CHAPTER 10 Jun. 29 
Samuel Anoints Saul
Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Hasn’t Yahweh anointed you to be prince over His inheritance? 2When you have departed from me today you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to seek have been found, and your father has stopped caring about the donkeys, and is anxious for you, saying, What shall I do for my son? ’. 3Then you will go on from there and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there, going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine. 4They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. 5After that you will come to the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is, and when you come near to the city you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, a tambourine, a pipe and a harp being played before them. They will be prophesying, 6and the Spirit of Yahweh will come mightily on you, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be changed into another person. 7When these signs have happened, then do as occasion demands, for God is with you. 8Go down before me to Gilgal and I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and to make sacrifices of peace offerings. Wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you must do.

Saul among the Prophets
9When Saul had turned to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all those signs happened that day. 10When they came to the hill a band of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God came mightily on him and he prophesied among them. 11When all who knew him before saw that he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? 12A man who lived there answered, Who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb: Is Saul also among the prophets? 13When he had stopped prophesying, he came to the high place. 14Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, Where did you go? He said, To seek the donkeys. When we saw that they were not to be found we came to Samuel. 15Saul’s uncle said, Please tell me what Samuel said to you. 16Saul said to his uncle, He told us plainly that the donkeys were found. But concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel spoke, he didn’t tell him.

Saul’s Kingship Announced
17Samuel called the people together to Yahweh to Mizpah, 18and he said to the people of Israel, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you, 19but you have this day rejected your God, who Himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses. You have said to Him, ‘No! Set a king over us’. Now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes and by your thousands. 20So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel together, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken. 21He brought the tribe of Benjamin forward by their families, and the family of the Matrites was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken, but when they sought him he could not be found. 22Therefore they asked of Yahweh further, Did the man come here? Yahweh answered, He has hidden himself among the baggage. 23They ran and fetched him, and when he stood among the people he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. 24Samuel said to all the people, You see the one whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people? All the people shouted, Long live the king! 25Then Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, wrote them in a book and laid it up before Yahweh. Samuel sent all the people away to their homes. 26Saul also went to his house to Gibeah and with him the valiant men whose hearts God had touched. 27But some worthless fellows said, How can this man save us? They despised him and brought him no present. But he was as though he had been deaf.

Commentary

10:9 God gave him another heart- God is able to work directly on the human mind, giving us mindsets and attitudes which are more spiritual than we would otherwise have. He can make us “another person” (:7). But despite this will and ability of God to do this, Saul was ultimately untransformed, because he simply preferred the flesh.
10:19-21 It was God's wish that Israel would not have a human king; hence His sorrow when they did. Yet in the Law, God foresaw that they would want a human king, and so He gave commandments concerning how he should behave (Dt. 17:14,15). God foresaw their weaknesses and somehow provided for them, as He does with us. These passages speak of how Israel would choose to set a King over themselves, and would do so. Yet God worked through this system of human kings; hence the Queen of Sheba speaks of howGod had set Solomon over Israel as King, and how he was king on God's behalf (2 Chron. 9:8). Israel set a king over themselves; but God worked with this, so that in a senseHe set the King over them. However, by opting to make use of God's concessions to human weakness, real spirituality became harder to achieve. Thus it was harder to accept Yahweh as King if they had a human king demanding their allegiance.
10:27 As though he had been deaf – Much later, David describes himself as responding to criticism like this: “I as a deaf man, heard not” (Ps. 38:13). Yet he was alluding to how Saul, when likewise criticized by wicked men, “was as though he had been deaf” to their words. David learnt the secret of seeing the positive in our weak brethren, even in our persecutors, and he didn’t let all that was wrong with Saul interfere with this. He saw the good in Saul, he remembered that one good example he showed- and it empowered him to follow it. This not only develops and reflects humility, but it helps us cope with ongoing abusive situations without completely losing any sense of the value and significance of every human person- including the person of our abusers.