Saul is Anointed as King

I Samuel 10:1–13
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When an Israelite king took office, he was both crowned and anointed. The coronation was the political act of recognizing the new king as ruler of the people. The anointing was the religious act of making the king God’s representative to the people.

As this chapter opens, we find Samuel pouring oil (a mixture of olive oil, myrrh and other expensive spices) over Saul’s head to symbolize the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in his life (v. 1). When Samuel poured oil on Saul’s head, this act represented God’s approval of Saul as a leader of His people. Another purpose of this ceremony was to remind the king of his great responsibility to lead his people by God’s wisdom and not by his own. While this ceremony is going on Saul’s father thinks he is lost and is looking for him (v. 2). Samuel now gives instruction to Saul as to what he will encounter on his way home (vv. 3-5). The Spirit of God will come upon Saul and he will began to prophecy (vv. 6-8). This gave Saul confidence in himself, as he could see what Samuel said was true, and it also helped the people to trust in Saul as their king and know that God had, in fact, chosen him.

After Saul left Samuel these promised signs came to pass (vv. 9-13). When a group of prophets met him the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied to them. This does not suggest, of course, that Saul became part of the prophetic ministry led by Samuel, but only that he was able to exercise a prophetic gift, at least on this occasion, though never having received prophetic training. However, this was a remarkable and convincing sign of God’s presence and power in Saul’s life. Everyone who had known him before knew that something had happened to him. God was giving Saul an opportunity. God never withheld anything from him, and yet he failed.

You might be wondering how Saul could be so filled with the Spirit and later commit such terrible acts.  It is because often, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit only came upon a person temporarily.  In Saul’s case, he was a different person in his early years as king because of the Holy Spirit’s work in him. Then, as his power grew so did his pride and, after a while, he refused to seek God and the Spirit left him (16:14). Just as Saul has a personal and experiential evidence of the truth of God’s word that had been spoken to him, so do we as converts to Christianity have the same sanctifying power of the Gospel in our lives, but the Holy Spirit will never leave us as it did the OT Saints.

Application

Just as Saul rejected God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, men and women continue to do this today. I must never reject God by pushing Him aside and putting someone or something else ahead of Him? If I do the price may be very high!