By Ben Shiller Jacob
King Saul, The First King of Israel: Part 1
Unlike other nations on the face of the earth, Israel is unique and different in every aspect as a nation. Israel became Israel not because they were special and top notch or any peculiarities of people of Israel but Yahweh’s faithfulness towards one man, Abraham, whose previous name was Abram. A man just like you and I, recognized and decided to obey Yahweh’s calling completely out of faith. Unlike us, Abraham didn’t have the privilege of being raised in a Christian family or tradition. In fact, there was not even a book to refer or learn about this Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient God, Yahweh! Abraham was a gentile. His parents and ancestors served different deities which were nothing but demons.
Abraham is the first man of Israel nation. He challenged himself to leave everything behind. Everything means his traditions, his family, culture, inheritance, gods, and you name it. The requirements of Yahweh to bless Abraham was harsh and rude if we ponder those verses in the Book of Genesis.
Kingdom of Light and darkness don’t exist together! When one comes the other must leave as two kingdoms cannot exist in one place. For this purpose, Abraham was asked to leave everything (mainly his mindsets and his affinity towards his previous lifestyle) belong to previous ‘gods’. Because Yahweh was unveiling His plan and purpose to raise His kingdom on earth to an insignificant, natural man. To do that, Abraham had to sacrifice all his physical and spiritual materials at his altar. By Yahweh’s mercy, Abraham was strengthened to follow His directions.
In Yahweh’s legislature, He emphatically proclaimed that He would make Abraham a great nation and his descendants as the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:14-16). Abraham believed it and it came to pass.
After a series of eventful decades, Abraham’s grandchild, Jacob, gained his elder brother’s blessings by trickery. Later, Jacob had to suffer various challenges in his affairs which made him realize that he is helpless, and he needs Divine Help. Jacob later had an encounter with Yahweh and his name was changed to Israel, which means ‘a man seeing God.’ Israel’s sons, 10 of them along with 2 children from his youngest child, Joseph formed 12 tribes which later known as Israel as a nation.
Israel multiplied and prospered while they were in Egypt. They gradually outnumbered Egyptians. This created fear in Pharaoh and Egyptians. Consequently, Pharaoh enslaved Israelis harshly, overworked without adequate food or water. Pharaoh treated Israel nation roughly till they cried out to Yahweh and Yahweh raised a redeemer, who was Moses. Moses released Israel from Egypt (slavery) and Joshua accomplished Yahweh’s promise that He will give to Abraham’s descendants as a possession which was Canaan (unity).
As a new inhabitant of Canaan, Israel faced strong oppositions by neighbors like Philistines, Ammonites etc. By the death of Joshua, Israel lost her first love towards Yahweh. They forgot the commandments, precepts, and statutes of Yahweh their Redeemer from bondage. This caused them to wayward from their Yahweh. They did whatever they liked. No order. No one to lead the nation in uprightness, until Yahweh raised Judges to establish His law and order in His nation.
When Israel possessed the land of Canaan, there were still controlled indirectly and directly by previously occupied nations. So, it was Israels tribes’ task to eradicate left over strongholds from the land. Unlike during the reign of Moses and Joshua, people of Israel became disobedient and rebellious to Yahweh and His commandments. The people of Israel got entangled with the customs of the gentiles. They replaced their Redeemer, Yahweh with other ‘gods’ of gentiles. During this time, Bible clearly mentions the severity of straying away from Yahweh in Judges 21:25: people of Israel did what was right in his own eyes. Moral values came to cease. At this point, Yahweh decided to raise Judges one after other to deliver Israel from the bondage of neighboring nations. Judges were anointed men of God. They can also be described as ‘saviors’ or ‘rulers.’
After the era of Judges, Israel asked Samuel the prophet for a king from them like all the other nations which grieved Yahweh as He himself was their King and Redeemer until this point. Yahweh allowed Samuel to choose a king from them, provided there will be consequences people of Israel need to face by the introduction of monarchy which we read in 1 Samuel 8:11-18. Yet the people of Israel stick with their plan.
This was how the introduction of rulership of kings began in Israel.
In this series, I would like to dive into each king of Israel and his background, strengths, weakness, victories, downfall and more importantly what we should takeaway from their life to subtract those characters and decisions made them to fall away from Yahweh as well as to implement those characters in our life to walk victoriously in present time.
Firstly, let’s deep dive into the life of first king of Israel, that is king Saul.
Tribe: Benjamin
Father: Kish, son of Abiel.
Saul was a good-looking young man. Not only that there wasn’t any one handsome than Saul in the entire nation of Israel.
Remarkably, Saul was taller than anyone else in Israel. From his shoulder to head, he stands out among the men of Israel.
