Introduction
In these fourteen reflections we will be reading and pondering brief extracts from the first twelve chapters of Samuel. This has had to be a selective process, but I hope the people and stories we will focus on will help us trace the meaning and significance of the bigger story. The books of 1&2 Samuel tell of a people journeying from a loose, fiercely independent, tribal confederacy to the beginning of a monarchy and the struggle to grow into one nation under king and God.
Its themes have much in common with our own world. There was a preoccupation with finding leadership in insecure times. There was the task of seeking God’s presence and searching for meaning in the unsettling events that were shaping their destiny. And that ancient narrative presented challenges to prevailing assumptions about the partnership of women and men and their life together (though this is easily missed).
What makes the story telling in Samuel so significant is not so much the stories it tells as the way it tells them. Not just what ‘the bible says’ but how it says it.
This ancient saga has grown with the telling, which is how it ended up needing two volumes. The final version of this long narrative was completed nearly four hundred years later after the nation had been conquered, Jerusalem and the temple destroyed, and God’s people deported en masse to Babylon. There, in a far country, their own land captive, their faith, holy city and temple in ruins, they were sifting through the highs and catastrophic lows of their nation’s story and seeking to find God, meaning and wisdom in it all.
The books of Samuel are not for reading like a modern histories. Though the narrative follows a broad chronology there are times when stories and events appear out of sequence or without an obvious reason. Details we might think important are not included, while attention is given to things that to us seem peripheral. It all requires careful attention. In one sense it is more like an experience of open theatre where we, the audience, form part of the play and are expected to respond to it as it unfolds. This is wisdom literature. Recorded for us to listen, learn and apply to our own world.
David Runcorn
- A certain man. 1 Samuel 1.1-3 (abridged NRSV)
There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh.
‘Once upon a time ….’ All stories must start somewhere. And all writers choose how they begin. Some stories open dramatically. This one is simply factual. ‘A certain man’ is formally introduced by his region, tribe, name and family line. His two wives follow him (literally). Publicly, at least, this is a man’s world. The women are introduced just by name and their child-bearing status.
‘Hannah had no children’. That is a simple statement of fact that in any age conceals great pain and longing. But this would be even more so in a culture where a woman’s whole worth and status was defined by motherhood. Elkanah has not divorced her, but it is very likely he took a second wife because Hannah was unable to conceive. We will soon learn this is not a happy home.
The setting of the story is now introduced. Elkanah is a devout man. It is his practice to take his family on an annual retreat to worship at the shrine of Shiloh – then the holiest centre of his people’s faith. (This story is before Jerusalem and the temple are in existence). Bringing his family to Shiloh is, in fact, Elkanah’s only significant role in the story that is now beginning. By the end of the first chapter he is mentioned no more. But he brings his family to the place from whence a brave new era in the history of God’s history will begin.
Elkanah comes across as a caring but ineffectual figure. His few recorded words are questions – ‘why?’. He simply cannot understand what is going on around him. If something new is to emerge from this faithful but unhappy annual pilgrimage, it will need the unexpected faith and initiative of someone else. And that is exactly what happens.
I pray for understanding in those times when I do not understand what is happening.
- Hannah. 1Samuel 1.9-11 (abridged NRSV)
Hannah presented herself before the Lord. Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made this vow: ‘O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death.’
Hannah is anguished over her continued barrenness, mocked by the fertile but insecure Peninnah, and finds herself, once more, expected to worship at the shrine of the Lord who has ‘closed her womb’ (vs5 – a statement offered factually, without explanation or implying judgment). She now steps centre stage. Entering the shrine, she presents herself before the Lord and pours out her grief-filled prayer.
She has come to God for he is both her adversary and her ally. He has closed her womb. Only he can choose to open it. Now it is true that desperate people will promise anything. Her prayer could sound like bargaining. But all that follows suggests that Hannah is making a remarkable offering, born out of costly and profound faith.
