XXII.

Gibeah.

And Saul said, What aileth the people, that they weep?-1 SAM. xi. 5.

THE Lord carries on his work with all sorts of tools. If his people grow blunt and rusty, he will sometimes draw another sword, for the moment better suited to his purpose. Just now there was an interregnum in Israel. Smitten with the all-time desire to be like other people; in spite of the solemn protest which the Lord spoke by the mouth of his prophet; they persisted:

Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations.-1 SAM. viii. 19, 20.

-The wonderful distinction of having God alone for king did not content them: the wonderful joy of having him for a direct, personal leader, was not enough.

Ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us.-1 SAM. x. 19.

And

-So spoke the prophet to the wayward people. seeing they would have it, in the face of all warnings, God himself chose their new ruler; picking out a fairer specimen of humanity than most kings are made of. Saul,

the son of Kish, was a splendid fellow. To begin with, his father was a mighty man of power;' and Saul himself

was

A choice young man, and a goodly; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he.-1 SAM. ix. 2.

And when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.-1 Sam. x. 23,

-If such men were always as good to wear as they are to look at, the world would be richer. Well-God gave him to the people, and the people voted him in by acclamation; though, like David, Saul seems to have taken his dignities lightly at first, and to have gone back to his old duties. And I fancy the people were in a sort of interval of doubtful feeling too; with their heavenly King rejected, and the young, untried mortal whom they had chosen in his stead, apparently giving them little notice. But about a month after this (so the Septuagint), as Saul came with the herd out of the field, he found a condition of things which set all the king in him on fire.

And Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.-1 SAM. xi. 5.

-A sister city in trouble; a part of Israel in desperate need-such were the tidings. And clearly something more than tears was needed by the men of Jabesh-gilead. Yet they were all that the rest of Israel-dwelling at ease in safety could think of.

All the people lifted up their voice and wept.-1 Sam. xi. 4.

-The rule is :

Bear ye one another's burdens.-GAL. vi. 2.

-But these people only weighed them carefully, and wept that they were so heavy. They had most exact information to go by. 'Seven days' respite' had the besieged men of Jabesh; and then, if there was 'no man to save them,' their right eyes were forfeit. Well, you say, it was very sad, but think of the lives it might have cost to relieve them. Ah, there was more than life at stake, —even Israel's honour. That would be forfeit too.

That I may thrust out your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon Israel.-1 SAM. xi. 2.

-So ran the threat. O how many such a threat has been spoken and carried out!-How many a reproach has lain upon Israel-or a part of Israel! Israel's honour,what does it mean? In the old time it often meant a literal hand-to-hand coming to the help of the Lord'—

To the help of the Lord against the mighty.-Judg. v. 23.

-Read over that record of a time when Israel was 'mightily oppressed;' and see the difference there is among men.

In the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart ("The slothful man says there is a lion in the way'):

And so Reuben abode 'in the sheepfolds.'

Gilead abode beyond Jordan.

And why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher continued on the sea shore.

Zebulon and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death.-JUDG. v. 15-18.

-One cannot but think Luke may have remembered these words, when he wrote of Barnabas and Paul:

Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.-ACTS xv. 26.

-What do

you

think of Israel's honour? And which tribe

do you belong to?

Their nobles put not their necks to the work of their Lord,-wrote Nehemiah of the Tekoites.-NEH. iii. 5.

-To fight and build, it meant in those days; and to fight and to build, it means in our own. The fact that 'we wrestle not against flesh and blood,' does not exactly make the work easier. The devil will do more than put out the right eyes of millions of people, if there be no men to save;' and lay it (and justly) for a reproach upon Israel. But the men of Jabesh called for help.-Do not these? And where are they not calling for help, at this present moment? From the restless faces of the men whose goods are heaped up, to the street children who know no heaps but those of ashes; from the Zulu who inquired wonderingly: How long have you known this?-to the wild tribes of our own Dacotahs, now 'asking for teachers.' Wherever there is such a call refused, wherever a missionary is cramped in his work; whenever the Mission Boards are out of means, and the Bible Society funds run low: it is the old story of Jabesh-gilead over again. The devil is making this covenant with men :

That I may thrust out your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon Israel.-1 Sam. xi. 2.

-One can't do everything,-you say. One can.

Listen:

Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; how that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. For to their power, I bear record, yea, and beyond their power, they were willing of themselves.-2 COR. viii. 1-3.

-What chords, what harmony, are here! First 'grace,'that always first: then 'affliction,' 'joy,' 'deep poverty,' and 'riches of liberality.' Actually willing to do more than they could, and so-they did it.

There were no Macedonian believers in Gibeah that day. With a brief week in which to do anything, the messengers from Jabesh set out, and came to Gibeah of Saul.

And told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voice and wept.-1 Sam. xi. 4.

-Such tears are even cheaper than those at Bochim.

If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?-JAS. ii. 15, 16.

-Upon this state of things now entered Saul; fresh from his work in the field; whistling, I daresay,- or singing;stepping along with the free foot of youth and strength and conscious power. What aileth the people?' he exclaimed in astonishment. And being not too much overwhelmed to talk, the people told him. The news set Saul in a blaze of righteous indignation.

And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard these tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.-1 SAM. xi. 6.