Today we begin 1 Samuel Chapter 11.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James version, click HERE.
Chapter 11 is all about the transfer of Samuel’s judgeship over to Saul’s kingship.
Now having said that, what may surprise you is that after Saul returned home after his coronation, he didn’t assume his role as King over Israel right away.
Why?
Because there were a lot of high-ranking Israelites with power and influence who never wanted Samuel to become king in the first place.
As I pointed out in earlier articles, a good majority of them were from the southern tribes of Judah and Simeon.
They were well aware that any king chosen from the north would obviously give favor and preference to his local body of constituents over anybody else.
Another reason why Saul was laying low is because he had yet to prove himself.
And how did earthly kings prove themselves in those days?
The answer is WAR…
Especially in a tribal society where never-ending conflicts to achieve dominance were commonplace.
So what Saul desperately needed to win over his critics was victory on the battlefield.
Now this is as good a time as ever to point out a dynamic that’s probably lost on us modern folks:
It is very difficult if not impossible to harmonize monarchies with tribalism.
Why?
Because of huge conflicts of interest.
In a tribal society, it is the mission of every tribal leader to do everything he can to raise his tribe’s status above all the others.
But in a monarchy, it is the king’s duty to bring all members of his kingdom to bow down to his authority regardless of which tribe they belong to!
It was also necessary for the king to establish a justice system that applied equally to EVERYONE, again regardless of which tribe they belonged to.
Ya, feel me here?
To make matters worse, think about how a King enforced his authority and justice system.
More often than not, he hand-picked his own men to do the job.
So from the outset, a rift usually developed between a King’s government and the tribal leaders.
My point is at this time Israel was made up of 12 tribes led by 12 princes who sure as hell didn’t have any intentions of giving up their sovereignty to some king.
The tribal princes were the ones who administered justice in their respective territories and they didn’t want some outside force telling them what to do.
So again, we can see that right from the get-go, once Saul became king, there were two different governing powers and leadership agendas that were eventually gonna butt heads with each other.
Or another way to put it, if Israel was going to succeed as a monarchy, it would have to dispose of tribalism
Well, there was a snowball’s chance in hell of that happening.
Now there’s an interesting lesson we can take away from this.
Actually, Yeshua expressed it best when he said:
“No one pours new wine
into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will
burst the skins, and both
the wine and the wineskins
will be ruined. No, they
pour new wine into new
wineskins.”
-Mark 2:22
See, Saul’s kingdom was like new wine…
But he was trying to pour it into the old wineskin of tribalism…
Which meant it was destined to rupture…
And rupture it did.
The same principle applies when we are born again and try to live our lives anew filled with the Holy Spirit.
We can’t hang onto our old life filled with all our old sinful habits…
Nor can we keep the same company with the same type of people we’ve always hung out with…
And as painful as it can be, the old wineskins we need to discard can sometimes be family members.
If God has called you to a new life, don’t be lukewarm about embracing your new calling.
Go ALL IN!!!
I mean ALL IN!
Get rid of those blood-sucking leeches who want to keep you down and undermine your faith.
Don’t be like Lot’s wife who glanced back and turned into a pillar of salt.
You either go all in and grab hold of the prize…
Or make a half-hearted effort and don’t win anything.
Ya, feel me?
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“He said to another man,
‘Follow me.’ But he replied,
‘Lord, first let me go and bury
my father.‘ Yeshua said to him,
‘Let the dead bury their
own dead, but you go and
proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Still, another said, ‘I will follow
you, Lord; but first let me go
back and say goodbye to my family.’
Yeshua replied, ‘No one who puts
a hand to the plow and looks back is
fit for service in the kingdom of God.'”
-Luke 9:59-62
Great stuff as always
Thanks Veronica.
Be blessed!
The stories in the bible are very ‘loaded’ and pressed upon several pieces of information.
It is not enough to just read them and proceed, but use every opportunity to break it down and have some one or people like and discuss it.
I was one person to concede in the previous post, that I never imagine that Saul was confronted with any opposition his kingship approved by God and he being anointed by no less person but the prophet Samuel
Today you have actually opened the ‘pandora box’
Again I was of the view that the opposition will be minimal.
Upon a second look after following this article I agree there is more to it than meets the eye.
The Monarchs perceive themselves as very special and even different from their own blood brothers.
When they want power in the beginning, they roll, but let them rise to the throne and they set new rules.
Those who also rule along the tribal lines will give special attention to their tribal folks. This is very common in the world rulership systems, and even visible in most democratically elected governments today.
So high profile and influential citizens will always do all they can to interrogate and examine what are the costs/ benefits to them
Thanks so much for your deep thoughts
Glad you found this eye-opening Abraham.
The deep political insights and deep understanding of human nature the Bible reveals are why managers and presidents of major corporations have often gone to the Scriptures as a guidebook for leadership principles.
Be blessed!