John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: August 5

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John Kitto Morning Bible Devotions: August 5

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Israel Disarmed

1Sa_13:1-4; 1Sa_13:19-22

The narrative may have suggested to many that Saul was a young man at the time of his nomination to reign over Israel. Yet on reflection, it would appear as unlikely that the disadvantage of youth, and consequently of inexperience, should have been added to the other disqualifications, for winning the confidence of the people, under which he had labored. In the course of hereditary succession, the occasional youth of the sovereign at the time of his accession is accepted as an inevitable consequence and necessity of that form of government; but in the first establishment of a dynasty—in the choice of a first king—we remember no instance of a young man being preferred. David himself was thirty years old when he began to reign, and had thus arrived at full maturity of years, and still greater maturity of character and experience. We are, therefore, not surprised when it transpires that Saul had already a son entering upon manhood, and fit to take a military command, and to act with valor and conduct in it. This son was Jonathan—a worthy name—a name dear to every student of Scripture history. The possession of such a son at the commencement of his reign, implies that Saul could not well have been much less than forty years of age.

Although under the necessity of disbanding the army when the great service for which it was brought together had been accomplished, Saul was so well aware of the dangerous attention his exploit and deliverance would awaken on the part of the remaining enemies of Israel, that he deemed it expedient to keep a small body of men under arms. There was this need of his doing so—that the Philistines in fact still retained, or had in the later years of Samuel’s government acquired, possession of some posts in Israel, which they held by their garrisons at the time of Saul’s anointing. In dismissing him from Ramah, Samuel had indicated that on his way home he would pass by a place, where there was “a garrison of the Philistines.” This being the case, the election of a king by the Israelites could not but have engaged the earnest attention of this people, and the military resources and decision evinced by that king in the splendid action against the Ammonites, must have made them feel that their own position in regard to the Israelites would not long remain unquestioned. In fact, the recent victory of Saul must have stimulated him to the purpose of gaining possession of these Philistine posts, and of confirming himself in the regards of the people, by ridding the country entirely of these inveterate enemies of Israel. Thus the parties stood watching each other—the Philistines looking for some overt act, which might afford them cause for bringing their full power into the field; for being already in possession of such superiority over Israel as they desired, they had nothing to fight for, until the Israelites should manifest a purpose of shaking off their yoke. That yoke was heavier than we should have conceived from anything that has transpired in the history; for it appears eventually that the Philistines had in fact disarmed the population, and had even removed the smiths—so that the people had even to take their agricultural implements to the Philistine garrisons to be sharpened—that is, to have the edge beaten out on the anvil. They were not, as some imagine, compelled to go to the Philistines by any direct order, but they went because smiths only were to be found there. Hence, probably, they managed as well as they could to make their tools work without this resource, by the aid of the files which we are told they possessed for common sharpening. The extent of this disarmament may appear from the fact, that in the action which eventually came on, no one of the Israelites had a sword or spear save the king and his son Jonathan.

It may be, and has been, urged as an objection to this statement, that it is scarcely credible that a vast army of men should have taken the field against the Ammonites, not long before, without weapons; or that the Ammonites should have been defeated by an unarmed multitude. But this would equally apply to the ensuing engagement with the Philistines themselves, with reference to which this statement is expressly made. They were not unarmed, although deprived of those usual weapons of warfare, and the means of obtaining them, which only a smith could make. There were bows, there were slings, there were ox-goads, which had once been so efficient against this very people in the days of Shamgar. In fact, there were a hundred things which might be turned into efficient weapons in the hands of brave and resolute men, before the use of fire-arms was known. The Benjaminites—Saul’s own tribe—were, we know, especially expert in the use of the sling; and it is far from unlikely that the privation of other customary weapons caused this to be especially cultivated, which was destined ere long in the hands of David to lay the great champion of the Philistines low.

It has been ingeniously suggested that, seeing that in and after the Mosaical, as well as the Homeric period, spears and swords of “brass”—that is, a mixture of copper and tin, very hard but also brittle—were in common use, and seeing that the Hebrews, even to a late period of their history, received their iron from abroad—the object of the restriction imposed by the Philistines was to retain in their own hands at this time the use of iron weapons, which gave an indisputable advantage to those who exclusively possessed them. By their position they would be enabled to realize this superiority; for, by blocking up access to the maritime traffic on the one hand, and to Egypt on the other, they could keep iron from the use of the inland tribes near their border—not permanently, for no advantage of this nature can long remain exclusive, but undoubtedly for a considerable length of time.

Ancient history is not without analogous examples of these restrictions. A like condition was imposed upon the Romans by Porsenna, king of the Etrusci, at a time and under circumstances when it was far more difficult to enforce. In the covenant contracted with the Romans on the expulsion of their kings, he made it a condition of peace with them that they should use no iron except in husbandry. Note: Plin. Hist. Nat. 31-34. The same policy occurs again indeed in Scripture itself; for Nebuchadnezzar was careful to remove “the craftsmen and the smiths”—the latter obviously that the poor people whom he left behind might be in no condition to rebel.

The force which, under these circumstances, Saul deemed it expedient to retain in arms, did not exceed three thousand men. This strikes us as a large rather than a small number for him to reserve as a sort of body guard about his person. The absence of a standing army—compensated by the great facility of calling large bodies of the people into prompt action—was adverse to the keeping any large numbers of men in arms; and the profession of a soldier was confined to the royal guards, who alone remained constantly on duty. This body was of course composed of picked men, and formed the efficient nucleus of an army, when the militia (so to speak) were called out. Their commander was thus the only officer of rank on permanent service; and this gave him such advantages, that the same person was usually the general-in-chief of the whole army (under the king) when the levies were raised. Of the three thousand, which Saul probably thought sufficient as an army of observation till an opportunity should be found of striking a blow against the Philistines, he kept two thousand with him, and committed the other thousand to the charge of his son Jonathan, who was stationed in closer observation upon the Philistine post at Geba. The impetuous valor of this young man—stimulated by his more acutely susceptible, if not deeper, sense of the shame and dishonor to Israel, from the presence of hostile strangers in the sacred land—precipitated matters to a crisis, sooner perhaps than the cooler judgment of Saul would have dictated. Although, however, startled one day to receive intelligence that his son had smitten and cut off the Philistine garrison at Geba, he saw that the time for observation was past, and that of action come. It will be noted that he did not attempt anything further with the force in hand. He saw that it was his duty not to waste time in petty actions; but, being assured that the intelligence of this affair would bring the whole force of the Philistines into the field, he once more summoned the tribes to his standard.