1 Samuel 9:1

On the other hand, this choice put Israel to the test. In the flesh they had asked for a king according to the flesh. Neither God nor Samuel stood in the way of what they asked. Instead God chooses the most excellent person that the flesh could desire, and Samuel acknowledges him as such: "And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you…" (v. 20).

Saul was really the people's choice, yet God did not allow them to choose him. He Himself would install Saul as king, so Saul would stay just as long as God intended. When Israel would cry out in resentment against the king they had wanted, they would have no authority at all to remove him, any more than to appoint him.

Our chapter opens with the genealogy of king Saul. It is traced back through five ancestors. Their names are given, and their meaning is full of suggestion. Keep in mind that this is a genealogy of the flesh, where the emphasis falls on nature rather than grace. Saul himself means "asked" or "demanded." He represents the people's demand for a king, and in that way, nature's ideal. His father was Kish, which means "ensnaring," very suggestive of all that is of nature, which in its most attractive form cannot be trusted.

The next in line was Abiel, "father of might." That name emphasizes the strength man does indeed glory in, but which too often proves to be utter weakness… Bechorath, his father, means "birthright," the thing nature makes much of and Scripture has often set aside. Nature says the elder shall rule. How often has Scripture declared that the elder shall serve the younger! Aphiah, "I will utter," suggests the pride of heart that tells out its imagined greatness.

His father was a "mighty man of power," or wealth, like Boaz (Ruth 2:1). The tribe had been reduced in number (Judges 20:47), so each man left would have far more land than men of other tribes. Kish was probably a large landowner. This added wealth to his distinction, a valuable asset before the eyes of men.

Saul and his father had prospered in this world. They were wise in their generation, people of that class who "will be rich," though nature and family and circumstances are all against them… Though careful about his own things, he seems, so far at least, to have had no great care for the things of God. He does not at this time even know Samuel by sight, and Samuel was now the great witness of God in the land.

"Little Benjamin" — "little" here is a word of affection, not a note on size — comes first in the blessing of Psalm 68:27, before the three important tribes of Judah, Zebulun and Naphtali… Benjamin means "son of my right hand," a picture of Christ raised to the right hand of God in glory. His place in the blessing of Moses is one of special nearness and protection. He is there called "the beloved of the Lord" (Deuteronomy 33:12).

The first of these kings, as we find here, came from the tribe about which it had long ago been said, "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil" (Genesis 49:27). And he came from that city, in that tribe, which had already caused such trouble in Israel and had nearly wiped out one of the tribes from among the people of the Lord (Judges 19 – 21).