In the first instance a great host of Philistines were encamped at Michmash, and Saul, with his army, was at Gilgal.  Samuel was to come and offer a sacrifice, but did not arrive at the appointed time, and the soldiers deserted, till Saul’s force numbered only about six hundred.  In his strait, the king offered the burnt offering himself, and immediately Samuel appeared, heard his explanation, and declared:  “Thou hast done foolishly; thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah thy God. * * * Now thy kingdom shall not continue.”  Saul’s loyalty to God was again tested in the affair with Amalek, and his disobedience in sparing Agag and the best of the cattle and sheep should be better known and more heeded than it is.  Concerning this, the prophet of God chastised him, saying:  “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim.  Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”  The dark picture of Saul’s doings is here and there relieved by the unadulterated love of Jonathan and David, “which, like the glintings of the diamond in the night,” takes away some of the deepest shadows.

The next king, Jesse’s ruddy-faced shepherd boy, was anointed by Samuel at Bethlehem, and for seven and a half years he reigned over Judah from his capital at Hebron.  Abner made Ish-bosheth, the only surviving son of Saul, king over Israel, “and he reigned two years.  But the house of Judah followed David.”  Abner, who had commanded Saul’s army, became offended at the king he had made, and went to Hebron to arrange with David to turn Israel over to him, but Joab treacherously slew him in revenge for the blood of Asahel.  It was on this occasion that David uttered the notable words:  “Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?” Afterwards Rechab and Baanah slew Ish-bosheth in his bedchamber and carried his head to David, who was so displeased that he caused them to be killed, and their hands and feet were cut off and hanged up by the pool in Hebron.  Then the tribes of Israel came voluntarily and made themselves the subjects of King David, who captured Jebus, better known as Jerusalem, and moved his capital to that city.  During his reign the Philistines were again troublesome, and a prolonged war was waged against the Ammonites.  During this war David had his record stained by his sinful conduct in the matter of Uriah’s wife.

David was a fighting king, and his “reign was a series of trials and triumphs.”  He not only subdued the Philistines, but conquered Damascus, Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and so extended his territory from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates that it embraced ten times as much as Saul ruled over.  But his heart was made sad by the shameful misconduct of Amnon, followed by his death, and by the conspiracy of Absalom, the rebellion following, and the death of this beautiful