These descriptions give us an overall idea that Saul has all the external qualification to be a King in Israel. In ancient times, comparing Egypt and other surrounding nations, their kings had unusual heights giving them a sense of superiority and dominance over their nations.
This is what Israel was looking for. They needed a king who had all the external features of a king they had seen in other nations.
3 Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, had wandered off and were lost. Kish said to his son Saul, “Please take one of the servants with you and arise, go look for the donkeys.” 4 And they passed through the hill country of Ephraim and the land of Shalishah, but did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there and the land of the Benjamites, but they [still] did not find them.
1 Samuel 9:3-4
Saul’s history begins with the loss of the donkeys of Kish, father of Saul. Kish asked Saul to look for the donkeys that were missing. Thus, Saul went searching for the lost donkeys along with a servant of Kish. Together they passed through the mountains of Ephraim, the land of Shalisha, the land of Shaalim, the land of the Benjamites. After passing through the above-mentioned places, they couldn’t find those donkeys they were looking for. They had no clue!
In verse 5,
5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us return, otherwise my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and become anxious about us.”
This caused Saul to return home saying his father might have started worrying about him. It sounded more like an excuse to me.
This context recalls a particular parable in Gospels of Matthew and Luke in which a sheep was lost among 100 that led the Shepherd to pursue after the lost one leaving behind the 99. We all have read and heard this parable in our life an umpteen time.
12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
Matthew 18:12-14
Here, Yeshua portrays Himself as the Shepherd and the sheep as us like a king and his people.
From this parable of lost sheep, an inevitable quality of a shepherd or a leader or a king is that at any point of time, the person who leads must be willing to protect his people and territory. The Scripture is clear that Saul lacked this quality of taking care of his father’s possessions. More importantly, Saul’s statement reveals that he gave up the mission at stake when the circumstances were unfavorable. He forgot his father’s words.
Some of you might think it is true every father must worry for his children than his possessions. I totally agree with this. However, it made clear that Kish asked Saul not to go alone but to take a servant with him. If it was Saul alone who went to search for the donkeys, it would have made sense. But this wasn’t the case here.
I want to remember that Yahweh chose Saul as king to Israel according to their preferences. Saul wasn’t the result of the perfect will of Yahweh.
Israel wanted a king who is well built and stature, handsome, just like concept of the king the children of Israel had in their mind. They preferred external beauty over internal beauty!
Saul’s heart didn’t align with the heart of Yahweh.
A shepherd of a flock of sheep is like a king of a nation. Both lead a group. Their responsibility is the welfare of his flock or people. He leads, feeds, nurtures, protects, and always keeps them in peace. He loves his people or flocks more than himself. This is what Yeshua revealed in his parable how a king or ruler should be like. And at the end Yeshua did exactly what He said in His parable. He took care of everyone who was given to Him by Father God.
38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
John 6:38-39
Here, we understand Yeshua’s desire is to do His Father’s will not His unlike Saul. Saul forgot his father, Kish’s desire to find those donkeys were lost. He halfway aborted the mission of his father embracing his will not his father’s will.
Verse 39 shows that Yeshua didn’t leave anyone who was given to Him by Father. He kept them safe in perfect peace and brought them back to Father, unlike Saul who neither cared about his father’s property nor his will. He ceased searching for them with mere excuses.
This gives an outline of Saul how he was inwardly despite his good-looking outward appearances.
6 And servant said to him, “Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.”
1 Samuel 1:6
Here, we should notice that Saul was given a servant when he left home to find the lost. Surprisingly, he was the one who suggested visiting Prophet Samuel. The servant believed Samuel would be able to locate the lost donkeys.
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
John 16:13
The servant pictures the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guided Saul to his destiny. Saul’s destiny was to be the first king of Israel by the hand of Prophet Samuel. Even when we don’t know what to do, where to go, and places where we are stopped by external circumstances, the Holy Spirit within us will guide us furtherance to our destiny just like the servant guided Saul to his destiny!
Shiller’s Takeaway
Despite the way the world and our mind see and comment about us whether good or bad is irrelevant and futile. The point is what does Yahweh say about us matters! The top-priority of our life is to find our destiny that means to know what Yahweh’s desire about you and me is when He created and formed us. Second priority would be how we lead or respond to our life to fulfill our purpose. This life is given to us to embrace and love Him who placed us on earth for a short period of time to be His glory. When we come to a full stop, the Holy Spirit will guide us to Father’s truth.
Communion with a Contrite Heart
Our loving Father, grant us a heart that never aborts your assignment and responsibilities on earth, making every effort to depend upon the Guide and the Comforter in every moment to fulfill Your heart’s desire for us, focusing on inward beauty of our heart devoid of hidden agendas and intentions in the magnificent name of Yeshua we pray – AMEN!
Read more about king Saul in upcoming blogs.