58 – Samuel and Saul: The Two Prophets Of YHVH

FULL MEETING WITH MIDRASH HERE

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

How YHVH intends to work in the lives of Saul and all Israel will now be revealed in the process of Saul’s anointing.

Samuel will now give Saul 3 signs to confirm that the anointing was from YHVH. Here is sign #1:

1 Samuel 10:2 When you have departed from me today, then you will find two men by Rachel’s tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will tell you, ‘The donkeys which you went to look for have been found; and behold, your father has stopped caring about the donkeys, and is anxious for you, saying, “What shall I do for my son?”’ 

Apparently, Kish is now worried about Saul’s wellbeing. Is he alive or not? This is similar to Jacob’s worry over Joseph. It also reflects the worry of YHVH over His people.

Sign #2:

1 Samuel 10:3 “Then you will go on forward from there, and you will come to the oak of Tabor. Three men will meet you there going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three young goats, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a container of wine. 

The oak of Tabor was a landmark on the way to Bethel, the place which Jacob named “the house of God”, where he dreamed of the ladder. Bethel is one place where Abraham pitched his tent and Jacob had his vision of the ladder. It also was the next place where Samuel would be judging. And apparently, he judged in each town for 7 days because he told Saul to wait for days (1 Samuel 10:8).

This oak appears nowhere else in scripture to show us the unique nature of this situation. This is the first time Israel received a human King and this unique anointing process would never again be repeated.

The 3 men were going to Bethel to sacrifice on the high place.

The 2 men that met Saul to tell him his father was worried about him represents earthly matters. The 3 men on the way to Bethel represent God’s nature – Father and Son whose unity creates their “echad” Spirit to work among and with mankind. The Father and Son’s Holy Spirit does show up in the Old Testament, contrary to modern Christianity’s belief that the Holy Spirit suddenly and newly appeared at the Jerusalem Temple in Acts 2.

Psalms 51:11  Don’t throw me from your presence, and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.

Isaiah 63:10  But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit. Therefore he turned and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.
Isaiah 63:11  Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit among them?”

“Holy Spirit” is ‘qadosh ruach’. “Holy Spirit” in the New testament is ‘hagios pneuma’. Same name. Most of the time, the Old Testament references only God’s “Spirit” in various ways, however it happens hundreds of time. The Father and Son’s united Spirit existed, not as a separate entity from them, as something created apart from them, but as the witness of their unity, their echad-ness. Thus, the 3 men represent that the anointing of Saul was a matter of unity between the Father and Son whose unified Spirit was a witness to the process.

Down a rabbi trail: Anytime YHVH moves or does something, His unified Spirit will be involved and will never be in opposition. I was once told by a Christian that the Holy Spirit told her to NOT keep the Sabbath. The spirit that whispered that to her was not YHVH Elohim’s Holy Spirit; it was another spirit, an evil disobedient and rebellious spirit.

Saul was to travel toward Bethel where he would meet the 3 men at the oak of Tabor. Furthermore, these men symbolized Abraham’s meeting with the 3 men called “YHVH” in Genesis 18 who visited him immediately after his circumcision and before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. This was done to connect Saul’s authority back to Abraham (Genesis 18:2). Why?

YHVH had told Abraham:

Genesis 17:6  I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you. Kings will come out of you.

Thus, not only was YHVH’s own Holy Spirit involved in anointing Saul, but the 3 men confirmed YHVH’s promise to Abraham has now been kept. It also tells us that He knows everything that will happen whether of sin or righteousness since He will say the people have sinned in asking for a King (1 Samuel 19:4). Not only that, it shows that YHVH keeps His word even when we do not.

Three other symbols appear in the anointing of Saul. The 3 men carried 3 goats, 3 loaves of bread and 1 skin of wine for a peace offering. These were not for a sin offering. We know this because the bread is in 1 Samuel 10:3 is ‘lechem’ (Strong’s H3899) for regular raised bread. It is not ‘matsah’ (Strong’s H4682), unleavened bread, which is required for all sacrifices other than for the peace offering (Leviticus 7:13). No leavened bread may be offered with the other sacrifices. But no unleavened bread may be offered with the peace offering.

1 Samuel 10:4 They will greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, which you shall receive from their hand. 

