TUESDAY 17TH APRIL, 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
SCRIPTURE READING:- 1 SAMUEL 9
TOPIC:– NEVER YOU BE KING LIKE SAUL
TEXT:- 1 SAMUEL 9:2
The Hebrew meaning for the name Saul is “asked for or wished for”. While the English meaning are “demanded; lent; ditch; death; sceva; disposed”. From the Hebrew name, [sha’ul] which meant “asked for or prayed for”, this was the name of the first King of Israel, as told in the Old Testament.
Saul was the son of Kish, [probably his only son, and a child of prayer, “asked for”] of the tribe of Benjamin, the first King of the Jewish nation. The singular providential circumstances connected with his election as king are recorded in 1 Samuel 8:10 – Chapter 10.
His father’s she-asses had strayed, and Saul was sent with a servant to seek for them. Leaving his home at Gibeah, Saul and his servant went toward the north-west over mount Ephraim, and then turning north-east they came to “the land of Shalisha,” and thence eastward to the land of Shalim, and at length came to the district of Zuph, near Samuel’s home at Ramah, 1 Samuel 9:5-10.
At this point Saul proposed to return from the three days’ fruitless search, but his servant suggested that they should first consult the “seer.” Hearing that he was about to offer sacrifice, the two hastened into Ramah, and “behold, Samuel came out against them,” on his way to the “Bamah”, i.e., the “height”, where sacrifice was to be offered.
And in answer to Saul’s question, “tell me, I pray thee, where the seer’s house is,” Samuel made himself known to him. Samuel had been divinely prepared for his coming, 1 Samuel 9:15-17.
Samuel received Saul as his guest. He took him with him to the sacrifice, and then after the feast “communed with Saul upon the top of the house” of all that was in his heart. On the morrow Samuel “took a vial of oil and poured it on his head,” and anointed Saul as king over Israel 1 Samuel 9:25-10:8.
Samuel gave him three signs in confirmation of his call to be king. When Saul reached his home in Gibeah the last of these signs was fulfilled, and the Sprit of God came upon him, and “he was turned into another man.
The simple countryman was transformed into the King of Israel, a remarkable change suddenly took place in his whole demeanor, and the people said in their astonishment, as they looked on the stalwart son of Kish, “is Saul also among the prophets?” A saying which passed into a “proverb.”
The intercourse between Saul and Samuel was as yet unknown to the people. The “anointing” had been in secret. But now the time had come when the transaction must be confirmed by the nation.
Samuel accordingly summoned the people to a solemn assembly “before the Lord” at Mizpeh. Here the lot was drawn, 1 Samuel 10:17-27.
Now, as it fell upon Saul, and when he was presented before them, the stateliest man in all Israel, the air was rent for the first time in Israel by the loud cry, “God save the king!” he now returned to his home in Gibeah, attended by a kind of bodyguard, “a band of men whose hearts belongs to the king.
Before the end of his reign he lost favor with God, and after a defeat by the Philistines, he was succeeded by David as King.
Prayer Points:-
1. Every enemy like Saul in my life, be defeated by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
2. O Lord God, deliver me from the spirit of Saul the King, in the name of Jesus Christ.
3. I shall grow stronger, while the enemies of my life grow weaker, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Have A Glorious Tuesday!
