1 Sam 10:17-27 · Read 6 min · think and write 15 min
When Samuel was old, the elders of Israel said to him: “Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Sam 8:5). The LORD said to Samuel: “Listen to their voice, and make them a king” (1 Sam 8:22). These events are in Samuel, Lesson 3.
Kish, a man of Benjamin, “had a son whose name was Saul, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Israel a more handsome person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was taller than any of the people” (1 Sam 9:2). Kish’s donkeys were lost; Saul took a servant and went to look for them, passed through several lands without finding them, and went to see Samuel (1 Sam 9:3-14). The day before, the LORD had told Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel” (1 Sam 9:16). Samuel said to Saul: “For whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you and all your father’s house?” (1 Sam 9:20). Saul answered: “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?” (1 Sam 9:21).
Early the next morning, “Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head, then kissed him” (1 Sam 10:1). “When he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart” (1 Sam 10:9). Back home, his uncle asked what Samuel had said; he said only that the donkeys had been found. “But concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel spoke, he didn’t tell him” (1 Sam 10:16).
This lesson reads the day when Samuel called the people together at Mizpah.
17Samuel called the people together to the LORD to Mizpah;
18and he said to the children of Israel, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’
19But you have today rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; 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 thousands.”
20So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.
21He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen; but when they looked for him, he could not be found.
22Therefore they asked of the LORD further, “Is there yet a man to come here?” The LORD answered, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”
23They ran and got him there. When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.
24Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” All the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!”
25Then Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house.
26Saul also went to his house in Gibeah; and the army went with him, whose hearts God had touched.
27But certain worthless fellows said, “How could this man save us?” They despised him, and brought him no tribute. But he held his peace.
Rejected your God. At Mizpah Samuel first spoke the LORD’s word: “I brought Israel up out of Egypt and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you” (v. 18). “But you have today rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him, ‘No! Set a king over us!’” (v. 19). The people’s asking for a king is in Samuel, Lesson 3.
Chosen. “So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen” (v. 20). “He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen” (v. 21).
Among the baggage. “But when they looked for him, he could not be found” (v. 21). “Therefore they asked of the LORD further, ‘Is there yet a man to come here?’ The LORD answered, ‘Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage’” (v. 22). Why he hid, the passage does not say.
From his shoulders and upward. “They ran and got him there. When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward” (v. 23). Samuel said: “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” “All the people shouted and said, ‘Long live the king!’” (v. 24).
The regulations of the kingdom. “Then Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the LORD. Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house” (v. 25). What the regulations said, the passage does not record.
The army, and certain worthless fellows. “Saul also went to his house in Gibeah; and the army went with him, whose hearts God had touched” (v. 26). “But certain worthless fellows said, ‘How could this man save us?’ They despised him, and brought him no tribute. But he held his peace” (v. 27).
Later. Not long after, the Ammonites came against Jabesh Gilead. The next lesson will hear people speak again of those who doubted Saul (1 Sam 11:12).
The law of Moses had already said: “When you have come to the land which the LORD your God gives you, and possess it and dwell in it, and say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’” (Deut 17:14) “you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves” (Deut 17:15).
Readers can see this: that day at Mizpah, what Samuel said to the people was, “Do you see him whom the LORD has chosen” (v. 24).
Perhaps you have recently been put in a place: a new job, a group you are asked to lead, a load at home that falls to you. Perhaps part of you wants to hide; perhaps someone is already saying, ‘How could this person …’
This lesson does not say that someone who is chosen is wrong to be afraid; nor does it say that when people look down on you, you need only take no notice. What it shows you is this: when the people could not find him, the LORD knew where he was (v. 22); some despised him, and “the army went with him, whose hearts God had touched” (v. 26). On the day Samuel anointed him, he had said to Saul: “for God is with you” (1 Sam 10:7).
This week: Think of someone near you who has just taken on a load — a new colleague, a new group leader, someone who has just begun to serve at church. This week, pray for them once; and if it is right to, say a word of support to them.
Scripture: World English Bible.