Episode #27 The Experiment of the Kings

In this episode, Rabbi Reinman introduces Saul, the first Jewish king, and explains how his role differed from the role of King David.
Chapter Twenty-seven

The Experiment of the Kings

The appointment of Saul as the first king of Israel represented the last chance for the Jewish people to recapture a semblance of the utopian dream of the earlier generations. Saul did not personify the ideal of a Jewish king as the ultimate spiritual leader who would guide the people into the messianic era. Jacob’s deathbed prophecy had assigned the role of kingship to the tribe of Judah, while Saul was descended from the tribe of Benjamin. Saul was an interim king whose role was political. The delicate instrument of the spiritual monarchy of Judah was still being kept in reserve.
Four centuries after it began, the experiment of the Judges had ended. The Jewish people were apparently incapable of sustaining for very long a society without a political superstructure, a society in which “everyone did as he saw fit.” Only the moral authority of the great sages exerted national influence, but the history of the Period of the Judges had shown that moral authority alone was an inadequate societal control.
The experiment of the Kings was now about to begin. Henceforth, the Jewish people would travel a different route towards their historical destiny. A conventional monarchy would first be established to solidify the chaotic Jewish society. In the short term, its goal would be to unite the people in revolt against the Philistine occupation. In the long term, its goal would be to curb the Canaanite associations of the weaker elements and thereby initiate a gradual improvement in the overall spiritual condition of the people.
Saul’s mission as king, therefore, was not so much to inspire the people as to fulfill the classic functions of a political monarch. He had been chosen to “save My people from the Philistines” by conventional means. As explained in the previous chapter, the mitzvah of appointing a king called for the appointment of a dynastic supreme spiritual leader. This dynasty would descend from the tribe of Judah and would be established one day by David. In the meantime, Saul was appointed to prepare the way.
The difference in the roles of Saul and David can be discerned in the language of God’s instructions to Samuel. In Hebrew, we find two different words for a king, nagid and melech. The precise meaning of the word nagid is ruler. It is closely related to the word negged, which means against, and reflects the adversarial relationship between the governor and the governed. The word melech, on the other hand, is related to the word nimlach, which means to seek advice, and it has connotations of a higher role for the king as a wise father or spiritual guide. The two words are used fairly often for all kings, but they reflect different aspects of their kingship.
When God instructed Samuel to appoint Saul, He said, “And you shall anoint him as a nagid over My people, for I have seen the distress of My people whose cries have reached Me . . . this one will control My people.” And Samuel told Saul, “Behold, God has anointed you as a nagid over His subjects.” At the time of Saul’s appointment, the primary mission of his kingship is expressed. He is to be a nagid, a ruler, and he is to protect and control the people.
Later, however, when God told Samuel to appoint David, He said, “I will send you to Yishai in Bethlehem, for I have seen among his sons a melech for Me.” The primary mission of his kingship is to be a melech, a wise king, “for Me,” a king who will bring the people closer to God.
Saul was appointed to bring order to the anarchic and chaotic society of ancient Israel, to pave the way for the spiritual monarchy of Judah that would ultimately guide the people into the messianic era. This was the mission of the House of Saul, if it took a generation or a century or a millennium.
In actuality, it took just two years for the House of Saul to collapse. On a personal level, the fall of Saul was a piteous human tragedy. On the national level, it signaled the loss of yet another grand opportunity, another detour on the road to destiny.
At the time of his selection, Saul was considered to be without equal in personal qualities, although there were some who voiced reservations about his ability to lead effectively. He accepted the crown of Israel with reluctance and humility, turning an apparently deaf ear to the grumbling and muttering of his detractors. But events would prove that he was indeed sensitive to criticism and reproach, that he was a leader who cared too much about the approval of his followers. And that was the fatal flaw that led to his downfall.
Saul’s reign began quite auspiciously. He faced his first national crisis immediately after he was crowned, and he responded well. An Ammonite army under King Nachash besieged the city of Yaveish Gilead in Trans-Jordan. The city offered to surrender and pay tribute, but Nahash disdainfully refused to lift the siege unless all the inhabitants plucked out their right eyes. Saul rallied the Jewish forces, crossed the Jordan River and destroyed the Ammonite camp in a well-executed surprise attack at dawn. Saul’s popularity rose dramatically after his victory, and in a great national celebration at Gilgal, his monarchy was reaffirmed and acclaimed.
Emboldened by his early successes and his rising popularity, Saul took on Philistia by ordering the execution of the Philistine governor of the land of Benjamin. In response, the Philistines invaded Israel, massing an enormous army at Michmash. The Jews massed in Gilgal.
Earlier, Samuel had arranged to bring instructions from God to Saul at Gilgal. Saul was to refrain from offering sacrifices in preparation for the battle with the Philistines until the prophet arrived. But the appointed day of the meeting with the prophet arrived, and the prophet had still not appeared at Gilgal. As the day wore on, the people began to disperse, and Saul became increasingly agitated. Finally, he could not bear to wait any longer, and he proceeded without prophetic counsel. Just then, the prophet arrived.
