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30. Samuel and Saul.
If Samuel was once a
pious and bright boy, he was now also a zealous and righteous leader of
the people, strictly seeing to it that the law of Moses was kept, not
only by rote in his works, but also with inward obedience of heart.
Anyone who did not have a clear conscience was afraid of his justice and
his rigour. At that time, Israel had once again turned apostate and
served foreign gods. Samuel brought them back to the God of their
fathers. God also gave them good fortune again against the Philistines,
their enemies. They recaptured all the cities that the Philistines had
taken from them, and Samuel erected a stone on the border as a memorial,
which he called Eben Ezer, or ‘Stone of Help’, and said: ‘The Lord has
helped us this far.’
When Samuel was older, he entrusted part of his judgeship to his sons.
But his sons did not follow in his footsteps. The elders of all Israel
came to Samuel and told him that they did not want to be ruled by judges;
they wanted to have a king like other nations. This speech displeased
Samuel. ‘Is not God your king,’ he said, ’and why do you want another?’
But they stuck to their guns. Samuel was in great distress at the time
and did not know who he should give them as king. But God often brings
together in miraculous ways what is to be found.
In the mountains of the tribe of Benjamin, the donkeys of a man named
Kish, who may have been a wealthy man, were lost from the pasture. Kish
told his son Saul to take a servant with him and search for the missing
animals. They went through the mountains of Ephraim, through two and
three landscapes, and did not find what they were looking for. They were
now near a town on a hill, and Saul wanted to turn back - it was already
the third day - so that the old father at home would not be more worried
about his son than about the lost animals. Then his servant suggested
that he go up to that city. There was a famous man of God there who
might tell them the way they should go. They met a man in the city and
asked him where the seer could be found. At that time, prophets were
called seers. The man was Samuel, and he had come to the same city at
that time to perform a sacrifice there. Samuel became convinced in his
heart that this Saul was the one God had chosen to be king over his
people Israel. He took him with him to the sacrifice and told him on the
way what his and his household's glorious destiny was. But the simple
son of Benjamine Kish could not comprehend it. Such a thought would
never have entered his heart.
The next day, as he was about to set off on his journey home, the
prophet accompanied him and quietly anointed him king in Israel. When he
dismissed him, he predicted many things that he would encounter on his
journey home. What the prophet predicted came true. So Saul returned to
his father's house with the word in his heart that he would soon appear
as king in Israel. His uncle asked him what the prophet had said to him.
Saul replied: ‘He told us that the lost animals had been found,’ which
was indeed the case. But he did not trust him with the word in his heart.
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