The Living Bible (90 page)

1 Samuel
10

Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it over Saul’s head, and kissed him on the cheek and said,

    
“I am doing this because the Lord has appointed you to be the king of his people, Israel!
²
 When you leave me, you will see two men beside Rachel’s tomb at Zelzah, in the land of Benjamin; they will tell you that the donkeys have been found and that your father is worried about you and is asking, ‘How am I to find my son?’
³
 And when you get to the oak of Tabor, you will see three men coming toward you who are on their way to worship God at the altar at Bethel; one will be bringing three young goats, another will have three loaves of bread, and the third will have a bottle of wine.
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 They will greet you and offer you two of the loaves, which you are to accept.
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 After that you will come to Gibeath-elohim, also known as “God’s Hill,” where the garrison of the Philistines is. As you arrive there you will meet a band of prophets coming down the hill playing a psaltery, a timbrel, a flute, and a harp, and prophesying as they come.

    
⁶
 “At that time the Spirit of the Lord will come mightily upon you and you will prophesy with them, and you will feel and act like a different person.
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 From that time on your decisions should be based on whatever seems best under the circumstances, for the Lord will guide you.
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 Go to Gilgal and wait there seven days for me, for I will be coming to sacrifice burnt offerings and peace offerings. I will give you further instructions when I arrive.”

    
⁹
 As Saul said good-bye and started to go, God gave him a new attitude, and all of Samuel’s prophecies came true that day.
¹⁰
 When Saul and the servant arrived at the Hill of God, they saw the prophets coming toward them, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he too began to prophesy.

    
¹¹
 When his friends heard about it, they exclaimed, “What? Saul a prophet?”
¹²
 And one of the neighbors added, “With a father like his?” So that is the origin of the proverb, “Is Saul a prophet too?”
*

    
¹³
 When Saul had finished prophesying he climbed the hill to the altar.

    
¹⁴
 “Where in the world did you go?” Saul’s uncle asked him.

    
And Saul replied, “We went to look for the donkeys, but we couldn’t find them; so we went to the prophet Samuel to ask him where they were.”

    
¹⁵
 “Oh? And what did he say?” his uncle asked.

    
¹⁶
 “He said the donkeys had been found!” Saul replied. (But he didn’t tell him that he had been anointed as king!)

    
¹⁷
 Samuel now called a convocation of all Israel at Mizpah
^18-19
 and gave them this message from the Lord God: “I brought you from Egypt and rescued you from the Egyptians and from all of the nations that were torturing you. But although I have done so much for you, you have rejected me and have said, ‘We want a king instead!’ All right, then, present yourselves before the Lord by tribes and clans.”

    
²⁰
 So Samuel called the tribal leaders together before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by sacred lot.
²¹
 Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally the sacred lot selected Saul, the son of Kish. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared!

    
²²
 So they asked the Lord, “Where is he? Is he here among us?”

    
And the Lord replied, “He is hiding in the baggage.”

    
²³
 So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.

    
²⁴
 Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. There isn’t his equal in all of Israel!”

    
And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

    
²⁵
 Then Samuel told the people again what the rights and duties of a king were; he wrote them in a book and put it in a special place before the Lord. Then Samuel sent the people home again.

    
²⁶
 When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a band of men whose hearts the Lord had touched became his constant companions.
²⁷
 There were, however, some bums and loafers who exclaimed, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and refused to bring him presents, but he took no notice.

1 Samuel
11

At this time Nahash led the army of the Ammonites against the Israeli city of Jabesh-gilead. But the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Leave us alone and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.

    
²
 “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition: I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace upon all Israel!”

    
³
 “Give us seven days to see if we can get some help!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If none of our brothers will come and save us, we will agree to your terms.”

    
⁴
 When a messenger came to Gibeah, Saul’s hometown, and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears.

    
⁵
 Saul was plowing in the field, and when he returned to town he asked, “What’s the matter? Why is everyone crying?”

    
So they told him about the message from Jabesh.
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 Then the Spirit of God came strongly upon Saul and he became very angry.
⁷
 He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent messengers to carry them throughout all Israel.

