Ep. 75. 1 Samuel 8-10 | Saul, The King
EPISODE 75
SAUL, THE KING: 1 SAMUEL 8-10
Does it surprise us that the Israelites demanded a king so they could be like "all the nations?" They have been serving the nations' idols since they left Egypt, so it's not surprising that they would also want to be like the other nations in terms of their government. Sadly, the Israelites missed that God was already their King. Their demand for a king is not a rejection of Samuel as prophet and judge but of God as the Sovereign King. They have forsaken God and served idols "from the day [he] brought them out of Egypt even to this day." Again, the Old Testament shows us a few faithful people, but the bulk of the OT is the rebellion against God by the Israelites. (The prophets don't show up to tell everyone what a great job they're doing)
We see that Samuel warns the people of how the king they want will take their crops, animals, sons and daughters, and their income. Moses had instructed them four centuries earlier about how the king they'd eventually appoint should write out a copy of the Law and study it daily. There will not be a single king who does that.
Saul was chosen to be king. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. He was head and shoulders taller than everyone else. He was kingly in his look. He was the kind of king the people expected, but he was not the king God would desire. (That would come during the reign of David of the tribe of Judah) Here again, we see the example of the second one being the one through whom the blessing would come. Remember, the blessing of Abraham passed through Isaac, the secondborn. The blessing continued through Jacob rather than the older twin, Esau. It was not on the first instance that Moses was revealed as the deliverer of the Hebrews but on his second visit. Through the first man, Adam, came sin, but through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, came life. Through the first king came what the people wanted; through the second king came David, the forerunner of Jesus.
We skipped chapter 11 in the videos, but there is one important story there. Jabesh-Gilead is about to be attacked. They ask for help. The news reached the newly anointed king Saul, and he took his oxen, divided them into pieces, and sent them throughout Israel, calling everyone to come and defend Jabesh-Gilead. Several hundred years earlier, Gibeah of Benjamin (Saul's home city) was all but wiped off the face of the earth for their wickedness in Judges 19-21. In fact, the tribe of Benjamin was nearly annihilated. Six hundred men of Benjamin survived the onslaught, but there were no wives for them to continue their familial line. Wives were taken for them from Jabesh-Gilead to keep the tribe of Benjamin from being eradicated. When Israel was called together to go to war against Benjamin, it was by taking the corpse of a woman and sending her body parts among the tribes of Israel. Clearly, 400 years later, that story is still part of the lore and history of the Benjamites. Saul of Benjamin knows he and his tribe exist because of the women of Jabesh-Gilead given to the Benjamites all those years ago. Saul knows of the woman whose body was scattered across the nation to bring them together for a common purpose. Saul mimics that very act with his own oxen. This Benjamite will rise up and save the people of Jabesh-Gilead as their people once saved the tribe of Benjamin. I'm sure there is a way for me to express the intrigue of this more clearly, but at this point, I don't know how best to do that.
ADDITIONAL READING: Judges 19-21; Deuteronomy 17:14-20; Deuteronomy 9:7; Deuteronomy 16:19; 1 Samuel 11; 1 Corinthians 15:45-47; Romans 5:12-17
