Why did God abandon Saul and choose David?
(Saul) [Ask [God]; Ask [God]]
1. Benjamin; The descendants of Jelly (also known as Abel), the descendants born through Ner and Kish (the first generation 1. 8: 29-33; 9:35-39; See abbey1); God chose the first king for Israel. (1 Sam 9: 15,16; 10: 1) Saul's family is very rich, more handsome than other Israelis, a head taller, strong, well-built and agile. (1 Sam 9: 1, 2; Saul's wife's name is Ahinoam. Saul gave birth to at least seven sons, namely Jonathan, Ishvi, Machishua, Abinadab, Ishbaal, Amoni, Mephibosheth and two daughters (Milla and Michal). Abner seems to be Saul's uncle (see Abner) and the commander-in-chief of the Israeli army. ( 14: 49, 50; 2 Sam 2: 8; 2 1:8; 8: 33)
When Saul was young, it was a turbulent period in the history of Israel. The Israelites were oppressed by the Philistines and unable to defend themselves. (1 Sam 9:16; Nahash, king of the Ammonites, came against them. (Old Testament)-1 Samuel chapter 12 (this chapter has a total of 12) 6: 1 Samuel was loyal to his duty and decided cases for the Israelites, but his two sons took bribes and turned right from wrong. (1 Sam 8: 1-3) Because the Israelites look at things from a human perspective and forget that the Lord has the ability to protect them, the elders of the Israelites went to Samuel and begged him to set up a king over them. (1 Sam 8: 4, 5)
Queen anointed, and the Lord guided the development of the situation and asked Samuel to anoint Saul as king. Saul's father lost some donkeys, so he sent Saul to look for them. Saul can't find it anywhere, and he is going home. The waiter said that there lived a "messenger of God" in a nearby city, and offered to ask this person for help. Therefore, Saul had a chance to meet Samuel. (1 Sam 9: 3- 19) When Saul first spoke to Samuel, what he said showed that he was a humble man. (1 Sam 9: 20, 2 1) Samuel and Saul ate the sacrificial meat together and continued to talk to him. The next morning Samuel anointed Saul king. To prove that God was with Saul, Samuel predicted three things would happen. Three things happened in succession that day. (1 Sam 9: 22- 10: 16)
Later, Samuel drew lots in Mizpah and chose Saul as king. (sa 10: 2 1，22； Niv] Saul was shy and hid in his luggage, so he didn't want to see anyone. After finding him, Samuel introduced him to people, and people shouted in unison, "Long live the king!" " Saul and some warriors returned to Gibeah. Some worthless people looked down on Saul and spoke ill of him, but he didn't say a word. (sa 10: 17-27)
About a month after the early victory (according to the Greek version of Seventy Sons and the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Qsama circulated in Sasa11:1), Nahash, king of the Ammonites, led an army to attack Jabbi in Gilead, demanding that Jabbi surrender. (See Nahash 1) Someone told Saul about this, and the spirit of God immediately worked on Saul. He quickly gathered 330,000 people and led them to defeat the Ammonites. This greatly consolidated Saul's position as king, and the people even demanded that those who slandered Saul be put to death. But Saul knew that the victory was actually given by the Lord, so he did not agree to punish those who opposed him. Later, the people re-established Saul as king in Gilgal. (sa 1 1: 1- 15)
So Saul took action to get rid of the Philistines' rule over Israel. He chose 3,000 Israelis, led 2,000 by himself, and the remaining 1000 was led by his son Jonathan. Jonathan seems to have been ordered by his father to "kill the garrison of the Philistines in Geba". Unwilling to be defeated, the Philistines gathered a great army and camped in Michmash. (sa 13:3.5)
By this time, Saul had retreated from Mimo to Gilgal in the Jordan Valley. He waited for Samuel for seven days, but Samuel didn't come on the scheduled date. Saul was afraid that the enemy would attack before he could ask God for help. He was also worried that the people would leave him if he dragged on, so he offered a burnt offering without authorization. When Samuel arrived, he rebuked Saul for committing a crime and "doing something stupid". The Lord, through his representative Samuel, explicitly ordered Saul to wait for Samuel's sacrifice, but Saul overstepped his arrogance, disobeyed the order and sacrificed first, thus committing a great crime. (See 1 Sam 10: 8) Therefore, Saul's kingdom will not last long. (sa 13: 1- 14)
