That kingdom is immediately turned into an absolute despotism by David's son Solomon.
There is a rebellion against this tyranny and as a result,the Jewish state is divided into two separate kingdoms,which hate each other with a ferocious hatred and fight each other until they are both destroyed by their powerful neighbours of the east.
Then follows an era of foreign domination and of exile.
The faithful ones,however,return to Jerusalem as soon as they can and rebuild the temple.
A short time later,the country is invaded once again.Jewish independence comes definitely to an end,but the genius of the Jewish spirit escapes the narrow nationalistic boundaries of Judah and Israel and conquers the entire western world.
In the coming pages we shall hear long lists of names of kings and queens and high priests.Rehoboam and Asa and Jeroboam and Baasha and Menahem and Joash and Amaziah and a score of others,ending with the unspeakable Herod,succeed each other with indecent and gory haste.
Their days upon this earth were filled with murder and plunder.They promulgated laws which have been forgotten and they built cities which have disappeared from the face of the earth.
They entered upon wars and they celebrated great victories and they conquered vast territories (and they lost them again)and the very names of their newly acquired provinces have been obliterated by time.
Of all their glory nothing remains but a casual reference in the brick library of a deserted Chaldean palace.
They were like a thousand other kings and the sooner we shall forget them,the better.
Their only claim to fame is an involuntary one.Among their subjects,they counted a few Prophets.And what those men spoke and thought three thousand years ago stands to-day as true and noble as it did when the Chaldeans were at the gates of Jerusalem and when the Assyrians threatened Samaria.
For that reason,and for that reason alone,we should know the history of Israel and that of Judah.
It is the very worldly background for one of the greatest spiritual dramas of all times.
When we finished the last Chapter,Samuel was still the Judge of the Jewish people.
He had warned his followers that soon they would be the subjects of a king who would take away their sons and their daughters and their goods and their chattels and who would use them for his own pleasure and delectation.
That,however,was exactly what most of the people wanted to happen.They could see the glory of their imaginary empire.They did not think of the cost.
And so Samuel,who was a practical man,set about to look for a suitable candidate for the Jewish throne.
He found him in the village of Gibeah.
The name of the boy was Saul and he was the son of Kish,who belonged to the tribe of Benjamin.
The meeting between the two heroes of the Jewish race was quite accidental.Kish had lost a few of his cows.They had wandered away from the flock and could not be found.Saul was told to bring them back.He went from one village to the next,and everywhere he asked whether the people had seen his father's cows,but not a trace of them was discovered.
In his despair,Saul then went to Samuel to ask him for advice.Samuel looked at Saul and knew at once that this youngster was called to be the ruler of the Jews.
He told him so,and Saul got frightened.It seemed too great an honour for a shy young fellow.
When the time came for him to be anointed and to be shown to his new subjects,he had to be dragged from among the donkeys which carried his father's luggage.He had hidden himself behind the trunks and would gladly have escaped if he had been given a chance.
Samuel,however,was a stern master and Saul accepted his fate and henceforth allowed himself to be trained for his high office.
First of all,he was made commander-in-chief of the army,and as such he fought a great many battles against the inevitable Philistines and against the Ammonites and against the Amalekites and other Canaanite tribes which had never been fully conquered.
He still had much to learn.
The idea of absolute and unquestioning obedience to the will of Jehovah,upon which Samuel insisted at all times,was not agreeable to a brilliant young fellow who loved his own freedom of action.Furthermore,he began to enjoy the many advantages of his new position and he remembered that one passes through this life only once.
Often when the army was victorious there was a great deal of booty.Samuel insisted that the greater part of this be given to the service of the Tabernacle.Saul on the other hand preferred to keep a little for himself and for his soldiers.
In the end,the inevitable happened.Saul,who was out in the field,and who rubbed up against all sorts and conditions of men,became more and more worldly in his views.
While Samuel,who was very old and who sat forever in his own room with his books and his thoughts,insisted that every one follow his own rigid example and spend all his waking hours in some form of divine worship.
Saul was not negligent in his religious duties,but he was what we now call a little too “practical.”
After he beat Agag,the King of the Amalekites,he decided that the army needed a suitable reward.And so he quietly kept the herds which had belonged to the king and did not surrender them to the priests,as he ought to have done.And to make matters worse,he spared the life of Agag,whereas,according to the Jewish law of that time,he ought to have killed all his captives.
When Samuel heard of this,he scolded Saul for his disobedience to the will of Jehovah.
Saul did not confess his crime,but tried to excuse himself.
He said that the cows and the oxen and the sheep had been kept back that they might be fattened before they were finally slaughtered and sacrificed.
Samuel knew that he had intended to do nothing of the sort and he told him so.He accused Saul of double dealing and of dishonesty and warned him against the consequences of such deplorable conduct,which made him unfit to be King of the Jewish people.
Saul did not argue the point.
