7 SAMUEL ANOINTS SAUL

In this chapter Samuel is executing the office of a prophet, giving Saul full assurance from God that he will be king as he was afterwards according to these prophecies. This anointing was not done in a solemn public assembly, but, nevertheless, by divine appointment. It was not any less important or less valid for its being done in private. God’s workings are great and honorable, even if the circumstances of their administration appear common or unspectacular. Samuel, by anointing Saul, assured him that it was God’s act to make him king. This would have been similar to the ceremony in which the high priest was anointed to his office, to signify the giving of those gifts to him that were necessary for the discharge of his duties. The same was intimated in the anointing of kings; they too needed the Spirit of God on them. Whom God calls He qualifies, with wisdom and grace, suitable qualifications which give ample evidence of a commission from God. These sacred ceremonies for priests and kings pointed at the great Messiah, or anointed One, the King of the church and High Priest who represents us before God’s throne of grace. He was anointed with the oil of the Spirit, not by any measure that limited His effectiveness to represent us well, but without measure. Samuel used only common oil such as was used from day today in common uses and we do not read of his blessing it or praying over it. But the meaning of the oil was not common. It symbolized the presence, power, blessing and energy of God working through a human.

It was probably only a small vessel of oil with which Samuel anointed Saul. Was this a hint that Saul’s anointing was weak? Years later David, by contrast, was anointed with a horn of oil, as were Solomon and Jehu with a box of oil. The volume of oil with which a person is anointed is nothing, however, in comparison to the more important matter of the volume of spiritual power and wisdom that God gives to those whom He calls. Let us strive to have a full measure of that. By kissing him, Samuel assured him of his own approval of God’s choice, not only Samuel’s consent to it, but his satisfaction in it, even though it reduced his own power and eclipsed his glory and the glory of his family. Says Samuel “God has anointed you to be king,” and I am satisfied and very well pleased. My kiss indicates satisfaction and pleasure in this transaction. It could also have been a kiss of homage and allegiance by which he acknowledges not only that he is a king, but that he is his king. This can remind us of Psalm 1:12 in which even heathen nations are encouraged to acknowledge Jesus, the Messiah, as King by saying, “Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” God has anointed Him, and therefore we must acknowledge him and do homage to him.

We see Jesus appearing everywhere in the Bible. Praise His name. In Samuel’s brief private conduct of the ceremony, he reminds Saul of the nature of the government to which he is called. He was anointed to be a captain, a commander indeed, which hints of honor and power, and also a commander in war, which suggests care, work, and danger. And what was the origin of this position, responsibility and authority? The Lord as anointed you. By the Lord! Saul was to rule, and therefore must rule for Him, in dependence on Him and with a desire to always bring Him glory. What was the realm? It is over God’s inheritance, for Saul to take care of, protect, and order all the affairs of it for the best, as a steward whom a great man sets over his estate, to manage it for His service and give an account of it to Him. Israel was God’s kingdom and if Saul were to forget that, he would totally fail. The Church is God’s too and if we forget that we too will totally fail. Oh, Lord help us to remember this one. The church is yours and we are only your servants in it.

For Saul’s further satisfaction Samuel gives him some signs which would happen soon that very day. They would not only confirm the word of Samuel in general and prove him a true prophet, they would also confirm God and Samuel’s word to Saul in particular that he would be king. After all, this whole matter was very new to Saul. He would soon meet with some who would tell him news from home of the concern his father’s house was experiencing because of his delayed return. Near Rachel’s sepulcher Saul would meet a specific group of people. The first place Samuel directed him to was a sepulcher, the sepulcher of one of Saul’s ancestors, for Rachel died in travail with Benjamin. Could this be that he should receive a lesson about his own mortality? Now that he had a crown on his radar screen, he must also think of his grave, in which all his honor would be laid in the dust. At Rachel’s sepulcher two men would meet him, perhaps sent on purpose to look after him and would tell him the donkeys were found, and that his father was anxious concerning him, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”

When he would meet up with the people and the circumstances as Samuel as described, Saul could be encouraged to believe that a God who could give him detailed information like this about small matters could be trusted. He, Saul, could be encouraged to trust Him also in greater matters. That is the best explanation I can find for Samuel giving him all these details about relatively small matters. And yet, perhaps the lesson to be learned from these small matters is not such a small matter. Can we learn to learn big lessons from small matters?

