And they answered them and said, He is; behold, he is before thee make haste now, for he came to-day to the city; for the people have a sacrifice to-day in the high place.
The girls coming out to draw water give Saul more than he asked for. He wanted the seer; they also tell him of a sacrifice that day on the high place. Why do servant girls know this when the man about to be king does not? And why is Israel sacrificing on a hilltop at all?
Saul had to ask strangers where Samuel was. Commentators read that ignorance as a portrait of the man.
This lack of piety was the fatal defect in Saul's character, and it explains much of what follows in his sad history as king of Israel. He had little or no concern for God and His people; he cared for earthly things, not for the things that belong to eternity. Even the servant girls of the city, the ordinary "drawers of water," put him to shame. They can give him detailed, exact directions about where and how to find the prophet.
Other commentators see more in the scene than Saul's failure. They notice where the girls are standing — at the well.
The well with its water is a picture of the Word, which is drawn out of the wells of salvation. The maidens remind us of the weakness, lowliness and dependence that alone can draw from those wells. These feeble instruments direct the future king to the man of God, which reminds us that God delights to use weak things.
Saul asks for a "seer," and the narrative pauses elsewhere to explain that this was the older word for a prophet. The choice of word is treated as revealing.
In earlier times it was the custom to speak of the man of God as a "seer" — one who sees the future, or what is not visible to the eyes. In other words, the people were more taken up with the results of the prophet's ministry than with its Source. The later word "prophet" points to the Source. From that Source he received all his inspiration, and it then flowed out from him.
That fits Saul. He wanted what the seer could tell him, not the God behind the telling.
Sacrifice on a hill was not the arrangement God had given. Commentators trace it back to a nation whose worship centre had collapsed.
The disordered state of the nation is clear here. There is a "high place" where the sacrificial feast is spread. This went directly against the will of God expressed in the book of Deuteronomy. That book allowed sacrifices and feasts only in the place where the Lord put His name. But the glory of the God of Israel had departed from Shiloh, where He had placed His name at the beginning. The ark was staying in "the field of the woods." There was no recognised centre.
The girls add that the meal waits for Samuel. Commentators see Saul learning here the place God's servant held.
Saul and his servant were told that the people would not eat until Samuel came, because he blesses the sacrifice, and afterwards those who are invited eat. What belonged to Samuel was now plain and clear to Saul; and the greater had anointed and blessed the lesser.
Saul's first lesson on the day of his anointing is not about power but about a shared meal.
From these Saul learns not only of the seer, but of the sacrifice, and a feast upon the sacrifice — the great lesson of communion for a king to learn... God and men sit, so to speak, at a common table, brought together by the work of the cross, and with a common delight in Him who has made peace by it. But this is the foundation of the reign of peace, the reign of God in righteousness and peace among men.
Behind the errand, the well, and the timing of the feast, one hand is arranging everything.
God's overruling shows plainly in the way He leads Saul up to meet Samuel. Saul does not know the hand guiding him, and seems not to know Samuel himself or any of his memorable history... Saul is seeking his father's donkeys, which have strayed. Instead he finds a stubborn, rebellious nation, far worse than the donkeys, placed in his hand though he never sought it.
- Guided. A hand Saul cannot see leads him to his throne while he thinks he is only chasing lost donkeys.
- Shamed. The girls at the well know where the prophet is; the future king does not. His ignorance shows where his heart lay.
- Used. God directs the future king through the weakest voices in town — the girls drawing water.
- Disordered. The "high place" shows a nation that had lost its centre: the glory had left Shiloh, and the ark sat in the field of the woods.
- Fed. Before Saul wears a crown, he hears of a sacrifice and a feast upon it — God and men at one table, and the only foundation for a reign of peace.
As soon as ye come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people eat not until he has come, because he blesses the sacrifice; afterwards they eat that are invited. And now go up; for this very day shall ye find him.
Young women drawing water tell Saul where to find the prophet. Their directions raise three questions: why a "high place," why does a whole town wait, and why meet the future king at a feast?
The directions come from women drawing water, not from Saul's own knowledge. One writer sees in this contrast a defect in Saul himself.
This lack of piety was the fatal defect in Saul's character, and accounts in large measure for what follows in his sad history as king of Israel. He had little or no concern for God and His people; he minded earthly things, and not those which belong to eternity. Even the servant girls of the city, the ordinary "drawers of water," put him to shame, for they are able to give him detailed and clear directions where and how to find the prophet.
The same writer turns their example into a challenge for us.
They know all about the coming sacrificial feast; when it begins; the customs connected with it; when the prophet was expected to arrive. Yes, you lowly children of toil, you know the ways of the Lord better than those given to self-indulgent leisure, fun, amusement, and fashion... Oh that, like them, we may be busy "drawing water" from the wells of salvation, ready and able to point others to the Saviour.
The sacrifice happens on a "high place," and that detail is not neutral.
These words stop us short. Deuteronomy 12 and other passages told Israel that, once they came into the land, they were not to offer sacrifices wherever they pleased. They were to bring all their offerings to the place which the Lord their God would choose to make His name dwell there. Shiloh was the centre God appointed at the first (Jer. 7:12). But everything was now in disorder, through the people's sin.
Yet God did not stay away. One writer explains that at first these places served the true worship of God, and that this changed later.
At the beginning these high places were devoted to the true worship of God. To some extent God Himself in grace recognised the need and met with His people there, though not in the proper order He Himself had provided. Later, however, He established His centre and placed His name at Jerusalem, and the temple of His glory stood there. From then on, worship at the high places was direct disobedience to His will, and it became more and more tied to the idolatry the people were always prone to.
One writer sees in the scene the simplicity of Abraham's day, and notes who was invited.
The prophet is, we might say, another Abraham living in a later age. The people will not eat of their feast until he comes and gives his blessing. That shows at least their sense of dependence on God, and their desire to receive the blessing His servant would give. The invited guests who shared the feast with the prophet were evidently those whose position in the city qualified them for this honour.
Saul meets the prophet at a sacrifice, not at a palace. One writer finds meaning in that setting.
It is very suggestive that Israel's future king meets the prophet at a public feast and sacrifice... Sacrifice must be the basis on which God's mind is known, and the basis on which the anointing oil is poured on the king.
The verse ends with "you will meet him immediately." The timing is exact, and one writer sees God's hand behind it.
The many details in this history all fit perfectly with God's directing everything to bring about His own ends.
The same writer applies the high place to worship today.