Hannah and EIi the priest are sharply contrasted in this scene. Hannah is standing before God in the middle of the Temple. Eli is sitting over by the doorway of the Temple. Hannah is praying to the Lord. Eli is watching someone else praying. In fact, he cannot even recognise her tearful anguish as prayer at all. He assumes she is drunk. Hebrew story tellers have a number of ways of giving clues and hints to point to get us to notice important things. One is to emphasise the posture of a lead character. When people are found sitting down, things usually do not go well for them. The faith this story needs is active and alert. Hannah is the model for this.
Her prayer is answered. But found here at the beginning, her story is much more than a touching, domestic vignette about where the important figure comes from who will stand astride this great era of Israel’s history. Her faith is the key to interpreting all that follows.
I pray for Hannah’s courage and faith though pain and perplexity.
- Hannah’s song. 1Samuel 2.1-7 (abridged NRSV)
Hannah prayed and said,
‘My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in my victory.
‘There is no Holy One like the Lord,
no one besides you;
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
Hannah’s prayer-filled grief in the temple was not in vain. The prayer was answered. If this was a film set, the cameras would now be drawing back and wide. The vision becomes cosmic and Hannah sings. A story that began in the private grief of a family home is now proclaimed as a sign of a New World order! The opening of Hannah’s barren womb is revealed as a prophetic sign of the Lord’s ways in all the world. This song, like that of Mary, centuries later, is one of revolution. She sings of a reversal of fortunes, of a God who raises the powerless and shatters the powerful, and who gives life and hope where there had only been despair.
Hannah’s prominence at the beginning of this epic narrative is subversive of the prevailing social, institutional, and theological powers which are male and patriarchal. In fact, whatever story is beginning here, it is not one that the established order of things has any way of understanding. Both Elkanah and Eli are found on the outside of the action, struggling to make sense of what is going on and its significance. Time and again, in the stories that will follow, it will be the initiatives and faith of a woman, named or unnamed, on which the action turns, and God’s purposes are furthered.
Whatever will unfold in Israel’s history in the long chapters that follow, these opening stories about Hannah should warn us that whatever is needed it will not be established by powerful charismatic personalities or political or military strategies. It starts – and will end – in a quite different place, led through the vulnerable faith of a woman’s story, enabled by her initiative, revealed by her prayer, and interpreted by her song.
I pray for Hannah’s vision and hope in today’s world.
- Vocation corrupted. 1 Samuel 2.12-17 (abridged NRSV)
Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord or for the duties of the priests to the people. When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork and all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. Thus, the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord; for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt.
The narrator of Samuel does not often reveal their own opinion on events they are relating. This means that some dreadful stories and behaviours are reported at times, apparently without judgment or censure. But it is for our discernment they are recorded.
In the failings of Eli’s priestly line, the narrator is unambiguously condemning. Though English Bibles translate the word differently, the sons of Eli are denounced with the same severe word with which Eli earlier insulted Hannah (1.14). This will not be the last time we will read of abuse and corruption exercised by those entrusted with the leadership and spiritual care of God’s people. In recent years the Christian church has had to confront scandals of abuse within its communities and among its leaders. Perhaps we can anticipate something of the shock, pain and demoralisation of God’s ancient people where leadership has lost all goodness and moral integrity. One thing this warns us against is making idealistic assumptions about goodness and innocence in our own faith communities. This is a timely reminder for us, on the threshold of this season of self-examination. We must never underestimate the depths from which we need redeeming.
One of the qualities of this long historical reflection is its honesty. It tells it warts and all. In the history writing of that day, the surrounding nations treated their kings as semi-mythic gods. Their legacy was only glorious, victorious and without taint or failure. By contrast the bible record could be called post-heroic story telling. We are invited to learn from failings as well as qualities, the evil as well as the good.
Back in Israel, the narrator is setting the scene for God’s saving response to a people that have lost their way. And we trust he will do the same for us.
Lord may I too, always live in honesty and truth.
- Remembering. 1 Sam 2.27-29 (abridged NRSV)
A man of God came to Eli and said to him, ‘Thus the Lord has said, “I revealed myself to the family of your ancestor in Egypt when they were slaves to the house of Pharaoh. I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to offer incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to the family of your ancestor all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then look with greedy eye at my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honour your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?”
