16 Saul Anointed King – Part 2

The second part of 1 Samuel chapter 10, provides us with an interesting portrait of Saul. In it we see both the man who was about to be announced as the new king of Israel, but also of someone who apparently still wasn’t fully invested in God’s plan.

1 Saul with His Uncle

1 Samuel 10:14-16

Samuel’s family had become concerned, as to his whereabouts, so his uncle asked a relevant question: “Where did you go?”

While Saul answered honestly that he had gone looking for the missing donkeys, and that he’d even inquired about them of the prophet Samuel, he withheld the most important bit of information, that Samuel had declared Saul was to become Israel’s first king.

Saul’s uncle was probably surprised that Saul had even sought the help of the prophet, since Saul had never encountered him before, or shown an interest in spiritual matters.

Yet, he wanted to know what the prophet had told him. Again, we have a glimpse of Saul’s secretive nature, as he mentioned that Samuel had advised him that the animals had been safely found but didn’t mention anything regarding the monarchy.

We don’t know if this was attributable to fear of his family knowing about God’s plan, or his own unbelief in everything he’d experienced with Samuel, including having already been anointed as king.

2 Saul Proclaimed King

Remember, Samuel had already anointed Saul as king privately. But now it would be time for the national proclamation, so he called for everyone to gather at Mizpah:

1 Samuel 10:17-24

But being the spiritual leader of the nation, Samuel used the setting to do more than proclaim the new king, but to declare God’s Word for His people.

This shows, that even though the people had rejected God’s personal, and singular rule over them, the Lord was still concerned for His people.

He always wants His people to have a proper understanding of His will for them (us).

Therefore, once again the Lord was showing, that by asking for a human king, the people were indeed rejecting Him as their ruler. He then spoke of how God had personally delivered them out of Egyptian bondage and had protected them from enemies in the Promised Land.

Yet, it was because they still desired a king like all the other nations had, they were now being gathered so that they might receive their new king.

• Samuel then, in a very orderly fashion, had each of the twelve tribes appear before him.

When it was the tribe of Benjamin’s turn, he then had them present themselves by each of the families, which would have been based upon the head of each family. When it was the turn for the family of Matri, Samuel then singled out the name of Saul, proclaiming he was to be named king.

However, Saul was nowhere to be found. They probably called out and searched for him with no success, that the passage states they inquired of the Lord.

And it was indeed the Lord who disclosed where Saul was hiding. Stating that he was hiding amongst the equipment, most likely the luggage and belongings of all the people who had gathered.

The great irony is that Saul was a striking man, the tallest and most handsome of all the people, yet his fear of what the Lord had planned for him was enough to cause him to hide beneath piles of clothes, etc.

After Saul’s discovery, Samuel made an interesting remark to the congregation, when pointing out Saul, he declared “… there is no one like him among all the people…” This was certainly an ironic, but possibly a sarcastic statement, since Samuel had already shown his displeasure with the people desire a king other than God.

The people had desired a man of flesh and blood to lead them, never considering what type of man they would be getting. The individual’s character was seemingly of little or no consequence to them.

We can see that being the case, since even after seeing how Saul had been cowardly hiding, the people then shouted, “long live the king!”:

1 Samuel 10:24

3 The Monarchy Established

The final verses provide the account of the monarchy being confirmed:

1 Samuel 10:25-27

Samuel used the opportunity to establish that the monarchy must be conducted in the proper way, both for the people and the monarch himself.

He then wrote down the information in a book. The book is not included in Scripture, so while certainly endorsed by God for its civil value to the nation, it was not divinely inspired.

The gathering then concluded, with everyone returning to their homes, including the new king Saul, who returned home to Gibeah. He was joined by a group of individuals described as “valiant men” who would be his first group of counselors.

In that, we see that even though the nation was rebellious, the Lord was still working on their behalf, to give them that which would have been necessary to give Saul every opportunity to succeed.

In the final verse, we’re shown that even then, there were some refused to accept Saul as king:

1 Samuel 10:27

Saul used great restraint, as he didn’t respond to the dissent, but “held his peace”, which in the original language reads as: “he made as though he were deaf”.

Yet, this calm face of Saul, would be far from what we would see throughout much of his reign over the nation.