The big picture
Saul enters the Book of 1 Samuel not looking for a crown but for his father's missing donkeys. His search fails repeatedly until an unnamed servant knows one more useful thing: a man of God is nearby. While Saul worries about directions and a proper gift, Samuel already knows a man from Benjamin is coming. The chapter keeps the two levels of knowledge side by side. Saul reaches the gate asking where the seer lives while speaking to the seer himself, then learns that the lost animals have already been found and that a far stranger matter concerns him. A reserved seat and portion reveal preparation he never saw. By the end, even the servant who got him there is sent ahead, and Saul is told to stand still for the word of God.
Central truth
The Lord directs Saul's search for lost animals into a royal calling, confirms that calling through signs, and publicly identifies the man hiding among the baggage.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
1 Samuel 9:1: “Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty…”
Slow down at the turning point
1 Samuel 9:13: “As soon as ye be come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high place to eat: for the people will not eat until he come…”
Keep this word trail visible
Saul, Samuel, city, people, place, servant
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
1 Samuel 9:1-10
Lost donkeys and a servant's advice
Begin with Saul's introduction: from Benjamin, the son of a "mighty man of power", choice and goodly, taller than anyone (9:1-2). The Book of 1 Samuel shows us the outward impressiveness first. Then the errand: lost asses, a long and fruitless search. Point out how ordinary it is; God's appointment arrives through a household chore. Explain the note in 9:9 that a prophet was formerly called a seer. Teach this first so the class sees that Saul is not seeking a crown, and that a servant, not Saul, turns the journey toward Samuel.
1 Samuel 9:11-17
The LORD had told Samuel
Read the meeting with the young women at the well and their directions, then stop at 9:15-16. The LORD tells Samuel the day before that a Benjamite is coming and gives the reason: "that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me". Explain "captain" as ruler or leader. Teach this step at the centre of chapter 9 because it shows that God has not abandoned Israel after their request in chapter 8; he hears their cry and provides.
1 Samuel 9:18-27
A seat kept for him
Saul asks Samuel where the seer lives and learns he is speaking to him. Samuel tells him the asses are found and then asks, "on whom is all the desire of Israel?" Saul protests that Benjamin is the smallest tribe and his family the least (9:21). Read the feast, the honoured seat, the reserved shoulder, and the conversation on the roof. Explain that the roof of a house was a flat, private place to talk. Teach this to show God's preparation and Saul's sense of unworthiness, which at this stage reads as modesty.
1 Samuel 10:1-13
Oil, signs and another heart
Samuel anoints Saul with oil and kisses him, and asks, "Is it not because the LORD hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?" Explain anointing as setting apart for God's appointed office; the word "anointed" is the root of Messiah. Walk through the three signs and their fulfilment. Highlight 10:6, 9: the Spirit comes on him and God gives him another heart. Explain the proverb "Is Saul also among the prophets?" as the surprise of people who knew him. Mark 10:8, the command to wait seven days at Gilgal, for chapter 13.
1 Samuel 10:14-19
Silence and a rebuke
Saul tells his uncle about the asses and says nothing of the kingdom (10:16). Let the class wonder about that silence without settling it. Then Samuel gathers Israel at Mizpeh and repeats the LORD's verdict: "ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities" (10:19). Teach this step to keep chapter 8 in view. The coming selection is God's answer to a request he called rejection, and the people should hear that before they shout for their king.
1 Samuel 10:20-27
Taken by lot, found among the baggage
Explain the lot as a way of asking the LORD to choose, tribe by tribe and family by family, until Saul is "taken". Then the comic and touching moment: the chosen king is missing, and the LORD reveals where he is hiding. Samuel presents him with "See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen". Read 10:25, where Samuel writes "the manner of the kingdom" in a book, a limit on kingship laid before the LORD. End with the divided response and Saul's silence. Teach this last because it leaves the class asking whether the new king will rise to the calling.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
"Saul was chosen because he was tall and handsome."
The text mentions his height and looks (9:2; 10:23), but the choice is the LORD's: "Behold the man whom I spake to thee of" (9:17), and Samuel says "See ye him whom the LORD hath chosen" (10:24). The people may admire his stature, and in 16:7 the LORD will warn Samuel not to look on outward appearance. Teach that God chose Saul for his purpose of saving Israel from the Philistines (9:16), and let his appearance be the detail the people noticed, not the reason God gave.
"Saul received the Spirit, so he must have been a true believer who could never fall away."
The Spirit came on Saul to equip him for kingship and prophecy (10:6, 10), and God "gave him another heart" (10:9). The same book later records that "the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul" (16:14). Christian traditions explain Saul's spiritual state in different ways, and this lesson does not need to settle it. Teach what the text says: God empowered Saul for his office, and his later disobedience was not God's failure to equip him.
"Saul hid because he was humble, so he was a good king from the start."
