturally unrestrained and self-willed. These asses would then naturally suggest that nature of man which has gone astray from God, and in its wildness and absence of restraint needs ever the strong hand to hold it down. Israel, too, had many a time shown its waywardness in like manner, and one who goes in search of that rebellious nation must indeed have help from God to lay hold of it.

As a matter of fact, Saul did not find the asses; they were restored to his father by divine Providence; and no mere man has ever brought back the wayward wanderer to God. If brought back at all, it is through a divine work. When the time comes for the true King to enter His city, He rides upon an ass's colt upon which man had never sat, controlling all things. Saul searched diligently enough in various places for these lost asses, but fails to find them. First he goes through Mount Ephraim, "fruitful-ness," and the land of Shalisha, "the third part," which may have stood for a very large territory; but neither in the place of fruitfulness nor in any wide extent of region has a wanderer ever been found. Man surely has not been fruitful for God. He next seeks through the land of Shaalim, "the place of hollows or valleys" and the land of Jemini, "my right hand," which would suggest exaltation. But neither in humiliation nor exaltation is the natural man found. The poor and degraded are as far from God as those who are exalted. Lastly he comes to Zuph, "a honey-comb," and there he gives up the search. It would seem to stand for the sweetness
and attractiveness of nature, but perhaps more hopeless than any is this. One may be naturally attractive without one thought of God, and if the belt have no heart for Him, the search must be abandoned. It would need a Seeker after another kind to find the wanderers, and He found them in a different place from those in which Saul ever sought. Going down in death and taking his place under judgment, there He found the wanderer.

(To be continued.)