Welcome back to a year in the Bible. If this is part of your daily rhythm listening to this podcast, then we are so glad you're here. We're in 1st Samuel chapters 10 through 12 today. We talked about Saul yesterday, but today we're really going to see him emerge as king.

Right, CJ?

Yep, good word.

So at the very beginning of chapter 10, Saul's anointed by Samuel.

Again, we learned about the word anointed in Hannah's song, the idea of pouring oil on someone

to set them apart for the Lord.

So we see that here.

And then after being anointed with oil, the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon Saul.

And this might remind us of people like Samson or Gideon, how the Spirit of the Lord all of a sudden

comes upon them. And that's not necessarily, that doesn't necessarily say that everything they do

is good and God ordained. It simply suggests that what they're doing is acting on behalf of God

and in their capacity as being an anointed one. So then we get to the next chapter, and Samuel again

chides Israel for rejecting God and selecting a king, the type of king that they want. And eventually

Samuel reveals Saul through the casting of lots,

which is sort of like fancy, God-ordained prayer supercharged dice or something like that.

I don't know. But God uses them to convey his answers to their questions. And Saul was hiding, which doesn't really

seem to be the best first impression for a king. But somehow the people are still impressed with

his height. Again, this is going back to God doesn't judge kings or people the way we do. They see a

tall guy and they think he'd be a powerful warrior,

but God looks at the heart. So obviously that's a theme that we're all familiar with,

and that will see more and more throughout Samuel. So. All right. So Saul is now the people's king.

How does he do as king? He does pretty good to start. So the Ammonites start to bother the Israelites, and the Spirit of Lord

...