(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 9:11–17, “And as they went up the hill to the city, they found young maidens going out to draw water, and said unto them, Is the seer here? And they answered them, and said, He is; behold, he is before you: make haste now, for he came to day to the city; for there is a sacrifice of the people to day in the high place: 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, because he doth bless the sacrifice; and afterwards they eat that be bidden. Now therefore get you up; for about this time ye shall find him. And they went up into the city: and when they were come into the city, behold, Samuel came out against them, for to go up to the high place. Now the LORD had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying, 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. And when Samuel saw Saul, the LORD said unto him, Behold the man whom I spake to thee of! this same shall reign over my people.”
This passage has enough colour to let us know that it was written by an eyewitness to the events. We know that these records were compiled into a longer history much later but they compilers used original eyewitness accounts. This is true of the entire body of early Israeli history as we find in the Old Testament. Why would someone say that they they met some young women who were going to get water unless this was recorded by someone who what happened at the time? Saul and his servant asked the young woman if the seer was there. They told him that the seer, we find out that the seer is actually Samuel later in this eyewitness account. Perhaps Saul and his servant lived outside Samuel’s regular circuit and were unfamiliar with the fact that he was the Judge. The also belonged to the tribe of Benjamin who had a record of being rebellious. The girls told Saul that Samuel was going to perform a sacrifice on a local altar so they would have to hurry. We discover that this wasn’t a mere coincidence but that the Lord had moved the people in this historical episode as a person might move the pieces on a chess board. Samuel knew that these young men were coming and when they appeared on the scene the Lord confirmed to Samuel that this was the man who would save Israel from the Philistines. He was the man that Samuel was to anoint as king of Israel.
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