The difference between Abraham’s meeting and Saul’s is that the 3 men brought the bread to Saul, unlike Abraham who had prepared food for YHVH. The bread is Yeshua who was, is, and will be King of Israel. But the bread also represented the Kingdom which is the meaning of the 2 loaves at Shavuot.

Why did the 3 men only give 2 of the loaves to Saul? The 3rd loaf symbolized Yeshua’s throne in Heaven. YHVH reserved His right to rule over Saul, the ‘nagid’ or prince, and over all Israel. Had He given all 3 loaves to Saul, that would have meant YHVH was turning the entire Kingdom over to Saul.

The double meaning, though, is that these 2 loaves confirm what I said last time about Moses, and then Saul, 2 men (loaves), being inserted into the hierarchy which separated Israel from YHVH.

Sign #3:

1 Samuel 10:5 “After that you will come to the hill of God, where the garrison of the Philistines is; and it will happen, when you have come there to the city, that you will meet a band of prophets coming down from the high place with a lute, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp before them; and they will be prophesying. 

This verse is full of information. Let’s unpack it.

The “hill of God” is Strong’s H1389, ‘gibah’ which is the same name as Strong’s H1390, ‘Gibeon’, not to be confused with ‘Gibeah’, Saul’s home town. This is where the Ark was located in Abinadab’s house (1 Samuel 7:1) and is where the Philistines also had placed an occupation force, a garrison. In other words, they were exerting control of the Ark of the Covenant.

Saul was not to go all the way to Bethel. It might have been a disaster if Saul had gone there, the people were curious and he might let slip his anointing as King before the 3 tests were complete and Samuel had a chance to reveal him to the nation. The revealing of Saul was an important prophecy because the son of perdition will be revealed in the end of days.

So Saul was to stop at the hill of God to join a band of prophets prophesying with a prophetic trajectory to the occupation force, the Philistine garrison, at another small town – Geba (1 Samuel . This was a prophesy that he would spend his entire Kingship fighting the Philistines.  

As for the prophets, there always was a conclave of prophets in Israel and they likely knew each other. It may be, and is likely, that Samuel presided over these prophets just as Elijah would later on. As for Saul, he was to join the prophets. Why?

The first patriarch of Israel was prophet. Abraham was called a prophet by YHVH in Genesis 20:7. Saul will now become a prophet of YHVH for the first, but not the last, time because Israel’s Kings should be prophets. Yeshua, our King, is the very Spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 19:10). This will prove to be just one of the failures of Israel’s Kings. Most of them not only would not be prophets, they also would not heed the warnings of YHVH’s prophets.

Music – praise and worship – is associated with prophesy because it opens people’s hearts and minds to YHVH with the intent that they not only worship Him but that they repent of their sins. The purpose of prophesy is to show people in what way they are sinning and then call them to repentance. Open minds and hearts, eyes to see and ears to hear, are required of the people in order for them to respond.

Prophecy is not about foretelling the future. Prophesying only foretells details of coming punishments which YHVH already listed in the Torah as we draw closer to our punishment.

1 Samuel 10:6 Then Yahweh’s Spirit will come mightily on you, and you will prophesy with them, and will be turned into another man. 

YHVH would turn Saul into the kind of man that Israel needed to rule over them. YHVH’s Holy Spirit is supposed to change us but, for us, it is meant to be a permanent change, not a temporary one as when God’s Spirit came on someone. The temporary nature of YHVH’s Spirit coming on someone was a result of Israel backing away from the mountain at Sinai. The permanence of the Holy Spirit in His people in the Old Testament was not a national phenomenon; it was an individual phenomenon then. His indwelling Holy Spirit became a national phenomenon after Yeshua’s ascension and is a requirement for entering His Kingdom. This was one of the central elements of the renewed covenant. After the Cross, if you want to be in His Kingdom, you must be born of His Holy Spirit. You can’t back away from Him like Israel did at Mount Sinai. Doing that made being an Israelite after the flesh. Now, being an Israelite is after His Holy Spirit.

