Once Saul and the boy arrived at the feast, they must have been quite surprised to find out that the “seer” they were looking for was none other than the famous judge over all Israel himself: Samuel.
However, Samuel wasn’t at all surprised to see them…
Why?
Because the Lord had already informed him that a man from the tribe of Benjamin would arrive…
And that it was this man who he had elected to become Israel’s first king.
Now the original Hebrew term the Lord used to refer to Saul here is quite interesting.
It is NAGID.
Why do I say this is interesting?
Because the actual Hebrew word for king is MELECH.
But the basic concordance definition of NAGID is a “prince”, “chief” or “captain”.
So what gives here?
Some scholars will willy nilly say we’ve gotta another contradiction on our hands.
Again, this is another one of those instances where if you don’t have a strong grounding in ancient Middle Eastern culture, you’ll fall flat on your face.
So here’s the deal homies.
When we dig into history, we discover that the word NAGID is a common term that actually means “king in waiting”.
In other words, it was a word used to refer to the already decided king even if he hadn’t assumed his throne yet.
Ya feel me?
So there ain’t no contradiction here.
Let’s move on.
Take a look at verse 16:
“Tomorrow at about this time I will send you a man from the territory of Binyamin. You are to anoint him prince over my people Isra’el. He will save my people from the power of the P’lishtim, because I have seen my people’s situation, and their cry of distress has come to me.”
Notice God says He’s gonna raise up Saul to save Israel from the Philistines…
From this we can logically conclude that Israel’s arch enemy was starting to cause trouble again…
And Saul was the appointed man of the hour to save the day.
Now there’s an interesting point here we shouldn’t overlook.
While Samuel was in power, the Philistines had pretty much kept to themselves without causing much trouble.
But once the tribal and clan leaders began losing confidence in the elderly Samuel, the tension between Israel and the Philistines began building up anew.
I think there’s a lesson here folks.
Think about it.
When the leaders of Israel began losing faith in the one whom God had chosen and ordained to rule over them (for the time being at least)…
That’s when the Philistines began rattling in their cages once more.
And that’s your takeaway for today…
Once you lose faith in God’s chosen representative…
It’s pretty much inevitable that the “Philistines” in your life will reemerge and begin causing trouble for you.
We see it happening in Israel today with the modern day Philistines (Remember, Palestine is just the Greek word for Philistia).
And it’ll happen in your life if you don’t surrender and obey the one whom God has given all authority to in these last days.
Ya feel me?
Let those who have ears to hear SHEMA to what I’m saying.
Later!
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
Yeshua came and told his disciples,
‘I have been given all authority
in heaven and on earth. Therefore,
go and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.’
–Matthew 28:18-20
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