1Sam 10

Prophecies are a sign for believers – Example #2

Introduction: The preceding chapter was about why a king was chosen to rule over Israel according to their own wishes. Here, chapter 10 recounts three prophecies of Samuel that he made about Saul. The goal of this study is to find out how these oracles were signs, and for whom.

Read 1. Samuel 10

1) If you use the ESV, compare other translations of v1. If you wonder why (only) ESV translates “…this shall be a sign to you…” (etc.), what do you do?

• ESV here follows text variant of the Septuagint (LXX), without disclosure in a footnote. Even though the LXX has been around for >2000 years, other translators don’t follow it, let alone without a footnote. So what is going on?
• i.e. why would any new translators decide to deviate from their own template (RSV) and from every other translation of 1Sam 10:1 – in an era that has become infatuated with pursuing (miraculous) signs again?
• Why is it prudent under such circumstances to refrain from concluding (or teaching, as ESV does) that Saul needed and received Samuel’s prophecy as a sign (gr. sémeion)?
• Read 1Cor 14:22. Who is said there to receive (or to not receive) prophecy (sg.) as a sign?
• Does Saul fit the descriptions in the Bible of who is a believer? Or is he the prototype unbeliever – religious but hostile to Christ (foreshadowed in king David) and unrepentant to the end?
  • What is the effect of ESV taking liberty here to follow LXX? Will it clarify who needs (and receives) prophecy as a sign, 1Cor 14:22? Why or why not?

2) v1 in non-LXX texts is a question, literally “Has not the LORD anointed you commander over His inheritance?”. Considering all circumstances and Saul’s tragic end, who will not wonder if Saul’s appointment to be king was really from the Lord, or whether it was a human mistake?

• David and his brothers and the priests loyal to him were later persecuted by Saul (1Sam 22): How was Samuel’s prophecy about Saul a sign to them as believers? cf 1Sam 24:6-7

3) How was Saul’s understanding clouded by unbelief to never discern the meaning of any prophetic signs?

• Instead of abdicating when God told him (13:14), Saul clung to his position and persecuted the king to come and those faithful to Him (which is Christ as the true heir). How is such unbelief spiritually blinding? cf 1Cor 2:14-16

4) In vv2-6, Samuel predicted three signs that Saul encountered on his way home via a prescribed detour. Did Samuel explain their purpose/meaning? v7

• Some commentators assume (like the ESV) that these signs were for Saul himself to convince him of his new mandate. Does v7 say so?
  • If Saul had been convinced by these signs, why did he still hide himself at the time when lots were cast to choose a king, 10:20-22?
  • And why did Saul choose not to tell his uncle (and future general*) about his anointing, 10:16?
• If the signs were not for Saul, who else might be expected to stop and think what they mean? => How about the readers?

5) As a first sign, Samuel foretold that the donkeys were found, yet he sent Saul to Rachel’s tomb anyway (i.e. about twice as far south from Ramah than Saul’s home town Gibeah). Why was Saul sent around and beyond Gibeah?

• Rachel died when giving birth to Saul’s ancestor Benjamin, Gen 35:18-19. One commentator (Matthew Henry, 1662-1714) thought that Rachel’s tomb reminded Saul of his own mortality. Did the two messengers at the tomb tell Saul something else, v2?
  • The donkeys were found already before Saul even left Samuel (9:20), and Saul’s father apparently told everyone. As they were found without Saul’s help, and without one word from God to Saul, how is that a sign, and what could be its meaning?