The text says only that "he hath hid himself among the stuff" (10:22). Humility, fear and reluctance are all possible readings, and his words in 9:21 do show a modest view of his family. Let the class weigh them. What the text does show is that Saul's beginning is full of God's provision: a prepared meeting, anointing, signs, the Spirit, men whose hearts God had touched. His later failures are not because he started without help.
"The signs show that God always gives us signs to confirm his will."
These signs were given by a prophet to a man anointed for a unique office, and each was specified in advance (10:2-7). They confirmed a word God had already spoken through Samuel. The passage does not invite readers to ask for signs in every decision. Teach learners to receive God's word in Scripture and to recognise his care in ordinary circumstances, as the lost asses show, without demanding sign after sign before obeying.
Learning objectives
- Trace the ordinary events leading Saul to Samuel.
- Identify what the Lord tells Samuel before Saul arrives.
- Distinguish private anointing from public selection.
- Name the confirming signs Samuel gives Saul.
- Explain why Saul's impressive appearance does not settle his response.
- Describe the divided reception of the new king.
Teacher preparation
- Read 9:1–10:27 and 11:1–15; resist reading Saul's later collapse into every detail of his beginning.
- Use 9:9's own explanation of 'seer' and 'prophet'; gloss 'stuff' in 10:22 as baggage.
- Mark the servant's silver, the reserved meal, the oil, the bread, and the prophets as concrete stages in Saul's journey.
- Note the command to wait at Gilgal in 10:8 for the later confrontation in 13:8–14.
- Prepare to distinguish the Spirit's royal empowerment from a complete answer about Saul's final spiritual condition.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
Read 9:15–17: the Lord announces Saul's arrival beforehand and identifies him as the appointed deliverer from Philistine oppression.
Scripture-supported
Join 10:1, 6–10, 20–24: anointing, fulfilled signs, the Spirit's action, and public selection confirm the same royal appointment.
Strong inference
Infer from 9:3–20 that the apparently unsuccessful animal search brings Saul to a meeting the Lord has already arranged.
Possible or traditional reading
Present humility, anxiety, and reluctance as possible readings of Saul's concealment in 10:22; do not turn the reported hiding into a certain diagnosis of motive.
Limit
Distinguish 10:6, 9–10's transformation and empowerment from a settled verdict on Saul's ultimate salvation; these verses do not answer every later theological question about him.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. Who keeps Saul's failed search from simply ending in a return home?
What a good answer contains
The servant. Saul is ready to give up: "Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us" (9:5). The servant answers that "there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass" (9:6), and when Saul worries about a present, the servant produces "the fourth part of a shekel of silver" (9:8). A good answer gives the unnamed servant his due: his knowledge and his silver carry Saul to Samuel. A weak answer credits Saul's initiative, which the text does not show.
Show teacher guidance
Read 9:5–10: the servant proposes the seer and supplies silver. Keep an unnamed servant's contribution visible.
2. What does Samuel know before Saul asks where the seer lives?
What a good answer contains
Everything that matters. The text says "the LORD had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came" (9:15) that a man from Benjamin would arrive and that Samuel should anoint him "to be captain over my people Israel" (9:16). When Saul appears, the LORD says, "Behold the man whom I spake to thee of" (9:17). Samuel also knows the asses "are found" (9:20). A good answer shows the contrast: Saul is looking for donkeys, and God has been preparing for him. A weak answer sees only a lucky meeting.
Show teacher guidance
Compare 9:15–20. Samuel knows Saul's appointment and that the animals are found; Saul does not yet understand the larger errand.
3. Why has a meal portion already been set aside for Saul?
What a good answer contains
Because Samuel prepared it before Saul arrived. Samuel tells the cook, "Bring the portion which I gave thee, of which I said unto thee, Set it by thee" (9:23). The shoulder is set before Saul, "for unto this time hath it been kept for thee" (9:24), and Saul is seated "in the chiefest place among them that were bidden" (9:22). A good answer sees honour and preparation: the guest of honour was known in advance. A weak answer either ignores the meal or invents a symbol for every piece of meat.
Show teacher guidance
Use 9:22–24 to connect the welcome with Samuel's preparation. Avoid inventing a symbolic meaning for every food item.
4. What do the signs in chapter 10 establish?
What a good answer contains
They confirm Samuel's word and Saul's new calling. Samuel gives three signs in 10:2-6: men at Rachel's tomb with news of the asses, three men going to Bethel who give him bread, and a company of prophets with whom "the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man" (10:6). Then "God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day" (10:9). A good answer sees God's confirmation and empowering. A weak answer treats the signs as a guarantee that Saul will always obey.
Show teacher guidance
Trace 10:2–10 and their fulfillment. They confirm Samuel's word and Saul's changed capacity; they do not promise permanent obedience.
5. What is the contrast between Saul's height and his location at the public gathering?
What a good answer contains
He is the tallest man in Israel and he is hiding. When the lot falls on Saul, "he could not be found", and the LORD answers, "Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff" (10:22), that is, among the baggage. When they bring him out, "he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward" (10:23). A good answer lets the contrast speak without mockery and leaves his motive open, whether humility, fear or reluctance. A weak answer claims to know exactly why he hid.
