Saul Anointed King

10 Then Samuel took the vial of oil and poured it on his head. Then he kissed him and said, “Has Adonai not anointed you ruler over His inheritance? ² When you leave me today, you will find two men near the tomb of Rachel in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you: ‘The donkeys you set out to look for have been found—behold, your father has dropped the matter about the donkeys and is worried about you saying, “What should I do about my son?’” ³ Then you will go on from there until you reach the terebinth of Tabor, and there three men going up to God at Beth-el will meet you, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and the other carrying a jug of wine. ⁴ Then they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will receive from their hand. ⁵ After that, you will arrive at the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is. It will come about, as soon as you enter the town, that you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place, preceded by a harp, a tambourine and a flute, and they will be prophesying. ⁶ Then the Ruach of Adonai will seize you and you will prophesy with them—you will turn into another man. ⁷ Now when these signs happen to you, do for yourself what the occasion requires, for God is with you. ⁸ Afterward, you are to go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice fellowship offerings. Seven days you will wait, until I come to you and instruct you what you should do.”

⁹ Then it happened, as Saul turned his back to leave Samuel, that God transformed his heart, and all those signs came to pass that day. ¹⁰ When they arrived there, at the hill, behold, a band of prophets did meet him, and suddenly, the Ruach of God overtook him, and subsequently, he prophesied among them. ¹¹ So when all who knew him formerly saw him prophesying with the prophets, they said one to another, “What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹² (Someone there asked, “Who is their father?”) Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” ¹³ When he finished prophesying, he came to the high place.

¹⁴ Now Saul’s uncle asked him and his servant, “Where did you go?” And he said, “To look for the donkeys. But when we saw that they could not be found, we went to Samuel.”

¹⁵ Saul’s uncle said, “Tell me now, what did Samuel say to you?”

¹⁶ “He assured us that the donkeys had been found,” Saul said to his uncle. But concerning the matter of kingship about which Samuel spoke, he told him nothing.

¹⁷ Then Samuel summoned the people to Adonai at Mizpah. ¹⁸ He said to Bnei-Yisrael, “Thus says Adonai, God of Israel: I brought Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you. ¹⁹ But today you have spurned your God, who is your deliverer from all your calamities and your distresses. For you said to Him: ‘No! Rather set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before Adonai by your tribes and by your thousands.”

²⁰ So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. ²¹ Then he brought forward the tribe of Benjamin by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was chosen. Finally, Saul son of Kish was chosen. But when they looked for him, he could not be found. ²² Therefore, they inquired of Adonai further, “Has the man come here yet?” Adonai answered, “He has just hidden himself among the baggage.” ²³ So they ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders up.

²⁴ Then Samuel announced to all the people, “Do you see the one Adonai has chosen? Surely there is no one like him among all the people!”

Then all the people shouted and said, “Long live the king!” ²⁵ Then Samuel explained to the people the rules of kingship, wrote them in a scroll and placed it before Adonai. Then Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. ²⁶ Saul also went home to Gibeah, accompanied by men of valor whose hearts God had touched. ²⁷ But certain worthless men said, “How can this one save us?” So they despised him and brought him no present. But he kept silent.

Saul’s First Victory

11 Now Nahash the Ammonite marched up and encamped against Jabesh-gilead. Then all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”

² But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “Only on this condition will I make a treaty with you—by gouging out the right eye of every one of you, thus I will bring disgrace on all Israel.”

³ So the elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite, so we may send messengers throughout all the territory of Israel. If no one comes to deliver us, we will surrender to you.”

⁴ When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and spoke these words in the hearing of the people, all the people lifted up their voice and wept. ⁵ Now behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen, so Saul asked, “Why are the people weeping?” Then they told him the words of the men of Jabesh. ⁶ Then the Ruach of God suddenly rushed upon Saul when he heard those words, and his anger blazed. ⁷ So he took a pair of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, so will it be done to his oxen.” So the dread of Adonai fell on the people, and they came out as one man. ⁸ He numbered them in Bezek, and Bnei-Yisrael were 300,000 and the men of Judah 30,000.

⁹ So they said to the messengers who came, “Thus will you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will have deliverance.” The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.

¹⁰ Then the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will surrender to you and you can do to us whatever seems good to you.” ¹¹ So it was on the following day that Saul divided the people into three columns; they penetrated into the midst of the camp at the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of day. It came about that the survivors were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

¹² Then the people said to Samuel, “Who was it who said, ‘Should Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, so we may put them to death.”^[a]

¹³ But Saul replied, “No man will be put to death this day, for today Adonai has brought deliverance to Israel.” ¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let’s go to Gilgal and reaffirm the kingdom there.” ¹⁵ So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before Adonai in Gilgal. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before Adonai, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

⁴³ Yeshua answered, “Stop grumbling among yourselves! ⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless My Father who sent Me draws him—and I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’^[a] Everyone who has listened and learned from the Father comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God—He has seen the Father.

⁴⁷ “Amen, amen I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. ⁵⁰ This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If anyone eats this bread, he will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

⁵² Then the Jews began arguing with one another, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”

⁵³ So Yeshua said to them, “Amen, amen I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. ⁵⁴ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

⁵⁵ “For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who eats of Me will also live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread that came down from heaven—not like the bread your fathers ate and then died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”

⁵⁹ He said these things while teaching at the synagogue in Capernaum.

Fallout from a Hard Teaching

⁶⁰ So when many of His disciples heard this, they said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can listen to it?”

⁶¹ But Yeshua knew His disciples were murmuring, so He said to them, “Does this offend you? ⁶² Then what if you see the Son of Man going back up to the place where He was before? ⁶³ It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no benefit. The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life! ⁶⁴ Yet some of you do not trust.” Yeshua knew from the beginning who were the ones who did not trust, as well as which one would betray Him.

⁶⁵ Then He told them, “For this reason I’ve told you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by the Father.”

⁶⁶ From this time, many of His disciples left and quit walking with Him. ⁶⁷ So Yeshua said to the Twelve, “You don’t want to leave also, do you?”

⁶⁸ Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life! ⁶⁹ We have trusted and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

⁷⁰ Yeshua answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is the adversary!” ⁷¹ Now He was speaking of Judah, the son of Simon of Kriot—for he, one of the Twelve, was about to betray Him.

His Chesed and His Wonders

Psalm 107

Tongue of the Wise