To ignore the Centre God Himself has provided, and to turn to human ideas, is really to worship in the high places. It means choosing places and ways of worship that the word of God does not provide for. Much of this is no doubt done in all sincerity, and God, as we said, meets His people in grace according to the measure of their faith.
- Guided — Lost donkeys, a question at a well, an exact hour: God was directing every detail toward His own purpose.
- Shamed — Working girls could name the prophet, the feast and the hour. The future king knew none of it, and that lack of concern for God marked his whole reign.
- Disordered — The high place was not God's appointed centre. Israel's sin had left the nation without one, and later such worship became open disobedience.
- Grounded — Saul comes to a sacrifice before he comes to a crown, because sacrifice is the ground on which God makes His mind known and the prophet pours the anointing oil.
- Dependent — A whole town waits to eat until the blessing comes, taking the meal from God's hand instead of simply helping themselves.
And they went up into the city. As they were coming into the midst of the city, behold, Samuel was coming out towards them, to go up to the high place.
Saul set out to find his father's lost donkeys and ended up walking straight into the prophet who would anoint him king. The verse records the moment they met. Commentators read it as a study in God's timing — and in how little Saul knew about the man he was about to meet.
Saul arrives neither early nor late.
Saul and his servant receive directions for meeting the prophet. They go on and find Samuel just going up to the high place. God had clearly arranged everything, even the exact moment when the meeting should happen. Neither the prophet nor the man seeking him had to wait.
The chain of small events behind that moment runs back through the whole chapter.
Notice again in this chapter how even the smallest events work together to bring about God's designs, the goal He has in mind. The donkeys are lost. Saul's search through the land of Israel comes to nothing. A thought comes to his servant. The young women are at the well. Samuel is in the city that day. The peace offering is made. Every step, every decision, every word of the prophet acting in communion with His God serves that same end.
Saul came looking for a stranger. God had told Samuel a day earlier who was coming, and when.
Saul now enters Samuel's home city asking, "Is the seer here?" The Lord has already prepared His servant for his arrival. Later, God prepared Peter in the same way for the arrival of Cornelius' messengers (Acts 10:19-20). The Lord had even told Samuel the hour to expect Saul (1 Sam. 9:16). Truly, "You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar" (Psalm 139:2).
The two men meet as opposites. God moves one and confides in the other.
Saul is only a blind instrument in God's designs, but Samuel is conscious of them, and is trusted with His secret… This message came to him without his asking for it. Nothing comes from Samuel. He receives the thoughts of God directly, with no one in between.
Saul does not know the prophet by sight, though servants in the city do. Commentators read this as a sign of what he cared about.
This is all the more striking when you remember that Gibeah of Saul was no more than twenty miles from Samuel's base at Ramah. It shows how little interest Saul took at that time in public affairs, or in the welfare of Israel — matters every godly Hebrew cared about deeply. Saul seems to have had no love for his country, and no man is fit to govern without it. But most serious of all, Saul had no piety. You can see it in his ignorance of the prophet. If he had cared about spiritual things, he would surely have known something of the man of God who travelled his circuit, and who was well known even among the servants.
Samuel is on his way up to a high place, and not to the one centre God had appointed.
In passing, it is worth noticing how disordered the nation was. There is a "high place" where the sacrificial feast is spread. This went directly against the will of God, set out in the book of Deuteronomy. That book allows sacrifices and feasts only in the place where the Lord puts His name. But the glory of the God of Israel had departed from Shiloh, where He had placed His name at the beginning… There was no recognised centre.
Yet the setting still carries meaning.
It is very telling, too, that Israel's future king meets the prophet at a public feast and sacrifice… Sacrifice must be the basis on which God's mind can be known, and the basis on which the anointing oil is poured on the king.
Why did God take such care over a king His people had demanded?
The many details in this history all fit God's directing of everything to bring about His own ends. As they came inside the city, Samuel met them… God would use Saul to save Israel from the Philistines out of His own compassion toward His people. He could certainly have saved Israel by other means. But in grace He gave His people what they pressed Him for. This was not His directive will.
- Ordered — the hour, the route and the feast were all arranged. Neither man had to wait.
- Ready — God told Samuel a day earlier who was coming, so the meeting found him prepared, not surprised.
- Blind — Saul walked through it all without seeing the hand that guided him, or knowing Samuel by sight.
- Exposed — he did not know a prophet who lived twenty miles away. That showed how little he cared for God and His people.
- Gracious — the nation was in disorder, worshipping at a high place. God still met them in compassion, and gave them what they asked for, not what He preferred.
Now Jehovah had apprised Samuel one day before Saul came, saying,
A young man is out hunting stray donkeys. One sentence stops the story to say that God had already spoken about him, in private, a day earlier. The real action of this chapter is not on the road with Saul. It is in the ear of a praying prophet.
Older translations say the LORD told Samuel "in his ear." That wording picks up something Samuel had already done with Israel's demand for a king.
Before this, Samuel had repeated all the words of the people "in the ears of the Lord." Now the Lord speaks in the ear of this man of prayer, His servant Samuel. "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him," and He "will show them" not only "His covenant," but also His purposes, His plans and His will. He shows these in what concerns us, or in what is necessary or good for us to know. It is the men of prayer that He makes His partners in the working out of His purposes of grace on earth.
Saul is on his way to Samuel without knowing why. The contrast between the two men is sharp.
Saul is only a blind instrument in God's designs. Samuel, by contrast, is aware of them, and is trusted with His secret… God gives him this communication without his asking for it. Nothing comes from him. He receives the thoughts of God directly, with no one in between.
That same passage notes what Samuel did with the news. He had been pushed aside by the elders who wanted a king, yet he showed no bitterness: "God's will is enough for him, and he rejoices in it."
The verse only reports the message. Set it beside the journey that brought Saul to the door, and God is at work from both ends.
No one could have expected where the search for his father's lost donkeys would lead. It brought him into contact, not only with the prophet Samuel, but with the throne of Israel. Yet so it was… Beforehand God communicates His mind to His servant. On the one side He orders circumstances so that Saul should come forward; on the other, He singles out the very person that men of that day most of all delighted in. He was exactly the kind of man that nature would want for a king… From the time Israel refused the prophet's protest, God raised no opposition and put no hindrance in the way. Israel was allowed in every possible way to have its own will.
Read the chapter as a chain and every link turns out to be load-bearing.
