The Book of 1 Samuel

Word Study

"anointed," Hebrew mashach (מָשַׁח), "to smear, to anoint with oil." Samuel pours oil on Saul and declares, "the LORD hath anointed (mashach) thee." Anointing with oil set a person apart to a sacred office, prophet, priest, or king, and the oil was a standing symbol of the Holy Spirit, who equips for the work. This is why the very next promise is "the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee": the outward oil signified the inward Spirit.

"Messiah," Hebrew mashiach, the noun from that root. Every anointed king was a mashiach, a "messiah" in the lesser sense, pointing to the great Messiah, "the LORD's anointed" without measure. Of Jesus it is written, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power" (Acts 10:38), and His very title, Christ (Greek Christos) and Messiah (Hebrew Mashiach), both mean "Anointed One." Saul's vial of oil is a faint shadow of the Spirit poured out without measure on the true King, who in turn anoints all His people, "ye have an unction from the Holy One" (1 John 2:20).

Explanation

In private, Samuel anoints Saul with a vial of oil, kisses him in homage, and declares him "captain over his inheritance", God's chosen leader over God's own people. To confirm that this is truly of God, Samuel gives three precise, verifiable signs Saul will meet on his way home: two men at Rachel's tomb reporting the donkeys found, three pilgrims at Tabor giving him two loaves, and a company of prophets at "the hill of God" among whom the Spirit will come upon him. The climactic promise is transformation: "thou shalt be turned into another man... for God is with thee." Samuel also gives a standing instruction to wait for him at Gilgal, seven days, an instruction Saul will later disastrously disobey (chapter 13). God confirms His call with signs and equips it with His Spirit.

Gospel Focus

The oil poured on Saul's head points to the anointing every believer needs, not oil, but the Holy Spirit. No one is fit for God's service by natural ability; we must be anointed and empowered from above. Saul's outward oil and inward Spirit picture the reality: God sets us apart and then fills us for the work He calls us to. And all such anointing flows from the one great Anointed, Jesus the Christ, "the Messiah," who received the Spirit without measure and pours it out on His own. "Now he which... hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Do not attempt God's work in your own strength; seek the anointing of the Spirit, for only "God is with thee" makes any servant able.

Word Study

"God gave him another heart," Hebrew leb acher (לֵב אַחֵר), "another heart." The moment Saul turned to leave, "God gave him another heart," and he was, as promised, "turned into another man." This is a striking phrase, a God-given change of heart to equip him for a new calling. It is a shadow, though only a shadow, of the new heart God promises in the gospel: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart... and I will give you an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). Saul's changed heart was for an office; the believer's new heart is for salvation, a true regeneration by the Spirit, "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet, soberingly, Saul's "another heart" did not finally save him; the outward endowment of the Spirit for a task is not the same as the inward, saving transformation that perseveres. It is possible to be changed for a work and yet not be changed at the root. We must have not merely a new role but a new nature.

Explanation

The signs come true exactly, culminating when "the Spirit of God came upon" Saul and he prophesied with the company of prophets. Those who knew him were astonished, this ordinary Benjamite farmer, caught up in the Spirit's power, and the saying spread: "Is Saul also among the prophets?" It became a proverb for something surprising and out of character. Notice too Saul's modesty: back home, when his uncle asks what happened, he speaks only of the donkeys and says nothing "of the matter of the kingdom." At this early stage Saul is humble, even reticent about his great destiny. The Spirit had truly touched him, and God had given him a new heart for the task ahead. The reluctant farmer was becoming a king.

Gospel Focus

"Is Saul also among the prophets?" captures the wonder when God's Spirit transforms an unlikely person. Grace does exactly this, it takes the ordinary and the unexpected and does something no one predicted, so that people marvel, "what is this that is come unto" him? When God changes a life, the old neighbors are amazed. Yet Saul's story also sounds a warning: to be moved by the Spirit for a moment, even to prophesy, is not the same as being saved. Saul received "another heart" for kingship but never a truly converted heart, and he perished. Many will say, "have we not prophesied in thy name?" and hear, "I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). Seek not merely to be used by God but to be His; not merely gifted, but regenerated. The new heart that matters most is the one that makes you a new creature in Christ forever.

Word Study

"whose hearts God had touched," Hebrew naga (נָגַע), "to touch, reach, strike." Two responses divide the people. A "band of men, whose hearts God had touched," go with Saul in loyal support; but "the children of Belial" despise him. The difference is a divine touch on the heart. The same word describes God touching Isaiah's lips with the coal (Isaiah 6:7) and Jeremiah's mouth (Jeremiah 1:9), the gracious touch that moves and enables. What made the difference between the loyal band and the scornful was not their reasoning but whether God had "touched" their hearts. So it is always: the heart's response to God's appointed leader, and supremely to God's appointed King, depends on a work of God within. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him" (John 6:44). Those whose hearts God touches follow; those left to themselves despise and ask, "How shall this man save us?" The touch of God on the heart is the secret of all true allegiance.

Explanation

Samuel gathers Israel to Mizpeh for the public selection, but first he presses home the truth once more: in demanding a king, "ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you." Then, by casting lots, God narrows the choice, tribe of Benjamin, family of Matri, and finally Saul, publicly confirming the man already privately anointed. But Saul, in humility (or fear), has "hid himself among the stuff" (the baggage), and must be fetched out. Standing head and shoulders above all, he is presented: "See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen," and the people shout, "God save the king." Samuel records "the manner of the kingdom" in a book. Saul goes home with a God-touched band of loyal men, but "children of Belial" despise him, and he wisely "held his peace."

Gospel Focus

"See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen... God save the king." The scene points beyond Saul to the true King God has chosen, "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen" (Matthew 12:18), and to the cry that will one day rise from every tongue, acclaiming Christ as King. Yet the divided response to Saul, some whose hearts God touched following him, others despising him, "How shall this man save us?", is exactly the division the true King provokes. The world still asks of Jesus, "How shall this man save us?" and despises Him, while those whose hearts God has touched gladly cry, "God save the king." And Saul's humility here, holding his peace before his despisers, faintly mirrors the greater King who, when reviled, "reviled not again." The dividing line, then and now, is whether God has touched your heart to receive the King He has chosen.