Samuel was now an old man, and was glad to lay down his heavy burden and put it on the shoulders of Saul.  Yet he did not retire from the active government without making a memorable speech to the assembled nation, in which with transcendent dignity he appealed to the people in attestation of his incorruptible integrity as a judge and ruler.  “Behold, here I am!  Witness against me before the Lord, and before his anointed.  Whose ox have I taken, or whose ass have I taken, or whom have I defrauded?  Or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind my eyes therewith?  And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us; neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand.”  Then Samuel closed his address with an injunction to both king and people to obey the commandments of God, and denouncing the penalty of disobedience:  “Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth and with all your heart, for consider what great things He hath done for you; but if ye shall do wickedly, ye shall be consumed,—­both ye and your king.”

Saul for a time gave no offence worthy of rebuke, but was a valiant captain, smiting the Philistines, who were the most powerful enemies that the Israelites had yet encountered.  But in an evil day he forgot his true vocation, and took upon himself the function of a priest by offering burnt sacrifices, which was not lawful but for the priest alone.  For this he was rebuked by Samuel.  “Thou hast done foolishly,” he said to the King; “for which thy kingdom shall not continue.  The Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”  We here see the blending of the theocratic with the kingly rule.

Nevertheless Saul was prospered in his wars.  He fought successfully the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Amalekites, and the Philistines, aided by his cousin Abner, whom he made captain of his host.  He did much to establish the kingdom; but he was rather a great captain than a great man.  He did not fully perceive his mission, which was to fight, but meddled with affairs which belonged to the priests.  Nor was he always true to his mission as a warrior.  He weakly spared Agag, King of the Amalekites, which again called forth the displeasure and denunciation of Samuel, who regarded the conduct of the King as direct rebellion against God, since he was commanded to spare none of that people, they having shown an uncompromising hostility to the Israelites in their days of weakness, when first entering Canaan.  This, and similar commands laid upon the Israelites at various times, to “utterly destroy” certain tribes or individuals and all of their possessions, have been justified on the ground of the bestial grossness and corruption of those pagan idolaters and the vileness of their religious rites and social customs, which unfortunately always found a temptable side on the part of the Israelites, and repeatedly brought to nought the efforts of Jehovah’s prophets to bring up their people in the fear of the Lord, to recognize Him, only, as God.  It was not easy for that sensual race to stand on the height of Moses, and “endure as seeing him who is invisible.”  They too easily fell into idolatry; hence the necessity of the extermination of some of the nests of iniquity in Canaan.