6) What was the second sign that Samuel predicted? 10:3-5

• After Rachel’s tomb, where was Saul sent to go next, and what was that place known for?
  • The ‘oak of weeping’** was where Jacob and his family mourned the death of his nanny***, whereas in Bethel on the hill above that hollow, Jacob was comforted: How? Gen 35:11 —>What did that promise say about kings?****
• Saul was sent to Deborah’s grave only to meet there three other messengers. For believers searching what this sign could mean, the only clue (besides the location) is that the messengers were three, and what they did or did not share with Saul. What did they carry?
  • How are these details reminiscent of an earlier story that could explain their meaning to those who believe in Christ?
  • Read Gen 18:1-3. What was Abraham promised by three men who visited him in Mamre (another place associated with oaks)? —>What did they predict about kings?
  • And how did Abraham’s response and his meal with them compare to those of Saul at the oak below Bethel? What differences between Saul and Abraham (including their gifts) are highlighted by this comparison? Why wasn’t Saul asked to join the three messengers in their worship on the hilltop? Why didn’t they eat together as Abraham did?***** 
• Did Saul have any inkling how this prophecy was comparing him against Abraham and his promised heir? Or is it only for believers to know and understand the difference?
• Why will no unbeliever understand this sign, even if they were squarely looking at it like Saul was?

7) As a third sign, Samuel predicted that Saul will mingle with a group of prophets coming down the ‘hill of God’ (Gibeath-Elohim). Where was that, and how could this prophecy be a sign for believers and not for unbelievers?

• v10 names the place as Gibeah, Saul’s home town. What was a ‘garrison’ (lit. pillar) of Philistines doing there? Was that post manned?
  • Should we picture Gibeah as besieged, or rather as liberated from this enemy? cf 1Sam 7:13-14
• Who needed to be told about this seemingly unrelated detail of an abandoned Philistine garrison? Saul who grew up in that town and surely knew its surroundings? Or believers whose hope is set on Christ and who need it as a clue what this prophecy has to do with their hope? => consider the context:
  • Israel’s weakness and defeat by the Philistines in 4:10-11 were rooted in the corruption of her priests (2:1-17) that made the people despise religion and faith. By contrast, where did deliverance from the Philistines come from in 1Sam 7?
  • How was this revival related to strategic spiritual renewals, such as the establishment of a seminary of prophets in Gibeah by Samuel (a real dump where the past civil war originated)? 
  • Did the people of Gibeah who knew Saul from infancy think highly of this school and its students, or did they still resent religion, 10:12 ? Hint: Why did the people want a king to replace Samuel in the first place? 8:1-5
• When Saul joined these prophets, he was (again) not part of those ascending to the high place of worship. Nevertheless, he could have been mistaken for a prophet, because of all the visible changes how the Holy Spirit influenced him, 10:6. How do you read this sign and its meaning that he was turned into another man, v6?
  • Application: Why is it essential for believers to understand that God steers and uses ungodly leaders no less for His own purposes than godly ones, v7?
  • How does this third sign teach believers to not be fooled by spiritual manifestations such as Saul’s exuberant experience that was no cure for his spiritual blindness to know, trust and submit to Christ?

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* Saul later chose Abner as his chief of staff, and no equally loyal and trusted care taker is mentioned anywhere, cf 2Sa 3:8. Abner, rather than Saul’s own father, was also the only one who even cared what Samuel had told Saul, suggesting that Saul kept his anointing secret for a reason other than lack of trust in this beloved uncle. More likely, he feared the embarrassment in case Samuel would be proven wrong.
** The ‘oak of weeping’ was where Rebekah’s nurse Deborah was buried outside Bethel (Gen 35:8). Accordingly, Saul had to walk 35km north (near Jerusalem). The ‘oak of Tabor’ was not near mount Tabor, which would have been too far away in Galilee (150 km north of Rachel’s tomb/Bethlehem).
*** According to the Midrash (Jewish  commentary), nurse was understood to mean the nurse of Rebekah’s children, which can exlain why Jacob mourned her as if she had been his own mother.
**** God’s promise to Abraham that his descendants will include kings (Gen 17:6) was renewed to Jacob in Bethel, Gen 35:11.
***** Whatever that sign means, if it were just to impress Saul by predictions coming true, it is hard to see why Samuel would care whether or not Saul should accept these loaves of bred!