Notice again in this chapter how even the smallest events work together to bring about God's designs, the goal He has in mind. There is the loss of the donkeys, Saul's useless efforts in the land of Israel, the thought that came to his servant. There are the young women at the well, Samuel's presence in the city on that day, the peace offering. Indeed, every step, every decision, every word of the prophet acting in communion with His God.
The warning came a day early. The next day God added a second word, naming the man.
The Lord has not only warned the prophet in advance that Saul would come. Now, as he meets him, the Lord assures him that this is the man He spoke of. So there is no possibility of mistake. The Lord guides the prophet's hand without error to pour the oil on the appointed head.
God's word to Samuel came with a stated aim for this king. Saul's later history makes that aim painful to read.
Here we get the first mention of what the king was to be anointed for. It is very telling and sad to remember that Saul never really won great victories over the very enemies he was appointed to lead the people against. The nation was more or less in bondage to the Philistines through his whole reign. He met his end in the final battle at Mount Gilboa with these same people… At a glance we can see how ineffective all human suitability is for the end God designed. He had listened to the cry of His people and looked on them in their need. He provided for that need according to their thoughts and desires, not according to His own knowledge of what would really deliver them.
- Prayer first. Samuel had poured the people's words into God's ears; now God pours His plan into Samuel's ear. The praying man becomes the informed man.
- Secret given. Samuel never asked for this secret, and no one carried it to him. He holds God's plan, while Saul walks through the same day as a blind instrument.
- Circumstances arranged. God works from two directions at once. He orders the journey that brings Saul forward, and He names him to the prophet a day ahead.
- Nothing too small. Lost donkeys, a servant's idea, young women at a well, the timing of a sacrifice — the least details carry God's design.
- Purpose declared, man not enough. The announced king was to lead against the Philistines and never did. God gave the people what they asked for rather than what would truly deliver them.
To-morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him prince over my people Israel; and he will save my people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me.
God speaks to Samuel a day before Saul arrives, naming the tribe, the timing, and the reason. Two things sit side by side here. Israel had wrongly demanded a king. God still sends this man to save them, and He does it out of pity.
The tribe matters. Judgment had cut Benjamin down to almost nothing, and God picks His king from there.
He reveals to Samuel, the day before Saul comes, that He is sending him, and that He means through him to minister to His people's need. The prince shall be the saviour... He will take a Benjamite — from the smallest of the tribes of Israel, made so by the terrible penalty paid for a terrible crime — with all the littleness that should keep him lowly.
Israel's demand for a king was wrong, and Scripture elsewhere says God gave one in anger. Yet the reason given here is not anger.
God puts Himself at His people's service to choose them a king who fits man's principles. In Hosea 13:11 He says, "I gave you a king in My anger, and I took him away in My wrath." So God does act in judgment on His people. But it is just as true that He also has a purpose of grace.
Another writer describes it as something God allowed, not something He directed.
God would use Saul to save Israel from the Philistines because of His own compassion toward His people. He could have saved Israel by other means. But in grace He made this concession because His people pressed for it. It was not His own direct will.
The people asked for one thing; God assigns another. The two words are not the same.
The tender compassion of the heart of God comes out here. However far His people wander, however badly they repay His goodness, He wants only their blessing. Notice: Israel said, "Give us a king to judge us" (1 Sam. 8:6); the LORD says, "anoint him so that he may save My people."
Earlier God had warned that when their own king crushed them, He would not answer their cry. Now He says their cry has reached Him.
God still calls them "My people," though most of them were stubborn and uncircumcised in heart. Through Samuel He had told them in the plainest terms what was coming (8:18): groaning under the oppression of the king they had chosen for themselves, they would cry out in their distress, and He would not hear them. Yet here He says, "Their cry has come to Me." The first was in government: they reap the bitter harvest of what they chose to sow. This is in grace: He looks on His people's misery and plans to deliver them.
The Philistines were not a threat on the border. They had settled in territory that belonged to God's people, and God anointed Saul to drive them out.
If there had been even a little faith, Saul could have known the thoughts of God. He was God's anointed, set to be the leader and deliverer of the people (1 Samuel 9:16). He might well have driven out the Philistines who were in the land of God... The Philistines are always the enemies in the land; the others are outside; these are in the land of God. The worst enemies of the church are those who are within.
Read the verse to its end and the sadness is plain. God sent Saul against one enemy, and that enemy outlived him.
Here we first hear the purpose for which the king was to be anointed. It is very telling and moving to remember that Saul never really won great victories over these very enemies, the enemies God appointed him to lead the people against. The nation stayed more or less in bondage to the Philistines through his whole reign, and he met his end in the final battle at Mount Gilboa with these same people.
Yet the promise still held. It rested on God's faithfulness, not on Saul's.
Despite all this, He works deliverance for them from the Philistines, just as He had promised... Not one good thing could fail. He had promised strength against the Philistines now, as He had promised the land of the Canaanites long before. The day of the battle at Michmash and what follows fulfils the word of the LORD (1 Sam. 9:16, 1 Sam. 14:47-48).
- Cry — Israel groaned under the Philistines. God says their cry reached Him. The verse starts with His compassion, not with what they deserved.
- Concession — they demanded a king wrongly; He still sends one. Writers call this grace beside government: mercy meets the enemy outside while discipline runs its course.
- Commission — they asked for a judge. God appoints a saviour, and picks him from the smallest, most humbled tribe.
- Combat — the target is the enemy already settled inside God's land. That kind of foe still does the most damage.
- Consequence — Saul never broke that enemy, and he died at their hands. God's word still stood, and the deliverance came. The promise rested on Him, not on the man He anointed.
And as Samuel saw Saul, Jehovah answered him, Behold the man of whom I spoke to thee! this man shall rule over my people.
Samuel had warned Israel what a king would cost them. Yet here God Himself points one out — to a man who came looking only for lost donkeys.
Samuel does not size Saul up and guess. What he knows about this man came from God alone. (The writers quote an older translation, which opens the sentence "Behold the man.")
God gives him this message without his asking for it. Nothing comes from Samuel himself. He receives God's thoughts firsthand, with no one in between: "Behold the man of whom I spoke to you! This man shall rule over My people."
Nothing in the chapter looks arranged. A search for stray donkeys ends at a throne.
No one could have guessed where the search for his father's lost donkeys would lead him. It brought him not only to the prophet Samuel, but to the throne of Israel. Yet so it was… Beforehand God communicates His mind to His servant. On one side He arranges the circumstances that bring Saul forward. On the other, He singles out the very man the people of that day most delighted in. He was just the sort of man nature would want for a king.
