Their entreaty was granted, and
in 1094 B. C. Saul the son of Kish, of the small but fierce tribe of
Benjamin, was appointed by God, and anointed like a priest by Samuel,
on the understanding that he was not to rule by his own will, like the
princes around, but as God's chief officer, to enforce His laws and
carry out His bidding.
This Saul would not do. When, instead of lurking in caves, with no
weapons save their tools for husbandry, the Israelites, under his
leading, gradually became free and warlike; and his son Jonathan and
uncle Abner were able generals, he fancied he could go his own way, he
took on him to offer sacrifice, as the heathen kings did; and when sent
forth to destroy all belonging to the Amalekites, he spared the king
and the choicest of the spoil. For this he was sentenced not to be the
founder of a line of kings, and the doom filled him with wrath against
the priesthood, while an evil spirit was permittted to trouble his soul,
Samuel's last great act was to anoint the youngest son of Jesse the
Bethlehemite, the great grandchild of the loving Moabitess, Ruth, the
same whom God had marked beside his sheepfolds as the man after His own
Heart, the future father of the sceptred line of Judah, and of the
"Root and Offspring of David, the bright and morning Star.
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