Saul: The First King of Israel, From Chosen to Cornered

Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, is the king of Israel in the days of the united kingdom. According to Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he reigned 1095 BC to 1055 BC. His name first appears in 1 Samuel 9:2, and the record of him runs long: 327 verses across fifty passages, with 241 of them in 1 Samuel, 57 in 2 Samuel, 22 in 1 Chronicles, 5 in Psalms, 1 in Isaiah, and a single verse in Acts. His wives named here are Ahinoam and Rizpah; his children named here are Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchi-shua, Merab, Michal, Ish-bosheth, Armoni and Mephibosheth. Few people in Scripture are followed so closely for so long, and few are followed so closely downward.

The king who swore against his own son

The first scene we can read in full shows Saul dividing the nation to find a guilty man. "Then he said to all Israel, 'You be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.' The people said to Saul, 'Do what seems good to you'" (1 Samuel 14:40). The lot falls on Jonathan, who answers plainly: "I certainly did taste a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand; and behold, I must die" (1 Samuel 14:43). Saul's reply is the reply of a man who will not bend his own word: "God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Jonathan" (1 Samuel 14:44). Earlier scenes in his reign are recorded at 1 Samuel 9:17-19, 9:24-27, 10:14-16, 11:4-7, 11:11-13, 13:1-4, 13:9-11, 14:16-21, 14:33-38, 15:4-7 and 15:11-13, and his household and wars are summarized at 1 Samuel 14:49-52.

Jealousy of David

David enters Saul's service (1 Samuel 16:19-23; 17:11-15; 17:31-34; 17:37-39), and at first Saul promotes him. "David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men of war. It was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants" (1 Samuel 18:5). Then the singing women meet the returning army: "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands" (1 Samuel 18:7). Saul hears the arithmetic and hears a throne in it. "What can he have more but the kingdom?" he says, and "Saul watched David from that day and forward" (1 Samuel 18:8-9).

What follows is calculated. Saul offers his elder daughter Merab, saying, "Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh's battles," while privately reasoning, "Don't let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him" (1 Samuel 18:17). Merab is given instead to Adriel the Meholathite (1 Samuel 18:19). When Michal loves David, Saul's thought is the same: "I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him" (1 Samuel 18:21). The pursuit hardens through 1 Samuel 18:27-30, 19:9-11, 19:17-21, 20:25-28, 23:24-28, 24:1-5, 24:7-9 and 26:1-7.

Keilah, and a king who calls it grace

At Keilah the self-deception reaches its clearest form. "Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. Saul said, 'God has delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in by entering into a town that has gates and bars'" (1 Samuel 23:7). Saul summons all the people to war to besiege David and his men (1 Samuel 23:8). David, meanwhile, asks Abiathar the priest for the ephod and puts the question straight to God, and the answer comes: "He will come down" (1 Samuel 23:9-11). The king who once cast lots to hear God now reads his own advantage as God's gift.

Silence, and a woman at Endor

"Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had sent away those who had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land" (1 Samuel 28:3). Facing the Philistines at Shunem with Israel encamped in Gilboa, "he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly" (1 Samuel 28:5). Then the terrible line: "When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn't answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets" (1 Samuel 28:6). So the king who cleared the land of mediums says, "Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her" (1 Samuel 28:7). His servants point him to Endor (1 Samuel 28:7), and the night continues in 1 Samuel 28:12-15.

Gilboa

The end is told twice (1 Samuel 31:2-8; 1 Chronicles 10:2-8). The Philistines kill Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua (1 Chronicles 10:2). "The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was distressed by reason of the archers" (1 Chronicles 10:3). He asks his armor bearer to thrust him through; the man will not, "for he was terrified"; "Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it" (1 Chronicles 10:4-5). "So Saul died with his three sons; and all his house died together" (1 Chronicles 10:6). Further reflection on his death stands at 1 Chronicles 10:11-13; the aftermath at 2 Samuel 1:4-6, 1:21-24, 3:6-8, 9:1-3, 21:6-8 and 21:11-14; and men who came to him at 1 Chronicles 12:1-2.

Where the record here goes quiet

This dossier lists no formal unknowns, yet the quoted text leaves much unspoken. We are not given here the words of the five Psalms verses or the one verse in Isaiah that mention him. We are told he was afraid and that no answer came, but not what he thought in the silence. And his life closes without a word of repentance in any passage quoted for us.

The single New Testament word

One New Testament reference is listed for Saul: Acts 13:21. Its text is not quoted here, so I will not put words in it. But note where the trail runs. The story that begins in 1 Samuel 9:2 does not end at Gilboa; it is still being told in the preaching of the church. The first king failed, and the failure is written down without cosmetics. That the account is picked up again in Acts 13:21 says that Israel's need for a king outlived Saul, and that the church went back to this history to explain how God answered it.