Day 79. 1 Samuel 8-10

Samuel is presented to us as the last and greatest of the judges, but like Eli before him, his sons are corrupt—"they took bribes and corrupted justice" (8:3).
The system of the judges was always an ad hoc arrangement, and now it seems clear to nearly everyone that it is not working. The people want a king, so that they may be "like other nations" (8:4). Samuel is displeased and hurt by the demand, which he interprets as a criticism of his own tenure. But the LORD tells Samuel that it is not he who is being rejected, but the LORD himself (8:7). When he bows to their desire for a king, Samuel does not mince words about what this means. He tells the people—"Today you have rejected your God" (10:19). This is the end of Israelite confederacy as a theocracy—God has been dethroned--and the beginning of Israel as a nation-state.
This change has the force of inevitability behind it. Nevertheless, Samuel is instructed by the LORD to "lay it on the line" what kingship will mean. The people are trading freedom for order. They will have to pay a price. Now their sons will be conscripted as soldiers and their daughters as servants to the court. They will be taxed at one-tenth of their produce (8:15). Their slaves and their animals will be subject to the corvee—forced labor exacted by the government (8: 16-17). Samuel warns them that the novelty of having a king will wear out quickly, and when the day of disillusionment comes and they cry to the LORD because of the king they have chosen for themselves, "the LORD will not answer them in that day" (8:18). They will have made their bed.
But the people will not listen. They want a king to govern them and go before them and fight their battles (8:20). Samuel is given the task of appointing the one the LORD chooses.
So now we are introduced to Saul, whose principal recommendation seems to be his height and good looks (9:2). He looks the part of a king. He is a man that men will follow. Saul's search for his father's wayward donkeys brings him to Samuel, who has already been instructed by the LORD to look for "a man from the land of Benjamin" (9:15).
That Saul is a Benjaminite (9:21) is important because the tribe of Bejamin was a smallest and least respected of the tribes. A king chosen from that tribe would be less likely to arouse the animosity of larger and more powerful tribes.
So Samuel anoints Saul with oil. The ritual of anointing is a sign of the pouring of the spirit of God for a particular purpose. The judges had received the spirit of God as the charismatic gift necessary to rescue the people from a particular danger. Saul is selected save the people "from the hand of the Philistines" (6:16). But there is something different in Saul's selection as king. Now charismatic leadership is being institutionalized, and anointing is the sign of the choice God has made of the king to be ruler over his heritage (10:1). The king is designated by anointing as a "messiah," a deliverer, to save his people from their present predicament.
But Saul is not only anointed with oil. In the presence of a band of prophets, he is also possessed by the spirit of the LORD and "turned into a different person" (10:6). He falls into an ecstatic frenzy with the prophets, and, we are told, "God gave him another heart" (10:9). (This prophetic frenzy will on occasion fall upon King David too.) It is a sign of charismatic authority, and a sign of the change that has come upon the young man Saul. He has become a prophet as well as a king (10:11).
So Saul is selected by God and anointed by Samuel. Now the tribes are gathered at Mizpah to ratify that decision. The sacred lots are cast. The handsome Benjaminite is chosen and greeted by the acclamation—"Long live the king!" But from the beginning support for the new king is less than universal. We are told that "some worthless fellows say, 'How can this man save us?'" (10:27). The seeds of future troubles are already sprouting.