God chose the man Himself. That did not mean He approved what the people had asked for.
God brings to the prophet, through providential circumstances, the man whom He had chosen to satisfy the fleshly wishes of the people. In all this He judges the people and their king. ("He gave them a king in His anger, and took him away in His wrath.") But He remembers His people. He does not forsake them. He acts by Saul on their behalf, while showing them their unfaithfulness, and afterwards in cutting off the disobedient king.
They had chosen this king themselves. What God calls them here has not changed.
God still calls them "My people," though most of them were stubborn and uncircumcised in heart. Through Samuel He had told them in the plainest terms what would come. Under the oppression of their self-chosen king they would cry out in their distress, and He would not hear them (8:18). Yet here He says, "Their cry has come to Me." The first was in government, and they bitterly reap what they had wilfully sown; this is in grace, and He looks upon His people's misery and purposes to deliver them. Their sufferings under His government came from a scourge within — from Saul their king. The groaning that called out the compassion of His grace came from outside — from the Philistines. He is quick to hear and ready to relieve.
God gave the king a stated purpose: to lead Israel against the Philistines, who oppressed them.
Here we first read why the king was to be anointed. It is very telling and sad to remember that Saul never really won great victories over these very enemies he was appointed to lead the people against. The nation was more or less in bondage to the Philistines during his entire reign. He met his end in the final battle at Mount Gilboa with these very people… He had listened to the cry of His people and looked upon them in their need. He provided for that need according to their thoughts and desires, not according to His own knowledge of what would truly deliver them.
The same words come back centuries later, over a very different King.
"Behold the man!" Pilate said of Christ, long after this. He did not speak of a man of failure and a disappointment to His people. He spoke of Him who "was born King of the Jews," to whom no failure could attach, and of whose "kingdom there shall be no end." The Roman governor spoke the words in mockery, but God in His Word everywhere points Him out with infinite delight and satisfaction.
Years later Samuel forgot these very words.
Samuel went to the house of Jesse at a later date. Had he remembered these words, he would not have said so quickly, when he saw Eliab's fine build, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him." He blundered… One commanding personality was already in failure. The Lord was not looking for another. The ruddy shepherd lad was more to His taste. "The Lord sees not as man sees."
- Told. Samuel knew the man only because God told him first; nothing came from the prophet himself.
- Led. Lost donkeys were the route God used; He ordered the circumstances that brought Saul forward.
- Given. The man produced was the one nature would have voted for — a king given in anger, granted to satisfy the people's own wish.
- Owned. Even so He says "My people": government let them reap what they sowed, while grace heard their cry and moved to deliver.
- Beheld. "Behold the man" over Saul ends in failure at Gilboa. The same words over Christ point to a King whose kingdom will never end.
And Saul drew near to Samuel in the midst of the gate, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, where the seer's house is.
Saul stops a stranger in the gateway and asks the way to the seer's house. The stranger is the seer. God had told him about Saul the day before. The moment is almost funny, but it shows something serious: Israel's future king does not know Israel's best-known man of God.
What does it say about Saul that he has to ask at all? One writer answers bluntly:
This is all the more remarkable when you remember that Gibeah of Saul was not more than twenty miles from Samuel's headquarters at Ramah. It shows how little interest Saul took at that time in public affairs, or in the welfare of Israel. Every godly Hebrew cared deeply about that. Saul seems to have no love for his country, and without that no man is fit to govern. But most serious of all, Saul had no devotion to God. You can see it from the fact that he did not know the prophet. Had he cared about spiritual things, he would surely have known something about the man of God. Samuel traveled from place to place, and even the servants knew who he was.
Samuel does not rush at him. He lets Saul ask his question first, and then answers it:
Samuel did not, however, make the first move. He waited for Saul to come to him and ask where the seer's house was. Samuel tells him, "I am the seer," but waits for no other question from Saul.
How could Saul miss a man like that? One writer traces it to something deeper than bad luck:
Saul seemed unaware that Samuel even existed, and unaware of the wonderful ways of God connected with him... The fact is, flesh is never interested in what God is doing, nor in the instruments He is using. Flesh may hear of them in a half-hearted way, but it makes no impression on the heart. In reality, at that moment the Lord was more interested in Samuel than in anyone else in the world. Samuel was the man who stood before Him continually on behalf of His erring people. Yet Saul seems not to have known him at all! In his trouble, Saul apparently had no thought of asking God.
Why does Saul ask for the "seer" and not the prophet? One writer finds a whole spiritual climate in that one word:
A note is added here to tell us that the "prophet" and the "seer" are the same man. The word "seer" only pointed to the knowledge the prophet had, not to the source of it. The prophet was the mouthpiece of God, whose word filled him and bubbled out of him. The people of that time spoke only of the "seer." It was a day of decline. Worldly men thought far more about the effect than about the cause, and looked for the one while ignoring the other. God had long ago spoken of the "prophet." The people cared only for the "seer." Saul, on this low ground, goes along with what he could never have begun himself. He too looks for "the seer," while the prophet, taught by God, is looking for this blind man on God's behalf — a man brought by a way he does not know.
Saul thinks he is the one who set this meeting up. God had arranged it before he arrived:
Saul now enters Samuel's home city, asking where the seer is. The Lord has already prepared His servant for his coming. Later, God prepared Peter in the same way for the arrival of Cornelius' messengers (Acts 10:19-20). The Lord had even told Samuel the hour Saul might be expected.
Why arrange a meeting for a man with no appetite for the things of God? One writer answers that the throne was not the only thing on offer:
God is speaking in His love, seeking to win this fine creature of His hand for Himself. He reveals to Samuel, the day before Saul comes, that He is sending him, and that He means to meet His people's need through him. The prince was to be the saviour. And so that he may fully be that, God would first bring him to have dealings with Himself, before he comes to stand in front of the people.
- Asking. Saul lived twenty miles from Samuel and still had to ask where he lived. That gap shows a lack of interest in God, not a lack of information.
- Ignoring. Human nature takes no interest in what God is doing. The Lord valued Samuel above anyone alive, yet Saul had never heard of him, and in his own trouble he never thought of asking God.
- Wanting. The word "seer" marks a day of decline. People wanted the results of the prophet's gift, not the God who was its source.
- Sought. While Saul was searching, God had already named the day and the hour to Samuel. The man hunting for the seer was the man God was looking for.
- Wanted. Before Saul stood in front of the nation, God meant to deal with him personally. God offered him the crown, and He offered him Himself.
