By – Long Live the King First Samuel 10: 17-27

Long Live the King
First Samuel 10: 17-27

Long live the king DIG: In publicly anointing Sha’ul, how does Samuel implicitly judge Isra’el and reward their protest (10:17-19, see 8:19-20)? Why the elimination process, when Samuel already knew Sha’ul was God’s elect? In what sense was there “no one like Sha’ul?” How do the Israelites respond to their new king? Why this mixed reaction? How did Sha’ul receive the praises of the people?

REFLECT: Describe a time when people were surprised at how God was working in your life. Were you equally surprised by the grace of ADONAI? What major “calamity” in your past has the LORD delivered you from? How has the memory of that event shaped your relationship with YHVH now? How so? Why not? When you think of reigning with Messiah for eternity, how does that make you feel?

In His anger, God gave Sha’ul to Isra’el; but in His mercy, he gave us His Son, Yeshua.

Samuel, who had sent the people to their homes (8:22), now assembles them once again at Miztpah, the very place where he had interceded (7:5), and close to where he had set up the stone of the Helper (7:12). Where Samuel’s prophetic leadership had been most clearly vindicated, he was to inaugurate the new era that the people had demanded.²³⁹ However, He had returned not merely to remember the prior repentance (to see link click Bn – Repentance and Recommitment at Mizpah), but in the hopes that a new repentance would occur. Therefore, while the public coronation would normally call for polite and formal behavior, with bland speeches and cheery affirmations, Samuel took the occasion to rebuke the nation for its unbelief in demanding a king in place of ADONAI.

Isra’el’s unbelief rebuked (10:17-19a): Samuel called the people of Isra’el to ADONAI at Mitzpah, shortly after Samuel’s private coronation of Sha’ul as Isra’el’s first king. In the past He said to them, “Here is what ADONAI, the God of Isra’el, says: I brought Isra’el up out of Egypt. I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. But, speaking as God’s mouthpiece, he declared: Today you have rejected your God, who Himself saves you from all your disasters and distress. You have said to Him, ‘No! Set a king over us!’

Isra’el’s king revealed (10:19b-24a): Then, after reminding them of their foolish insistence on having a king like all the other nations, Samuel demonstrated God’s selection of Sha’ul by a process of elimination.²⁴⁰ So now, present yourselves before ADONAI by your tribes and clans.” God Himself guided the decision by means of the Urim and Thummim (see Exodus Gb – The Urim and Thummim: The Means of Making Decisions). So Samuel had all the tribes come forward, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken (Hebrew: lakad) (10:19b-20). Therefore, the king would come from that tribe. Next, Samuel had the tribe of Benjamin come forward by families, and the family of the Matri was taken. Finally Sha’ul the son of Kish was taken.

But when they looked for him, he couldn’t be found. They asked ADONAI, “Where is he?” ADONAI answered through Samuel, “There he is, hiding out of fear, in among the baggage.” Evidently, he didn’t want to be king. This first official act on Sha’ul’s part suggests that there was trouble ahead. He was a reluctant ruler who followed his emotions instead of building his faith. Anxious to hail their new king, the people ran and brought him from there, and when he stood among the people he was head-and-shoulders taller than anyone around.²⁴¹ Samuel did what he could to salvage the embarrassing situation, and said to all the people, “Do you see the man ADONAI has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people” (10:21-24a)? He presented Sha’ul as God’s chosen king and highlighted Sha’ul admirable physical characteristics. Sha’ul had no opportunity to protest. By popular demand a king had been chosen, but if Isra’el thought he would solve all their problems by leading them to conquests, they were quite wrong.²⁴²

Ironically, the word taken (Hebrew: lakad) is normally translated to capture or seize. Ha’Shem gave them their king, but it ended up being part of His judgment against the nation. After being captured and taken to Babylon (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule), Zedekiah would be the last human king of Isra’el (see Jeremiah Fy – A Warning to Zedekiah). God’s ultimate answer to their foolish decision is recorded in Hosea 13:9-11, “It is your destruction, Isra’el, although your help is in Me. So now, where is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are your judges, of whom you said: Give me a king and leaders’? I gave you a king in my anger; and in my fury I took him away.”²⁴³

Isra’el’s king confirmed (10:24b and 26-27): Then all the people shouted, “Long live the king” (10:24b)! As Richard Phillips recounts in his commentary in 1 Samuel, with those words, Isra’el welcomed her new king, Sha’ul the son of Kish. But had the people consulted God’s Word, they would have known that however long Sha’ul might reign, his dynasty could not endure. For as Isra’el’s patriarch Jacob had prophesied, the royal scepter was destined for the tribe of Judah. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet until He comes to whom [obedience] it belongs; and it is He whom the [Gentile nations] will obey (49:10).

First Samuel will tell the story of how the kingship passes from Sha’ul to David, and from the tribe of Benjamin to Judah. Isra’el’s kings were types of the true King over God’s Kingdom, His own Son, Yeshua Messiah, who was born of the line of David from the tribe of Judah. In Sha’ul’s case, we see more of a foil of Messiah: as a tainted king, he serves more to contrast with Yeshua than to typify the reign of God’s Son.

First, whatever we may think of Sha’ul’s hiding among the baggage, Yeshua also hid his royal calling from the people of Isra’el. Mark records that when Yeshua performed miracles of healing, he instructed the people: Do not tell anyone about His divine power (Mark 7:36). The reason for Messiah’s “messianic secret” was not His fear or reluctance, but that He had already been rejected by the Great Sanhedrin, and the fact that He had come to die for our sins and only later to return in royal glory and power.

