1 Samuel 12:1-5: a reflection

1Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have listened to your voice in all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. 2Now, behold, the king walks before you. I am old and gray-headed. Behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth to this day. 3Here I am. Witness against me before the LORD and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Of whose hand have I taken a bribe to make me blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.” 4They said, “You have not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither have you taken anything from anyone’s hand.” 5He said to them, “The LORD is witness against you, and his anointed is witness today, that you have not found anything in my hand.” They said, “He is witness.”

As Samuel steps back from leadership, he does something remarkable: he invites the entire nation to examine his record. Here I stand, he says; testify against me before the LORD. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded or oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe? He challenges everyone to name any wrong he has done in a lifetime of leadership, offering to make restitution for anything. And the people answer: You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from anyone.

Notice the integrity this reveals, and the confidence it gave Samuel. He could stand before the whole nation and invite them to find any fault in his dealings, because there was none to find. His hands were clean; his years of leadership had left nothing to hide, no defrauded person, no bribe taken, no one oppressed. He had lived so that his record could bear the fullest public examination.

That is a high and searching standard. Could we invite others to examine our dealings and find nothing to hold against us, no one defrauded, no dishonest gain, no one wronged? Most of us would flinch at the challenge. Samuel's example calls us to a life of integrity that can stand scrutiny, dealings so clean that we would have nothing to fear from having them examined. Aim to live so that your record, your handling of money, of people, of trust, could bear the fullest examination. Keep your hands clean, so that, like Samuel, you could stand before others and before God with nothing to hide.

Lord, Samuel could invite the whole nation to examine his lifetime of leadership and find no fault, no one defrauded, no bribe taken, no one oppressed. Give me that integrity. Help me live so that my dealings, my handling of money, of people, of trust, could bear the fullest examination, with nothing to hide. Keep my hands clean. Search me, and where there is anything crooked in my dealings, expose it and help me make it right, so that I may stand before you and others with integrity, as Samuel did.