Next, Saul would meet with others going to Bethel, where, evidently there was a high place for worship. These men would be bringing their sacrifices there. It should have been for Saul and surely would be for any Christian leader today a good thing that wherever he went, he might meet with people going to worship God. It is supposed that those goats, loaves, and the bottle, probably a skin of wine, which the three men had with them, were intended for sacrifice. They were ready with the meat-offerings and drink-offerings that were a part of the sacrifice. So why is it that they will give him two of their loaves and he must take them? Such a present would seem help him understand what it is like to receive relief from the hunger or difficulty of a beggar. Could it be that Saul must from now on remember the time when he received alms and must therefore be humble and charitable to the poor because of that?

On the other hand, if God was preparing Saul for kingship, could this lesson be construed as a fit present for a prince and Saul must receive it, the first present that was brought to the new king, by people who did not know what they did, or why they did it? Did God put it into their hearts to make the gift more clearly a sign for him. I would not be making these conjectures except for the fact that God told Samuel who told Saul of it which implies there was a message in this for someone. These two loaves, which were the first tribute paid to this newly-anointed king, might serve for an admonition to Saul not to spend the wealth of his crown in luxury, but still to be content with plain food. Bread is the staff of life.

However, the most remarkable sign of all would be Saul joining with the company of prophets he will meet. He would then come under the influence of a spirit of prophecy, which would at that time come on him. What God works in us by His Spirit serves much more for the confirming of our faith than any external thing done for us by His power. The inner work of the Holy spirit will effect us more than meeting people who supply wine, bread and meat. Samuel even tells him where this would happen: At the hill of God, where there was a garrison of the Philistines, which is supposed to be near Gibeah. According to 1 Samuel 13:3 there was a Philistines’ garrison near Gibeah, Saul’s own city. “Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, ‘Let the Hebrews hear!’”

Why was there a Philistine garrison in Israel if the Israelites had subdued them? Perhaps it was part of Samuel’s agreement with them that they could have a garrison there, or, rather, after they were subdued in the beginning of Samuel’s time they later regained their strength again, so far as to force this garrison into that place. And right there, at that very place, God raised up the man who would defeat them. There was a place that was called the hill of God, because of one of the schools of the prophets built on it. Even the Philistines themselves had such respect toward the God of Israel that a garrison of their soldiers allowed a school of God’s prophets to live peaceably near them. They did not only not dislodge them, neither did they restrain nor disturb their public practices of their devotion.

And now another detail, Saul would meet a company of prophets with music before them, prophesying, and he would join himself to them. These prophets were not necessarily divinely inspired to foretell things to come, nor did God reveal Himself to them by dreams and visions, but they busied themselves in the study of the law, instructing their fellow Israelites in the acts of godliness, especially in praising God. Surely it was the Spirit of God Who gave them this wonderful assistance. It was good for Israel that they had not only prophets, but companies of prophets, who gave them good instructions, lived as good examples, and helped very much to keep up spiritual life among them. Now the word of the Lord was not as rare as it had been when Samuel was first raised up. And Samuel appears to be the one who had founded these schools. It is probable, that the synagogues we see later throughout Israel took their rise from the schools of prophets Samuel started and nourished. What a man! It was a pity that Israel should be weary of the government of such a man, who though he had not, as a man of war, expelled the Philistines, yet as an even greater kindness to Israel, as a man of God, had established the schools of the prophets!

Music was used in these schools as God intended it, as a proper means to move the human mind, emotion and spirit to receive the impressions of the good Spirit, as it did Elisha’s. Soon David will be used of the Lord with music to drive away the evil spirit or at least the depression Saul felt from evil spirits. These prophets had been at the high place, probably offering sacrifice, and now they came back down singing. We too should come from holy experiences and places with our hearts so greatly enlarged in holy joy and praise that we keep singing even on the road back home after we have left that experience. Psalm 138:5 says, “May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great.” Saul would find himself strongly moved to join with them, and would be turned into another man from what he had been while he lived in a private capacity. It is still a wonderful miracle that the Spirit of God changes men, wonderfully transforming them. Saul, by praising God in the communion of saints, became another man. Samuel’s prophesy came true. Saul later changed himself to become selfish and evil reversing what God did for him in this part of the story. That later change, however, was Saul’s fault; not God’s.

