Torah for Christians: Saul
A look at Israel's most star-crossed king.
TORAH FOR CHRISTIANS
SEASON 5 EPISODE FIVE
SAUL
The story of King Saul is a little-known yet important tale for our time. Here we have a great man, fully capable of doing wonderful things, yet one who lets his ego and insecurity get the best of him.
I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and we’re going to dig into the story of Saul on this episode of Torah for Christians.
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Welcome to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr.
To understand the story of Saul, we first must look at the state of the Israelites prior to his rise. Internally, they faced many challenges: the twelve tribes were not a united nation; their leader, the great prophet and Judge Samuel was growing old, and his sons were corrupt. Externally, they confronted many enemies, especially the Philistines, who lived along the southern Mediterranean coast and had recently captured the Ark of the Covenant. While the Israelites were able to recover the Ark, the Philistine danger remained; they were a powerful people, probably from the island of Crete, not a Semitic people, with close connections to the Minoan and Mycenean Greeks.
To respond to these challenges, the Israelites went to Samuel and demanded that God give them a king. We read this story in I Samuel, beginning with Chapter 8, verses 4-7. It’s worth it to read these verses closely:
All the elders of Israel assembled and came to Samuel at Ramah, and they said to him, “You have grown old, and your sons have not followed your ways. Therefore, appoint a king for us, to govern us like all other nations.” Samuel was displeased that they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” Samuel prayed to the LORD, and the LORD replied to Samuel, “Heed the demand of the people in everything they say to you. For it is not you that they have rejected; it is Me they have rejected as their king.
Samuel was none too pleased when he heard the Israelite’s plea. God though was quite the diplomat. God took the blame for the decision, telling Samuel that the people were rejecting God, not God’s Prophet. Yet, Samuel still resented this request; he felt that it was a repudiation of his entire career. Samuel’s mother had dedicated him to God, even before birth; he knew nothing but Divine service – and he had been a great leader of the people. Certainly, Samuel did not want to be regarded merely as a transitional figure, straddling the eras of the Judges and the Kings.
Samuel, though, went on to inform the Israelites of what a king would do and what he would require of the people: a king would tax the people, conscript their sons into his army and even take their slaves. And the day would come, he said, that because of these hardships, the people would cry out to God, but God would not listen. Nevertheless, the people demanded a king and God told Samuel to go out and find one.
In Chapter Nine, we finally meet Saul. Saul was of the Tribe of Benjamin, described as a wealthy and handsome young man. While looking for a lost donkey, in a story reminiscent of Moses and the Burning Bush, Saul goes to ask Samuel for help in finding the animal.
Of course, the book tells us that God had already appeared to Samuel, telling him that a Benjaminite would seek him out and that he would be the one to be anointed king. You can guess what comes next: Samuel sees Saul, realizes he is the blessed Benjaminite and anoints him king. And Samuel also tells him that the donkeys had already been found.
If we take a step back from these stories, we can tease out two competing themes. One is anti-monarchical, where Samuel warns the people of the dangers of a king. The second story is the donkey story, where God appears to Samuel and tells him to appoint a Benjaminite as king. We can call this story the pro-monarchical one. And they are side-by-side in the text.
The anti-monarchical text returns in Chapter 10, verse 17. In this version of the story, Samuel assembles the entire people, ostensibly all 12 Tribes, and winnows the people down to the Tribe of Benjamin. Still, he doesn’t find a suitable candidate for king but then is told that Saul is hiding amongst the luggage. Realizing that Saul is a head taller than anyone else, he anoints the tall one as king.
The story of Saul though, teaches us at least one thing: do not choose a king based on height. Also, be careful what you wish for; you might just get it.
In Chapter 11, Saul leads the people in battle against the Ammonites. The Ammonites were utterly defeated; Saul proved himself a master tactician in leading the Israelite army. But at the end of the chapter, Samuel brings the people to Gilgal and proclaimed Saul king. And yes, this is part of the pro-monarchy strand.
Chapter 12 returns us to the anti-monarchy theme. Samuel is about to die and of course, gives a long and impassioned speech to the Israelites, even though he doesn’t die until David rules the people. But interestingly, Samuel says something that sets an Israelite king apart from all other kings that they had known. The people are still subject to worshiping God: if they (and the king) follow in God’s ways, they will be secure; if not, they will be destroyed. The king, as we now learn, does not possess ultimate power; God does. This is a Divine rebuke of the so-called divine right of kings, many of whom in that day considered themselves equal to the gods.
