1 Samuel 13

John Chrysostom · Comentário Patrístico (catena)

1 Samuel 13:11-12

And mark it, he [the devil] desired to bring Saul into [the] superstition of witchcraft. But if he had counseled this at the beginning, the other would not have given heed; for how should he, who was even driving them out? Therefore gently and by little and little he leads him on to it. For when he had disobeyed Samuel and had caused the burnt offering to be offered, when he was not present, being blamed for it, he says, "The compulsion from the enemy was too great," and when he ought to have bewailed, he felt as though he had done nothing.Again God gave him the commands about the Amalekites, but he transgressed these too. Then he proceeded to his crimes about David, and thus slipping easily and little by little he did not stop, until he came to the very pit of destruction and cast himself in. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW 86.3

1 Samuel 13:14

So whom should we cite in discoursing on clemency? Who else than the one receiving testimony from on high and especially remarkable in this case? "I found in David, son of Jesse," Scripture says, remember, "a man after my own heart." Now, when God gives his opinion, there are no grounds left for opposition: that verdict is proof against corruption, God judging not from favor or from hatred but making his decision on the mere virtue of the soul. It is not for this reason alone, however, that we cite him, that he received the verdict from God, but also because he is one of those nourished in the old dispensation. You see, while there is nothing remarkable for anyone in the ages of grace to be found free of resentment, forgiving enemies their sins and sparing abusers—that is, after the death of Christ, after such wonderful forgiveness of sins, after the directives redolent of sound values—in the old dispensation, by contrast, when the law permitted an eye to be plucked out for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and vengeance to be taken on the wrongdoer in equal terms, who amongst the listeners is not struck by someone found to surpass the norm of the commandments and attain to New Testament values? — HOMILIES ON DAVID AND SAUL 1