Understand that there were people who individually accepted YHVH’s Holy Spirit within in the Old Testament, people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives, Moses, Joshua, many but not all of the Judges, Elkanah, Hannah, Samuel, David, Josiah, Hezekiah, just to name a few. It was the same Holy Spirit and He was willing to dwell within if they cultivated their relationship with Him but His indwelling Holy Spirit was not a requirement for being a biological citizen of Israel in the Old Testament. Studying ancient Israel as we have been doing shows clearly why biology, flesh and blood, cannot inherit God’s Kingdom. After the Cross, however, that changed. Now, having YHVH’s indwelling Holy Spirit is a requirement. I hope you understand the difference and, if you believe YHVH’s Holy Spirit was not active in the lives of people in the Old Testament, I hope you will stop that belief.

1 Samuel 10:7 Let it be, when these signs have come to you, that you do what is appropriate for the occasion; for God is with you. 

Saul started his reign with God with him, on him, but not in him. There were 2 things which were appropriate for the occasion. First, it was that Saul should have asked YHVH for His indwelling and ever-present Spirit to dwell in his heart. But he did not. Therein was Saul’s failure. YHVH will never force Himself into someone’s heart. It is not enough to have God with us; we must have Him in us. The ideal situation is to have both – God with and in us, as He was with the people I listed above who were only a handful of the thousands that God told Elijah had personal relationships with Him, those who had not bowed their knee to Baal.

YHVH told Saul the same thing He had told Joshua in Joshua 1:5, 9 – “God is with you” – when Joshua was leading the people as military commander. That is what a ‘nagid’ was – a military commander, a General in YHVH’s earthly army, which is what I gave a lengthy explanation about in the last teaching. The difference between Joshua and Saul had to do with the difference in their hearts. Joshua had YHVH dwelling within and also with him so he could lead Israel in the way YHVH wanted.

The other aspect of what was “appropriate for the occasion” was to prepare for immediate war against the Philistines, although it would not be Saul’s first war. We will study that in the next teaching.

Now, here is a command from Samuel to Saul.

1 Samuel 10:8 “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings. Wait seven days, until I come to you, and show you what you are to do.” 

Saul now must return to the place of the original covenant between YHVH and Israel after they entered the land. It was at Gilgal where they circumcised their foreskins in Joshua 5. The symbolism was for Saul to circumcise his heart.

A lot would happen in between this day and the next seven. What happened in that week will be explained in the next teaching.

1 Samuel 10:9 It was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart; and all those signs happened that day.
1 Samuel 10:10 When they came there to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily on him, and he prophesied among them. 

So why did YHVH turn Saul into a prophet? It is because the true King of Israel is a prophet. YHVH was showing us what HIS King should look like even though He is also telling us what a false King of Israel looks like simultaneously. Yeshua vs the son of perdition. Yeshua is simultaneously King and a prophet.

Rev 19:10 I fell down before his feet to worship him. He said to me, “Look! Don’t do it! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy.” 

Thus, Israel’s first King would also prophesy because “Prophet” is one of the most important offices in Biblical Israel. And all prophecies have something to do with Yeshua.

Another reason is because Saul, though now the national judge, was replacing Samuel as judge but he couldn’t replace Samuel as prophet. No. He had to join in with Samuel as a prophet in his own right by joining the band of prophets that were associated with Samuel.

What is the most important thing a prophet and/or a judge needed to do? He must call people to repentance. YHVH knew Israel would continue in sin. The King, as either judge or prophet, was to call Israel to repentance. This is the reason Deuteronomy 17 says:

Deu 17:14 When you have come to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, and possess it, and dwell in it, and say, “I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me;”
Deu 17:15 you shall surely set him king over yourselves, whom Yahweh your God chooses. You shall set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother.
Deu 17:16 Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he may multiply horses; because Yahweh has said to you, “You shall not go back that way again.”
Deu 17:17 He shall not multiply wives to himself, that his heart not turn away. He shall not greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.
Deu 17:18 It shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write himself a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites.
Deu 17:19 It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Yahweh his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them;
Deu 17:20 that his heart not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he not turn away from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left; to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the middle of Israel. 

Unless a King was willing to write himself a copy of YHVH’s Law, he would not be fit to judge or prophesy. Israel’s King were to do both. The only Kings who fulfilled the prophetic office were Saul and David. Saul, because YHVH’s Spirit came upon him, and David, because YHVH’s spirit was in him.

