Saul's First Victory and His Fatal Mistake

Samuel had judged Israel faithfully for decades, traveling a circuit twice a year to settle disputes. But age caught up with him, and he handed authority to his sons—Joel in Bethel and Abiah in Beersheba. They were nothing like their father. They took bribes. They perverted justice. They lived lavishly off the suffering of the people they were supposed to protect.

So the elders came to Samuel at Ramah with a demand that cut him to the bone: give us a king. Samuel, who believed deeply in the aristocratic system where God alone ruled through judges, could not eat or sleep that night. But God told him something remarkable—the people were not rejecting Samuel. They were rejecting God himself. And they had been doing it since the day they left Egypt.

Samuel warned them exactly what monarchy would cost. Your sons will become his soldiers, his field laborers, his chariot drivers. Your daughters will bake his bread and mix his perfumes. He will seize your best vineyards and hand them to his officials. You will cry out for relief from the king you demanded, and God will not answer. The people did not care. They wanted what the other nations had.

Then God directed Samuel to a young man named Saul, son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin—tall, handsome, and searching the countryside for his father's lost donkeys. When Saul stumbled into Ramah looking for the animals, Samuel was already waiting. God had told him the day before: tomorrow I will send you the future king. Samuel anointed Saul's head with oil and whispered that God had chosen him to rule Israel and defeat the Philistines.

At the public assembly at Mizpah, when lots were cast tribe by tribe and family by family, the lot fell on Saul. But he had hidden himself. They found him and brought him forward—taller than anyone in the crowd—and Samuel declared, "God gives you this man to be your king." The people shouted, "God save the king!" Yet even in that moment of triumph, Josephus notes, the greater part of the crowd were ill men who despised the new king and refused to bring him gifts.