And Samuel answered Saul and said, I am the seer go up before me to the high place, and ye shall eat with me to-day; and to-morrow I will let thee go, and will tell thee all that is in thy heart.
Saul walks up to a stranger in the gate and asks where the seer lives, and the stranger turns out to be the seer himself. Samuel's answer reaches far past the lost donkeys: a shared meal, and a promise to tell this young man everything on his mind.
The chapter itself pauses to explain the word Saul had used. One writer draws out the difference between the two titles.
An explanation is next introduced showing the use of the terms "seer" and "prophet." In former times it was the custom to speak of the man of God as a "seer" — one who sees the future, or what the natural eye cannot see. In other words, the people were more occupied with the result of the prophet's ministry than with its Source. The later word "prophet" suggests the Source from which he received all his inspiration, which then flowed out from him. This explanation fits all the circumstances we have reached. It fits Saul himself. He was surely not troubled about his relation with God, or about how the man of God would get his information. What he wanted was the benefit he might receive from this divine insight. It fits the nation at large too, of which he was the fitting representative.
Samuel's gift points away from himself. His table was ready before Saul arrived.
Samuel is conscious of his gift (v. 19), but its purpose is to communicate the mind of God to Saul. Before Saul met him, Samuel had already set aside his portion (v. 23). There was no jealousy in him. He might have resented the elders setting him aside, but God's will is enough for him, and he rejoices in it. Setting up a king according to the flesh is an evil. But Samuel had learned, in communion with the Lord, not to oppose an evil that God Himself did not oppose. That is certainly a hard lesson to learn.
Nothing in the chain that brought these two men together looks planned.
Notice again in this chapter how even the smallest events work together to establish God's designs, the goal He has in mind. Think of the loss of the donkeys, Saul's useless search through the land of Israel, the thought that came to his servant, the maidens at the well, Samuel's presence in the city on that day, the peace offering. Indeed, every step, every decision, every word of the prophet acting in communion with His God.
Saul had left home to look for stray animals.
No one could have expected where the search for his father's lost donkeys would lead Saul. It brought him into contact not only with the prophet Samuel, but with the throne of Israel. Yet so it was.
Samuel did not wait for Saul to ask.
Samuel at once told Saul two things: (1) that the donkeys were found, and (2) that he was the destined king over Israel. These words came from a complete stranger, and Saul had not yet asked him anything. They were a testimony to Saul that he was dealing with God, from whom nothing could be hidden. Donkeys and kingdom were both of interest to Him. What a help it would have been to him in later years if he had remembered this! Do we remember it?
One writer reads Samuel's promise as a sign that the kingdom was already on Saul's mind.
There is a hint that Saul was not without some knowledge of this, and that the first stirrings of ambition were already in his heart; for Samuel says to him, "I will tell you all that is on your mind." Was it longing for the crown and kingdom? It was God's own choice that set Saul apart, for He could read Saul's and the nation's thoughts. Yet He gave them a "king in His anger," whom He afterwards "took away in His wrath."
Another writer points to what Saul later forgot.
When Saul rose to the prominence and authority of king, it was not long before he forgot his own littleness. He thought himself great enough to ignore God's express commands, and of course suffered the consequences. Faith, on the other hand, always keeps a humble place, however great the honour.
- Heart known. Samuel offers to tell Saul what is inside him — proof that he was dealing with a God from whom nothing can be hidden.
- Heart guided. Lost animals, a servant's suggestion, girls at the well, a prophet in town that day. Small things carried Saul to a throne he never looked for.
- Heart served. Samuel knew his gift, but used it to pass on God's mind to another, with the guest's portion already set aside.
- Heart stirred. One writer hears in Samuel's promise the first reachings of ambition — a crown already on Saul's mind.
- Heart forgotten. Power made Saul forget his own littleness. Faith does the opposite: it keeps the low place, however high the honour.
And as for the asses that thou didst lose three days ago, set not thy heart on them; for they are found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel [set]? Is it not on thee, and on all thy father's house?
Saul was out searching for lost donkeys when a stranger told him the animals were already safe. In the same breath Samuel raised something far bigger: what all Israel wanted, and Saul's own family.
The animals came back, but Saul was not the one who found them. Commentators set him beside the shepherd king who came later.
The man of the people's choice now appears — the man who represented their fleshly tastes. It is striking that we first meet him in connection with donkeys. The man of the Lord's choice, in contrast, had the care of sheep and lambs (Psalm 78:70-72). Saul even lost the donkeys, and although they came back in the end, he was not the one who found them (1 Sam. 9:20). David, on the other hand, at serious risk to himself, rescued a lamb from two fierce enemies, a lion and a bear (1 Sam. 17:37). Sheep and lambs are the symbols throughout the Word of God of God's own true people. Saul had neither the heart nor the fitness to care for them. He might be a captain; a shepherd he was not.
after-note-none:
Samuel answered a question Saul had never asked. That told Saul who he was really dealing with.
Samuel at once told Saul two things: (1) that the donkeys were found, and (2) that he was the appointed king over Israel. These words came from a complete stranger, and Saul had asked him nothing yet. They were a testimony to Saul that he was dealing with God, and nothing can be hidden from God. Donkeys and kingdom were both of interest to Him. What a help it would have been to him in later years if he had remembered this! Do we remember it?
The ESV reads "all that is desirable in Israel." Older translations read "all the desire of Israel." Some have taken the phrase to mean the choicest of Israel, and commentators reject that.
So 1 Samuel 9:20 means "all the desire of Israel." "The choice" of Israel — that is, the noblest or best — is not the thought at all. This was far from being the case with Saul and all his father's house.
Samuel is not saying the nation had picked out this particular young man by name. He is telling Saul what kind of king the people had been longing for.
The desire of Israel is toward him and his father's house — that is, as Saul well understood it, the people wanted just such a man as himself for king. This does not have to mean that they had their eye on him as an individual. Rather, he was the kind of man who would answer the desire they had already expressed.
Israel would not wait for the King God had promised. They asked for a king of their own choosing.
It was Israel's rebellious will to have, as they said, "our" king, instead of waiting for the Lord's purposed King (1 Sam. 2:10; Ps. 2; compare also Num. 24:7; Deut. 17:14-15; Deut. 28:36; Ps. 45), whom He will in His time yet set on His holy hill of Zion. They refused both protest and warning. So God gave them their king in His anger. Yet this king was one "on whom was all the desire of Israel" — the people's choice indeed, not the one after God's own heart. "It is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual."
