Dr Paul Allen

Samuel_reproving_Saul (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Did Samuel make a mistake? Was Samuel human like everyone else? ( 1 Samuel 9–11; 13; 15-17).  Do you feel for Saul. He started well but finished badly. According to 1 Samuel 9:2, he was “An impressive young man without equal.” After Saul has been briefly introduced, we immediately start into the story of how Saul and Samuel meet. In verse 9, we are given some parenthetical background information. “Before time in Israel ,” it tells us, “when a man went to enquire of God , thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was before time called a Seer.” The picture we have in 1 Samuel 9–10 is of a good and modest man (compare verse 1 of chapter 9 with verse 21 in the same chapter) who has the wisdom to keep his mouth shut (1 Samuel 10:14–16) and the good sense to at least try avoiding the limelight (1 Samuel 10:21–22). But whether he likes it or not, he’s going to be king, and he’ll have to deal