Samuel anoints Saul as prince over God’s inheritance and foretells the signs that will happen to him in the way in connection with his anointing as king. These signs were of great importance: Saul’s entire future depended on how he would understand them. He needed only to meditate on them. Their meaning escapes his heart which is lacking in intelligence and spiritual discernment. In this regard, this passage is often a touchstone for our state. Notice that in this scene Saul is not left to himself-leaving him without excuse. Samuel tells him: “God is with thee” (vs. 7), and later it says: “The Spirit of God came upon him” (vs. 10).
Three signs are given to Saul; they occur in a God-given order.
First, there is Rachel’s sepulcher in the border of Benjamin. Benjamin, the head of Saul’s tribe, was born the day his mother died. In order to correspond to God’s thoughts, Saul’s history must start there. It was up to him to become the son of Jacob’s right hand, the Benjamin of God, if man according to the flesh could attain to this place. Rachel’s sepulcher could be the beginning of his kingship. Death, separating him from his entire past, could make way for a new life for him, a life issuing out of death in which he would walk freely as the Lord’s anointed.
Passing onward, Saul would meet three men going up to God at Bethel. Bethel was the first stage of Jacob’s journey, the place where God had promised the banished patriarch never to leave him. In the midst of Israel’s ruin, God’s faithfulness to His promises was thus manifested to the future king, so that he might govern his conduct according to that faithfulness. Saul should have seen that Bethel was assured to him, and that he could count on divine protection. Amid the sad circumstances in which the people found themselves, Saul meets worshippers of God, be they but three, going up where Jacob had worshipped Him, where He would be worshipped forever. At this time Bethel was the place of grace where God had revealed Himself, the center of Israel’s religious life, the beginning and the end of the wanderings of its founder. Saul could and should have entered into relationship with those going to this place of blessing and, although so few in number, giving complete testimony (indicated by the number three) to the reality of the faith still remaining in Israel. They inquire of him; he who had nothing to give the prophet was to receive the necessary nourishment from them. Having found grace in their eyes, he ought to have joined these men of faith.
Finally, Saul would come to the hill of God, to the seat of His power, in actual fact in the hands of the Philistines, that is to say, invaded and dominated by the enemy. After meeting those in Israel who remained faithful to God at Bethel, Saul ought here to have taken account of the true state of the people, and that should have spoken to his conscience. But, in this same place, God was entering into relationship with Israel through the prophets. Divine resources were not lacking and, despite the Philistines, the Spirit could act in power and in grace. The troop of prophets and the little remnant worshipping God at Bethel ought to have opened his eyes and indicated the path to the Lord’s anointed, who could thus become the leader and deliverer of the people. It was due to the Spirit of God that Saul, joining these men, became His instrument for Israel, and that “God gave him another heart” (1 Sam. 10:6-9).
The sign takes place; the Spirit of God comes upon Saul (1 Sam. 10:10). Through him God could once again have taken up the course of His relationship with Israel, but faith was not active, and the witnesses to this scene are not misled. Although Saul, changed into another man, prophesies, those who knew him beforehand have no confidence in him. “Is Saul also among the prophets?” And one of the same place answers: “But who is their father?” Does Saul have the same father as God’s servants?
The signs completed, Saul receives a new direction for action, for signs are not everything; the Word is also needed. He is directed to go down to Gilgal and to wait seven days until Samuel should come to him to show him what he is to do. Later on, we shall see the result of this order when, after two years, the king decides to go down to Gilgal (1 Sam. 13:1).
Samuel calls the people together before the Lord at Mizpah, but already the fair days of 1 Samuel 7 are over, for since the people had been unfaithful once again their relationship with the Lord was spoiled anew. In asking for a king they had rejected their God (1 Sam. 10:19). Alas! this seems to weigh less upon their conscience than when they were under the Philistines’ yoke. Now their circumstances were outwardly happy and easy, but God was rejected. The people had demanded a king; far from hindering them, God had helped them in every way, in making the best choice possible for them according to man. What would the result be?
When the office of kings is instituted (1 Sam. 10:20-27), Saul demonstrates his humility and modesty (1 Sam. 10:23); he knows how to overlook an injury — lovely natural qualities which must be acknowledged but which in no way qualify him for accomplishing the work of God. When the ceremony is over, Saul goes to Gibeah. “And with him went the band, whose hearts God had touched. But the children of Belial said, How should this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no gifts.” This is a good picture of the world: these children of Belial who had rejected God in order to demand a king despise that king when God sends him to them; but the true believers in the company of Samuel and later in the company of David, knowing the mind of God, accept as coming from Him the authority of a man who will manifest himself to he the most implacable enemy of the Lord’s anointed. This is still our place in the world today; we recognize even the most ungodly authorities and obey them (except in case of conflict with the obedience due to God), because we accept the authority of God who has instituted them.