If you thought it was hard to go from a monarchy to a republic, it seems it’s just as hard to go to a monarchy from a Theocracy. You would have to say that Saul has it hard. It takes him three goes before he’s really made king. But then again maybe he was hoping it was all a bad dream so he didn’t mind.
Saul has been anointed as king by Samuel, but in secret. Now it’s time to make God’s choice known. So what’s Samuel going to do? Well, he could call the people together and simply tell them who God has chosen, but that may not be enough to convince the people. Remember that although the elders have asked for a king, they’re not actually used to the idea of one man ruling over them. Up until now they’ve been this disparate group of tribes ruled over by tribal elders, responsible only to themselves. And you’d have to say that when they ask for a king, they don’t really know what they’re asking for. And as in any large organisation there are some, as we discover as the story unfolds, who don’t agree with the leadership in any case.
Well, Samuel calls the whole nation together at Mizpah. You may recall that this is where he called them together back in ch 7 to call them to repentance over their worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. And again, as they gather, he preaches to them. He summarizes the history of Israel up until this point in 2 succinct statements: "God has done everything possible to save them;" and "Israel has stubbornly rejected God’s ways." He says: "today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses." God has answered their request for a King, but that doesn’t remove the taint of their request. Here of course is the gospel in miniature. We reject God, but God never rejects us. We rebel against his rightful rule, and he sends his son to die to take the punishment for us. The people of Israel reject God’s rule over them by asking for a king, yet God still grants their request.
Well, Samuel, having finished his sermon, begins the process of identifying the one God has chosen. He knows who it is, as does Saul, but it’s important that all the people understand that this is not just Samuel’s choice.
So the lot is cast and first the tribe of Benjamin is chosen, then the family of the Matrites and finally Saul is chosen. But where is he? No-one has seen him. In fact just to reinforce the fact that Saul is to be King as a result of God’s grace from start to finish, they even have to resort to praying to God to ask where Saul has got to. Again, God graciously condescends to do for them what they can’t do for themselves and the answer they get is almost comical.
Where is this man who will be King over Israel? Hiding among the baggage! Hoping he might escape notice. What a contrast to the previous chapter when he was dancing in a frenzy prophesying in the name of the Lord!
Saul has been anointed, he’s received the filling of the Spirit and here he is hiding among the luggage. Has he been listening to what Samuel had to say, perhaps, and is now scared to be the one to lead the people into rebellion? Or does he just have cold feet at the thought of leading all these people?
Well, whatever the reason, Saul is brought out and Samuel presents him as the one God has chosen and all the people cry out "Long live the king." Well, most of the people anyway. There are still some disbelievers who doubt that Saul can bring them victory. Anyway Samuel instructs the people about the rights and duties of the king and even writes them down. Again, we see the way God provides for his people even in the face of their rebellion. They’ve never had a king before so they need rules to govern how the king is to behave. So even as they move to the rule of a king, we see God’s rule remaining primary. This is always the case of course. All authorities in this world are set up by God and are under his authority and subject to his judgement. It’s just that here we see it a bit more clearly.
Well, where do you go if you’re the king but there’s no palace for you yet, no royal court? You go home. And that’s exactly what Saul does. This is the first time Israel has had a king so there’s no precedent to follow.
A band of fighting men go with him, those whose hearts God has touched. But when he gets there he doesn’t have any kingly work to do. The job description obviously wasn’t clear enough. So he goes back to what he knows - to farming.
In the meantime there are a group of troublemakers who don’t want Saul as King. I guess it’s true in any large organisation that you can never get total agreement. There’ll always be one or two, even in a small church like ours who have a different perspective, different ideas on what’s best. That’s why we elect representatives to make our corporate decisions on our behalf. If we tried to get everyone to agree we’d never do anything. The only question is whether those who disagree then work at undermining the decision of the elders, or whether they submit to the decision of the leadership. Well, this group of men don’t submit, they speak out against this upstart who hides among the baggage. But Saul shows that he has more maturity than they give him credit for by keeping silent in the face of their criticism.
In any case the time is not far off when these men will eat their words. Saul’s first test is about to arrive. The narrator first sets the scene with an account of the atrocities of Nahash, king of the Amorites. He gives this fairly gruesome description of his tyranny over the Israelites on the east bank of the Jordan. His practice was to subdue those he conquered by a mixture of torture and humiliation, by gouging out their right eyes. This was a doubly effective practice. Once blinded in one eye they were much less likely to mount any sort of rebellion and of course they carried with them a daily reminder of the power of their conqueror and their powerlessness before him.
