1 Samuel 10:10 Commentary and Bible Study

Saul is changed greatly, and they are baffled by the change. They see him prophesying, and it appears to be genuine prophecy (although the word may signify the act of worshipping) and he is in the company of the other prophets. It is so out of character. This is yet another indication of his lack of faith and piety. He had the reputation of being anything but a spiritual man. He would previously have shown disdain for the prophets, so what was he now doing as one of their number. It made no sense. ‘What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?’ Were they now to regard him as no different to the genuine prophets trained up by Samuel? But how could they when they knew he was such a different sort of man. They were highly sceptical about this. It was unbelievable that Saul should be seen: pious, worshipping, serious, different to what they had always known him to be. ‘And one of the same place answered and said, But who is their father?’ This saying – ‘But who is their father?’ – became a proverb among them, so it must have been generally understood what it meant. The point of the proverb seems to be to say, this one is severely out of place and does not belong with the company he is keeping. It was a proverb that described someone who has been superficially transformed, and is acting as if they belonged in a certain group, but who people rightly suspected had not really changed. The way to discern whether or not this transformation is real, is to ask, who is their father? In the case of the prophets, their father was Samuel, a godly man, and they were his spiritual children and lived as he lived. But in the case of Saul, there was another father, Kish, who was far from being a sincere worshipper of God. Saul’s father was Kish, and certainly not Samuel. And therefore the transformation was in their opinion an illusion.