Saul tried to excuse his actions, but Samuel would have none of it. Saul’s impatience and agitation had revealed a deficiency of faith in the power of prophecy. A Jewish king was meant to be the unflinching instrument of God, which Saul apparently was not. Therefore, Samuel informed him that he had forfeited the right to be the founder of an enduring dynasty.
“You have been foolish,” Samuel said, “in not heeding the command which God your Lord has commanded you, for up to now, God had ordained your kingship over Israel to last ad olam, but now, your kingship will not last.”
The literal translation of the words ad olam is forever. The commentators ask the obvious question. How could the House of Saul have lasted forever if the kings of Judah were prophetically preordained? The answer offered is that in this context it means for a very long time, which is indeed a not uncommon, secondary translation of this phrase.
In the light of our discussion, it is also possible that had Saul not faltered, his dynasty could have endured indefinitely as the political monarchy, and the spiritual monarchy of Judah would have been superimposed over it. At that point, Israel would have enjoyed a two-tiered government, with the administrative duties performed by the House of Saul and the spiritual leadership by the tribe of Judah.
For the time being, however, Saul himself would still be allowed to continue his kingship and accomplish as much as he could in his own lifetime. Israel was at war with Philistia, and Saul was still king.
For a while, Saul’s fortunes seemed to brighten. Although vastly outnumbered, Saul and his son Jonathan led the Jewish forces to victory at Michmash. The Philistines were routed and driven back behind their own borders. With the Philistine threat in the southwest temporarily neutralized, Saul turned his attention to securing the other borders, scoring successive victories against Moab and Ammon in the east, the Syrian kingdoms in the north and Edom in the south.
After this string of victories, the prophet Samuel visited him once again, and once again, he failed to rise to the occasion. This time, his divine instructions were to settle the long-standing account with the kingdom of Amalek, the malevolent nemesis of the Jewish people. Saul was to give no quarter, take no prisoners, seize no plunder. Saul mustered an army of two hundred and ten thousand men and annihilated Amalek, but he violated the divine command by sparing the life of King Agag and by allowing his soldiers to plunder the livestock they considered too valuable to destroy. This time, he was guilty of more than faintheartedness and impatience. This time, he had deliberately disregarded his instructions in order to curry favor with his troops. And as a consequence, as Samuel was later to inform him, God rejected him and decided to take away his crown and give it to his betters.
The designated successor, although Saul was not informed of this, was David the son of Yishai of Bethlehem in the land of Judah. The dawn of the eternal House of David, the spiritual monarchy of Judah, had arrived considerably earlier than anticipated.
Samuel himself was greatly dismayed at the turn events had taken, and although he had not tried to intercede for Saul at Gilgal, he now prayed desperately to God that Saul be given a reprieve. The forfeiture of the dynastic potential of the House of Saul had not posed an immediate danger to the Jewish people. Saul was a relatively young man, and there was still enough time for him to satisfy Israel’s political needs and thus pave the way for the spiritual monarchy of Judah. But with Saul’s kingship aborted at such an early stage, the future of the Jewish people had suddenly become very problematic. Samuel’s prayers were not successful. God clearly did not consider Saul capable of fulfilling his role.
Saul’s failure caused the spiritual monarchy of Judah to be inaugurated prematurely. The new king would now have to fulfill the additional role of political ruler. When the tribes invited David to become king of all Israel, they said, “And God said to you, ‘You shall shepherd My people Israel, you shall be a nagid over Israel.’” God had told Samuel to anoint David as melech, and the people were inviting him to be their nagid as well, just as Saul had been.
Unfortunately, the dual role for the kings of the House of David would inevitably diminish their effectiveness as spiritual leaders. Their involvement in the sordid world of political affairs would undoubtedly tarnish the purity of their image in the public perception. Even worse, there was the real possibility that they would be corrupted by excessive contact with the apparatus of temporal power.
Yet another experiment had failed. The attempt at an interim political monarchy compatible with the stringent requirements of the Jewish quest for destiny had been thwarted by the frailties of the human character. Saul, who had been considered the finest person in Israel, had been unable to find that perfect balance between being the absolute king of his people and the absolute servant of God. There was no reason to expect that a lesser man would be able to do it better.
For all the risks involved, the role of the servant-king would now be given to the predestined kings of Judah. Perhaps their critical role as spiritual leaders would help them overcome the difficulties of finding the perfect balance that had eluded Saul. The difficulties would be daunting, but in the end, it would be a matter of free will. Perhaps these men of destiny would make the right choices, and the Jewish people would once again return to their destined course.
The new way, as history would show, worked for a while.
Until it didn’t.