1Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah, the son of a Benjamite, a mighty man of valor. 2He had a son whose name was Saul, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Israel a more handsome person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was taller than any of the people.
3The donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. Kish said to Saul his son, “Now take one of the servants with you, and arise, go look for the donkeys.” 4He passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they didn’t find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they weren’t there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they didn’t find them.
5When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come! Let’s return, lest my father stop caring about the donkeys and be anxious for us.”
6The servant said to him, “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says surely happens. Now let’s go there. Perhaps he can tell us which way to go.”
7Then Saul said to his servant, “But behold, if we go, what should we bring the man? For the bread is spent in our sacks, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?”
8The servant answered Saul again and said, “Behold, I have in my hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God, to tell us our way.” 9(In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, “Come! Let’s go to the seer;” for he who is now called a prophet was before called a seer.)
10Then Saul said to his servant, “Well said. Come! Let’s go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was. 11As they went up the ascent to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said to them, “Is the seer here?”
12They answered them and said, “He is. Behold, he is before you. Hurry now, for he has come today into the city; for the people have a sacrifice today in the high place. 13As soon as you have come into the city, you will immediately find him before he goes up to the high place to eat; for the people will not eat until he comes, because he blesses the sacrifice. Afterwards those who are invited eat. Now therefore go up; for at this time you will find him.”
14They went up to the city. As they came within the city, behold, Samuel came out toward them to go up to the high place.
15Now Yahweh had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying, 16“Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He will save my people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me.”
17When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh said to him, “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! He will have authority over my people.”
God tells Samuel to anoint Saul as Israel’s King. Saul would definitely have been the number one choice. He was handsome, strong and head and shoulders taller than anyone around and the people were delighted with this choice. At first everything goes well, Saul leads the people in battle, winning many victories and the everyone loves him.
However, as time goes on some character flaws begin to show. Saul begins to believe the hype about himself and becomes proud and he starts to do his own thing rather than obeying God. He begins to make himself rich by taking trophies of war from battles, something God had told him not to do. He then thinks that he can take on the role of priest, by offering sacrifices before battle because he was too impatient to wait for Samuel. He was crippled by jealousy and hated anyone to have success beyond his. Despite Samuel confronting him about his behaviour Saul refused to admit his mistakes and refused to repent. There is a time after stealing the spoils of war that Saul pleads for forgiveness, but soon after he goes back to his old ways of pride and jealousy. It was at this time that God told Samuel to anoint a different king, because Saul had gone too far.
It can be worrying when we read about people like Saul, because we are aware of our own wrong doing. God does not abandon us when we do wrong and he still loves us. To really learn from the story of Saul it is important that we know the difference between saying sorry and being repentant. To say sorry shows that we regret our actions and we seek forgiveness from the other party. To be repentant means not only do we regret our actions, but we are also willing to change our behaviour.