The Temporary King: God's Surprising Grace
Introduction: The Politics of Heaven
We live in an age that is utterly confused about authority. Our culture champions a radical, autonomous individualism that bristles at the very notion of being ruled. At the same time, it craves a messianic state to solve all its problems, from scraped knees to bad weather. We want kings, but we want them to be answerable to us. We want saviors, but we want to write their job descriptions. This confusion is not new; it is the ancient sin of Babel, the desire to build a kingdom on our terms, according to our specifications, reaching to a heaven of our own imagining.
Into this perennial human foolishness, the establishment of the Israelite monarchy speaks with bracing clarity. The people of Israel had demanded a king "like all the nations" (1 Sam. 8:5), which was a sinful demand. They were rejecting Yahweh as their king. But God, in His inscrutable sovereignty, grants their request in order to discipline them, and ultimately, to point them toward the true King He had always intended to give them. God's response is not to throw up His hands, but to enter into their political mess and bend it toward His own redemptive ends. He will give them a king, but it will be His choice, on His terms, and for His glory.
This entire narrative is a polemic. The surrounding pagan nations believed their kings were divine, sons of the gods, mediators between heaven and earth. Their authority was rooted in mythology, chaos, and brute power. But here, in Israel, God is demonstrating something radically different. The king is not divine; he is a man. He is not chosen by a pantheon of squabbling deities; he is chosen by the one, true, transcendent God. His authority is not inherent; it is delegated. This is the foundation of all lawful, limited government. God is establishing a political theology that stands in stark opposition to every form of pagan statism, whether ancient or modern.
In the passage before us, we see the confirmation of Saul's anointing. God equips this unassuming man from the smallest tribe for a task far beyond his natural abilities. It is a raw display of sovereign grace. But we must pay close attention to the nature of this equipping. It is a temporary, external, task-oriented gift. It is not regeneration. And in this distinction lies a crucial lesson for us, a lesson about the difference between being used by God and being known by God, between a temporary anointing for a task and the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit that marks the children of the New Covenant.
The Text
Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day. And they came to the hill there, and behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them. Now it happened that all who knew him previously saw, and behold, he was prophesying with the prophets, so the people said to one another, "What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?" And a man there answered and said, "Now, who is their father?" Therefore it became a proverb: "Is Saul also among the prophets?" Then he finished prophesying and came to the high place.
(1 Samuel 10:9-13 LSB)
A New Heart for a New Job (v. 9)
We begin with the immediate aftermath of Saul's private anointing by Samuel.
"Then it happened when he turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart; and all those signs came about on that day." (1 Samuel 10:9 LSB)
The first thing to notice is the timing and the agency. As soon as Saul turns to obey, God acts. This is a work of pure, divine initiative. Saul does not work himself up into a kingly frame of mind. He does not attend a leadership seminar. God "changed his heart." The Hebrew is literally that God "turned for him another heart." This is not the language of the new birth as we understand it in the New Covenant. This is not the heart of stone being replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26). If it were, Saul's later apostasy would present an impossible theological problem.
Rather, this is a vocational and psychological change. God was retrofitting Saul for the job. The heart of a farmer, concerned with lost donkeys and his father's worries, was turned into the heart of a king, concerned with military strategy, national threats, and public justice. God gave him a new set of concerns, a new set of ambitions, and a new boldness commensurate with his new office. It was a change of disposition, not a change of nature. This is a critical distinction. God can equip a man for a task without regenerating his soul. Think of Judas, who was given power to cast out demons, or Balaam, who prophesied truly. God's common grace is promiscuous; He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good. And here, His vocational grace falls on Saul to make him a capable monarch.
This is a demonstration of God's absolute sovereignty over the inner life of man. He can turn the heart of a king like a water channel (Prov. 21:1). He can raise up a Cyrus for His purposes, anoint a Nebuchadnezzar as His servant, and equip a Saul to lead His people. This should be a profound comfort and a sobering warning. A comfort, because no political situation is outside of His control. A warning, because external giftedness, a "changed heart" for a particular task, is no guarantee of a saved soul.
The Spirit's Power and the People's Surprise (v. 10-11)
The internal change is immediately followed by an external, public confirmation.
"And they came to the hill there, and behold, a group of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him mightily, so that he prophesied among them. Now it happened that all who knew him previously saw, and behold, he was prophesying with the prophets, so the people said to one another, 'What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?'" (1 Samuel 10:10-11 LSB)
Here we see the Old Covenant mode of the Spirit's operation on full display. The Spirit of God "came upon him mightily." The language is that of an external force, a rushing power that seizes a man for a particular purpose. This is what happened to the judges, like Gideon and Samson. It was an anointing for power and service, not an indwelling for communion and sanctification. This is a fundamental difference between the old and new covenants. Under the new covenant, the Spirit does not just come upon us; He takes up permanent residence within us (John 14:17). We are sealed by the Spirit.