Show teacher guidance
Read 10:21–24. Israel's conspicuous new king must first be retrieved from the baggage; let the contrast register without contempt.
6. Does the public acclamation mean everyone trusts Saul?
What a good answer contains
No. The text says "all the people shouted, and said, God save the king" (10:24), and "a band of men, whose hearts God had touched" went with him (10:26). But "the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents" (10:27). Saul's response is restraint: "he held his peace". A good answer holds celebration, loyal support and contempt together, and notes the silence that chapter 11 will answer. A weak answer reads the shout as unanimous trust.
Show teacher guidance
Compare 10:24, 26–27: celebration, God-touched supporters, and contempt coexist. Note Saul's initial silence toward detractors.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Use Saul's interrupted errand to discuss attending responsibly to an ordinary task without treating every inconvenience as a decipherable divine message.
Relationships and community
Ask learners to identify how an unnoticed helper changes a fictional team's outcome; connect the exercise to the servant in 9:6–8.
Receiving responsibility
Compare three fictional responses to appointment: self-promotion, withdrawal, and accountable service; assess them without claiming Saul's hidden motive is certain.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
45 minutes
Lost asses
Read 9:1-10. Ask question one and explain "seer" from 9:9.
Prepared in advance
Read 9:15-24. Take questions two and three and confusion one.
Anointed and changed
Read 10:1-13. Ask question four and use confusions two and four.
Among the stuff
Read 10:17-24. Ask question five and confusion three.
God save the king
Read 10:25-27. Ask question six and note "he held his peace" for chapter 11.
Handout
Read the key verse together and give out the handout. Pray thanks for God's care in ordinary days.
90 minutes
An ordinary errand
Ask the group to recall a day when something small led to something important. Then read 9:1-5.
The servant's silver
Read 9:6-14. Take question one and explain the seer, the high place and the sacrifice.
The LORD had told Samuel
Read 9:15-27. Take questions two and three. Connect 9:16 with the people's cry and God's hearing.
Oil and three signs
Read 10:1-8. Explain anointing and the word Messiah, and mark 10:8 for chapter 13.
Another heart
Read 10:9-16. Take question four and confusions two and four. Discuss Saul's silence to his uncle.
The lot and the baggage
Read 10:17-24. Take question five and confusion three. Keep 10:19 in view.
Divided response
Read 10:25-27. Take question six and confusion one. Note the book of the kingdom in 10:25.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray for those beginning a new responsibility.
Adapting the lesson
Children
Hide some toy donkeys around the room and send a pair of children to look for them, then tell how Saul and his servant searched and found Samuel instead. Show a small bottle of oil and explain that Samuel poured oil on Saul to show God had chosen him. Let one tall child hide behind the bags while others look, and enjoy the surprise. Keep it simple: God chose Saul and gave him help.
Youth
Ask how they would feel if someone told them they were chosen for something huge. Read 9:21 and 10:22 and let them talk about Saul's mix of modesty and fear. Then trace how much help God gave him: a servant, a prophet, signs, the Spirit, loyal friends. Ask what they think Saul needed most next. Avoid deciding his final spiritual state; the book will show his choices.
Adults
Discuss providence in ordinary events, the meaning of anointing, and the gift of the Spirit for a calling. Give time to the tension between chapter 8's verdict and chapter 10's celebration, and to Samuel's written charter in 10:25. Adults beginning new roles can reflect on Saul's resources and the danger of starting well. Note that traditions read Saul's spiritual condition differently, and let the text lead.
One to one
Read 9:1-20 together and ask whether something ordinary in their life might be where God is at work. If they feel unqualified for a responsibility, read 9:21 and 10:6-9 and talk about the help God gives with a calling. Do not promise that God will give them signs like Saul's. Pray together for courage and faithfulness in whatever they have been asked to carry.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
1 Samuel 9:1–10:27
The passage in brief
Saul, a tall young man from the tribe of Benjamin, goes looking for his father's lost donkeys. When the search fails, his servant suggests asking the prophet Samuel. The LORD has already told Samuel that Saul is coming and that he is to anoint him as leader of Israel. Samuel honours Saul at a feast, anoints him with oil, and gives him signs that all come true. The Spirit of God comes on Saul. Later, when Samuel gathers Israel to choose a king, Saul is chosen but found hiding among the baggage.
A verse to keep
To morrow about this time I will send thee a man out of the land of Benjamin, and thou shalt anoint him to be captain over my people Israel, that he may save my people out of the hand of the Philistines: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry is come unto me.
1 Samuel 9:16 · King James Version
Questions to take home
How did a search for lost donkeys bring Saul to Samuel (9:3-10)?
What did God give Saul in 10:9-10 to prepare him to be king?
How did the people respond when Saul was presented as king (10:24-27)?
This week
Look for God's care in one ordinary errand or chore this week, and thank him for it.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