Like a tragic refrain, the narrator keeps returning to further catalogue the grim demise of faith and ministry of the ageing Eli and his family line. But now God gets directly involved. Judgment is spelled out. And it is severe.
It begins as a call to remember where all this began, back there with ‘your ancestor in Egypt’. Israel’s whole existence is traced to their liberation from slavery under Pharoah. This message is not just for Eli of course. It is true for all God’s people. In the bible, faith and faithfulness is always rooted in remembrance. And out of that remembrance flows lives of worship and honouring of the God who still calls and saves.
Remembering is much more than having a good memory for dates or events. Remembering is not the opposite of forgetting. It is to be re-connected to things we have become separated from. Eli and his family are dis-membered from the faith of God’s people and their God. They have lost their call that has sustained their family across generations. Their life and ministry is no longer rooted in God’s saving work. Why? – God asks him.
And alternating with these reports on Eli the narrator keeps inserting single line updates on the faith and ministry of ‘the boy Samuel’. By complete contrast he is found, without, fail in the Temple, ‘standing before’ or ‘ministering to’, the Lord.
So, between the lines of a story of lost faith and vocation is something new about to emerge?
Merciful God, I pray for those who have lost faith and the call that is theirs.
- The call of Samuel. 1Samuel 3.1-3 (abridged NRSV)
The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
What is a world like in which God seems to have withdrawn from sight and sound? Does it all go eerily silent? Quite probably it is noisier than ever. When God goes silent we do not hear nothing, we hear everything. There is nothing to give us focus or perspective. So, we are left at the mercy of a chaotic clashing of conflicting, competing messages, with no way of discerning priority or meaning in it.
This is the storyteller’s diagnosis of those times. Nothing is more serious. Here are a people living out of sight and sound of their God. We might wonder how the storyteller would characterise our own times? In the bible the greatest crisis in any age is always God.
Once again, the two characters in the scene are sharply contrasted. This is vivid storytelling. ‘The boy’ Samuel with the ageing Eli. Youth and age are contrasted. Samuel is ministering before the Lord. Eli is lying down in a side room. In an age where visions are rare, Israel’s priest has almost lost his sight. Their ministry – alive and dying – is contrasted. But into this bleak scenario of lost faith and vocation the narrator pencils in a message of vulnerable hope. ‘The lamp of God had not yet gone out’. The lamp, there before the holy presence of God, symbolises the faith of God’s people. It is flickering but not extinguished.
So it is that the silent God is about to speak and kindle new vision. Another story telling device is to make the first words spoken by a person express something their character and call. Samuel’s first words – repeated 4 times? ‘Here I am’.
And that will sum up his whole long ministry – he will be present, all his life, before God and the people. One through whom people would hear and catch the vision of God.
Here I am, Lord.
- The Ark. 1 Samuel 4.1-4, 9 (abridged NRSV)
In those days the Philistines mustered for war against Israel, and Israel encamped at Ebenezer and was defeated by the Philistines. The elders of Israel said, ‘Why has the Lord put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, so that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.’ So, the people sent to Shiloh.
The Philistine people embody all that threatens the security and peace of God’s people. They have just defeated Israel in war. The elders of the people meet to discern what has happened. But notice who they say has actually defeated them. God. Their business is with God. But no praying follows. God is not consulted at all. Instead, they send for the Ark of the Covenant. Now in one sense they are right to turn to the Ark. It exists to remind them of their history and faith. A people delivered from slavery and captivity by God. But here they are turning it into a kind of magic totem charged with divine powers. Faith is reduced to superstition. This is a world that believes in magic symbols. The Ark strikes terror. But Israel is defeated again, and the Ark is captured by the enemy. The chaos continues wherever it goes. This strange cartoon-like saga of the Ark is a warning against attempts to conscript God for our own needs and purposes. Down through history armies, leaders, churches have all tried to behave like this. The story exposes such behaviour for the godless, presumptuous folly it always is.
