Matthew Poole on 1 Samuel (cont. x2)

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dildaysc

Puritan Board Junior
It is comparatively easy to begin in humility than to end in humility.

Behold, the sad case of King Saul...

 
Samuel began his career in humility, and ended it in like manner, willingly giving honor to another.

Saul began in humility, but ended in pride and tyranny.

How difficult a thing is humility to maintain!

 
Saul receives the Word of God, but grows forgetful of this privilege.

A cautionary tale concerning pride and forgetfulness...

 
Poole outlines 1 Samuel 10. It is time for Israel to have her first king, Saul.

 
In 1 Samuel, the office of Judge waxes old; the era of the kings has come!

 
In 1 Samuel, the office of Judge waxes old; the era of the kings has come!

"Note that, although the anointing of Kings is commanded by no law, as far as I know, it is employed repeatedly as customary even before those times. "

Yes, for why should there be law regarding an office God never had a design for? When they rejected the Judges and asked for a king, they rejected God as their king.
Great stuff by the way. I love all this.
 
"Note that, although the anointing of Kings is commanded by no law, as far as I know, it is employed repeatedly as customary even before those times. "

Yes, for why should there be law regarding an office God never had a design for? When they rejected the Judges and asked for a king, they rejected God as their king.
Great stuff by the way. I love all this.
Very kind. Thank you.
 
Civil magistrates are accountable to King Jesus, and will be made to feel it sooner or later.

"The first place Samuel directed him to was a sepulchre, the sepulchre of one of his ancestors, for Rachel died in travail with Benjamin; there he must read a lecture of his own mortality, and now that he had a crown in his eye must think of his grave, in which all his honour would be laid in the dust" (Matthew Henry).

 
A message for Washington:

"These two loaves, which were the first tribute paid to this newly-anointed king, might serve for an admonition to him not to spend the wealth of his crown in luxury, but still to be content with plain food. Bread is the staff of life." -Matthew Henry

 
Interested in Exclusive Psalmody? You will not want to miss this (including "Comments"). Samuel's "Sons of the Prophets" are an important, but often neglected, link in the History of the Service of Song.

 
"The greatest of men (including kings) must own themselves in subjection to God and his word" (Matthew Henry).

 
Our national charade (in which we Christians are complicit): When we do important things in the public sphere (politics, economics, foreign policy, war, etc.), we have all agreed to pretend that there is no God.

Consider: Is not Saul most agreeable to the eye as a ruler, when most under the influence of the Spirit of God?

 
We must be watchful against pride. As we grow, and advance in sanctification, the danger of pride also grows. The glory of sanctification is to be ascribed to the Lord; but, as soon as we attribute the progress to ourselves, we fall.

Saul begins in a charming humility, but ends in an unseemly and self-destructive pride...

 
It is folly to trust in human government to save.

Consider Samuel's complaint, as Israel looks to a king, rather than their God, for salvation...

 
The Most High has set a King over us, Jesus Christ the Righteous (Psalm 2), and given us a "law/manner of the kingdom" (1 Samuel 10:25).

Perhaps we should revisit the compromise with the Deists at the Constitutional Congress...

 
"Thus differently are men affected to our exalted Redeemer. God hath set him king upon the holy hill of Sion. There is a remnant that submit to him, rejoice in him, bring him presents, and follow him wherever he goes; and they are those whose hearts God has touched, whom he has made willing in the day of his power. But there are others who despise him, who ask, How shall this man save us? They are offended in him, stumble at his external meanness, and they will be broken by it." -Matthew Henry

 
"In this chapter we have the firstfruits of Saul's government, in the glorious rescue of Jabesh-gilead out of the hands of the Ammonites. Let not Israel thence infer that therefore they did well to ask a king (God could and would have saved them without one); but let them admire God's goodness, that he did not reject them when they rejected him..." --Matthew Henry

 
Something for Americans to consider...

"They had lost the virtue of Israelites, else they would not have thus lost the valour of Israelites, nor tamely yielded to serve an Ammonite, without one bold struggle for themselves. Had they not broken their covenant with God, and forsaken his service, they needed not thus to have courted a covenant with a Gentile nation, and offered themselves to serve them." --Matthew Henry

 
In our distresses, when we cry to others, we may or may not be heard.

When we cry out to Jesus, we are always heard on high. What a comfort!

 
A message for Washington...

'Good magistrates are in pain if their subjects are in tears.' -Matthew Henry

 
Here, Saul is a fine figure of a civil magistrate, serving his people...rather than serving himself of his people. May the Lord raise up such in these Western lands...

 
A lesson for the present time, and for our land...

Saul's gov't began in humility, mercy, and service; but it ends in pride, jealousy, rapaciousness, and cruelty.

"Ye did run well; who did hinder you..."

 
"I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath." (Hos 13:11)

Something for our country to consider...

Join us for the study of 1 Samuel 12 (so many Biblical principles of good government!).

New posts every few days...

 
William Symington's Messiah the Prince: 'Exemplary behaviour is necessary to give due moral effect to official administration. Laws however wise, acts however equitable, intentions however pure, cannot have the same influence on others when they proceed from persons who are themselves destitute of moral character.'

 
A lesson for our nation...

"[Samuel] reminds them of the great goodness of God to them and to their fathers, gives them an abstract of the history of their nation, that, by the consideration of the great things God had done for them, they might be for ever engaged to love him and serve him." (Matthew Henry)

 
In ancient times, Samuel displayed the aggravation of Israel's sins, in that they continued in transgression in the face of God's judgments and mercies.

What would he say to America?

 
From the first founding of her monarchy, Israel was required to serve the Lord, government and people.

This was not unique to Israel, but is required of all the nations of the earth (see Psalm 2), including America.

 
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