Giving Israel the man they wanted was judgment on them. Judgment was not the whole story.
God puts Himself at His people's service to choose for them a king according to man's principles. He does say in Hosea 13:11, "I gave you a king in My anger, and I took him away in My wrath." God acts this way in judgment on His people. Yet it is no less true that He also has a purpose of grace: "He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me" (1 Sam. 9:16).
- Desire named. Samuel's question is not flattery. It tells Saul he is the kind of man the nation had already been asking for.
- Desire granted. Israel refused every warning, so God gave them their choice — a king in His anger, not the king after His own heart.
- Desire tested. The natural comes first and the spiritual after: the people's man reigned before the man after God's own heart.
- Desire outdone. Saul could not even find donkeys, and someone else brought them back. David risked his life for one lamb.
- Desire overruled. Even inside this judgment God kept a purpose of grace, because He had heard His people's cry.
And Saul answered and said, Am not I a Benjaminite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? and why dost thou speak such words to me?
Samuel has just told Saul that all Israel wants him and his father's house. Saul answers by naming his small tribe and smaller family. The reply sounds humble. But commentators ask how deep it went, and why God chose a man from the smallest tribe.
Saul's tribe had not always been so small. One writer ties that size to the tribe's record of evil, and to the kind of king Saul was.
He also came from Benjamin — a tribe notorious for its stubbornness in evil (Judges 19:21), and now the smallest of Israel's tribes as a result (1 Sam. 9:21). His name means "asked", because he was the answer to what the people demanded in the flesh. So he represents the flesh in a remarkable way. But was such a man fit to hold back the restless evil of a rebellious people? Flesh can never put down flesh.
Not everyone reads Benjamin's smallness the same way. Another writer hears affection in the name, and lists what the tribe still had:
In the blessing of Psalm 68:27, "little Benjamin" comes first, before the three important tribes of Judah, Zebulun and Naphtali. The word "little" there is a pet name, not a count of numbers… Benjamin means "son of my right hand." He was a picture of Christ, raised to the right hand of God in glory. In the blessing of Moses his place is one of special nearness and protection. There he is called "the beloved of the Lord" (Deut. 33:12)… Their land was small — only about 14 miles wide and 28 miles long at its widest. But what it lacked in size it made up in dignity. It held Jerusalem, "the city of the Great King," as well as Bethel, Mizpeh, and Ramah, where Samuel lived.
Saul knew his tribe's story. He did not let it do its work on him.
What follows looks like humility in Saul. If it had gone deeper, it would surely have lasted longer. He says he is a Benjaminite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and his family one of the least in that small tribe. He surely knew his tribe's history. He knew how it had shrunk to such small numbers, because God judged it for the awful sin of Gibeah, and for shielding the men who did it. If that fearful discipline had done its work, the tribe as a whole would have come into true humility before God, and would have been ready to be lifted up… their humility was forced, not spontaneous.
So what was missing in Saul?
He might speak of his family and his tribe in low terms. But there is no evidence of genuine self-judgment in the presence of God. It is one thing to have low thoughts of yourself compared with other people. It is quite another to take your true place in the presence of divine holiness. The flesh knows how to be humble when circumstances press it. But it knows nothing of what judges its very existence and forces it to lie flat before God.
One writer counts Saul's answer among his real advantages. God did not test a poor specimen.
Saul has all the natural qualities of a leader of the people. He is strong and brave, handsome, tall, a choice man (vv. 1-2). His moral qualities are no less remarkable. He is submissive and affectionate toward his father (v. 5). He is willing to listen to the advice of those under him (v. 10). He is little in his own eyes, whether in his tribe or in his family (v. 21). If the trial God is about to make does not succeed with such a man, then the reason is plain: man's condition in general leaves no hope.
Saul did not stay little in his own eyes.
When Saul was little in his own sight, God made him head over the tribes of Israel. There was indeed a day when Saul called himself a man of the smallest of Israel's tribes, and of the least family in that tribe (1 Sam. 9:21). But in his feelings that day was now far behind him. He counted himself a great military commander… Paul went the other way. The sense of his own smallness and unworthiness grew on him as the years passed. "I am less than the least of all saints," he said to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:8)… At a certain point in his history he abandoned the name Saul, preferring from then on to be known as Paul, which means "little."
God's whole approach to Saul pressed one lesson on him.
Everything was designed, as it were, to call Saul to judge and refuse himself. The purpose was that, having no confidence in himself, he might be spared the terrible experiences and the fall that marked his later history.
- Small by judgment. Benjamin shrank after the sin of Gibeah. Commentators differ: is "little Benjamin" a count, or a pet name?
- Small in speech. Saul's answer sounds humble. But circumstances forced that humility; it did not come from judging himself before God.
- Small before men, not before God. Feeling small next to other people is not the same as taking your true place before a holy God.
- Small and chosen anyway. God took the finest man the flesh could offer. When such a man fails, the failure says something about man in general, not about Saul alone.
- Small, then lost. Saul stopped being little in his own eyes, and his story ended in a fall. Paul went the other way: he felt smaller as the years passed, and took a name that means "little."
And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the chamber, and gave them a place at the head of them that were invited; and they were about thirty persons.
Samuel has just met Saul, and instead of sending him home he seats him at the top table of a sacrificial meal. Why does God introduce Israel's first king with a dinner invitation instead of a crown?
The word translated "hall" is not a throne room. It names a side room attached to the outer court of the place of worship, where worshippers ate their offerings.
Sometimes the word "joined" or "attached-chamber" is translated "parlour" — as in 1 Samuel 9:22, where Samuel took Saul into the parlour and gave him the portion set aside for him. These rooms attached to the outer court are for people who come up to worship. They can use them to be alone, to pray, to talk together, or to eat their share of the peace offering.
The size of the room fits the number at the table. One writer notes:
In 1 Samuel 9:22 the word is translated "parlor" — a room that could hold thirty people at a feast.
Samuel seats Saul above thirty invited men before he is king. The food set in front of him matters as much as the seat.
Samuel now brings Saul in among the guests invited to the feast, and gives him, ahead of time, the king's place at the head of the table above all the invited guests... The shoulder was the part of the peace offering that the offerers ate. Leviticus 10 shows that it was first of all part of the priest's portion, for himself and his family. So Saul was admitted to the privileges of the priest's household. That is a telling thought for a man who needed a priest's nearness to God if he was to carry out rightly the responsibilities suggested by the shoulder set before him.