The story ends with the Ark sitting in quiet isolation on a hilltop. Samuel now reappears and guides the people through repentance. The Philistines are defeated. Order is restored. The place is called ‘Ebenezer’, meaning ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us’ (1Sam 7.12). The name speaks of remembrance and trusting faith. But Ebenezer is actually where Israel first gathered for war (1Sam 4.1). They have come ‘back to’ the place they started and can now recognise it for the first time. In this remembrance, faith and trust is re-focused and the foundation for the future re-laid.
Lord we easily stray. When we do, bring us back to our beginnings.
- Give us a king: Part 1. 1Samuel 8.1-7 (abridged NRSV)
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. Then all the elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways .… and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Samuel is ageing. The people are becoming anxious about the future. And with good reason. A long, settled era of leadership is passing. To this day Samuel is revered by the three great monotheistic religions of the world – Jewish, Muslim and Christian. Who will take over from him? Samuel wished the leadership to stay in the family. But the unsuitability of his sons is apparent to everyone but himself (1Sam 8.3). This may partly explain why the request is not for a successor – another Prophet/Judge. They ask for something very new. A king. But Israel had never had a king before. Sometimes an idea appeals simply because it is different. It comes unburdened by the accumulated baggage of history.
But before we focus on the ‘front stage’ characters of Samuel, Saul and David we need reminding that this a story of the people as a whole. ‘Leadership’ always happens in a history. It does not exist somewhere as pure theory that comes with a universal adaptor and can be plugged into any organization or business that needs it. It surfaces in response to the desires of an anxious community, of rival tribal power groups, of international and military unrest and other issues of faith, theology and needs of God’s people.
While for some a monarchy seemed the best way to find security as a nation, for others the request for a king was an outright rejection of God’s leadership. It usurped the place of Torah (the Law of Moses) and undermined the vocation and freedom of God’s people by its near irresistible drift towards the despotism. Across the scriptures generally, ‘leadership’ is an idea that sits in tension between the Kingship of the Lord, his Word and his people’s own vocation.
And it still does today.
Lord may we never forget that our deepest security is in you.
- Give us a king: Part 2. 1Samuel 8.1-7 (abridged NRSV)
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. Then all the elders of Israel came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, ‘You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways … and the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Blunt it was, and we can be sure the request for a king would not have been made lightly. No one easily tells a man of Samuel’s stature and reputation it is time to step aside. Speaking truth to power is never easy.
Samuel was plainly angry and resentful at being rejected. The signs are he never really got over it. But this judge and prophet was curiously tin eared in the face of the people’s concerns. And why was he even considering appointing his sons to succeed him without acknowledging and confronting their corruption? Eli at least tried to do this with his sons. There is a worryingly self-serving unawareness to be found in Samuel this point. It is not just the people’s request that needs challenging. He does.
But Samuel goes on complaining at length until God finally points out to him that it is actually he (God) they are rejecting – not Samuel!
The attraction of a king is puzzling for three reasons. Firstly, as noted already, Israel did not ‘do’ monarchy. This was because God was their king. And this is a tension that never goes away throughout the uneven years of Israel’s monarchy. Secondly, there is an absence of prayer. There is no language of faith or seeking God’s guidance anywhere in this story. Thirdly, the request is neither rational nor emotionally intelligent either. The people surely knew that the kings of the surrounding nations were routinely cruel, overbearing despots. If you are already suffering under bad leadership why ask for something even worse? And in any case aren’t God’s people, then and now, supposed to be a sign of a different way among the nations?
Well, they are warned of all this. But the people are determined. And God, who is gracious, grants their request.
Lord, make us wiser in our discerning and our choices.
- Saul the King: Part 1. 1Samuel 9.1-5 (abridged NRSV)
There was a man of Benjamin … He had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else. Now the donkeys of Kish had strayed. So Kish said to his son Saul, ‘go and look for the donkeys.’ … but they did not find them. Saul said to the boy who was with him, ‘Let us turn back’.
