No. 3.
IN 1 Samuel 12. we also find deeply interesting instruction in relation to prayer. When Israel had chosen a king, Samuel thus addressed them: “Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which He did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers opt of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place” (1 Sam. 12:7, 87Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers. 8When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. (1 Samuel 12:7‑8)). Moses and Aaron were raised up by the Lord to redeem Israel out of Egypt, in answer to their cry. When in the land they forges the Lord their God: “And when they forget the Lord their God, He sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Razor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve Thee. And the Lord sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe” (vss. 9-11). They knew pot whom God would raise up to deliver them. In each case He chose His own instrument and Israel was rescued from the hand of their oppressor. Alas! how soon do we get tired of the place of dependence and of prayer, as the sequel shows. “And when ye saw that Nahash, the king of the children of Ammon came against you, ye said unto me, Nay; but a king shall reign over us: when the Lord your God was your king” (vs. 12). How prone we are to turn away from the living God, and hew out to ourselves cisterns that can hold no water. When our faith in God fails, we recur to the arm of man and our own inventions. The setting up a king in their midst was in principle a denial of confidence in God. It showed the state of their heart. They no longer walk by faith, no longer leave it with God whom He shall send, or how deliver. Their eye is now removed from God, and is settled on Saul. “Through God we shall do valiantly,” is the language of faith: better is it to walk with God through the trial, however great it may be, than to be in prosperity and ease without Him. When God is displaced, and other things have our confidence, our nakedness will appear; we are divested of our strength, and become the boast of our enemies. So it was with Israel, Saul was ever their trial, and the one who stood between them and their safety, their blessedness, and their God.
Our chapter (1 Sam. 12) closes with a blessed expression of God’s unchanging love to His people, and of Samuel’s purpose to pray for, and teach them the right ways of the God of Israel. “And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart; and turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way” (vss. 20-23). God’s grace is often most conspicuous in the midst of our departures and mistakes. Though we change, He changeth not. “The Lord will not forsake His people,” is ever to faith a blessed promise. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” are the words of Jesus. He is the unfailing servant of His people, for whom He loveth He loveth unto the end. Our souls can rest here, though utterly cast down as regards every other refuge. In the Fountain of living waters we may ever find the refreshment of our souls, and in the fullness of Jesus a supply for all our need. Would that we ever turned there, and only there!
Samuel does not excuse nor palliate the people’s sin: on the contrary, he reasons with them of all the righteous acts of the Lord, while maintaining the ground on which God had set him, as their intercessor and instructor. Although Israel had deeply and grievously failed, he would still be their intercessor and instructor; simply because they were God’s chosen people, whom He would never forsake for His great name’s sake. “God forbid,” says he, “that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way” (vs. 23). “God forbid,” said Paul, “that I should glory, save in the cross.” These servants of the Lord express the mind of God. To glory in anything save in the cross, or to cease to care for God’s children are alike repugnant to the mind of the Spirit.