This is more than hospitality. The meal is a peace offering, and it carries the one lesson a king most needs.
Saul learns not only about the seer, but about the sacrifice, and about a feast on the sacrifice — the great lesson of communion for a king to learn... In the peace offering God and men sit, so to speak, at a common table. The work of the cross brings them together, and they share one delight in Him who has made peace by it. But this is the foundation of the reign of peace, the reign of God in righteousness and peace among men... So Saul must learn all of this, to be fit for his kingdom. He must share in this peace himself. The link that unites God and man is the only link that unites man and man.
The feast cost Samuel something. Watch how he treats the man Israel had set its heart on.
Samuel's manner towards Saul is very beautiful. He not only receives him as an honoured guest, he tells him that all the desire of Israel is set on him. More than that, he seats him in the chief place among the invited guests... What a discipline it was for Samuel to act in this way! He shows us the gracious action and calm submission of a man who lives in dependence on God.
Which part Samuel set before Saul, and which part he did not, reads like a picture of Saul's whole reign.
Samuel had set this special portion aside the day before, when God had spoken in his ear about Saul. Now it was placed in front of him. It was the shoulder, which speaks of power, not the breast, which speaks of the affections. Saul used power, but he lacked love for God and affection for His people... For what is power without love but tyranny and despotism?
Everything was ready, and Saul sat down to it. The question is what he took away from it.
We have already seen such a sacrificial feast spread at Saul's anointing, and we know it as the sign of peace and communion between God and man. This is where Saul had failed so completely. Everything had been prepared for him too, and he was an invited guest. But he had never entered into the reality of it... And the true King, when He comes, is more than David. He does not only share the feast — He spreads it.
- Invited — the hall was a side room by the place of worship, where people ate their offerings. Saul's first royal appointment was a table, not a throne.
- Seated — Samuel gave him the top place over thirty guests before he was king, and a portion that belonged to the priest's household.
- Fed — the peace offering seats God and man at one table. A king must share that peace himself before he can unite people.
- Weighed — he got the shoulder, which stands for power, not the breast, which stands for affection. Power without love turns into tyranny.
- Missed — all was prepared and he was an invited guest, yet he never entered into the reality of it. The true King does more than share the feast: He spreads it.
And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion that I gave thee, of which I said to thee, Set it by thee.
Saul went out to look for his father's lost donkeys and ended the day at the head of a feast. Samuel's order to the cook is short, but commentators find God's timing in it, and a picture of what the crown would demand.
Nothing here was arranged on the spot. God had spoken to Samuel about Saul the day before. One writer reads the whole scene as God making the first move.
God is speaking in His love, seeking to win this fine creature of His hand for Himself. The day before Saul comes, He tells Samuel that He is sending him. Through him He means to meet His people's need. The prince shall be the saviour. God wants him fully to be that. So He would first bring him to deal with Himself, before he stands in front of the people.
The cut itself carries meaning. A shoulder is the part that carries weight, and Saul was about to be handed the weight of a nation.
At the feast that followed, Samuel told the cook to set the shoulder of the sacrifice (the peace offering) before Saul. What a lesson for his soul, if only he could have read it as a picture. A shoulder speaks of the strength of Christ, which faith counts on and feeds on. Paul was living in the reality of it when he said, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). Saul was about to have enormous responsibilities placed on him. He would need more than his own strength to carry them well, for the glory of God and the blessing of His people. But no one seeks the support of divine grace until he has learned his own nothingness.
The shoulder already had an owner. Under the law it belonged to the priests and their families.
The shoulder was the part of the peace offering eaten by those who brought it. Leviticus 10 shows that it was first the priest's portion, for himself and his family. So Saul came into the privileges of the priest's household. That is a very suggestive thought. Here was a man who needed a priest's nearness to God, if he was to carry the responsibilities the shoulder pointed to.
One writer looks at what feeding on this portion was meant to do in the man:
Now he is called to feast on the sacrifice. It cost much to give, and it is love's provision for his need. Freely sharing in it is how a person gains the spirit of sacrifice — the spirit of real service. So the special part kept back for him is the burden-bearing shoulder, the priest's portion. The priest's heart must go with the king's office. In Him whom Saul stands for, king and priest come together.
Samuel had a choice of portions. One writer hears a warning in the one he kept.
The special portion, set aside for him by Samuel the day before (when God had spoken in his ear about Saul) was put in front of him. It was the shoulder, which speaks of power, not the breast, which speaks of the affections. Saul wielded power, but love for God and affection for His people were lacking. Saul could only disappoint and distress them. For what is power without love but tyranny?
Samuel hands out an honour that will replace him.
Samuel must give place to Saul. His manner toward him is very beautiful. He receives him as an honoured guest and gives him the best place among those who were invited. To mark him out still further, Samuel has the shoulder set before him, saying, "See, what was kept is set before you." What a discipline for Samuel to act this way! He shows us the graceful action and calm submission of one who practises dependence on God.
The honour given here became the thing Saul spent his reign defending.
As a youth David made a vow, but it was to "find out a place for the Lord," and not a place for himself. In this he stood in the sharpest contrast to the man before him. Samuel had given Saul "a place at the head of those who had been invited," after the Lord told him that Saul was to be king. Saul clung to that chief place, and fought bitterly for it. Saul's motto was "A place for myself." David's was, "A place for the Lord."
- Reserved. God moved first. Samuel kept the portion a day before Saul arrived, because God meant to deal with him before the people did.
- Shouldered. The shoulder carries weight. It pictured the strength Saul would need. He never sought it, because no one leans on grace until he has learned his own nothingness.
- Priestly. The priest's portion went to a king, because the priest's heart must go with the king's office.
- Loveless. Samuel set the shoulder before him, not the breast: power without affection, which in Saul's hands became tyranny.
- Clutched. The best seat was a gift; Saul spent his life fighting to keep it, while David looked instead for a place for the Lord.
And the cook took up the shoulder, and what was on it, and set [it] before Saul. And he said, Behold that which has been reserved! set it before thee, eat; for against the set time has it been kept for thee, since I said, I will invite the people. So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
Saul came looking for lost donkeys and ended up seated at the head of a sacrificial meal, eating meat set aside for him before he walked in. Samuel set one particular cut before him, with the words "it was kept for you" — and that choice says something about the man God was about to make king.
Nothing about the day was accidental. One writer traces the donkey hunt back to God's own purpose.