Samuel directs Saul to follow his own instincts as to what should be done. Verse 7 says, “do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you” and I think I find a practical lesson for Christian leaders in this simple instruction. Let us move forward in day to day decisions and work having the same confidence Saul would have had having received this word from Samuel.

So having heard all of this, Saul then leaves Samuel, quite surprised we may well suppose at what has been done to him and ready to question whether he is awake or not. The signs that Samuel had given him happened punctually, but let us hope that the one that gave him the greatest satisfaction of all was that God had given him another heart. A new fire was kindled in his chest, such as he had never experienced before. Looking for donkeys is quite out of his mind, and he thinks of grandeur things like providing for the public safety. He finds himself raised to such a new height of boldness and bravery as he never thought possible or even thought of before. Can we believe that Saul was no longer concerned about corn and cattle but now had the heart of a statesman, a general, a prince? When you became aware of God’s call on your life did you experience this kind of change? Whom God calls to any service, He will make fit for it. New positions require new hearts and God is the Giver of both.

When Saul came near home, that is, to Gibeah, or Geba, which signifies a hill, he met the prophets as Samuel had told him and the Spirit of God came on him, strongly and suddenly, Verse 10 says, “the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him, and he joined in their prophesying.” This was wonderful, but not so life-changing that Saul’s own decision later could not revoke the good work done here. For the present, it had a strange and good effect on him and others noticed the change as verse 11 says, “When all those who had formerly known him saw him prophesying with the prophets, they asked each other, ‘What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?’” He was now among his acquaintances who, when they saw him among the prophets, called one another to come and see a strange sight. Would this prepare them to accept him as a king, though he was one of themselves, when they had seen how God had promoted him to the office of a prophet?

Though this school of the prophets was near his father’s house, yet Saul had never associated with them, nor shown them any respect and now to see him prophesying among them was a surprise to them. Interestingly, later another Saul raised the same question in another generation. Acts 9:21 says, “All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’” When God gives another heart, it will soon show itself. One wise man among them hit the nail on the head. by making the connection between Saul having been with Samuel and now being among the prophets. Verse 12 says, “A man who lived there answered, ‘And who is their father?’ So it became a saying: ‘Is Saul also among the prophets?'” Cannot he make Saul a prophet, as well as any of them, if he please? Or, “Is not Samuel their father?” Under God, he was and Saul had recently been with him, which, Saul’s neighbors might have learned by Saul’s servant.

No marvel for him to prophesy who just last night had spent many hours under Samuel’s roof listening to Samuel. So it became a proverb used in Israel when they would express their wonder at a bad man’s either becoming good, or at least being found in good company. Is Saul among the prophets? That Saul was among the prophets was such a wonder that this question became a proverb. Let not the worst of persons be despised or, on the other hand, let not a quick external show of sudden devotion, a change for the present, be taken too seriously, because Saul among the prophets was still Saul.

Saul evidently judiciously and humbly kept the matter to himself. Verse 13 tells us he went to the high place. This probably was to give God thanks for His mercies to him and to pray for the continuance of those mercies. Saul industriously concealed from his relations and neighbors what had passed. His uncle, who met with him either at the high place or as soon as he came home, asked him where he had been to which Saul simply replied that he had been with Samuel and Samuel had told him the donkeys had been found.

Saul did not mention the matter of the kingdom or his anointing by Samuel. This shows his humility. Many would have been so elated with this surprising elevation as to proclaim it on the house-top. But Saul, though he might please himself with it in his own heart, did not boast himself in it among his neighbors. Had he been eager to proclaim it, he would take the risk to be envied, and he did not know what difficulty that might have created for him. Samuel had communicated it to him privately as a secret and Saul knew how to keep it that way. It appears that he had another heart, a heart fit for government. He was willing to remain quiet and let God do what God wanted to do in God’s time. Later Saul made many presumptuous mistakes, but here and now we can learn from his good example.

Look what good can come from having a changed heart.