1 Samuel 10 – Samuel
anoints Saul, and then tells him that as a sign to him that he has been
anointed, he will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb and they will tell his that the
donkeys he was looking for have been found by his father—that his father is now
more worried about him than about them.
And then he will meet three men going to Bethel with sacrifices (3 kids,
3 loaves and a skin of wine). They will
give two of the loaves; and after that he will meet a band of prophets in a
prophetic frenzy and that he will be overtaken by the frenzy himself. When all these things happen, he is to do
what seems fit to do, for whatever it is, it will be well since God is with him
(10:7). He should wait for Samuel at
Gilgal for seven days (10:8).
As
a result of the anointing “God gave him
[Saul] another heart, . . .” (10:9). When the people who know him see him
in the prophetic frenzy, they wonder, “What has come over the son of Kish? Is
Saul also among the prophets?” (10:11) This rings a little like the reaction the gospels tell of
those who know Jesus when they see him taking on the role of healer and
teacher. See Mark 6:1-6. When
Saul’s uncle asks about his trip, he tells him everything, but not about the
matter of the anointing.
Samuel
summons “the people” to Mizpah where he repeats the narrative, and then goes
back to the line he first took on the kingship: “But today you have rejected
your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you
have said, ‘No! but set a king over us” (10:19). And he calls the clans up one by one. The clan of Benjamin is selected by lot, and
then the family of the Matrites, and finally Saul. But he is not there—he is hiding
amidst the baggage. They bring him
out and the people all proclaim him king.
Samuel tells the people what the rights and duties of kings are; he writes it all in a book and lays it up
“before the Lord” (10:25). So, there might have
been a written source for the books we read here. These were likely written down in this form
much later—after the division of the kingdom but before the exile. 900 is the earliest date suggested for the
books in their present form according to Eerdman’s Handbook. The Jerusalem Bible
seems to suggest a time nearer to the exile—since anti-monarchy sentiments were
inserted in the redaction or writing of the final text. The psalms were also
known to the writer. Then he sends the people home. There is some division in the community over
him. Some warriors follow him, but
others do not. They doubt his ability to
save them, and they offer him no gift.
He does nothing.
Then
the story introduces an enemy—Nahash, an Ammonite king who oppresses the
Gadites and Reubenites by gouging out their right eyes (10:27). 7,000 had
escaped him though.
Proverbs
Proverbs 6 – If
you go “surety” for your neighbor or guarantee the bond of a stranger, you put
yourself in the power of others. You must break free. “Save yourself like a
gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net” (6:5).
Ants do not work for others. They work hard all summer but
gather in their supplies at harvest time. If you are not like the ants but are
idle, poverty will be at your elbow.
Seven things are
hateful to God: haughtiness, lying, hands that shed innocent blood, hearts
that hatch evil plots, feet that hurry to do evil, false witnesses and men who
sow dissension among brothers (6:16-19).
Keep your father’s values, your mother’s lessons.
“Correction and discipline are the way to life” (6:23). Stay away from the
“alien woman” (adulterous). People who
steal to fill their stomachs must be punished, but they are not unforgiveable.
The adulterer, though, “has no sense; act like him, and court your own
destruction” (6:31).
Proverbs 7 – “Keep
my teaching as the apple of your eye” (7:2). The adulteress looks for ways to
seduce you, but you must not give in. She “has done so many to death, and the
strongest have all been her victims. Her house is the road to the grave. Her
bedroom is the den of death” (7:26-27).
Augustine (354-439)
Confessions
17 - Even as a
boy I had heard of eternal life promised
to us through the humility of the Lord our God condescending to our pride,
and I was signed with the sign of the cross, and was seasoned with His salt
even from the womb of my mother, who greatly trusted in You. You saw, O Lord,
how at one time, while yet a boy, being suddenly seized with pains in the
stomach, and being at the point of death— You saw, O my God, for even then You
were my keeper, with what emotion of
mind and with what faith I solicited from the piety of my mother, and of Your
Church, the mother of us all, the baptism of Your Christ, my Lord and my God.
On which, the mother of my flesh being much troubled—since she, with a heart
pure in Your faith, travailed in birth Galatians 4:19 more lovingly for my
eternal salvation—would, had I not quickly recovered, have without delay
provided for my initiation and washing by Your life-giving sacraments,
confessing You, O Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins. So my cleansing was deferred, as if I must needs, should I live, be
further polluted; because, indeed, the guilt contracted by sin would, after
baptism, be greater and more perilous. Thus I at that time believed with my
mother and the whole house, except my father; yet he did not overcome the influence
of my mother's piety in me so as to prevent my believing in Christ, as he had
not yet believed in Him. For she was
desirous that You, O my God, should be my Father rather than he; and in
this You aided her to overcome her husband, to whom, though the better of the
two, she yielded obedience, because in this she yielded obedience to You, who
so commands.
There is a certain sweetness in
hearing this famous thinker acknowledge the great importance of his mother in a
world and culture that simply did not see the equality of women to men. But the passage here is focused on the
mystery of how Augustine was drawn to Christ and the Church. In my own
life, I supposed my grandmother – my mother’s mother – was the one praying for
my conversion. She was the one who taught me to pray each night. She was the
one who took me to church. But I have no memory of her ever saying a word to me
about her faith. She just surrounded herself with little things that spoke
silently to me about something that was really beyond words – the rosary she
had (but never said with me), the prayer book she had worn down (but never read
a word of to me), the little picture of St. Therese a l’Enfant Jesus [Therese
de Lisieux] with a red thread taken from the floor of the room in which she
died in 1897. It seems a tiny miracle to me that I still have this little item
from the room I inhabited with my grandmother 60 years ago, especially since I
never really cared about it. I never cared about relics – I still don’t. Why do I even have it still in my
possession? Somehow the faith she had spilled into me silently. I lost
Frankie Avalon’s autograph; I have no idea where my most valued possessions of
that time period went to, but I still have this small, framed relic.
I wasn’t baptized – just as
Augustine was not – as a child. My mother and father would not have approved of
that; they were both atheists. And I am glad I was not as was he. It permitted
me to grow and think and come to know God in my own way.
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