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.