His words, however, fell on unheeding ears. The pomp and ceremonial of a court had too many attractions for the nation; without a king to judge them and fight their battles, they affected to feel isolated and degraded in the eyes of neighbouring peoples, and a king they were resolved to have. This answer of the elders Samuel carried back to the Lord, who again bade him hearken to their voice, and promised the fulfilment of their wishes, with which assurance they were dismissed to their several cities[233] (1 Sam. viii. 22).
CHAPTER III.
ELECTION OF THE FIRST KING.
1 Sam. ix. B.C. 1095.
THE elders of Israel had not long to wait for the king they so earnestly desired. Shortly after Samuel’s return to Ramah he received Divine intimationthat on the morrow one would be sent him, whom he was to anoint to be captain over the Lord’s people. Accordingly the next day, as he was on his way to the high place to give his benediction at a sacrificial feast, he met two wayfaring men. One was a man of Benjamin, Saul the son of Kish, of a noble and handsome mien and gigantic stature, from his shoulders and upward higher than any of the people; the other was his servant. In quest of the asses of Saul’s father, which had strayed, the two had been traversing without success the central region of Palestine, and now guided by certain maidens of Ramah, whom they had met at the entrance of the place going out to draw water, they had resolved to ask the advice of Samuel.
The Prophet had already noticed the tall handsome stranger, and as he drew near the Divine Voice assured him that he was the destined Ruler of His people (1 Sam. ix. 15, 16). When, therefore, Saul enquired for the Seer’s house, Samuel not only declared that he was the person he sought, but revealed his mysterious acquaintance with the secret of his three days’ journey, and bade him lay aside all further anxiety, for the asses were found. Then, turning to Saul, he added in yet more mysterious words, On whom is the desire of Israel? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father’s house? Marvelling at the import of this significant question addressed to one who belonged to the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and whose family was the least of all the families of Benjamin (1 Sam. ix. 21), Saul followed the Prophet to the high place, where with his servant he was made to sit in the chiefest place among the thirty guests assembled at the sacrificial feast, and to partake of a special portion which had been reserved for him.
Thence he returned to the town, and in the evening held further conversation with Samuel on the house-top of his dwelling. Next morning at daybreak Samuelroused his guest, and accompanied him some little way to the end of the town. There the servant was bidden to pass on, and the two being left alone the Prophet taking a phial of oil poured it on Saul’s head, and kissed him, and assured him of his election to be the first King of Israel. To this assurance he added prophetic intimations of incidents which would occur on Saul’s return homewards, and which could not fail still further to confirm him in the conviction that his sudden elevation was indeed of the Lord. Two men would meet him at Rachel’s sepulchre, and inform him that the asses were found, and that his father’s anxieties now centred on himself; at the “plain,” or rather the “oak” of Tabor (1 Sam. x. 3) he would meet three men going to Bethel carrying gifts of kids, bread, and a skin bottle of wine; they would salute him, and offer him two loaves of bread, which he was to receive at their hand; then, thirdly, on reaching the hill of God, probably Gibeah, where the Philistines had posted a garrison, he would meet a company of the prophets coming down from the high place with psaltery, tabret, pipe, and harp, whose inspired strains would so affect him that he would join himself to them, and be turned into another man. After the fulfilment of these three signs, he was to go to Gilgal, and there tarry seven days till Samuel’s arrival to offer sacrifices, and tell him what he should do (1 Sam. x. 8). Then the two men parted, each of the three signs came to pass, and God gave the son of Kish another heart. Convinced of his call to inaugurate the kingly period of Israel’s history, his soul rose to the greatness of the occasion; the strains of the prophetic choir so wrought upon his spirit that he felt inspired to join them, and his appearance in their society became the occasion of a well-known proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? (1 Sam. x. 12).
Meanwhile Samuel convened all the people to Mizpehof Benjamin, and after again rebuking them for their want of faith in thus hastily seeking a change of government, bade them present themselves before the Lord by their tribes and by their thousands, in order that the sacred lot might decide the election of the king. In solemn order the tribes passed before him, and the lot fell upon that of Benjamin. Then the same ceremony was successively repeated with the clans, the families, the individuals, and in a manner that none could dispute, it was indicated that Saul the son of Kish was the object of the Divine choice. But when search was made for him, he was not to be found. Still unwilling to accept the arduous duties of the kingdom, he had concealed himself in the circle of baggage round the encampment at Mizpeh. The search was renewed, and he was brought forth from his hiding-place. As he advanced into the midst his exalted stature struck the spectators with admiration, and a universal shout of Long live the King betokened the nation’s acceptance of its new head (1 Sam. x. 24).
Left to themselves, the Israelites would, doubtless, have stood committed to the new form of government, without pausing to insist on any conditions from their Ruler, well content if he proved as absolute and irresponsible as those of the nations round about. But the far-seeing Samuel was wiser than they. Well knowing the bearing of the transactions of that day on the nation’s future, he not only expounded to the people the manner of the kingdom as set forth by their great Lawgiver in the Book of Deuteronomy (xvii. 14–20), but for the sake of greater security committed the regulations thus accepted to writing, and laid them up in safe keeping before the Lord, and thus, “under Divine sanction, and amidst the despotisms of the East, arose the earliest example of a constitutional monarchy[234].”
This ceremony concluded, the people returned to their homes, and Saul retired to Gibeah. Though his elevation had been thus formally approved, there were not wanting those who, on the score, probably, of the obscurity of his tribe, and the fact that his capacities were as yet unknown, expressed much dissatisfaction at his promotion, questioned his ability to rule them, and brought him none of the usual presents (1 Sam. x. 27). With rare self-control, however, he held his peace, and in a short time was enabled to justify the confidence that had been reposed in him.
While living in retirement at Gibeah, he received intelligence which roused all his martial ardour, and for the first time revealed his talents as a military leader. The Ammonites, recovered from the defeat they had sustained from Jephthah, had under the leadership of their king Nahash laid siege to Jabesh-gilead (See Judg. xxi. 8), the inhabitants of which place in their terror invited the heathen king to make a covenant with them, and agreed to serve him. This, with characteristic haughtiness he declined, except on the condition that he might put out their right eyes, and thus render them unfit for further military service. In this strait, the elders of the place requested seven days’ respite,and meanwhile sent messengers to their brethren imploring assistance. Saul was driving his herd homewards from the field, when the sound of wild lamentation in his native town revealed the danger which threatened the friendly[235] town of Jabesh-gilead. Immediately the Spirit of the Lord came upon him (1 Sam. xi. 6), filling him with courage and resolution for the emergency. Taking a yoke of oxen, he hewed them in pieces, and sent this war-token throughout all the tribes, summoning them under pain of eternal disgrace to rally round himself and Samuel and hasten to the rescue of their brethren. He then bade the messengers return to Jabesh-gilead with the assurance of succour, before the sun was hot on the morrow. His determined spirit quickly communicated itself to others, and 300,000 from Israel, and 30,000 from Judah gathered round him and the Prophet. Bezek, a place apparently within a day’s march of Jabesh, was appointed their head-quarters, and thence dividing his forces into three companies Saul executed a swift night-march, and burst upon the Ammonites in the morning watch, who panic-stricken by this unexpected onslaught were defeated with enormous loss, so that not two of them were left together (1 Sam. xi. 11).