Some 7000 of the Israelites, though, have escaped and taken refuge in Jabesh-gilead, but now it’s in trouble. Nahash has besieged it and the elders have decided to see if this new king is worth his salt. So they send messengers to Saul to tell him of their plight and to ask for help.
This is Saul’s moment. God’s Spirit comes upon him and he acts. He takes the oxen with which he’s been ploughing, cuts them into pieces and sends the pieces out as both a call to arms and a warning to any who might otherwise hesitate to support him. And notice that the call is to support both Saul and Samuel. Although Samuel’s time is coming to an end, he’s still seen as the spiritual leader of the nation. His name still carries more weight than Saul’s, so Saul uses it.
This cutting up of his oxen is also a symbolic gesture for Saul. It’s as though he’s saying his time as a farmer is over. From now on he’ll be a warrior king who’ll lead his people to victory over their enemies. And that’s how it works out. Jabesh is saved. Nahash’s army is decimated and the people finally recognise that Saul is a king who has God fighting for him. So Samuel takes them to the shrine at Gilgal where they reaffirm his kingship once again. Saul has been made king three times, and this time it’s with the full agreement of the people.
Leadership is often like that isn’t it? Leaders are empowered and equipped by God for the role. They’re then appointed by an eldership or a hierarchy of some sort. But it’s not until their leadership is recognised by those they lead that it can really begin to have an effect. And so it is with Saul. He’s now king in practice as well as in theory.
There’s an important little by-play that happens in vs 12 &13. Memories are long among Saul’s supporters. And you know how people take criticism of their favourites personally. If you’re a diehard Elvis fan and someone tells you that Elvis is dead, you’re likely to get really upset, aren’t you? Well, some of Saul’s followers have heard the words of his detractors and they’ve taken them to heart. So now they think it’s time to get revenge, now that they’ve been shown what Saul is made of. But again, Saul shows a degree of wisdom that surely comes from God’s spirit within him. He says: "No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has brought deliverance to Israel." This isn’t a day to be remembered as the day of Saul’s vengeance. This should be remembered as the day that God delivered Israel from the oppressor. And so the story finishes on this note of Saul being the right man for the job, a king who’s capable of acting as God’s representative.
And so we finish this part of the history of Israel. The nation has gone from being a theocracy led by priests and prophets, to being a monarchy, led by King Saul.
Next week we’ll look at Samuel’s farewell speech as he formally hands over the reigns of power to Saul and then we’ll discover the seeds of weakness in Saul’s character, but that’s for next week.
But before we finish I just want to reinforce 2 things we’ve noticed as we’ve looked at the story of Saul so far.
The first thing is the way Saul’s leadership comes about through the direct empowering of God’s Holy Spirit. This is the source of all leadership among God’s people. It isn’t enough that someone has a certain natural ability in this area. To lead well in God’s church leaders need his Spirit leading, guiding and empowering them. So what should you and I be doing? We should be praying for our leaders: for me, for the churchwardens, for the vestry, for those who lead the various groups and programs in the Church. We should be praying that our leaders would be enabled and led by the Holy Spirit in all they think and do. That the leadership decisions they make would be influenced by a godly wisdom, given to them by God. And that the filling of the Holy Spirit would be obvious in the outcomes that arise from their leadership, so the whole church might have confidence in them as leaders.
The second thing I want us to notice is the graciousness of God. Let’s face it, the whole history of Israel is a history of people who just can’t seem to stay faithful to God for more than a moment. Whether this particular moment is worse than any other I don’t think you could say. But in Samuel’s mind it’s pretty bad. God has been the one who has led them out of Egypt and established them in the land of Canaan. Had they remained faithful to him all this time, had they done what he told them to, they’d now be secure, living in peace and prosperity. But that hadn’t happened. They ignored the warnings of Joshua and the judges to turn back to the Lord and remain faithful to him and so they were under constant attack from the Philistines on one side and the Ammonites and Amorites, etc., on the other. And they just couldn’t see what should have been staring them in the face. All they had to do was turn back to the Lord and give up the worship of false gods and the Lord would have rescued them. So what do they do? They ask the Lord to give them a king to rule over them. They say in effect, we don’t want you as king, we want our own king. And what does God do? He gives them what they ask for. And he gives them someone who’s exactly what they’re looking for. He doesn’t abandon them. In fact as today’s story has shown he continues to deliver them, now using the king they’ve asked for as the avenue through which his salvation comes. Our God is a God who uses even our rebelliousness to bring about his purposes for his people. He’s a God who could even use the rejection of his own Son as the means by which he would bring salvation to the world.
So let’s pray for our leaders, and at the same time remember the graciousness of God, who will continue to work with and for his church despite the fact that our leaders are ordinary people with all the faults and failings of ordinary human beings.
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