PEER PRESSURE IN I SAMUEL

I know from personal experience how hard it is to go against the crowd at times. The pressure to fit in can be very strong. So it is interesting to see how the first two kings of Israel handled similar situations. It may or may not be a coincidence that there are three related incidents each involving Saul or David having to make a decision in which they could either go with popular opinion or God's will. In some of these occasions, especially the first one listed below, it is not quite clear that “the voice of the people” is the prime factor influencing the king except by looking at all six incidences as a related series.

I Samuel 13:5-15

In this story, Saul and his army are waiting for the prophet Samuel to show up in order to get God's blessing before attacking the Philistines. However, Samuel is quite late in arriving, and in the meanwhile the enemy troops are making things increasingly hard for the Israelites, causing some of Saul's troops to slip away into safety. And so Saul makes the bad decision to go ahead with the attack before he loses any more soldiers. A little later Samuel shows up and bawls Saul out for his actions. In this case we might even be a little sympathetic to Saul's plight.

I Samuel 14:43-46

And in this next case, the stakes are even personally higher for Saul. While his son Jonathan was away attacking a city, Saul rashly made a vow to God that none of his troops would eat until the enemy had been conquered, and if anyone disobeyed, he would be executed. Jonathan, not knowing of the vow, ate some honey, a fact that later came to light. Saul was apparently ready to carry out his threatened vow when all the people protested since Jonathan had proved himself a popular hero. Saul then caves in to the pressure and relents.

As Payne says, “The soldiers cannot credit that God could both achieve victory through Jonathan and pronounce judgment on him. The vox populi [voice of the majority] prevailed, though it is not explained how Jonathan was ransomed...”

Interestingly, I found that most commentators actually blamed Saul for wanting to go ahead with his vow to God rather than for relenting in the face of opposition and breaking his vow.

I Samuel 15:4-24

The third similar example in the space of three chapters is the most blatant example of all. God tells Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, including all their goods and animals. But instead, the king saves the Amalekite king as a sort of war trophy for himself and lets his people take any of the animals and jewelry for themselves as their reward. At this point, God's spirit leaves Saul forever, and the rest of his career is a downward path.

This is clearly an example of giving in to popular pressure as seen in v. 21 where “Saul tried to explain [to Samuel] that the people had made him act as he had.” (Porter) And as Murphy says, “Saul is admitting that torn between the people's voice and that of God, he has taken the easier course. This could be the heart of the matter: he has become the people's king instead of God's king.”

Similarly, Baldwin says regarding verses 8-9 that “there is a clear hint that Saul wanted to keep on the right side of popular opinion.”

“Ironically enough , it was Samuel's capitulation to the importune 'voice of the people' (8:9,22; 12:1) that led to Saul's election in the first place, and now it is because Saul has listened to 'the voice of the people,' i.e. to the soldiers, (vv 20,24) that he is dismissed.” (McCarter) However, as Baldwin points out, “When Samuel appeared suddenly to Saul, it was to point out to him that he was king, not primarily by popular acclaim, but by the Lord's appointment (vv 1-3).”

In commenting on this incident, Tsumura says, “The relationship between 13:7b-15:1-34 has been a major concern of literary critics. Since Wellhausen's Prolegomena (1878), there has been a general tendency to view these passages as doublets, that is, as two versions of the same incident.”

I Samuel 24

By stark contrast, we now turn to the life of David as he and his army are on the run from Saul, who is determined to kill him. In this chapter we read the familiar story of David and his men hiding in a cave when Saul enters to relieve himself. David's men say to him, “This is the day of which the LORD said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him whatever seems good to you.' At this point, David explains to them that Saul “is the LORD's anointed.” And then he proceeds to scold them for their suggestion.

It is not known what earlier oracle the men are citing to David at this point. Tsumura suggests that it is perhaps found in I Samuel 23:4, where God assured David that he would prevail over the Philistines.

The most important point of this incident is brought out by Tsumura: “David controlled the situation properly as leader and manged his men so that they did not 'rise against his lord' Saul...David avoided appealing to a human method and entrusted the matter to God's best judgment, for he feared God.” Unfortunately, the same could not be said regarding Saul himself.

I Samuel 26:8

In this quite similar encounter, David and his nephew, and right-hand man, Abishai see Saul lying asleep on the ground. Abishai says to David, “God has given your enemy into your hand today; now therefore let me pin him to the ground with one stroke of the spear.” David forbids him from hurting Saul.

There is a scholarly controversy regarding the relationship between this event and the one in chapter 24, just as the question mentioned above as to whether chapters 13 and 15 are two versions of the same story. Tsumura in his commentary on I Samuel provides a detailed chart laying out the close parallels between these two occurrences. But at the same time, we must keep in mind the comment by Maunchline who represents another point of view: “The fact cannot be disregarded that the contrasts are as notable and as widespread as the similarities...the conclusion which is supported here is that there were two occasions.”

I Samuel 30:21-25

Here David stands up to those in his army who want to withhold some of the spoils of a battle from some other troops who had been too exhausted to join them in the fighting. Baldwin points out that David's reasoning, which became a legal precedent, was that the victory had come from God, not primarily from the soldiers themselves. Again, I see a sort of parallel between those grumblers in David's army with Saul's own situation, since he felt it was the people who had put him in power, not God.

The bottom line is perhaps best expressed in an OT saying cited by Tsumura: “The fear of others lays a snare, but one who trusts in the Lord is secure.” (Proverbs 29:25)