1 Samuel 13:7

"... all the people followed him trembling." 1 Samuel 13:7 .

We are reminded of the words "Faint, yet pursuing." The people were trembling, yet even in their trembling they were following their king and leader "The men of Israel saw that they were in a strait, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in the rocks, and in high places, and in pits." It is in extremities that the quality of men is tested. Saul was now overborne; yet he was called upon to take some definite action, and the people, though with great misgiving and trembling of heart, went after him. There is a following that is the mere expression of despair; it is either attempting to follow, or it is dying in solitude and starvation; the very path seems to be but a choice of evils; no great credit therefore is due to the men who simply preferred one form of extinction to another. Here is the press of military discipline, even in this state of disorganisation. Saul was at the head, Saul was in his right place, and the people were following, though in great weakness and trepidation. It must be so with the followers of Christ; he is the Captain of our salvation; he is not to be superseded, or overrun, or in any way displaced: even when he seems to be going forth to a fruitless war he is to be followed by stout hearts. Trembling is permitted even in Christian experience. There is a trembling that is significant of reverence; there is also a trembling which means self-misgiving or self-distrust. When we are weak, then are we strong. If so be we renounce our own strength, and place absolute confidence in God, we may tremble so far as we are personally concerned, yet under all the trembling there is a rock of assurance, a complete and steadfast faith in the ultimate rule of God. "Perfect love casteth out fear." A man may either pray that the Philistines may be diminished in strength, or that his own courage may be stimulated to a higher degree: the latter is the nobler prayer: to conquer simply because our enemies have been decimated by fire or tempest or plague is a very poor victory: but to rise to the occasion by the inspiration of love, by the confidence of growing faith, and to smite sharply and heavily in the strength of God, this is the victory which all Christians should seek to realise; this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Where faith is strong, one will chase a thousand, and two will put ten thousand to flight. Our prayer should not be that our enemies may be diminished, but that we may be the more perfectly qualified to encounter and overthrow them. This is also a call to victory over our own passions: we are not to wait until old age has cooled the blood, or until many infirmities have taken away all desire for the delights of sin; in the very heyday of life, when the blood is at fullest heat, when temptations are a thousand strong, all plying the soul with continual importunity, it is even then that we may rise to a sense of supreme strength, it is even then that we may live the noble and beneficent life. The great Christian lesson is that we are to follow Christ, however extreme the danger, however improbable the success, however hopeless the issue so far as our own strength is concerned, we go forward, we go to the battle in the name and strength of the Lord God, and though the Philistine be very strong, though bis tread seems to shake the earth, though his staff be as a weaver's beam, yet we shall, being nerved by the Holy One, strike him with a deadly stroke. The battle is not ours, but God's.