1 Samuel 10:1-27 | Food for Thought
1 Samuel 10:1-27
Food for Thought:
Signs & Instructions. Samuel anoints Saul, tells him a series of events that’s about to happen to him, and then gives him the freedom to do whatever he wants while he waits for Samuel to return to him.
The signs happen to Saul as confirmation of his kingship. While we’re not anointed as kings, what are some “signs of confirmation” that we would tell a new believer to expect at the beginning of their walk with Jesus?
Samuel’s instructions to Saul involve an expectation that specific things will happen right away, a period of freedom when Saul can do whatever seems right as the Lord leads, and one specific thing he’ll have to wait for. Do these things in any way mirror the Lord’s instructions for our own life? Why / why not? In what ways?
A Changed Man. Samuel says that Saul will be transformed when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, and the text seems to suggest that something happened even earlier than that; Saul’s heart was changed as soon as he turned around and left Samuel.
Read Ezekiel 36:25-27. While this passage comes much later in Israel’s timeline and points to what God will one day do in the hearts of all his people (not just one or a few), how do Saul’s experiences relate to this?
Why would it be necessary for Saul to be changed in the first place? Transformed from what to what? A heart changed from what to what? How do we need to be changed in those same ways?
Gibeah was Saul’s hometown, and the people there took note of the change that had taken place in him. Why was this remarkable?
In what ways have / would the people who know you say you’ve changed since knowing Jesus? (This is just as true for folks who were raised in the church; surely you’ve matured and changed over the years!)
How do you hope people will say you’ve changed years from now?
Politics of the Heart. On one hand, Israel is chastised for wanting a king and rejecting the Lord as their savior. On the other hand, those who looked at Saul and wondered, “How can this guy save us?” were considered wicked.
Make this make sense! Why would God want his people to accept and follow an earthly king, even though demanding one in the first place wasn’t good? What’s the proper posture of heart here? What does God want?
Read Romans 13:1-7. There’s much more to the relationship between Christians and the government than this one simple paragraph. And it’s important to remember that the government Paul is talking about was the one who crucified Jesus and would go on to persecute the church. What wisdom is Paul trying to get across to us about the way we submit to authorities, while fully acknowledging that no king except Jesus can and will save us?