A second contrast in Samuel’s praise of Sha’ul that there is none like him among all the people (10:24a). This was true outwardly of Sha’ul, but it is true inwardly of Messiah’s character and being. In this respect, Sha’ul shows us Yeshua, by what was missing in Sha’ul’s life. Our Lord alone is utterly pure and without sin (John 18:38). The book of Hebrews hails Him as greater than the angels, greater than Moshe, greater than Joshua, and greater than the high priest Aaron. For this reason Scripture says that God has crowned Messiah with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under His feet (Hebrews 2:7-8, quoting Psalm 8:5-6). There is truly none like Yeshua among all the people. Hebrews 7:26 describes Him as holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, and He is worthy to reign over God’s people as King for all eternity.

Furthermore, we noted that Sha’uls public coronation was preceded by Samuel’s rebuke of Isra’el’s unbelief. In demanding a worldly king, the Israelites had sown the seeds of their own captivity and bondage in Babylon. Yeshua, however, came to deliver us from bondage, and to deliver God’s remedy for sin. His blood sacrifice fully satisfies all of YHVH’s wrath against our sin. The apostle John testified to this when he said: For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth (Revelation 5:9-10). The Bible declares Yeshua’s kingship as a reign of grace over sin, so that all who belong to His Kingdom are those who have come to Him for cleansing, forgiveness, and redemption.

Finally, Sha’ul’s public coronation brought division to Isra’el. As the new king went home to Gibeah, he was accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched; part of the believing remnant of that day. Yet, there were others, some worthless rebels (the same expression is translated wicked men in 2:12) who despised him and brought him no gift, rejecting his authority, saying: How can this man save us from our enemies (10:26-27)? Likewise, the coming of Messiah has divided the world. Some, their hearts touched by the Gospel of God’s grace, have reacted to Yeshua’s cross to be cleansed of their sins and to live as His disciples. But many others despise the Lord and withhold both their praise and their faith. Like Sha’ul, Messiah held his peace during His lifetime. But when He returns in glory (see Isaiah Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah), with His mighty angels in flaming fire (2 Thess 1:7-8), Yeshua will judge the nations (Matthew 25:31-33), and inflict eternal destruction on those who oppose His reign (2 Thess 1:8-9).

When Sha’ul was presented to Isra’el, the people cried out “Long live the king!” What shall we say to the Lord Yeshua when He returns? Seeing Him who exceeds all others, who died for our sins on the cross, and who reigns now forever . . . we can surely echo the Israelites’ words with much greater hope. In His anger, God gave Sha’ul to Isra’el; but in His mercy, he has given us His Son, Yeshua Messiah. If our hearts are opened by YHVH to see Yeshua in the glory of His grace, we can one day cast our crowns before the throne (see Revelation Cd – And There Before Me was a Throne in Heaven), each of us gladly yielding our hearts, and crying out to Yeshua, “Long live the King!” His reign will never fail and never end, and those who bow to His throne will reign forever and ever with Him in glory (Revelation 22:5).²⁴⁴

The Torah reaffirmed (10:25): The wisest thing Samuel did that day was to link his kingship to the Torah. After the people’s acclamation of Sha’ul as their king, Samuel reminded the people of the rulings governing the conduct of their kings, probably based on what Moses had already written (see the commentary on Deuteronomy Dh – The King).²⁴⁵ He wrote it on a scroll and set it down before ADONAI at the Tabernacle at Nov (see the Life of David Av – David at Nov). After that, he sent all the people away, everyone to his own home. Sha’ul too went home to Gibeah, because at this point, Isra’el had no capital for him to go to.

At this point in our Bible, at the break between First Samuel 10 and 11, there is a sudden transition from Sha’ul to a new character, Nahash the Ammonite, and to a new location, Jabesh-Gilead, to the east of Jordan. In the Qumran manuscript 4QSam^a, however, the extra paragraph does provide a helpful introduction to the Ammonite war (see Bz – The Ammonite War), and Josephus reveals that it was part of text he used (Josephus, Antiquates 6.5.1). It appears to have been omitted from the LXX and MT. It explains that Nahash had been oppressing the tribes of Reuben and Gad, putting out the right eyes of all the men they captured, but that seven thousand had taken refuge in the city of Jabesh-Gilead. The last words of First Samuel 10:27 are transformed by a slight change in the Hebrew to the meaning “About a month later,” as in the LXX and Josephus, thus giving the indication of the passing of time between the two incidents. However, the text does not add anything substantial to the meaning of the bible. The manuscript reads:

Now Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been severely oppressing the tribes of Reuben and Gad by gouging out the right eye of each of them, and allowing no deliverer. No Israelites were across the Jordan whose right eye Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had not gouged out. But seven thousand men had escaped from the Ammonites and entered into Jabesh-Gilead.²⁴⁶

Dear heavenly Father, praise You that You always know the perfect timing for everything! Sometimes I get anxious when something happens, or I think that You need my help; but it is always wisest to trust You in all situations. Praise You, my great and wise heavenly Father. Words cannot express my admiration of how wise You are, and Your love and ability to see the future and plan for how to have all the right pieces in place to help me – exactly when I need your help. You are never late! I bow in awe of Your love and gracious help when I have a problem or trial. Thank You for choosing to live within those who love You. Yeshua answered and said to him: If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him (John 14:23).

Praise You for making those who trust and who love You to be Your children. But whoever did receive Him, those trusting in His name, to these He gave the right to become children of God.  (John 1:12). Thank You for never leaving me, but for being right there and ready to help when I call out to You. For God Himself has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5c). I praise and worship You for being such a wonderful heavenly Father. In Messiah Yeshua’s holy Name and power of His resurrection. Amen