But God had His own intentions concerning Saul. He makes the object of Saul's search the link that introduces him to the prophet Samuel, for the establishing of kingship in the earth. The details of this chapter and the next are remarkable. They show how completely God holds every person and every circumstance in His own hand. His will is the controlling power over Samuel and over the sacrifice at the high place.
The meal was a peace offering. The ESV calls Saul's portion a leg; older translations call it the shoulder, and the writers below follow them. Either way, the law had already named its owner.
Saul is now brought in among the invited guests, and given in advance the kingly place at the head of the table, above them all. At the prophet's command, the special portion reserved for the guest of honour is set before him too. The shoulder was the part of the peace offering eaten by those who brought it. Originally, as we see from Leviticus 10, it was part of the priest's portion, for himself and his family. So Saul was let into the privileges of the priest's household. That is a very suggestive thought for a man who needed priestly nearness. Without it he could not handle rightly the responsibilities pictured by the shoulder set before him.
Another writer ties the two offices together:
The special part reserved for him is the burden-bearing shoulder, the priest's portion (Exodus 29:27), for the priest's heart must go with the kingly office. In Him whom Saul is to represent, king and priest are united together.
A shoulder carries weight, and Saul was about to have a nation laid on his. One writer reads the cut as a picture of the One who alone carries such a load.
The shoulder reminds us of the One about whom the prophet says, "The government shall be upon His shoulder." Only one Person has the strength to bear the responsibilities of rule. He first laid down His life in submission to the will of God and for the salvation of His people. Government will never be what it should be until people recognise this great fact. It will not be right until the true King, who is also the true Priest and the true Sacrifice, takes the burden upon His shoulders.
The shoulder was food on a plate, not a compliment. Saul was meant to feed on strength that was not his own.
A shoulder speaks of the strength of Christ, on which faith counts and feeds. Paul was living in the reality of it when he said, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). Saul was about to have enormous responsibilities placed on him. He would need more than human strength to carry them rightly, for the glory of God and the blessing of His people. But no one seeks the support of divine grace until he has learned his own nothingness and insufficiency. Poor Saul never reached that point.
Saul received one portion of the sacrifice, not another. One writer finds the missing piece just as telling.
It was the shoulder, which speaks of power — not the breast, which speaks of the affections. Saul wielded power, but love for God and affection for His people were lacking. Saul could only disappoint and distress them. For what is power without love but tyranny and despotism?
Saul sat down and ate with the prophet. What he did with that opening is the tragedy of his reign.
That day he ate with Samuel. This showed that God, for His part, was willing to show fellowship to Saul in his appointment to the throne. Yet Saul would later show himself unwilling to have honest fellowship with God.
- Kept — God set the portion aside before Saul arrived. His kingship began with God's plan, not his own search.
- Priestly — The shoulder belonged to the priest's family. It brought Saul near as a worshipper before he ever ruled as king.
- Borne — A shoulder carries government. True rule waits for the King who is also Priest and Sacrifice.
- Fed — Samuel served Saul his strength as food. Only those who know their own weakness ever reach for it.
- Refused — The shoulder came without the breast. Saul took the power and never gave the heart. The table of fellowship became a meal he never truly shared.
And they came down from the high place into the city, and he spoke with Saul upon the roof.
Saul came to Samuel's town looking for lost donkeys and ended the day as guest of honour at a sacrificial meal. Why did God arrange a private evening on a rooftop before a public throne?
A note on translations. The ESV says a bed was spread for Saul on the roof. Older English versions say Samuel talked with Saul there. The commentators below follow the older reading.
A flat roof in that part of the world served a purpose our houses no longer have.
The roof is often made of sticks, thorn bushes, mortar and earth, which people often have to roll to press the structure together after rain... Other roofs were more substantial, with a low wall around them for safety. On such roofs people went for private conversation and for prayer (1 Samuel 9:25; Acts 10:9), and in the evening for coolness (2 Samuel 11:2).
Saul and Samuel come down from the high place, where a sacrifice had just been shared.
It is very suggestive, too, that Israel's future king meets the prophet at a public feast and sacrifice... Sacrifice must be the basis on which God's mind can be known, and the basis on which the anointing oil is to be poured on the king.
The same writer points out that the portion Saul was given at that table, the shoulder, belonged by right to the priest's household — so Saul was brought near in a way that carried its own meaning.
Saul was admitted to the privileges of the priestly household: a very suggestive thought for one who needed priestly nearness if he was to carry out rightly the responsibilities suggested by the fact that the shoulder was set before him.
Another writer reads that same portion as a picture of the kind of rule Saul would have.
It was the shoulder, which speaks of power, not the breast, which speaks of the affections. Saul wielded power, but love for God and affection for His people was lacking... For what is power without love but tyranny and despotism?
In the older reading, this verse is where the two men talk.
After the feast Samuel holds long and secret conversation with Saul. We are not told what passed between them. But wise counsel is given, and a warning passed on, when they part the next day.
Ridout finds meaning in both the hour and the height.
Saul remains with Samuel that day. Early the next morning, as he is about to leave, the prophet calls him at daybreak — the beginning of a new day for Israel and for Saul — up to the housetop. There he is alone, set apart and raised above everything around him.
Nothing in the chapter looks planned, and everything is.
No one could have expected where the search for his father's lost donkeys would lead. It put him in touch not only with the prophet Samuel, but with the throne of Israel. Yet so it was... Before their return home, Samuel gets Saul alone, and finally anoints him captain of the Lord's inheritance.
Leslie M. Grant sees a purpose in the delay before the crown.
After the meal Samuel talked alone with Saul on the housetop, which is usually a place of watching. Perhaps he was giving instruction that Saul deeply needed at the time. The next morning, rather than keeping Saul to install him at once as king, he sent him away again... Saul was meant to see that he first had to do with God before he could be placed on the throne... But God still has lessons to teach him before his coronation. Whether he learned them is another matter, but if he had had an exercised heart, he might have seen far more than he did.
- Sacrifice first. The day that ends on the roof began at a feast of sacrifice — the only ground on which God's mind could be made known to a king.
- Nearness first. The shoulder was the priest's food and a picture of power; the man who would rule was first brought near.
- Privacy first. The roof was where people went to talk alone and to pray, and Samuel used it for long, secret conversation with Saul.
- Instruction first. Samuel sent Saul away rather than crowning him, so that Saul would have to do with God before he had to do with a throne.
- Response last. Saul had sacrifice, nearness, privacy and instruction set before him; whether he took any of it in is the question left open.