Exploring the Meaning of 1 Samuel 10
Napsal(a) Garry Walsh
Samuel took a flask of oil and anointed Saul’s head -- a sign of kingship. He told Saul that the donkeys he'd been searching for had been found, so there was no need to continue the hunt.
Instead, Samuel sent Saul to Bethel, the hill of God. It was a holy place, and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant. Bethel represented a knowledge of celestial things. (See Arcana Coelestia 1453[2].)
Samuel told Saul that he would meet a group of prophets at Bethel. When Saul arrived there, he met them, and he immediately felt the Spirit of the Lord and prophesied with them. When Saul returned home, the people who knew him realized that something about him had changed. Had he become a prophet?
Then Samuel called the people together at Mizpah again as he had when they first asked for a king. He reminded them about how they had rejected the Lord. Then he began a selection process, drawing lots to determine who would be their first king. The tribe of Benjamin was chosen, then the family of Matri, and ultimately Saul. However, Saul was reluctant, and was hiding. They searched for him, found him, and brought him before the people. The people saw his outstanding appearance and height, and accepted him as someone suitable. Samuel explained how the kingdom would work, and also wrote it in a book. Then he sent the people to their own homes.
Right away, there were hints of future trouble. Some people, referred to as children of Belial, doubted that Saul was the man to lead them, and they did not bring him gifts.
The children of Belial symbolize false ideas that are derived from evil, hellish loves. They are associated with the worship of other gods.
In the Word, gifts symbolize an introduction, to “initiate goodwill and favour.” These people did not trust Saul, and didn’t try to create a good relationship with him. (See Arcana Coelestia 4262[2-3].)
It was important that the kings of Israel were anointed with oil. It was a mark of the representative role that they were to take. As mentioned in the previous chapter, they could not represent the Lord in the loving way that priests could. Instead, they could represent His truth. They could be examples of what it means to live by and enforce the law and to provide order.
The oil that Samuel used to anoint Saul also has a symbolic meaning. It represents the Lord as the good of love. (See Arcana Coelestia 9954[1, 10].) Swedenborg writes that the reason priests kings were anointed is that through this they represented the {w219}, in His Divine humanity. (See Apocalypse Revealed 779[2].)
In a number of places in Scripture it is said that each of us has been made “kings and priests to God.” (See especially Revelation 1:5 and 5:10.) This means that our lives can evolve, with the Lord’s guidance, so that everything about us can be an expression of both His love and His teachings, as they exist as a unity. This is what is means to become the “image and likeness of God” as described in Genesis 1:26.
1 Kings 12
1
Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
2
It happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt,
3
and they sent and called him), that Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
4
"Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you."
5
He said to them, "Depart for three days, then come back to me." The people departed.
6
King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, "What counsel do you give me to return answer to this people?"
7
They spoke to him, saying, "If you will be a servant to this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."
8
But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.
9
He said to them, "What counsel do you give, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, 'Make the yoke that your father did put on us lighter?'"
10
The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall tell this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us;' you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
11
Now whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.'"
12
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, "Come to me again the third day."
13
The king answered the people roughly, and forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him,
14
and spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions."
15
So the king didn't listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about of Yahweh, that he might establish his word, which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16
When all Israel saw that the king didn't listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What portion have we in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David." So Israel departed to their tents.
17
But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18
Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.
19
So Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.
20
It happened, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
21
When Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22
But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23
"Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,
24
'Thus says Yahweh, "You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house; for this thing is of me."'" So they listened to the word of Yahweh, and returned and went their way, according to the word of Yahweh.
25
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived in it; and he went out from there, and built Penuel.
26
Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
27
If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28
Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
29
He set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.
30
This thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.
31
He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.
32
Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; so did he in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
33
He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.
