1 Samuel 10:17-27--Saul Proclaimed King

1 Samuel 10:17-27
English Standard Version

Saul Proclaimed King
17 Now Samuel called the people together to the LORD at Mizpah. 18 And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes and by your thousands.”

20 Then Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken by lot. 21 He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found. 22 So they inquired again of the LORD, “Is there a man still to come?” and the LORD said, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.” 23 Then they ran and took him from there. And when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 24 And Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen? There is none like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

25 Then Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Then Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home. 26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace.

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Samuel calls all the people together to present Saul to them as their king, but he also takes the opportunity to tell them the LORD's message that this act is one of rebellion against the LORD who brought them up out of the land of Egypt--for He alone was supposed to be their king and they were supposed to be separate from all the other nations in this respect.

Samuel then said it was the LORD's command for each of the tribes to present themselves to the LORD by their tribes and by their thousands (probably meaning their clans and families within the tribes).  When all the tribes were gathered together, the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot (notice that it looks like there is a lottery going on here, but the LORD has already made His choice here, and the outcome of this "election" is going to fall the way that the LORD has already decided.  The LORD will change the rules of "random" probabilities so that His will is made known to all the people that He has chosen Saul to be king.)  Then lots were chosen to see which clan from the tribe of Benjamin would be chosen, and the lot fell on the clan of the Matrites.  Finally, lots were chosen from this clan to see who would be selected as king, and the lot fell on Saul, son of Kish (the one we know that the LORD had already had Samuel anoint and the one whom the Spirit had already fallen on and signs had already been given to show the people that the LORD chose Saul for this special purpose).

Since Saul knew that the lot would fall on him, he was scared (maybe scared of some of his relatives, maybe scared of the enormity of the task before him), and he hid among the baggage (the LORD had to tell them where he was hiding).  They found him and brought him to present him before the people and when they did, he was a full head taller than any of the others there (he was a tall man, though not nearly as tall as Goliath of Gath that we'll read about in a little bit).  Samuel presents Saul before the people saying, "Do you see whom the LORD has chosen?  There is none like him," and all the people responded by saying, "Long live the king!"

Kingship was new to the people, so now the people needed instructed on the rights and duties of the king.  What power was the king to have, and what powers did he not have?  Samuel wrote these rules in a book for them and he laid it before the LORD (I assume this would mean it was laid alongside the copy of the book of the Law that was kept in the Tabernacle so that it was kept safe and the priests always had access to it when they needed to mediate a dispute between the king and the people).

After this, everyone was sent home and Saul went to his home in Gibeah where he began to raise up an army of mighty men of valor who would help him to conquer the Philistines, as this was the reason the LORD had chosen Saul and the task that the LORD had called him to.  He was to lead his people into war against the Philistines.  Even with all these signs that the LORD had shown there were some worthless men who would not recognize the LORD's choice in Saul (rejecting the LORD's choice as king was also a way they could reject the LORD) and so some spoke saying that there was no way that the LORD could use Saul to save the people and they even refused to bring him a gift to acknowledge him as king (this was not because they were poor, but because they had hard hearts).  So we see that there is already political division among the people and now the people have a person to focus their rebellion against God against.  If this king stands in the place of God for the people, then they can just rebel against this man and it will be like sticking their finger in the eye of the LORD.  This is not a very wise move on their part, so we'll see that the LORD will not just use Saul to cleanse the Land of the Philistine invaders, but also to call the Israelites to a right relationship with God, for the LORD wanted Saul to teach the people the Law and be an example for them in obedience.  Saul started off okay with this but did not finish well while David did much better at this, although there were some major mistakes that he made--yet those mistakes would not disqualify him.

Does it surprise you that Saul could know the outcome of the "election" and could have seen all the signs and known the purpose of his election and yet be scared so that he hid among the baggage so that the LORD had to tell people where to find him?  It doesn't really surprise me because I've been there before.  I've known that the LORD has called me to a particular plan and purpose and yet when the task it before me, it is all so overwhelming that I too wanted to just hide from it (and everyone and everything else) because of my fear of failure.  There was so much responsibility now put on this young man's life to lead a whole nation and what if he didn't do it perfectly?  It is a heavy burden for him to bear, but he was not meant to bear it alone--the LORD was with him and Samuel is there with him too.