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| Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured.
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Chapter 7.—Of the Disruption of
the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the
Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured.
Again Saul sinned through
disobedience, and again Samuel says to him in the word of the Lord,
“Because thou hast despised the word of the Lord, the Lord hath
despised thee, that thou mayest not be king over Israel.”1033
And
again for the same sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for
pardon, and besought Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord,
he said, “I will not return with thee: for thou hast despised
the word of the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou
mayest not be king over Israel. And Samuel turned his face to go
away, and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent
it. And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom from
Israel out of thine hand this day, and will give it to thy
neighbor, who is good above thee, and will divide Israel in
twain. And He will not be changed, neither will He repent: for
He is not as a man, that He should repent; who threatens and does
not persist.”1034
He to
whom it is said, “The Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not
be king over Israel,” and “The Lord hath rent the kingdom from
Israel out of thine hand this day,” reigned forty years over
Israel,—that is, just as long a time as David himself,—yet
heard this in the first period of his reign, that we may understand
it was said because none of his race was to reign, and that we may
look to the
race of David, whence also is
sprung, according to the flesh,1035
the Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus.1036
But the Scripture has not what is
read in most Latin copies, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of
Israel out of thine hand this day,” but just as we have set it
down it is found in the Greek copies, “The Lord hath rent the
kingdom from Israel out of thine hand;” that the words “out of
thine hand” may be understood to mean “from Israel.”
Therefore this man figuratively represented the people of Israel,
which was to lose the kingdom, Christ Jesus our Lord being about to
reign, not carnally, but spiritually. And when it is said of Him,
“And will give it to thy neighbor,” that is to be referred to
the fleshly kinship, for Christ, according to the flesh, was of
Israel, whence also Saul sprang. But what is added, “Good above
thee,” may indeed be understood, “Better than thee,” and
indeed some have thus translated it; but it is better taken thus,
“Good above thee,” as meaning that because He is good,
therefore He must be above thee, according to that other prophetic
saying, “Till I put all Thine enemies under Thy feet.”1037
And
among them is Israel, from whom, as His persecutor, Christ took
away the kingdom; although the Israel in whom there was no guile
may have been there too, a sort of grain, as it were, of that
chaff. For certainly thence came the apostles, thence so many
martyrs, of whom Stephen is the first, thence so many churches,
which the Apostle Paul names, magnifying God in their
conversion.
Of which thing I do not doubt what
follows is to be understood, “And will divide Israel in twain,”
to wit, into Israel pertaining to the bond woman, and Israel
pertaining to the free. For these two kinds were at first
together, as Abraham still clave to the bond woman, until the
barren, made fruitful by the grace of God, cried, “Cast out the
bond woman and her son.”1038
We know, indeed, that on account
of the sin of Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam, Israel was
divided in two, and continued so, the separate parts having their
own kings, until that whole nation was overthrown with a great
destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans. But what was this
to Saul, when, if any such thing was threatened, it would be
threatened against David himself, whose son Solomon was? Finally,
the Hebrew nation is not now divided internally, but is dispersed
through the earth indiscriminately, in the fellowship of the same
error. But that division with which God threatened the kingdom
and people in the person of Saul, who represented them, is shown to
be eternal and unchangeable by this which is added, “And He will
not be changed, neither will He repent: for He is not as a man,
that He should repent; who threatens and does not
persist,”—that is, a man threatens and does not persist, but
not God, who does not repent like man. For when we read that He
repents, a change of circumstance is meant, flowing from the divine
immutable foreknowledge. Therefore, when God is said not to
repent, it is to be understood that He does not change.
We see that this sentence
concerning this division of the people of Israel, divinely uttered
in these words, has been altogether irremediable and quite
perpetual. For whoever have turned, or are turning, or shall turn
thence to Christ, it has been according to the foreknowledge of
God, not according to the one and the same nature of the human
race. Certainly none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ,
have continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites who
persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life, but
shall for ever remain in the separation which is here foretold.
For the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to
bondage,1039
profiteth
nothing, unless because it bears witness to the New Testament.
Otherwise, however long Moses is read, the veil is put over their
heart; but when any one shall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall
be taken away.1040
For the
very desire of those who turn is changed from the old to the new,
so that each no longer desires to obtain carnal but spiritual
felicity. Wherefore that great prophet Samuel himself, before he
had anointed Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He
had heard him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering, as
the aliens were coming to battle against the people of God, and the
Lord thundered above them and they were confused, and fell before
Israel and were overcome; [then] he took one stone and set it up
between the old and new Massephat [Mizpeh], and called its name
Ebenezer, which means “the stone of the helper,” and said,
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”1041
Massephat is interpreted
“desire.” That stone of the helper is the mediation of the
Saviour, by which we go from the old Massephat to the new,—that
is, from the desire with which carnal happiness was expected in the
carnal kingdom to the desire with which the truest spiritual
happiness is expected in the kingdom of heaven; and since
nothing is better than that, the Lord helpeth us
hitherto.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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