Week 7 (The Rise of Israel) – Day 2: King Saul

Day 32 – King Saul – 1 Samuel 8:1-10:27

Today’s reading has an interesting trajectory.  The Israelites face a problem.  The tribes are a covenant community, loosely allied together under the overall direction of God.  They are facing military threats from all directions, especially from the coast dwelling Philistines.  They are also facing internal chaos:  Samuel is old and his sons are lacking in leadership qualities (see 8:3).  So the Israelites, enduring years of problems, decide to go in a more worldly direction.  They want a human king over them, copying the “successful” peoples around them.  Samuel points out that this is a clear rejection of God and will lead to servitude.  Yet God will accede to their desire.  Possibly God hopes this learning experience will transform them. Once again God shows grace to the rebellious Israelites.  Have you ever noticed God’s transforming work on you during rebellion? 

A second great point to ponder from this event:  How often does the church look to the world for an answer to its problems, importing “successful” techniques into the life of the faith community?  Does this ultimately work? Should we not instead export our values into the world?  Are we to transform the world or is the world to transform us?

We then have Samuel anointing Saul with oil.  This is a central event and is related to the terms messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek).  Both of these terms mean the anointed one.  We often miss the political overtones which ancient listeners must have recognized when they heard this term used for Jesus.  Clearly Jesus was not interested in political power, but this helps us see why many had that expectation, for anointing was connected to kingship.

Then we have an almost embarrassing incident involving the selection of Saul.  Clearly the use of lots allows for God to pick rather than some local leader running roughshod to gain this new opportunity to rule the Israelites in a more centralized manner.  We see a common motif here: God’s chosen one running from his vocation.  Yesterday’s sermon discussed “Get off the bench and onto the playing field.”  Maybe the term “Quit hiding behind your baggage.” could be a title from this incident.  How often do you run from God’s plans for you? 

In Christ,

Randy