The result is that Saul prophesied. This was likely an ecstatic utterance, a form of worship and praise under the direct, overwhelming influence of the Spirit. It was so out of character for this man, Saul the son of Kish, that it stunned everyone who knew him. Their question, "Is Saul also among the prophets?" is not a theological inquiry. It is an expression of sheer astonishment, something like seeing the town drunk leading the choir. It reveals that Saul had no prior reputation for piety or spiritual sensitivity. He was an ordinary man, suddenly caught up in an extraordinary divine event.
This surprise serves a divine purpose. It authenticates Saul's calling not on the basis of his resume, but on the basis of God's manifest power. God deliberately chooses the unlikely candidate to make it clear that the power belongs to Him alone. This is a constant pattern in Scripture. He chooses a stutterer to confront Pharaoh, a shepherd boy to kill a giant, and fishermen to turn the world upside down. He does this so that no flesh may boast in His presence (1 Cor. 1:29). The people's shock was a testament to the fact that this was God's doing, and it was marvelous in their eyes.
The Proverb and Its Point (v. 12-13)
The local astonishment quickly crystallizes into a proverbial saying.
"And a man there answered and said, 'Now, who is their father?' Therefore it became a proverb: 'Is Saul also among the prophets?' Then he finished prophesying and came to the high place." (1 Samuel 10:12-13 LSB)
The question, "Now, who is their father?" is a brilliant piece of theological insight from an unnamed bystander. The point is this: if you are surprised that Saul is prophesying, you are forgetting who is the "father," or the source, of all prophecy. The prophetic gift does not come from a particular lineage or from a special school. It comes from God. If God is the Father of the prophets, then He can make anyone a prophet He chooses, including the son of Kish. It is a rebuke to their small view of God. They were looking at Saul's background, but this man pointed them to God's sovereign power.
This is how the phrase became a proverb. A proverb is a piece of distilled wisdom, a short sentence that captures a broad truth. The proverb "Is Saul also among the prophets?" came to be used whenever someone acted completely out of character in a surprising, and often positive, way. But its theological root is a reminder that God is not bound by our expectations. He delights in crashing our categories and upending our assumptions about who He can and will use.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, it ends. "He finished prophesying." This was a temporary gift for a specific, authenticating purpose. The Spirit came upon him, and then the Spirit's direct, prophetic influence lifted. Saul was equipped, he was confirmed, and now he was to get on with the business of being king. This is not how the Spirit works in the life of a believer today. He does not just visit for special occasions. He abides with us forever, producing the long-term fruit of righteousness, not just the short-term flash of a spiritual gift.
The King We Need
So what are we to do with this story of a temporarily gifted, ultimately failed king? We are to see in it our own desperate need for a better King, a true King. Saul is a type, a foreshadowing, but largely by way of contrast. He shows us what the King we need is not.
We do not need a king who is merely equipped for an external task; we need a King who is righteous in His very nature. We do not need a king upon whom the Spirit comes temporarily; we need a King who is conceived by the Holy Spirit, who possesses the Spirit without measure (John 3:34).
Saul was given "another heart," but it was a heart that would eventually turn to jealousy, paranoia, and rebellion. His story is a tragic demonstration that external gifts and divine appointment are not enough. Without a true, regenerative change of nature, the heart of man will inevitably turn back to its default setting of sin. Saul's failure teaches us that what we need is not just a new disposition, but a new creation.
And this is precisely what the gospel offers. In Jesus Christ, we have the true King. He was not an unlikely candidate who needed to be equipped; He is the eternal Son, fully sufficient in Himself. The Spirit did not just come upon Him at His baptism; the Spirit descended and remained on Him (John 1:32).
And through faith in this King, we receive what Saul never did. We are not just given "another heart" for a job; we are given a new heart that loves God and desires to obey His law. The Holy Spirit does not just come upon us for a season; He comes to dwell within us permanently as a seal of our inheritance. The question for us is not "Is Saul among the prophets?" but rather, "Are you in Christ?" Have you received not the temporary, external anointing of Saul, but the permanent, internal, life-changing seal of the Holy Spirit?
Saul's story is a warning. It is possible to be around the things of God, to be used by God in a mighty way, to even "prophesy," and yet to be a stranger to His saving grace. Let us therefore not be content with external signs or spiritual experiences. Let us flee to the true King, Jesus Christ, and receive from Him the new heart that He alone can give, the heart that will not fail, because it is kept by His unfailing power.