1 Samuel 9:6 Commentary and Bible Study

The servant brushes aside Saul’s suggestion that they return. The word translated ‘servant’ in this passage is a very senior servant, a kind of steward, one in charge of servants, but a servant nevertheless. He is better informed than Saul, and knows that they are near Ramah where Samuel resides. ‘And he is an honourable man’ – that was well known. But does he really have to tell Saul, who is about to be king that there is a seer in Ramah, and that he is a prophet and his words are fulfilled? Saul doesn't appear to have heard of him. It doesn't enter his head that there is a seer in Ramah. The servant has to tell him. This is all very significant. Kish doesn't seem to have been much of a worshipper; possibly he was an idolater. ‘All that he saith cometh surely to pass.’ Samuel is vindicated by the fulfillment of short term prophecies. This is how God worked with the prophets. The accuracy of their short term propheices which ordinary people could check out, gave credibility to their long-term prophecies which might not be fullied in their lifetime, or the lifetime of their hearers. ‘Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we?’ You can see that it is good manners to bring a gift to the man of God, but is Saul treating him like a kind of fortune teller who needs to be rewarded? This is an unknown situation to him; he knows so little about the seer; he doesn't seem to grasp who he is and his significance spiritually. The servant has a store of silver on him, and Saul does not, and it is tempting to think that Saul's father said to the servant, ‘You know what to do. You will need to look after my son if you get into difficulty; you had better carry the spare cash’, and he had therefore given him quite a bit. If so, then the servant was the responsible one, and was having to act as carer to Saul. ‘And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way.’ Saul is pretty well looked after.