The Qualities of Saul as a King
Autor: Snehashis Mukherjee • April 27, 2015 • Essay • 438 Words (2 Pages) • 1,124 Views
The Qualities of Saul as a King
According to the Bible, Saul was the first king of Israel. The end of the period of Judges was marked by Samuel and the beginning of the period of Kings was marked by Saul. God Himself had chosen Samuel to anoint the first kings Saul and David though Samuel was deadly against the idea of monarchy. He was so powerful that the King Saul even existed in his shadow. In the “Book of Samuel”, Saul was not depicted as a sympathetic figure. His weaknesses, his jealousy and attempts to kill David, his violence and melancholy were all portrayed well. But Saul indeed had other sides also and his greatness as a person was also found in the “Book of Samuel”.
The prophet Samuel anointed Saul. The sons of Samuels were dishonest and so the leaders of the Israelites thought that if those sons would become the Judges, the future of Israel would be disastrous. So they requested Samuel to give them a king. God Himself had revealed to Samuel that Saul would be the first King of Israel and so Samuel anointed him.
Saul was a national hero even before he became the King of Israel. He led the brave raid to rescue the Tablets of Ten Commandments from the Philistines. In his reign he freed the Jewish of their enemies. Only the Philistines were left as it was remained for David. Saul built the foundation of that army which made the final destruction of the Philistines by David.
Saul was extremely tall, handsome, charismatic and physically gifted (I Samuel 9:2).He was charitable and selfless too as he gave his fortune to the poor. He had paid for the needs of the brides-to-be as well as the soldiers not from the public fund but from his personal treasury.
Saul was also an example of self sacrifice. Though he heard that he and his sons would be killed, he went to fight against the Philistines (I Samuel 28:19) and they were really killed. A coward or a selfish person would definitely run away but not Saul. His loyalty for the Jewish people and his self sacrifice had no limits.
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