Saul's Kingship Is Confirmed:
Schmuel Retires As Judge
Saul needed a brilliant success, and this he achieved at Jabesh. Henceforth his position was secure.
The Bible then records a curious event, difficult to interpret -Saul's second royal investiture after this TransYardenian adventure. Schmuel is reported as saying: 'Let us go to Gilgal 3 and reaffirm the monarchy there.' And at Gilgal, the Bible states, Saul was proclaimed king before YAHWEH. And yet had he not already been king since his designation at Mizpah? In the involved passage in which the scribe, as usual, combines documents very different in character, (monarchist as well as anti-monarchist) without in any way attempting to unify them, it is sometimes difficult to be sure of the precise state of affairs. Possibly the anointing at Mizpah was historically the valid one; or perhaps the ceremony at Gilgal should alone be so considered. It remains an open question.
In any case, an event of considerable importance certainly occurred at Gilgal; the surrender by Schmuel of his judicial function over Yisrael. His resignation is, of course, explicable, though strange, and it receives further explanation from later events.
He took it upon himself to declare publicly that henceforward he would not be responsible for the political future of Yisrael, since the Twelve Tribes now, according to their wish, had a king of their own.
He asked to be relieved of his duty. The elders made no attempt to conceal their pleasure. They showered compliments upon him; he had never failed to observe justice; his loyalty had always been above criticism; his disinterestedness was proverbial; and he had fully maintained the dignity required of his high and difficult office.
In thanking them for these kind words, Schmuel repeated his warning about the dangers of monarchy. He urged them to obey their new king, but he reminded them forcibly of their duties to YAHWEH.
It was a lengthy and eloquent speech, but it did not mean that he intended to become an ordinary member of the community once more. He renounced his political authority, but he meant to retain his powers as a spiritual leader. He did not make this standpoint clear at Gilgal, but during the reign of Saul and in the beginning of David's, he asserted his rights as a prophet, as YAHWEH's mouth-piece, confronting the secular leader. There can be no doubt of his active supervision in spiritual matters, and, when necessary, he had no hesitation in speaking out loudly and clearly to the king in the name of YAHWEH. This was a foreshadowing of the activity of the later prophets.
3 Gilgal, sometimes called Galgala, between the Yarden and Jericho Yahshua Ben Nun, had long maintained his base camp there. It was the holy place of the tribe of Benjamin.
Saul's Reign Begins With Glory: His Second Campaign Against The Philistines
The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of 1st Schmuel record Saul's second campaign with unconcealed pride and also with a strong emphasis on its tactical details. These confused operations took place in the very heart of Canaan.
It is at this point that Jonathan first appears on the stage of history. He stands out as an ardent soldier, a clever tactician, equal to any emergency. With it all, he remained true-hearted and most kindly. We shall meet him again by the side of the young David, whose friend and companion in arms he became.
Inspired by Saul and his son, Yisrael's army registered some outstanding achievements. In spite of their rudimentary equipment 4 Saul's men performed really astonishing exploits. But in all prudence they had to confine themselves to guerilla encounters and to indecisive engagements. The Philistines were defeated, but far from being crushed. Their moral setback was nevertheless considerable. For the first time they were put at a disadvantage by Yisrael. Still, their army, well equipped, well organized and strong in numbers managed to regain its bases in Philistia. The outcome, in fact is best described as a stalemate.
4 The Yisraelites went to the battlefield with their farm tools, since the Philistines had taken all their arms. In the Hebrew villages under Philistine control, it was forbidden to set up a forge on which swords or lances might be made. Hence all the Yisraelites were in the habit of going down to the Philistines to sharpen every ploughshare, axe, mattock or goad. We even know the cost of the repairs; two-thirds of a shekel for ploughshares and axes, and one third for sharpening mattocks and straightening goads (1 Sam 13 19-21).
The First Dispute Between Saul The King And Schmuel The Prophet
At heart, Schmuel, the spokesman of the theocratic minority (the government of the Twelve Tribes by YAHWEH whose will was expressed through kohens and prophets) found it difficult to admit the existence of a human king as Yisrael's guide and ruler. The antimonarchist party dreamt of a return to the spiritually governed economy of the desert of Sinai where YAHWEH had proclaimed HIS own law through the mouth of Mosheh.
Nevertheless there was a king, and it was Schmuel who had discovered, presented and consecrated him. Even so this did not prevent Schmuel from considering this earthly kingship as merely a last resource. The secular sovereign must therefore be most careful not to transgress the Law, and most scrupulous in the observance of public worship. (In the ancient East such worship was immensely important; the gods demanded an exact performance of its ritual.)
Any departure from the norm was regarded as an act of disrespect to YAHWEH. This was the very delicate issue on which Saul was very closely watched. He had to make but a single false move and the voice of the man of YAHWEH thundered in YAHWEH's name.
The first controversial matter that arose between Schmuel and Saul, occurred at Gilgal. Saul had made a hurried, strategically retreat along the Yarden towards Jericho; Schmuel had told him to meet him within seven days at Gilgal (1 Schmuel 10: 8); for the prophet had decided that before the decisive conflict, holocausts and propitiatory sacrifices must be offered in that qadash city. Saul had kept the appointment punctually, but days passed without Schmuel appearing.
This involved a period of waiting which was disastrous both psychologically and tactically. Saul's soldiers 'trembled' and deserted in their hundreds, crossing the river and scattering throughout TransYardenia. He had had a powerful army, but only six hundred men were left. In addition, his position was very difficult, and open at any time to a Philistine attack. Since Schmuel who should have performed the sacrifice was absent, Saul decided to offer the victims himself.
The ceremony was hardly over when Schmuel appeared; Saul hurried to greet the aged kohen, but his greetings were ill-received. The king tried his best to explain why he had behaved in this very understandable way. The army had begun to disband; the Philistines were threatening to attack, and Schmuel had not appeared. So Saul felt it his duty to offer the holocaust himself in order to placate YAHWEH before the battle.
Schmuel was angry in the extreme: 'You have acted like a fool,' he said. 'If you had carried out the order YAHWEH your Sovereign Ruler commanded you, YAHWEH would have confirmed your sovereignty over Yisrael for ever. But now your sovereignty will not last. YAHWEH has searched out a man for himself after his own heart, and designated him leader of his people, since you have not carried out what YAHWEH ordered you.' This was a prophetic reference to David. With these fearful words, Schmuel left the Yisraelite camp.
His reaction may well appear severe. Saul's error does not seem as serious as the haughty custodian of the Law asserted. For it is a fact that at this period, YAHWEH's anointed was truly authorized to offer a sacrifice to YAHWEH, especially when a kohen who was expected, failed to arrive. The somewhat rigid line taken by the prophet may well be a covert protest again. the king's political (and even spiritual) aims. If the adversaries of the monarchy believed that they had a puppet at their disposal whose strings could be pulled at will, they were obviously mistaken. The peasant from Gibeah whom they had invested with regal power was a man of strong character, and he meant to exercise his kingly power to the full.
In any case, his activities were in formal contradiction with the ideas of the theocratic party, of which Schmuel remained to the last the untiring leader.
This, then, was the first violent dispute between these two authorities: the king and the prophet. It was not to be by any means their last. But however painful the event, it hardly seems to have affected Saul's military projects. He carried on the war, and led its operations with admirable strategy. Even so, the terrible prediction uttered by Schmuel must have disturbed him very seriously, and thus, more or less consciously, prepared the way for those alarming neurotic attacks which slowly engulfed him.
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