1 Samuel 10:17 Commentary and Bible Study

We are looking at the rise and the fall of King Saul. He was to reign for forty years (Acts 13:21) (Davis and Whitcomb in ‘A History of Israel’ comment that this may include the total duration of his dynasty, including the reign of his son Ishbosheth). Although Saul died ignominiously on the battlefield, his fall initial came after only two years of reign. That is the fall that matters: his great spiritual fall and his condemnation before God, when all was lost so far as he was concerned. Samuel is going to publicly appoint Saul as king over Israel, but before he does, he will once more rebuke the people for ever asking for a king, when they already had such a benevolent government directly from the Lord. ‘You gained your independence as a nation, your liberty,’ he tells them, ‘through the blessing of God, not given to any other nation. You were preserved with so much blessing.’ Samuel is going to say this, not once, but three times over in the course of these chapters. It is really going to be brought home to the people that, though they are getting the earthly king they so longed for, God is giving them a king virtually as an act of judgement, and things will not go anything like so well as the they would have done, if they had trusted the Lord and the system of national government that he given to them. What is implied by this reasoning, of course, is that they owe God, a tremendous debt, a debt of obedience and worship. They could find no fault with his rule over them, and all the trouble they had encountered had arisen because of their disobedience and mistrust. ‘God has delivered you out of Egypt. God noticeably, and notably, and miraculously delivered you out of the hands of all who sought to obstruct your progress and your entry into the land.’ What did they lack? What provision could they complain they had not received? ‘And yet you rewarded him by rejecting him, and calling for a human king, an earthly king, like the pagan nations around you’ – ‘Ye have this day rejected your God’, and that is emphasised by Samuel. They mustn't think that because they get their desired earthly king, all is well with them. God's anger is still toward them. He will remove it and hold it back, if, with or without a king, they obey him and are loyal to him. But if they don't, they will be rejected, and they will suffer all manner of difficulties. Why do they want a king? Because they don't want to be ruled by God. They want the liberty that they think a king will give them, among other things. ‘Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord.’ And Samuel obviously has been directed by God to select Saul by means of the casting of lots, and then it will be clear that it isn't just Samuel's idea that this is the man who would be king. So we see the process of the casting of lots, and then eventually Saul is chosen: the lot comes upon him. What humility in Samuel! He had warned them against this; he had remonstrated; he had argued with them. But when God tells him to allow it, to do it, he meekly puts it into practice.