King Saul was the first of Israel’s kings. He was hand-picked by God and anointed by Samuel, the current established prophet and judge. However, Saul started out okay but quickly fell into reliance upon self and a lust for power he never would have. But what I want to explore is the backstory. What was going on as Saul grew up and became the king he would be? What would influence him to become the ruler he became? Not everything will be able to be fully explored due to both space and information revealed in Scripture, but let’s dig in.
Saul biography includes several details. He was 30 years old when he became king. Then there is some debate about the length of his reign. 1 Samuel 13:1 states his reign was 42 years. Paul states he ruled 40 years. But Josephus states that the combined leadership of Samuel and Saul was a mere 32 years and Paul merely rounded up. I had never heard this before I started researching what was going on during Eli’s leadership and Samuel’s leadership that brought Israel to calling for a king.
Now a complication enters the scene when just two years into Saul’s reign, he attacks the Philistines. Jonathan is Saul’s right-hand man; Abner doesn’t enter the picture until David’s time. If Saul was 30 at coronation and at 32 attacks the Philistines with Jonathan who moves and thinks like a general, how old was Jonathan when this actually took place? There is something else in play that we are missing. I have to presume that Saul’s rule does include some overlap with Samuel, but also supports the full 40 years that Paul mentions.
Saul’s kingship is marked by two primary events: his war with the Philistines and his obsession with David. As David did not enter the picture until the last 1/3 of Saul’s reign, we will not address him too much here. The bigger story for the behind the scenes leading up to Saul’s reign is the Philistines and the Ammonites. The Bible is not very clear about the precise timeline during the time of the judges as several may have overlapped. But there are three judges in play leading up to Saul who are worth noting: Samson, Eli, and Samuel.
By Judges 13, Israel sinned again as per their sin cycle during this time period, and this time God raised the Philistines to harass Israel. After a while, God raised Samson to stir up trouble with the Philistines and did so for 20 years. However, all Sampson did was take out the Philistine temple and leave a stench in their nostrils for Israel.
During Samson’s rule, Eli was on the scene as a judge and an old man. His sons were wicked, and while he rebuked them, he did not remove them from their position. There was a major battle between Israel and the Philistines in which the Philistines won soundly and captured the Ark of the Covenant, fulfilling young Samuel’s prophecy. The Philistines returned the ark after plagues hit them and their idol of Dagan, their god, collapsed twice, but it was never returned to the Tabernacle. When Samuel’s word came true, he gained the respect and honor of the people and was treated as both a prophet and a judge as he grew.
During Samuel’s rule, no battles with the Philistines are recorded, likely because of the recent memories of the plagues. The Philistines would not attack again until Saul became king, due to Saul’s aggressive approach. However, the Philistines had economic control over Israel the whole time since Samson. This is evidenced by Paul’s first ventures with the Philistines and only two swords are found among Israel: Saul’s and Jonathan’s. Why? Because the Philistines had conscripted or removed every blacksmith from Israel, forcing all the farmers to go to the Philistines to get their tools sharpened. Now, in addition to all this, the Philistines occupied what is currently known as the Gaza Strip, which was in the territory of Judah. Israel wasn’t merely fighting foreign nations; they had to deal with enemy occupancy from within their own land.
There was military peace during Samuel’s judging, though we don’t know how long that was. However, it was during this time, as Samuel grew older, that Nahash of the Ammonites invaded and was harassing Israel. This was the catalyst to Israel asking for a king. They wanted a physical representative to lead them and direct them instead of God. They were tired of repenting to God and waiting for him to send a deliverer. They wanted a king who could be the face of their franchise. They wanted someone whom they could see and their enemies could see. And here enters Saul.
Being 30 years old at this time, Saul might have been old enough to hear about the defeat of Israel by the Philistines when Eli died. Some have said that Samuel judged for 20 years, and his judging began when Eli died, so that would put Saul at 10 years old when this happened. I’m not entirely sold on that, but it’s a possibility. What we can say is Saul knew about the attacks from Nahash because when the king of the Ammonites attacked Jabesh Gilead, where Saul would have his capital, Saul rallied the army and defeated Nahash. This happened between his coronation and confirmation. Saul’s military experience was that of militia – volunteer when necessary, not a formal officer.
Saul is introduced in Scripture as a man looking for his father’s donkeys. He was an ordinary guy, except his physical stature. He was the tallest Israelite by a long shot, head and shoulders above everyone else. He literally looked down to no one. But he also did not like attention; when he realized he was going to be crowned king, he hid among the luggage. He wasn’t a brave man until this battle with Nahash took place. Then Saul became a military ruler and would fight the Philistines enough for David to deliver the final blow. Yet, in all this, Saul was never a man of courage. Sure, he rallied the troops to defeat Nahash, but that was the only real victory he had. All others came from his son Jonathan or David.
An interesting detail about Saul is that he is never known for actually turning to idolatry. During Samuel’s rule, there may have been high places where idols were worshiped, but Saul never seems to turn to them. He did turn to a medium to practice a séance in his final moment of desperation before he’d be killed in battle, but he is the only king identified as wicked who is not recorded as worshiping idols. Considering Israel turned to the idols for the previous 300 years, it does strike me as interesting how Saul, of all the wicked kings, never did. He had his own evil spirits to contend with, but he never bowed before an idol.
While hardly comprehensive, these are some of the details that led to Saul becoming the first king of Israel. His reign was sought because of Israel’s rejection of God as their true King, and so God gave them a king who’d do what they wanted, with all the side effects and consequences they never thought about it. To learn more of Saul’s reign, read 1 Samuel 13-31. Next week, I’ll look at the backstory to David. This is the most comprehensive backstory we have, but I’ll try to put some perspectives in that some may not think about.
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