June 1st, 1 Sam. 2; June 15th,1Sam. 16; June 30th,1Sara. 31; July 15th, 2 Sam.15.

COMMENTS

During this month we read through 1 Samuel. From the history recorded in this book we learn of a great change in relation to Israel and God's ways in respect to His earthly people. We see the utter break-down of the priesthood. By it hitherto relationship with God had been maintained on behalf of the people, but now, owing to the gross evil of the priests, despite the piety of Eli, God's judgment falls. In the execution of this judgment, God permits the ark to be taken by the enemy, and thus the people are left without the one thing by which through priesthood they were in relation with Jehovah. In this signal fashion God marks the end of His connection with the people on the basis laid down in Deuteronomy, according to which they had entered the land. With the ark of the covenant gone, that which was the place of propitiation through the sprinkled blood, and of communication from God to the priest for the people, the original relationship with Jehovah was outwardly broken and the condition of the people judged. Through unfaithfulness they had forfeited the place of privilege afforded them through the medium of the priest.

This involved a change in the ways of God, and gave opportunity for Him to act in His sovereignty, bringing out other purposes and dealings as to His people. These are to be seen in the raising up of the prophet as His means of communication, and bringing in an anointed one to exercise government, he being the responsible head from whom faithfulness would be required, and upon his conduct the destiny of|the people would depend. Consequent upon this change! in the order of God's relation to Israel, the priesthood no longer fills the first place as formerly, but the priest is to walk before God's anointed, before the king (ch. 2:35). This change, and the important place of the prophet as God's direct means of communication, obtained throughout the after history of Israel. It doubtless sets forth in shadow the millennial order, when in Christ this threefold order-prophet, king, priest-will be perfectly and gloriously in exercise.

In view of all that is to transpire in judgment upon the evil of both the priests and people, how full of comfort and grace are the first two chapters, in which we see how God comes in where utter helplessness and need are so evident, and gives, when no hope of anything from man can be entertained, the one whom He will raise up and use for the revival and blessing of the people.

This which so loudly speaks of His grace is alongside the execution of His judgment. By it He must vindicate the holiness of His name when His people, corrupt and rebellious, would link Him with themselves as such by carrying the ark into battle with the enemy whose afflictions He has brought in upon them because of their unfaithfulness. The former basis of relationship is gone, and grace acts to meet the case in other ways, but throughout God acts to maintain His holiness and majesty, whether in relation to the sin of His people, or among the enemy, as when the ark is brought into the idol's temple, and later in the circumstances surrounding the return of the ark.

Through Samuel's ministry revival and return to Jehovah is accomplished, the enemy is defeated, and deliverance realized under his judgeship. His sons fail, and this only serves to show how little the people really trusted in God. They do not turn to Him, but now demand a king that they may be like the nations. In this they reject the immediate government of God. This gives opportunity to once again show the utter incapacity of man to guide or rule-a needful lesson. To this end God brings in Saul, a m&n suitable to the mind of the people, that in the development of his course we may see what man in the flesh really is, spite of the opportunity afforded him. This only the more clearly comes out in Saul's treatment of Jonathan, in whom the energy of faith is seen at work, and whom God honors while Saul stands discredited, fails under every test, and is finally deprived of the kingdom.

David is then introduced-God's chosen one. The youngest, the one least thought of, and indeed forgotten, is Jehovah's anointed; thus once again teaching the lesson that which is natural must be set aside for the spiritual, for man's thoughts are not as the thoughts of God. From this onward we find that the Spirit is with David, and Saul is forsaken, and as the history unfolds, both the prophet and the priest are found with, the rejected but anointed one, all the resources of God for the people are with David. So it is with David's Lord. He is the true Deliverer of the people, while Saul is shown to be an utter failure. Yet it is to be noted that David does not set himself up against Saul while as yet God had not openly judged him. It is a time of trial and suffering for him, while God allows the other to go on to the climax of evil when the stroke will fall. All of this history presents an interlacing of what is typical in certain respects, and in others of what is of moral and spiritual instruction as to the path of faith in the midst of various forms of evil reaching to apostasy. In this connection we may learn much from it for our own circumstances, but doubtless it has special application to the last days and the remnant in the trials of that time. Throughout, there are many lessons of individual application which the believer may draw from the history, while not forgetting its typical and dispensational features.

The experiences of David during this period serve in many respects as a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus in His path of humiliation and sorrow. The occasions on which the weakness and failure of David are seen but enhance the perfection of Him with whom there was no shadow of turning from the line of conduct which ever pleased God. Yet with David in the main we do see the spiritual apprehension of what becomes the man of faith who knows to whom power rightly belongs, though for the time it is permitted to be in the hands of another. This is a difficult position, with many trying circumstances attending it, as to which there is only true discernment in the measure that there is a humble spirit and simple-hearted dependence upon God, the only One in whom all resources are found. When this is not so, sad consequences result, as we are allowed to see from some of David's actions. These things "were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Rom. IS:4). In this connection one evident lesson to be gathered from this history is the way God makes all turn toward the accomplishment of His own purpose. No power of Satan or of man can thwart His purpose. There is no form of evil but must be made to serve in some way the furtherance of His plan. He has written His Scriptures to show this, so that he who believes may learn patience and have comfort through them.