of God to their fathers and to them, and gave them his solemn charge to be faithful to God and their national covenant, and then died, committing them to the care and protection of Jehovah.1 3. THE ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE JUDGES. For some time after Joshua's death, and while the, elders who survived him remained, the people were peaceful, industrious, and obedient to the law, without any appointed head of the nation. The prudence of Moses in their wanderings, and the prowess of Joshua in their wars, had made these chief captains necessary in their times; but the day for almost exclusive military training was past, and a more popular civil method of governing might be admitted. Instead of a single ruler, God designated the tribe of Judah to have the pre-eminence in counsel and leading measures; and under the precedence of this tribe there were various successful expeditions against the uneasy remnants of some of the Canaanites, while some still held themselves in their strong places, notwithstanding all efforts made to dislodge them.1 3 Under the influence of these remaining idolaters, and the Hebrew tendency to relapse into superstition, the people, after the first generations passed away, began to forsake God and serve Balaam and Ashtaroth; and God, according to his previous announcement to make his special providences conform 5 1 Josh. xxiii., xxiv. 2 Josh. xxiv. 31. Judges i. 22-36. Judges ii. 13. to their national fidelity or rejection of him, began to give their enemies power over them, and to oppress them with severe exactions.1 Then came the administration of Judges, whom the Lord raised up for their deliverance.2 These judges were a different order of magistracy from the chief ruler or captain, as in the case of Moses and Joshua, who had been permanent in their office through all changes. The judges were raised up for a special emergency, and on critical occasions. They were for the time in full authority as Jehovah's vicegerents, and held both judicial and executive power, declared war, headed the army, made peace, and often maintained their rule after the exigency which had called them out had passed by. But they exacted no annual revenue, kept no royal courts, had no badge of official dignity, and designated no successors.3 Sometimes they judged all Israel; but in other cases their jurisdiction was partial, and in some cases two were contemporary. They grew at the last, under Eli and Samuel, to be more permanent, powerful, and dictatorial. In one case, Deborah, a woman, in connection with Barak, judged Israel forty years. Their appointment began with Othniel, on occasion of eight years' oppression of Chusan-rishathaim, of Mesopotamia, and in all, to Samuel, were fourteen in number, and the sum of their periods of office was four hundred and ninety years. There may have been intervals, and perhaps overlappings, and the exact time from Joshua's death to Samuel's anointing Saul as king cannot well be determined, but will not have been far from five hun dred years. Very special interpositions of Jehovah by some of the judges, particularly Deborah, Gideon, Jephtha, Samson, and Samuel, made conspicuous his power and protection of his people, and his rebuke for their backslidings; and the taking of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines under Eli not only rebuked Israel, but confounded the idols of the hea then in their own temples. So God kept his people together before the nations till the days of Samuel. 4. THE THEOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION UNDER KINGS. - In the old age of Samuel, he made his sons associates with him in the judge's office; but they became unjust and mercenary, "accepted bribes and perverted judgment." It was also a critical time with the nation, which was then dangerously beset with powerful enemies. The people were dissatisfied and alarmed, and the elders in concert repaired to Samuel at Ramah, and asked directly for a king to rule them, after the manner of other nations.1 This request for a king displeased Samuel; but on inquiry of the Lord, the divine answer affirmed the request to be unrighteous, and yet directed Samuel to a compliance with their wish. Samuel prophetically announced to them the consequences of their choice, and the exactions and oppressions their kings would make upon the people, and the burdens the nation must bear to sup 1 1 Sam. viii. 1-5. port the royal state and dignity; but the elders, nevertheless, were persistent in their purpose, and by God's direction Samuel complied with their request, though holding it unreasonable, and sent them away with the understanding a king would be found and inaugurated. Saul, a son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, was hunting the strayed asses of his father; and becoming wearied and discouraged by a long search, he said to his servant that he would go to the city of Samuel and take counsel of the man of God. At the entrance of the city Samuel met them, and having been already directed by God, he privately there anointed Saul king over Israel. Soon after, a solemn convocation of the people at Mizpeh was made, and the lot was cast by the prophet, to determine before all the people who their king should be, first by tribes, then by families, and then man by man. First the lot fell to the tribe of Benjamin, then to the family of Matri; and ultimately among the individuals of the family, the lot fell to the very man whom Samuel had already prophetically and privately anointed. When found and presented, his great stature and comely form and features struck at once the popular favor, and by acclamation they acknowledge him their king. He was soon publicly inaugurated at Gilgal, and divinely in vested with the regal authority. Israel's sin in seeking a king was rather in the manner and motive than in the fact. Moses had in his day anticipated such a result, and had given such directions as permitted, and even encouraged, the nation to have a king. Their motive in asking a king, though occasioned by the age of Samuel and the immorality of his sons, was the gratification of vanity and national glory, and too much after the custom of the heathen about them; for they said, after Samuel's prudential expostulations, "No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and fight our battles."2 But most reprehensible was it that they forgot their theocratic allegiance, and desired a king incompatible with the claims of Jehovah. Says the Lord to Samuel, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them." 3 They had neither consulted God nor his prophets; they passed by the high priest and the Shechina; and of their own motion they demanded a king, to the exclusion of Jehovah, already their legitimate sovereign. God allowed their request, and made it the very means of punishing their sin, and disciplining their disloyalty to him. He maintained his supremacy, and held his constitutional authority, and in giving them a king as he pleased, he made the king to be his viceroy, and no independent monarch. The government was still a Theocracy, and the human king was God's vicegerent as truly as had been their chief captains and their judges. This peculiarity is to be recognized through all the kingly succession, that the human king acts 1 Deut. xvii. 14-20. 21 Sam. viii. 20. 31 Sam. viii. 7. |