In this chapter we are introduced to Saul, the son of Kish, from the tribe of Benjamin. He's an "impressive young man," but he's not important, yet....

As the story opens, Saul and one of his father's servants are searching for some of his father's donkeys that had wandered off. They hunt far and wide, but have no success. Saul is beginning to lose hope when his servant tells him that there's a man of God (Samuel) staying in a village nearby who might be able to help them. Saul makes sure that he has a suitable offering to bring to Samuel, and sets out to find him.

On that day, Samuel was on his way to preside over a sacrifice. The Lord had told him that he would encounter the man who would be anointed commander of the people and save them from the Philistines. When Samuel saw Saul, he knew that this was the man the Lord had told him about. He invited Saul to the sacrifice, and told him that the lost donkeys were safe. They ate together, and Samuel gave Saul the best of the meat offering. The next day Samuel asked Saul to wait a moment before leaving, and then Samuel told him the Lord’s message.

This is a story about kingship. Throughout the story, high places are mentioned. Samuel invites Saul to accompany him to a high place, and later to a rooftop. Swedenborg writes that this is representative of a king. (See Spiritual Experiences 2472.)

Another interesting aspect of the story is its mention of Saul’s attractive appearance. He's unusually tall and strong. We as humans are often drawn to things which seem attractive to us. In each of us there are two parts: one part is external or sensual, and the other is internal or spiritual. We cannot fully understand the Lord when we are only thinking from the external part of ourselves. When this part of ourselves dominates, the Lord can seem distant. We need the spiritual part of us to be awake to develop a new relationship with God. (See Heaven and Hell 85.)

The idea of having a king seemed attractive to the Israelites. But it may not have been the best idea for their relationship with God. In the previous chapter we learned that by transitioning from having a prophet to having a king, the Israelites prioritized one aspect of their relationship with God over another: faith over charity, or truth over goodness. In reality, we need both, together, conjoined and in balance.

85. But, that God is Man can scarcely be comprehended by those who judge all things from the sense-experiences of the external man. For the sensual man can think of the Divine only from the world and the things that are therein, thus of a Divine and Spiritual Man in the same way as of a corporeal and natural man. From this he concludes that, if God were a man He would be as large as the universe, and if He ruled heaven and earth it would be done through many, after the manner of kings in the world. If told that in heaven there is no extension of space as in the world, he would not in the least comprehend. For he who thinks from nature and its light only, never thinks otherwise than from an extension such as there is before his eyes. But they are completely deceived when they think in this way about heaven. The extension there is not like extension in the world. In the world, extension is determinate and thus measurable, but in heaven it is not determinate and therefore not measurable. What, however, extension in heaven is, will be seen in the pages to follow in connection with space and time in the spiritual world. Besides, everyone knows how far the sight of the eye extends, namely, to the sun and stars which are so remote. Whoever thinks more deeply knows that the internal sight, which is that of thought, has a still wider extension and therefore that a still more interior sight must extend even more widely. What, then, must not the Divine sight be which is the inmost and highest of all? Because thoughts are capable of such extension, all things of heaven are communicated with everyone there, so too are all things of the Divine which makes heaven and fills it-as has been shown in the preceding sections.