1 Samuel 12:15

_BUT IF YE WILL NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD, BUT REBEL AGAINST THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD, THEN SHALL THE HAND OF THE LORD BE AGAINST YOU, AS IT WAS AGAINST YOUR FATHERS._ But if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord ... To set before them the alternative consequences of obedience and disobedience to the authority of the divine law was, as Graves well remarks, 'A lesson peculiarly necessary at the beginning of the regal government which the people had called for, from a certain degree of impatience under that theocracy which God by Moses had established.'...

6-15 The work of ministers is to reason with people; not only to exhort and direct, but to persuade, to convince men's judgments, and so to gain their wills and affections. Samuel reasons of the righteous acts of the Lord. Those who follow God faithfully, he will enable to continue following him. Disobedience would certainly be the ruin of Israel. We mistake if we think that we can escape God's justice, by trying to shake off his dominion. If we resolve that God shall not rule us, yet he will judge us....

EXPOSITION SAMUEL'S EXHORTATION TO THE PEOPLE AT GILGAL. This speech of Samuel is not to be regarded as a farewell address made upon his resignation of his office; for though a new power had been introduced, and Samuel's sons excluded from the succession, yet it was only gradually that a change was made in his own position. He was still judge (1 Samuel 7:15), and on extraordinary occasions came forward with decisive authority (1 Samuel 15:33). But as Saul gathered men of war round him (1 Samuel 14:52), the moral power possessed by Samuel would be overshadowed by the physical force whi

BUT IF YE WILL NOT OBEY THE VOICE OF THE LORD, BUT REBEL AGAINST THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD,.... They and their king, by sinning, disregarding his precepts, both affirmative and negative: THEN SHALL THE HAND OF THE LORD BE AGAINST YOU; by sending some judgments upon them, as famine, sword, or pestilence, particularly captivity and subjection to their enemies: AS IT WAS AGAINST YOUR FATHERS; who had no king; and it is suggested that their case, who had one, would be no better than theirs; their king would not be able to save them from the hand of God: the words in the original are, "and against your fathers" m; which is interpreted in the Talmud n of their fathers dead, and in their graves, and of their enemies digging them up, and taking them out in contempt; but much better, by Kimchi, of their kings, who are, or should be, fathers of their subjects, as Augustus Caesar was called the...

5. SAMUEL'S WITNESS AND WARNING CHAPTER 12 _ 1. His witness to his own integrity (1 Samuel 12:1)_ 2. His warning (1 Samuel 12:6) 3. Heaven's answer (1 Samuel 12:16) 4. His words of comfort (1 Samuel 12:20) What a scene! The man of God, the man of prayer, now advanced in years, stands before them. “I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day.” Here was not a Nazarite who had failed like Samson, but one who had lived out his Nazariteship in the fullest sense of the word. What unselfish service he had rendered and how he loved his own people! In all this he is a type o

1 SAMUEL 12. SAMUEL'S FAREWELL. From the Deuteronomic document, where it separated the two clauses of 1 Samuel 10:25, which see. 1 SAMUEL 12:1_ A_ (to witness). In response to a solemn adjuration from Samuel, the people agree that his administration has been pure. 1 SAMUEL 12:3. TO BLIND MINE EYES THEREWITH: LXX even a pair of shoes? Answer against me, and I will, etc. (_mg.)._ 1 SAMUEL 12:6_ A_ - 1 SAMUEL 12:11. Samuel briefly reviews the history of Israel, showing the gracious dealings of

AS, &c. Septuagint reads "and against your king"....

_as it was against your fathers_ As set forth in 1 Samuel 12:9. The Sept. however reads, "and against your king," which offers a more complete parallel to 1 Samuel 12:14. Cp. 1 Samuel 12:25....

_Israel's History Reviewed._ 1 Samuel 12:6-15 6 And Samuel said unto the people, _It is_ the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. 7 Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers. 8 When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them dwell in this place. 9 And when they forgat the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they fought against them. 10 And they cried unto the Lord, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and As

12:15 commandment (b-18) Lit. 'mouth.'...