    
“This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel to battle!” he announced. And God caused the people to be afraid of Saul’s anger, and they came to him as one man.
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 He counted them in Bezek and found that there were three hundred thousand of them in addition to thirty thousand from Judah.

    
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 So he sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, “We will rescue you before tomorrow noon!” What joy there was throughout the city when that message arrived!

    
¹⁰
 The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, “We surrender. Tomorrow we will come out to you and you can do to us as you wish.”

    
¹¹
 But early the next morning Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments, and launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them all morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.

    
¹²
 Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, “Where are those men who said that Saul shouldn’t be our king? Bring them here and we will kill them!”

    
¹³
 But Saul replied, “No one will be executed today; for today the Lord has rescued Israel!”

    
¹⁴
 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us all go to Gilgal and reconfirm Saul as our king.”

    
¹⁵
 So they went to Gilgal and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they crowned him king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all Israel were very happy.

1 Samuel
12

Then Samuel addressed the people again:

    
“Look,” he said, “I have done as you asked. I have given you a king.
²
 I have selected him ahead of my own sons and now I stand here, an old, gray-haired man who has been in public service from the time he was a lad.
³
 Now tell me as I stand before the Lord and before his anointed king—whose ox or donkey have I stolen? Have I ever defrauded you? Have I ever oppressed you? Have I ever taken a bribe? Tell me and I will make right whatever I have done wrong.”

    
⁴
 “No,” they replied, “you have never defrauded or oppressed us in any way and you have never taken even one single bribe.”

    
⁵
 “The Lord and his anointed king are my witnesses,” Samuel declared, “that you can never accuse me of robbing you.”

    
“Yes, it is true,” they replied.

    
⁶
 “It was the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron,” Samuel continued. “He brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.

    
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 “Now stand here quietly before the Lord as I remind you of all the good things he has done for you and for your ancestors:

    
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 “When the Israelites were in Egypt and cried out to the Lord, he sent Moses and Aaron to bring them into this land.
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 But they soon forgot about the Lord their God, so he let them be conquered by Sisera, the general of King Hazor’s army, and by the Philistines and the king of Moab.

    
¹⁰
 “Then they cried to the Lord again and confessed that they had sinned by turning away from him and worshiping the Baal and Ashtaroth idols. And they pleaded, ‘We will worship you and you alone if you will only rescue us from our enemies.’
¹¹
 Then the Lord sent Gideon, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel to save you, and you lived in safety.

    
¹²
 “But when you were afraid of Nahash, the king of Ammon, you came to me and said that you wanted a king to reign over you. But the Lord your God was already your King, for he has always been your King.
¹³
 All right, here is the king you have chosen. Look him over. You have asked for him, and the Lord has answered your request.

    
¹⁴
 “Now if you will fear and worship the Lord, and listen to his commandments and not rebel against the Lord, and if both you and your king follow the Lord your God, then all will be well.
¹⁵
 But if you rebel against the Lord’s commandments and refuse to listen to him, then his hand will be as heavy upon you as it was upon your ancestors.

    
¹⁶
 “Now watch as the Lord does great miracles.
¹⁷
 You know that it does not rain at this time of the year, during the wheat harvest; I will pray for the Lord to send thunder and rain today, so that you will realize the extent of your wickedness in asking for a king!”

    
¹⁸
 So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain; and all the people were very much afraid of the Lord and of Samuel.

    
¹⁹
 “Pray for us lest we die!” they cried out to Samuel. “For now we have added to all our other sins by asking for a king.”

    
²⁰
 “Don’t be frightened,” Samuel reassured them. “You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with true enthusiasm, and that you don’t turn your back on him in any way.
²¹
 Other gods can’t help you.
²²
 The Lord will not abandon his chosen people, for that would dishonor his great name. He made you a special nation for himself—just because he wanted to!

    
²³
 “As for me, I will certainly not sin against the Lord by ending my prayers for you; and I will continue to teach you those things which are good and right.

    
²⁴
 “Trust the Lord and sincerely worship him; think of all the tremendous things he has done for you.
²⁵
 But if you continue to sin, you and your king will be destroyed.”