1 Samuel 10:1-27
10:1 Samuel begins to anoint Saul; the preparations for his induction as servant of God are more important at this stage than a public announcement and inauguration. Saul needed to understand his role, and from Samuel's choice of language, we learn what that will be: commander over God's inheritance. God was not giving Saul His people, rather He was enabled Saul to be their leader on earth.
God raised and prepared Samuel as a prophet to take the place of the previous deceased judge. But the children of Israel began again to want to manage for themselves - if only that were an antiquated want.. Although God had it figured out, after Samuel, He could have raised another prophet to lead Israel. Instead, they wanted a man king. Despite God's cautioning, they persisted in their desire to be like everyone else and disregarded God's word - if only that were an antiquated occurrence.
The children of Israel did not require a leader on earth, they had God, but because they had requested one, God delivered. Humanity had at that point already given evidence of its fickle nature, especially where spirituality was concerned. Without a just leader, the people turned to depravity. God is gracious enough to not leave Israel entirely abandoned and thus Saul finds himself being anointed for a future he never envisioned.
10:2 Not naturally a spiritual man, Samuel understands that in order for Saul to believe and take seriously this anointed, he will require evidence that it is actual true. Samuel therefore prophesies in detail of Saul's immediate future, explaining that two men standing by Rachel's tomb in Zelzah will approach Saul and tell him that his donkeys have been found. Saul will also be told that he father worries for him.
10:3-4 Samuel continues to prophesy, and we can imagine why! Saul's head must be spinning. A simple quest for missing donkeys has turned into his being chosen by God as king. At the terebinth tree of Tabor, Saul will meet three men with three goats, three loaves of bread, and another with wine. The men will give Saul two loaves of bread and he is to accept it.
10:5-6 Saul will then encounter a group of prophets, placed by God, who are praising Him. At that point, God will enable Saul to prophesy as well. Saul will receive the ability to receive communication from God.
In our own present time, God has enabled each of us to receive communication from Him. For God is always speaking to His children, to receive His word is to perceive it. He is always there, all it takes is an observant child, familiar with His voice, to notice.
10:7-8 Samuel continues to instruct Saul through prophesy: Saul has a choice at that point, to proceed knowing that God is with him or to stop. Yet because God has orchestrated this path, we know that Saul's choice will be to accept. From there, Saul will enter into Gilgal, the place where Joshua renewed the covenant between God and Israel, Joshua 4. In Gilgal, Samuel will meet Saul to offer a sacrifice and peace offering for God. Saul is instructed to wait seven days - representative of completion - for Samuel to arrive and direct him further.
Sacrifices have been made obsolete (Hosea 6:6, Isaiah 1:11), but in the time of the children of Israel, it was a tangible way to offer acknowledgement and gratitude toward God. It was also an action and display of trust; by offering to God, they gave evidence that they trusted God to provide abundantly for anything they gave away in service or charity.
Sacrifice in our own day is something monetary. But it is also sparing other things we have limited supply of: patience, forgiveness, time. We show God that we are still in His service when we service others with compassion. And compassion has many forms, Matthew 25:35-40. God personally experiences that compassion we show on others. Indeed our sacrifice in our own time is often our own selfishness. We give it away in order to serve humbly.
10:9 Everything prophesied by Samuel happens and Saul is given "another heart". It is quite understandable that Saul would need to be strengthened by God for such a position. God is always obliged and prepared to strengthen a person for a purpose they might have never believed themselves capable.
Though God strengthens us, He does not render us robotic. We retain our personality. Saul is still Saul, he is just encouraged by God to take on more than he thought he could. In our own lives, God enables us to take on more than we thought we could. But we are still... ourselves. God is prepared to help us in every area of our lives but our personal growth is accomplished by mutual effort. Saul is not made perfect but he is made able. So long as he, or we, strive to be better, God will provide. Whether or not Saul will actually strive to be better is a personal choice Saul will have to make each day of his life - just like we do.
10:10-13 Saul indeed encounters a group of prophets and joins them. People who know Saul are astonished to see him as a prophet. There are echoes of Jesus' own rise into leadership. In Luke 4:22, people are marveled that the son of Joseph could be the messiah!
The message to the group of onlookers was that a person was it did not matter which family a person belonged to; as long as they accepted their spiritual father, they were authentic and official in their post.
