Powerpoint Pictures: Expensive Clothing; Expensive Trainers; Fancy Gadget; Football Club Season Ticket; Puppy

Have you ever seen something that someone had that you really wanted yourself? [Clothing; Trainers; Gadget; Season ticket for your football team; Puppy].

The people of Israel wanted something someone else had.  They wanted a king!

Up until this moment they had been led by… Moses, Joshua, the Judges (like Gideon and Samson) and now Samuel.  But Samuel was getting old – who will lead the people after him?

“So all the elders of Israel gathered together at Ramah.  They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:4-5)

The people of Israel wanted a king because all the other countries or nations had one.  Was this a good choice or a bad choice?

It was a bad choice because Israel was not like the other nations, because God was their King.

But even though it was a bad choice, God said they could have a king.  So who would be their first king?

There was a tall handsome man called Saul.  One day Saul was out looking for his dad’s donkeys when he found someone else.  Samuel.

God told Samuel that Saul was going to be the king and that Samuel should anoint him with oil (pour it over his head) as a sign that he was the king, which he did.  But only Samuel and Saul knew that Saul was going to be king.

How would the rest of Israel find out?

Samuel got all the tribes of Israel together and then chose Benjamin.  Out of all the families in Benjamin he chose Matri.  He then went to choose from the family of Matri, Saul, but he was nowhere to be found.  God told Samuel that he was hiding among a pile of bags.

When Saul was found and presented to the people, they shouted ‘Long live the King!’

Saul told that in order to be a good king, he needed to love God and obey God’s rules, because God is the real King!

But will he?