Another reason for Saul to prophesy like Samuel, and with the band of prophets, is because YHVH was prophetically prophesying that Israel would continue to sin. This is why Israel will continue to have prophets until this cycle of 7 is over. Some believe prophecy is gone from Israel for the last 2,000 years, but Paul taught:

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will be done away with. Where there are various languages, they will cease. Where there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
1 Corinthians 13:9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
1 Corinthians 13:10 but when that which is complete has come, then that which is partial will be done away with. 

Prophecy must remain until everything is completed. That means until the end of this 7,000 year cycle. Today, many call themselves prophets. They foretell the future but I rarely hear them call people to repentance, and I can’t recall any who said, “Open the Law of YHVH and use that as a guide for your repentance”. Unless there is a call to repentance with a prophecy the prophecy is invalid. And even when there is a call to repentance with a prophecy, the prophecy may still be invalid if the prophet’s doctrines are false.

Saul prophesying also tells us the son of perdition will prophesy like his false prophet. The difference will be that his prophecies will fail. And what will he prophesy? That Judaism’s “world to come” has arrived and there will now be eternal peace; peace without end. We have already been hearing this, but when we know definitively who the son of perdition is that has the audacity to go and sit inside the temple, he will speak those words, taking credit for the temporary peace and calling it eternal.

1 Samuel 10:11 When all who knew him before saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said to one another, “What is this that has come to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?” 

First, they did not yet know that he had been anointed as Israel’s King. Second, aren’t people always astonished at what God does? They knew Saul. Gilgal was in Benjamin’s territory. They had never seen him act like this which was to tell the people their sins, explaining that from the Law of YHVH, and calling them to repentance. This was not his usual activity.

1 Samuel 10:12 One of the same place answered, “Who is their father?” Therefore it became a proverb, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
1 Samuel 10:13 When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.
1 Samuel 10:14 Saul’s uncle said to him and to his servant, “Where did you go?” He said, “To seek the donkeys. When we saw that they were not found, we came to Samuel.”
1 Samuel 10:15 Saul’s uncle said, “Please tell me what Samuel said to you.”
1 Samuel 10:16 Saul said to his uncle, “He told us plainly that the donkeys were found.” But concerning the matter of the kingdom, of which Samuel spoke, he didn’t tell him. 

The uncle knew something was up. To his credit, Saul seems to have understood it was not his job to raise himself up and tell them he had become Israel’s King. It is always someone else’s job to present those in authority over us. John the Baptist presented Yeshua, and now Samuel needed to present Saul as Israel’s King.

1 Samuel 10:17 Samuel called the people together to Yahweh to Mizpah; 

This was the Mizpah located in Benjamin to which all Israel was called for the civil war against Benajmin in Judges 20.

1 Samuel 10:18 and he said to the children of Israel, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you.’
1 Samuel 10:19 But you have today rejected your God, who himself saves you out of all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to him, ‘No! Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before Yahweh by your tribes, and by your thousands.” 

Just as Moses had to gather the people to connect them to YHVH’s government at Mount Sinai in Exodus 24, so does Samuel now need to do the same thing. Here though, they are called to the tribal area of their new King.

1 Samuel 10:20 So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen. 

“Chosen” means Saul was chosen by YHVH through Samuel’s declaration, not that he was chosen by casting lots.

1 Samuel 10:21 He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families; and the family of the Matrites was chosen. Then Saul the son of Kish was chosen; but when they looked for him, he could not be found.
1 Samuel 10:22 Therefore they asked of Yahweh further, “Is there yet a man to come here?” Yahweh answered, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”
1 Samuel 10:23 They ran and got him there. When he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward. 

Now the people get to be impressed with their new King because of his height!

1 Samuel 10:24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see him whom Yahweh has chosen, that there is no one like him among all the people?” All the people shouted, and said, “Long live the king!”
1 Samuel 10:25 Then Samuel told the people the regulations of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book, and laid it up before Yahweh. Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. 

Samuel probably did not write the entire Torah for Saul, but rather it would have been the regulation wherein Saul was to write his own scroll (Deuteronomy 17:14-20).

1 Samuel 10:26 Saul also went to his house to Gibeah; and the army went with him, whose hearts God had touched.
1 Samuel 10:27 But certain worthless fellows said, “How could this man save us?” They despised him, and brought him no present. But he held his peace. 

Saul exhibited wisdom in not arguing with these worthless fellow Israelites. He will, though, prove himself immediately and in so doing will unite all 13 tribes under his government.