Once, when Israel was at war with the Philistines, Saul announced that whoever ate before defeating the enemy would be cursed. This reckless oath led to unfortunate consequences. The Israelis are exhausted. Although the Philistines were defeated, the results were not as great as expected. Because they are very hungry, they don't bleed after slaughtering livestock, and even eat meat with blood, which violates the sacred law of not eating blood. Jonathan ate some honey and didn't hear his father swear. Saul tried to kill him, but the people saved him because he fought for Israel and won. (sa 14: 1-45)
Saul, who was spurned by God, fought against the Philistines many times during his reign, and also fought against foreign nations such as Moab, Ammon, Edom and Amalek. (Sam 14: 47, 48, 52) When Saul attacked the Amalekites, he once again disobeyed the Lord's orders and saved the superior cattle and sheep of the enemy without executing their king Agag. Samuel asked Saul why he didn't listen to the Lord, but Saul claimed that he was innocent and put the blame on the people. Samuel must point out to Saul that his crime is very serious, so the Lord will reject him and not make him king of Israel. Only then did Saul admit that he had made a mistake because he was afraid of the people. Saul implored Samuel to go with him, so that he might be honored before the elders and Israel. Samuel agreed to go with him and put Agag to death himself. After that, Samuel and Saul parted ways and never met again. (sa 15: 1-35)
After this happened, God sent Samuel to anoint David as the future king of Israel. The spirit of the Lord left Saul. Since then, "evil spirits have come from the Lord to disturb him" (Lu translation). Since the Lord took back Saul's Holy Spirit, an "evil spirit" manipulated Saul, taking away his inner peace and making him uneasy and confused. Saul's disobedience to the Lord shows that he has bad tendencies in his heart and mind; The spirit of God no longer protects him or binds him. Because the Lord has let the "evil spirit" take its place, which makes Saul feel uneasy and uneasy, this "evil spirit" can be said to come from the Lord, and Saul's servants also call it "the evil spirit from God". Saul listened to his servant's advice and called David to the palace as a musician. Whenever he was troubled by "evil spirits" and became restless and confused, David played music for him to calm his excitement. (sa 16: 14-23； 17: 15)
Relations with David The Philistines invaded on a large scale, threatening Israel's security. They camped on this side of the plain of Elah, and King Saul's army camped on the other side. Every morning and evening for forty days, Goliath came out from the camp of the Philistines to fight and asked the Israeli army to send a man to fight with him. King Saul promised that if any Israeli could kill Goliath, he would get a rich reward and marry his daughter. In addition, this person's father's family can also be "tax-free". (See 1 Sam 8: 1 1- 17) David came to the camp with his father's food and gifts for the commander (probably David's brother's boss). He asked others what reward they would get for killing Goliath, which seemed to show that he was interested in accepting the challenge of the Philippians. As a result, he was able to meet Saul and later killed Goliath. (sa 17: 1-58)
After making bad friends with David, Saul sent David to lead his army to war. As a result, David was praised, even surpassing King Saul. Saul began to doubt David, envy him and hate him. Once, while David was playing the piano, Saul began to talk nonsense and act like a prophet. This is not to say that he began to predict, but that he showed an unusual psychological state, in a state of extreme excitement, similar to what the prophet was about to predict or was predicting. In this unusual state, Saul threw a spear at David twice and tried to stab him to death. Saul failed to nail David to the wall, so he agreed to let his daughter Michal marry David, but asked him to hand over 100 foreskins of the Philistines as a dowry. Saul's original intention was that David should die at the hands of the Philistines. But Saul's plot failed, because David paid not one hundred foreskins, but two hundred foreskins of the Philistines, and successfully married Saul's daughter. After that, Saul was more afraid of David and hated his guts. Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants that he was going to kill David. Jonathan pleaded for David, and Saul promised not to kill David. However, after Saul threw a spear at David for the third time, David had to run for his life. Saul even sent someone to watch David's house and ordered him to be killed the next morning. (sa 18: 1- 19: 1 1)
