John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: July 20

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: July 20


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Israel at Mizpeh

1Sa_7:1-6

After the death of Eli and his sons, there was no one in Israel who stood before the people, with any claims to attention comparable to those of Samuel. His constant presence at the tabernacle had made the Israelites familiar with his person and history from childhood. The vision of the Lord with which he had even in early youth been favored, followed by subsequent communications, which enabled him to speak for warning, for reproof, for counsel “in the name of the Lord,” pointed him out as a commissioned prophet—a character rare and occasional before his time, but which henceforth becomes conspicuous and frequent in the history of Israel. After the account of that remarkable denunciation upon Eli and upon his house, which we have already considered, the historian, before proceeding to the public transactions, carries forward the history of Samuel to the point where he means to take it up again, by the remark—“And Samuel grew; and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.” These words may indicate the nature of the influence which Samuel exerted during the twenty years following the subjugation of Israel by the Philistines. During this period, we cannot doubt that he continually lifted up his voice against the corruption of the times, and strove to rouse the people to a sense of the duty they owed to their country and their God. His exhortations were greatly needed. The abominations of the sons of Eli had corrupted the people, and brought discredit upon the worship of God. Under these circumstances, idolatry had reappeared and become prevalent, while the ark lay neglected by the nations at Kirjath-Jearim, whither it had been removed from Bethshemesh, and deposited in the house of a man named Abinadab, who probably was, as Josephus affirms, a Levite—though in that case, he could only have been a sojourner at Kirjath-Jearim, which was not a Levitical city. This man’s son, Eleazer, was set apart to the charge of the ark; probably to keep things clean and orderly about it, to guard from intrusion the place where it lay, and to prevent it from being used or touched irreverently. It was thus the ark remained for nearly half a century, until it was removed by David. It would seem from Jer_7:12; Jer_7:14; Jer_26:6-9, that Shiloh, so long the seat of the ark and the tabernacle, had been destroyed by the Philistines, which may account for its not having been restored to that place; and may have tended in no small degree to increase the disorders of the times, by inducing much neglect of, and irregularity in, the performance of the ritual services and sacrifices.

During the same period, the Israelites seem to have submitted in hopeless despondency to the dominion of the Philistines. The numbers of that people were too small to allow them to think of occupying the country they had conquered; nor did they at any time evince much disposition to spread themselves inland. They were content with their position on and near the coast, and seem only to have attached a few border towns to their own territory; the rest—or more properly speaking, the southern part of the land—they held simply in military subjection by means of garrisons established at different strong points in the country. The Israelites were of course made to defray the heavy expense of these garrisons; and this, with the tribute exacted by their uncircumcised masters, could not but form a heavy burden upon an agricultural people like the Israelites, and must have been a serious check upon their temporal prosperity, if it did not keep them in an impoverished condition.

By the time that the twenty years had expired, the exhortations of Samuel, and probably some other righteous men, had brought the Israelites round to a better state of feeling and judgment; and, convinced that their best course to prosperity and health would be secured by placing themselves under the guidance of a man so wise and holy as Samuel, he was formally recognized by them as their judge—although most of the essential functions of that office had already come insensibly into his hands, and been exercised by him.

The first act of Samuel as judge, was to extirpate idolatry; and he hesitated not to promise the people, that, at this cost, God wound not fail to deliver them from the yoke of the Philistines. He then called an assembly of the people at Mizpeh, on the borders of Judah and Benjamin (not the Mizpeh beyond the Jordan), to engage with him in a solemn act of prayer and humiliation before the Lord, as a suitable commencement of a new and more prosperous career. Mizpeh seems to have been chosen as a known place of concourse to the tribes on high national occasions. It was here that the tribes gathered together, when the injured Levite called them to vengeance, Jdg_20:1.

The ceremonies, being not at the tabernacle, and not under the regular ordinance of the law as administered by the priesthood, offer some peculiarities which may well be noticed. They fasted that day, and began it by drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord, and said—“We have sinned against the Lord.” We find no such ceremonial as this prescribed in the law, or exhibited in any former instance; yet it must have had a very distinct and intelligent signification to the people. Some have explained it by reference to the custom at the feast of tabernacles (in a later age), of drawing water from the pool of Siloam, and pouring it out before the Lord. But there is no trace of this custom in the law, or indeed in the Old Testament. It seems to have come into use after the captivity, and it was an act of rejoicing—not, like this, of humiliation. There is an allusion to it in Joh_7:36-37. It is related by Jerome as a tradition of the Jews—that, as in the water of jealousy, curses were cast into the water, by being written and the writing washed off into it, and that idolaters were tried by drinking of it. If any idolater denied the worship of idols and tasted it, his lips became immediately so glued together that they could not be separated, and he thus became known, and he was put to death. In answer to this it is sufficient to remark, that the water was not drunk, but poured out. Some say it was a symbol of the pouring out of their hearts in humiliation before the Lord, and of the atonement and expiation of their sins, which passed away as water, to be remembered no more, Others make this act a sign of their renunciation of idolatry, so that as of water entirely poured out, nothing of it should remain. Josephus makes it a libation; but it does not appear that water was used by the Jews in their libations. Another opinion, enforced by some of good judgment, is, that the Israelites, to render the fasting more resolute, and in evidence of its intensity, drew forth, and cast away from the wells and reservoirs, all the water to be found in the place. They might have been led to this, by considering that the indiscretion of one person might neutralize the intended effect of this solemnity. But in case this were done, how did they get water to quench their thirst in the evening after the fast, and what were the fixed inhabitants likely to say to this exhaustion of their store of water? There is something or other wrong in all these special interpretations. We take this act to have been the sign and symbol, or rather confirmation of an oath—a solemn vow. To pour out water on the ground is an ancient way of taking a solemn oath in the East—the words and promises that had gone forth from their mouth, being as “water spilt upon the ground, that cannot be gathered up again.” Mr. Roberts well illustrates this by an anecdote from the Hindu mythology: “When the god Vishnu in the disguise of a dwarf, requested the giant Maha-Ville (Bali), to grant him one step of his kingdom, the favor was conceded, and confirmed by Maha-Ville pouring out water before the dwarf. But in that ancient work, the Scanda Purana, where the account is given of the marriage of the god Siva with Paravati, it is said of the father—He placed the hand of the goddess Paravati, genetrix of the world, in the hand of Parama Easuran (Siva), and pouring out the water, said, ‘I give her to thee with all my heart.’” This, therefore, was done in confirmation of the compact.