Saul wins many battles against Ammonites and others. But his greatest victory perhaps came against the Amalekites, Israel’s sworn enemy. We remember the Amalekites from Exodus, when Joshua defeated them in the first battle that the Israelites fought after leaving Egypt. In both Exodus and Deuteronomy, God instructs the Israelites to eradicate the Amalekites; they are to suffer utter destruction; their memory is to be erased from history.
Saul destroyed the Amalekite army, as recounted in Chapter 15. It was a total victory but against Samuel’s explicit order, Saul spared the Amalekite livestock and importantly, also spared the Amalekite king.
When Samuel learned that King Agag was spared, he became enraged. Saul had not only disobeyed his order, but Saul also went against God’s will. While we can debate the morality of this proscription, it was a direct Divine order.
Samuel hacked the Amalekite king to pieces. He also took the crown away from Saul. And while Samuel grieved over this, God again took the blame and sent Samuel to find a new king, this time to find a young boy, the son of Jesse, of the Tribe of Judah, who lived in Bethlehem. Of course, God is directing Samuel to find and anoint David as king.
We will discuss David in our next podcast but in relation to Saul, we will look at their relationship after the break. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
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Welcome back to Torah for Christians. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr. Before we return to our discussion of Saul, I want to thank you for listening to this podcast. Please remember to review and rate this episode on Apple, Spotify, or whatever service you are using. Also, please go back and listen to previous episodes if you have not done so already. A transcript is also available on our website, www.torahforchristians.net .
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I mentioned at the start of the podcast that Saul was the first King of Israel – but he was also mentally ill. Much of his growing insanity was due to David’s charisma and popularity
The first time that we see David, he battles Goliath, the Philistine giant from Gath. In stunning fashion, he defeats Goliath, establishing himself as Saul’s chief rival. Saul however took David into his home, where he served as a servant to the king, often playing his lute to calm Saul’s increasingly fragile ego.
Tellingly, David establishes a close relationship with Saul’s son, Jonathan. Certainly, there is great love between them. But the question has often been asked if David and Jonathan were male lovers. I think that this is more our interpolation rather than what the text tells us. We are familiar with homosexual relationships; in our day, they are common. And so, we naturally place our experiences onto an ancient text.
This is something that we should avoid. This type of relationship, and the language that the Bible uses in describing the relationship, was quite common at the time. Certainly, they had a close, even a loving, relationship. But were they lovers? I doubt it. I think this is just the way the Bible talks. We need to read the Bible as a document for its time, and not read it in light of our time; their zeitgeist was different.
As David become more popular, Saul became jealous, even to the point of attempting to kill David. With the help of Jonathon, David escaped Saul’s murderous rage. But when Saul and Jonathon both died in battle, David was inconsolable. In II Samuel, 1.19, David laments, “How the mighty have fallen.” David rises to king, not just because Samuel had chosen him but also because Saul died in battle.
Saul led both a charmed and tragic life. Charmed in the sense that he became the first King of Israel. Tragic because he spared the Amalekite King Agag, Haman’s ancestor, and so lost his kingdom. Actions, and the lack of them, have consequences.
Yet, there is one more lesson to learn from the story of Saul. We learn here that our leaders are not perfect; they are human beings, subject to God’s rule just like us. Saul should teach us that we must treat mental illness the same as we treat physical illness: with care and with compassion.
We have already seen imperfections in our Biblical heroes. Isaac went blind; Jacob walked with a limp. Moses was a stutterer and, as we will see, David was a womanizer. Saul then fits the description of a Jewish hero: imperfect, flawed yet able to overcome his disabilities. That may be the most important lesson that we take from the story of Saul.
Next week, we will talk about the great King David, the founder of the kingdom of Judah and the progenitor of the ultimate Messiah. We will see his glory, his shortcomings, and the Covenant that God cut with David, unique in world history, that has had manifold manifestations for millennia.
I want to thank you for listening to Torah for Christians. Please be sure to check out our website, www.torahforchristians.net, for a full list of podcast episodes; I’m sure that you will enjoy listening to all of them. In addition, you can subscribe to my Substack columns, Wednesday Torah – an occasional weekday musing about the world around us, based on the principles of the Torah – as well as Bible Stories They (Never) Taught You in Religious School, a weekly Torah Study, which is published every Friday morning. I’m sure that you will enjoy all these offerings.
Have a wonderful week and remember; Hinei Mah Tov … L’hitra’ot, till we meet again. I’m Rabbi Jordan Parr and this is Torah for Christians.