In obedience to God and at the insistence of the people, Samuel is on the search for Israel’s first king. He comes to the prestigious house of Kish and sees the young Saul. Samuel is immediately swayed by his physical appearance (see also 10.23). If the stress on Saul’s good looks and height sounds over the top perhaps it is meant to. The same tendencies are all too familiar in our own world. Did you know 90% of international business executives are above average height? An extra inch in height is reckoned to be worth an additional $1000 a year in salary in the international business world. But now, as then, outward appearances are no guarantee of ability or wisdom. And the story will (belatedly)remind us that God looks on the heart.
Another Hebrew story telling device is found here. Whenever a person’s looks are particularly emphasised, beware. There is usually not a happy outcome. And do you recall the way the first words spoken by a person reveal something of their character? So what are Saul’s first words? ‘Let us turn back’. And that was one of the fatal flaws of Saul as man and king. He never managed to see anything through. He will spend his life searching for what usually eludes him and struggling to achieve he sets out to do. Little about him is decisive or constant. Very often, as in this opening story, he needs those around him to hold him to his task.
So it is not completely surprising that when the time comes to reveal him as king he goes missing and is found hiding behind some baggage! (10.21-23).
The stakes are high for king and people. But the warning signs are clear. This may not go well.
I pray for wherever potential leaders are being chosen today.
- Saul the King: Part 2 1Samuel 10.1-9 (abridged NRSV)
Samuel took a phial of oil and poured it on his head, and kissed him; he said, ‘The Lord has anointed you ruler over his people Israel. You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their enemies all around. Now this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you ruler over his heritage. As he turned away to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart … and the spirit of God possessed him.
At the time the monarchy was created, Israel was a loose confederation of tribes, north and south. They were independent and not easy to manage. Getting them to agree together about the choice of a king would have been extremely difficult. The beginnings of Saul’s kingship reflects this. Saul was first anointed privately by Samuel. It was kept secret. Only later was he publicly revealed to the people. And on that occasion, despite Samuel’s best attempts to talk him up, the narrator tells us the public response to Saul was very mixed.
But Samuel’s presence too is ambiguous in this story. After anointing Saul king Samuel goes on giving him very lengthy instructions. It sounds heavily controlling of someone already lacking in confidence. So what happens next is very significant. The briefing meeting over, we are told that as Saul ‘turned his back’ (literal trans) to leave Samuel, ‘God gave him another heart’ (1Sam10.9). Symbolically, this is hugely significant. For if Saul is to be a king in his own right he must turn his back on Samuel and move out from under Samuel’s controlling presence. The storyteller knows what must happen if this is going to work. So does God, who now gives his king the heart he needs for the task. Every leader has their own version of this to face.
We already know that Saul’s kingship will ultimately fail. But at this very early stage in his reign both the narrator, and God, believe in the possibility of it. Saul is a man with a tendency to turn back. But at this point, chosen and anointed, he turns towards his own destiny and call, and the spirit of God fills him.
I pray for those who are struggling to find confidence for the challenges that face them.
- Saul and the Ammonites. 1 Samuel 11.1-11 (abridged NRSV
Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the Gadites and the Reubenites. He went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead. All the people wept aloud. Now Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen; and Saul said, ‘What is the matter with the people, that they are weeping?’ So they told him the message from the inhabitants of Jabesh. And the spirit of God came upon Saul in power when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
In those days the Ammonite nation was dominant in the region and was terrorising the surrounding Hebrew tribes on their borders. Their brutality was extreme. The only peace treaty Nahash, their king, would accept was to gouge out one eye from each man from tribes they conquered. That effectively left them defenceless for years ahead. The Ammonites were now besieging their latest intended victims, at Jabesh-gilead. The people were weeping in terror as they anticipated their fate. They have no help to call on. There are places in the world today that know all too well the trauma of this scenario.
Meanwhile, where is the king? We find Saul back at home, ploughing his fields. This horrific story is still set, for all practical purposes, in the familiar old world of tribal allegiances and alliances. King he may be, but it is really only in name at present. He has yet to rule in any sense at all.
