1 Samuel 12:17-18 Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call to the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain… To stain the glory of all human pride, and to allow no flesh to boast itself in the presence of its Maker, is the great moral of sacred story. Man retains too much of his mould and faculties Divine, to overlook his own vast superiority over the rest of creation; but he has lost so much that he often overlooks God's measureless superiority over him. Hence it arises that the Almighty is so often left out of sight in the plans and purposes of His creatures; or, at all events, that He is only so far recognised as the acknowledgment may redound to the greater glory of self, and raise that shining idol to a brighter pedestal than it occupied before. We immediately fancy He is smiling on our unsanctified plans, and passing by, unavenged and uncured for, an affront put upon His own laws. It is a striking illustration the folly of putting our own constructions on the silence or non-interference of Almighty God, which is presented in that portion of Jewish history which has been brought before us. We find the holy seer warning the infatuated nation of the consequences which should result to them from the curse of a granted prayer. Presumption and infatuation, however, still swayed their counsels. Accordingly, by an immediate revelation from heaven, the prophet is directed to fix upon a young man, named Saul, as the anointed of God over His people; to whom, whilst in search of His father's asses, the prophet is instructed to make the offer of the kingdom. 1. And here we may note a striking illustration of that peculiarity in the arrangements of Providence by which a combination of seeming casualties becomes subordinated to the purposes of the Almighty, and chance is made a minister, to effectuate and perform His will For, observe, Saul had been appointed, in the eternal decrees of Heaven, to take charge of the new kingdom; and yet, for all this, lots are to be cast, to determine who the new king should be. But in "casting the lot into the lap," man has done all that he can do; "the disposing thereof" rests "with the Lord;" and nothing can hinder, but that this lot shall find out the right person. Human contingencies are Divine certainties. All chance is only unseen design. God marshals accidents, as man originates plans; save only, that the plans may fail of their intended aim, whilst the accidents never can. 2. A ranted prayer is not always a sanctioned prayer; and it will be time enough to rejoice in the blessing we have been seeking for when we find that "the Lord addeth no sorrow with it." "The prayer of the wicked" is often turned "into sin;" and the prayer of the impatient is almost sure to be turned into misfortune. God does exercise His authority over our lives, and He claims to exercise it over our desires as well. He forbids all presumptuous wrestlings with the course of His own Providence: all usurpations of His right to shape, direct, and regulate all our plans of life. Why is everything to be "according to our minds?" We would fain choose our own path. We would set up ourselves as infallible judges of what may be best and happiest for us. We judge of the fruit by its appearance, and not by its taste; we are satisfied with the breadth of the way, and never think of the end of the way. We would have a king, like the nations, to reign over us, and forget that "the Lord our God is our king." Learn, then, to tremble at your own success, whenever your impatient anxiety for some temporal good has, as it were, turned the channels of Divine Providence out of their usual course; when you have, so to speak, coerced the Almighty into a concession which the whole aspect of His Providences indicated His intention to keep back. If the door does not open of its own accord you must not force it. The concession, sooner or later, must be fatal to you. In letting you have your own way God has only laid down the sceptre to take up the sword; He has loosened "the cords of love," but it is to bind you with fetters of iron. He has given you a king, to lead you to the battles; but He will no longer "go forth with your armies," or crown your endeavours with victory. When we know that we have done, and are doing, that for which the arrow of God's pursuing judgments must be flying after us, it were better for our soul's peace that it should overtake us at once. The tardiness of its flight in time may be only to gather its more deadly poisons for eternity. And bitter as it may be to bear God's temporal chastisements, it were better to feel them than not to feel our own sin. 3. The instrument chosen of God for bearing His remonstrance to the Jewish nation, was the same venerable prophet. "A word spoken in season, how good is it!" How often do the arrows of the truth fall blunt and powerless upon the soul, from their not being aimed at the right time! We commonly allow the fault and the reproof to come too close together. We forget that a little interval between them would allow the offender time to think; the offended time to cool; and both, when the grace of God should so incline them, the opportunity and time to pray. Had Samuel uttered his bold remonstrance to the Israelites, under the first keen sense of the insult they had offered him, he would probably have been answered with scorn; but having waited till they supposed he had forgotten their unkindness, he beholds them now meekly outranking for an interest in his prayers. Such of you as are parents particularly I would exhort you to imitate Samuel's example in this respect. The expected reproof, even in children, is seldom a profitable reproof. Pride is on the alert; conscience has taken the alarm; and the whole artillery of excuses and self-justifications are being prepared for the encounter. But let the taste of sin have time to turn bitter on the tongue; let the sense of the wrongfulness of your children's fault be heightened by the tenderness which, on your part, seems to have passed it entirely by; nay, let the time for calling them to account be that when you are showing them marks of continued kindness — and you will then find that pride will have nothing to answer; the convicted heart will be ashamed of its excuses; and wondering at this unexpected and undeserved forbearance, they will say with the penitent Israelites before us — "We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord; pray for thy servants to the Lord thy God." 4. How many souls have perished from the desire to be "like the rest of the nations!" Things which men care little about for themselves, they yet desire and discountenance, because they would not displease others. They cannot pay the price of a holy singularity. "I cannot," says one, "bid adieu to scenes of vanity and folly, to the midnight revel and dramatic blasphemy, because I should be unlike all the nations." I cannot, in the multiplied occupations and intercourses of life, make profession of godliness, without at the same time bearing a witness against the nations; against their principles, which are opposed to Christ. Conformity to the world, or friendship with the world, can only be obtained at one price — enmity with God. What was Pilate's motive for staining his hands with the life-blood of the Son of God? He was "willing to content the people." Hear, then, the words of the Lord — the words of Samuel, yea, the words of all the prophets, God hath ever sent to you. They are as eloquent of mercy as the harvest thunder was eloquent of power. "Fear not. Ye have done all this wickedness;" ye have made for yourselves a king — a king of your wealth, a king of your pleasures, a king (it may be) of your griefs and cares. But if ye will now turn aside from this folly, and serve the Lord with all your heart, following no commands but His, desiring no smile but His, depending on no righteousness but His, and no longer like the rest of the nations, trusting to those vain things which can neither profit nor deliver, rest assured that, as Samuel declared to the Israelites, "the Lord will not forsake His people, for His great name's sake." Yes, the glory of that great name is bound up with, and brightened and magnified by a thousand pardons The Redeemer's brow shall be illumined with a yet brighter radiance, and angels' bosoms throb with a yet diviner joy at each sinner that repenteth. (Daniel Moore, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Is it not wheat harvest to day? I will call unto the LORD, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the LORD, in asking you a king. |
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