10:14 Saul's uncle inquires after Saul's journey: where did you go? We can reasonably feel a bit of sympathy for Saul in this moment. Imagine trying to explain! "Well, what happened was... it... and then... but... and suddenly... an unexpected... and now I'm king. Because God said so.
Instead, Saul sticks to simple truths: he searched for the donkeys and when he could not find them, he went to the prophet Samuel.
10:15 Saul's uncle then essentially asks: and then what? The uncle is likely sitting with open-mouthed intrigue. But this is not the moment or manner to reveal himself as king and so Saul refrains.
10:16 Saul explains that Samuel told him the donkeys had been found. And in everything he said, Saul remained truthful. The omission of his anointing as king would disable rumors to spread and gossip to cause chaos and confusion.
Saul's uncle might not even believe Saul. Even faithful children of God miss some of the reasoning behind what He chooses. Saul is only one of the unlikely people to be chosen by God - Saul, Samson, Paul... each of those men were imperfect. God tries repeatedly to inculcate into us the fact that He is willing and able to work with each of us! No matter our short-comings. God does not pluck from the perfect; there are no perfect to pluck. But that's not the reason why He chooses the unlikely. God chooses the unlikely to show us that anyone who will submit to His love receives surety.
God is willing to accept anyone who will reach our their hand, their heart. Tainted, broken, confused, lost, corrupt, it does not matter, He will accept it all. Jesus explains that his mission was the save the people who were disregarded and unlikely, Mark 2:17. We all have shortcomings and we are all in stages of incompleteness or brokenness, even corruption. God plucks from the broken and makes them whole.
God's choice of Saul teaches us that he will pick the seemingly random person and offer them a kingdom. We are not random to Him and He does indeed offer a kingdom - His - to rest in, to help uphold.
10:17-19 Samuel gathers the children of Israel to receive a message from God:
‘" brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all kingdoms and from those who oppressed you. But you have today rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’ Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your clans.”
God is specific in mentioning the circumstances of this transition. It may as well be a hand-written note left for each of us, in the times and moments of our lives when we choose to place another thing above God. God does not ever reject us; if we are absent from Him, it is because we have rejected Him.
God is our protector, provider, adviser and so much more. Let us not make the same mistake as our ancient ancestors. As humans, we are always slave to something. The vulnerability and desire of our bodies makes it so. And if our bodies and minds insist on a master, let that master be God - who will compassionately, adeptly fill the needs of both mind and body.
The children of Israel are choosing to come under the reign of a mortal king; they wish to conform to the way of the world. The world has taught Israel that man kings are the fad. The world has taught them an equation: to have this or that specific thing is to be and look powerful. But the master mathematician, the creator of the universe, has declared that the equations of the world are wrong. Who do we trust to calculate the circumstances and outcome of our lives?
Sometimes a "no" or the absence of something we think we want are the numbers that create the solution that is truly good for us. The children of Israel were not able to accept that, are we?
God does not have the time or desire to sit on a throne. He's busy. He chooses to be a busy King. He is bigger than a throne. More powerful than an amulet could ever denote. He chooses not to sit and command; He chooses to work along aside us, 1 Corinthians 3:9. He is not limited as mortal kings are, they way He exists, manifested in every moment, is more physically present than any mortal king could ever be. God is presently active in Spirit, and His children know that to be more than enough.
10:20-21 The children of Israel, by Samuel's lead, begin to choose a king. Samuel draws their new king out of the tribe of Benjamin and out of the family of Matri. When Saul is chosen, the people look around for him.
10:22 God points Saul out to them, "hidden among the equipment."
10:23-24 Samuel asks the children of Israel if they are ready to follow this chosen king and they chant: "Long live the king!" Ironic that they should inadvertently mention mortality in regard to their new king when they already had an immortal King. Who among us can survive this world with any semblance of sanity without the amusing acknowledgement of irony? Humans commit it so often.
10:25 Samuel reiterates that their choice to have a king will cause them a multitude of new problems. In our own century, thousands of years later, no country has yet been able to work out the kinks. The governmental issues in our own day are evidence enough that the children of Israel were aptly warned.
10:25-26 Saul returns to Gibeah, with men placed by God to protect him. For although many had readily accepted the new king, Saul was not yet uniformly accepted.