As he returns home from the fields, he hears the weeping and catches up with the news. It is, of course, the job of a king to fight wars and defend the people against their enemies.
He is suddenly convulsed by the spirit of God into a raging anger. With a confidence previously unhinted at, a hitherto hesitant man acts with strength, decisiveness and passion. Extreme times need extreme measures. His call to muster is itself a violent threat. But the effect is totally compelling. And lest it be thought that this inexperienced king is simply winging it, the story is careful to detail a military acumen and strategic ability behind his approach to the battle.
Under their new king the people fight and win!
I pray for those today who are leading the fight against evil, and protecting the weak, today.
- Renewing the kingship. 1Samuel 11.14-15 (abridged NRSV)
Samuel said to the people, ‘Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingship.’ So, all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed offerings of well-being before the Lord, and there Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly.
Every leader needs an early success – whether great or small. And every organisation or community looks for first signs that their confidence in the person who was appointed was rightly placed.
After a stuttering start, leading an uncertain people, Saul the king, empowered by the Spirit, has had resounding military success. This is the best possible news. Defeating enemies and defending the nation is what kings are supposed to do! Samuel shrewdly seizes the opportunity. He gathers all the people at Gilgal. Gilgal is a deeply symbolic place. It was here the people of Israel first camped after crossing the Jordan into the land God had promised them. It is a place of beginnings. Here Saul the king begins his reign for the third time!
It is not difficult to imagine those exuberant and heartfelt celebrations (intermingled with relief). Surely the future is secure?
The narrator tells us the response of the people was to make ‘offerings of well-being’. This offering is unique among the many sacrifices commanded in Leviticus and elsewhere, in that there is no petition or request connected to it. This is an offering of joyful gratitude, asking nothing in return. It is a gift to the One who only gives.
Concern for human wellbeing has become a significant issue in business organisations, churches and communities in recent years. And for good reason. There is so much in contemporary living that is undermining of human health and flourishing. The stress and anxieties of life in an insecure world is everywhere apparent.
This offering reminds us of where our security is found. In one sense there is no need to even ask. It is all gift. The medieval saint, Julian of Norwich, praying in her own very insecure times of war and plagues, is famous for her trusting refrain – ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.’ *
Lord, I make my offering of joyful gratitude to you.
*Revelations of Divine Love 27:8
- Taking your stand. 1Samuel 12.6-7 (abridged NRSV)
Samuel said to the people, ‘The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore take your stand, so that I may enter into judgement with you before the Lord, and I will declare to you all the saving deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your ancestors.
These opening chapters of the long Samuel narrative close with calls to faith and faithfulness. But there are issues still needing to be resolved. So soon after Saul and the people have celebrated the reaffirmation of the monarchy, we find Samuel is still occupying centre stage. He is announcing his retirement. But his long speech is increasingly aggressive and threatening in tone. By the end of it the people are feeling thoroughly inadequate, insecure and are pleading with him to stay and pray for them. He promises he is not leaving them! His retirement seems to have been indefinitely postponed.
But it is the people who are now addressed directly. In these early stories ‘the people’ have often been a rather faceless, insecure group, lacking initiative and always looking to others to take charge and carry the responsibilities that are actually theirs.
After another reminder of their history and the God who saves, they receive a significant command. ‘Now take your stand’. What does this mean? If someone said that to you, would you think was expected of you?
There is much talk of a crisis of leadership in our times. And these are undeniably demanding times to be a leader anywhere in our world. The challenges are very great. But what can be more critical is the crisis of ‘followship’. If some leaders can, and do, dominate and overpower, it is also true that followers can, and do, undermine and break their leaders. Followers can be unleadable. At its most formative, leadership must work in creative partnership with ‘followship’.
‘Now take your stand’ calls the people of God to faithfully embrace their own call and take their own responsibilities. So do not be too quick to focus on heroic individual personalities in this epic saga. This is about the emergence of a people. They too must make their stand.
And so must we.
Lord, teach me to be a responsible follower.