But Saul had a difficulty. Would not Samuel require payment for his services? “Behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we?” Their resources were almost exhausted, for they had been for some time away from home. The servant replied, “Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way.” It is hard for poor benighted flesh to rise above the thought of payment. Grace is foreign to its mind. God as a giver is inconceivable to flesh. Yet it is in this blessed character that all the objects of His favor know Him. He gave His only begotten Son (the basis of all other giving); with Him He freely gives us all things; and from the same generous grace proceeds the gift of the Holy Spirit and eternal life. “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:3535I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)). But although flesh always thinks of God as demanding something (read especially Matt. 25:2424Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: (Matthew 25:24)), it never considers that He should expect much. The best that can be said for Saul's coin is that it was at least a larger sum than the modern small coin with which Christendom's ecclesiastical treasurers are all too painfully familiar.
But it might have occurred to Saul, had he possessed the least idea of the greatness of God, and of the moral dignity of the man who represented Him that it would have been more becoming to crave a favor than endeavoring to purchase the information that he required for “the fourth part of a shekel of silver.” But flesh is as insensible to moral propriety where God is concerned as it is to grace! The conduct of Saul and his servant suggests that neither the one nor the other had any real sense of having to do with God. This did not augur well for one who was soon to be Israel's king.