That night, David fled from the window and came to Ramah to find Samuel. He and Samuel stayed in Naioth in Ramah for some time. Later, when the news reached Saul, he sent for David. But when I got to them, I was uncharacteristically. "My words and deeds became like prophets." It seems that the spirit of God acts on them, making them completely forget their task. Saul sent two more men, and the same happened to them. So Saul himself went to Ramah, and he was under the control of the Spirit of God. This situation lasted for a while, so that David had enough time to escape. (sa 19: 12-20: 1； See the Prophet's article under "How Prophets are Appointed and Inspired")
Because Saul was anointed by God, David would not take his life. Saul tried to kill David many times, but all failed. Jonathan spoke for David again, but Saul was very angry and took up a gun and threw it at Jonathan to kill his son. (1 Sam 20: 1-33) From then on, Saul pursued David relentlessly. Knowing that Ahimelech, the high priest, had helped David, he ordered Ahimelech and all his priests to be killed. (1sam 22: 6- 19) Later, it was told Saul that David lived in the city of Kira in Judah, and he planned to attack this city, but he gave up because David escaped in time. Saul pursued David and searched for him in the desert. Later, because of the Philistine attack, he was forced to go back to war, and David had a chance to rest and escape to the wilderness of Engedi. Then David had two chances to kill Saul, but he didn't want to stretch out his hand to hurt the king anointed by the Lord. The second time Saul learned that David was kind to him, he even promised not to hurt David again, but his promise was not sincere, because he continued to hunt David until he learned that David had fled to Gath, a city of Philistines. (1 Sam 23:10-24: 22; 26: 1-27: 1,4)
About a year or two after asking the psychic for help (1 Sam. 29: 3), the Philistines attacked Saul. Because Saul couldn't get the spirit and guidance of the Lord, his mind was in an unhealthy state, and he turned to a psychic, even though he knew it was a capital crime. (Lev。 Saul changed his body and went to a psychic in Endor and asked her to bring Samuel, who was dead. According to the description given by the psychic, Saul thought that the person she saw was Samuel. However, we should remember that because God did not respond to Saul's inquiry, it is obvious that God will not guide him in a way that is legally condemned to death. (Lev。 20: 27) Therefore, what the psychic said must come from an evil spirit. What Saul heard did not give him any comfort, but filled him with fear. (1 Sam 28: 4-25; See Psyche.
After Saul's death, Israel fought with the Philistines. Saul was seriously injured in Mount Gilboa, and his three sons also died. Saul begged the guard who bore his armor to kill him, but the guard did not dare, so Saul fell on the knife and committed suicide. (Sam 3 1: 1-7) About three days later, a young Amalek came to see David and boasted that he had killed the injured King Saul. He obviously lied and wanted to ask David for a reward. David killed the man as he said, because he thought he had killed the king anointed by the Lord. ( 1: 1- 15)
The Philistines hanged the bodies of Saul and his three sons on the wall of Bethan. The warriors of Jabeshgilead took the body down from the wall, burned it with fire, and buried the bones. (sa 3 1: 8- 13)
Saul tried to destroy Gibeon, and as a result, he owed himself and his family blood debts. A few years later, during the reign of David, he handed over seven descendants of Saul to Gibeon for execution, thus offsetting the blood debt. (2 1: 1-9)
2. One of the major cities in Asia Minor.