Saul as Church

King Saul, the first king of Israel, is an interesting character. Even more interesting are the parallels that his life has with the Christian church throughout its history.

There was a man in the first century who was named after King Saul, and was of the same tribe, Benjamin. He was called “Paul” when among Greek-speaking people, but among Hebrews he continued to be called “Saul” (Shaul). We probably know him as the apostle Paul. His teaching is what the church relies on for most of its doctrine, and he is often thought of as the father of the church.

In the beginning, Saul, son of Kish, was God’s choice for king of Israel. Samuel had been the leader of Israel as a judge and prophet, but his sons were not good men. So the people demanded a king. At some level God was displeased with this, since the people were rejecting his leadership in raising up judges. But the kingship had been predicted way back in Deuteronomy 17, so it seems to have been God’s ultimate plan for the nation.

God specifically told Samuel to anoint Saul as king over Israel. At that time Saul was humble and not eager to accept the kingship. When the Urim and Thummim were used to narrow down the proposed king to only Saul, he was hiding because he didn’t want the role. The Spirit of God had come on him and he prophesied with a procession of prophets.

Saul’s first actions as king seemed to be righteous ones as well. He summoned the people to help rescue the city of Jabesh Gilead from the Ammonites. God blessed him and his people with victory.

But Saul’s righteous standing didn’t last long. After just a short period of time he decided to go against the God-ordained process of worship by offering up burnt offerings that only the priests were authorized to do. As a result, God rejected him from passing the kingship to his heirs and sent Samuel to anoint another person, David, to be the king whose dynasty would last forever.

In a similar way, the followers of Jesus, the church, in the first century were chosen by God and faithful to him. They worshiped in the temple and attended synagogues on the Sabbath. When Gentiles turned to God, they became identified with covenant Israel (Rom. 11:17) and began living the lifestyle that God had instructed his people (I Cor. 7:19).

But in the late first and early second centuries that changed. The Roman empire instituted an onerous tax on Jews, the Fiscus Judaicus. The way people were identified as Jews was by their lifestyle; did they live like Jews?

The Gentile followers of Jesus knew that they were not Jews and didn’t see any reason to pay the tax. So they distanced themselves from Judaism as much as possible. They started defining their religion in opposition to Judaism. They established new days of worship (Sunday) and rejected the Sabbaths and festivals commanded in scripture.

They even rejected the law of God as given through Moses and claimed that it was obsolete, despite both Jesus (Matt. 5:17) and Paul (Rom. 3:31) insisting that was not the case. Over time they established a theology in opposition to God’s law, basing it on misunderstood portions of Paul’s epistles.

They also set themselves in opposition to God’s people Israel, despite Paul’s warning in Romans 11 not to do so. By the time of the church councils in the fourth century, they were saying terrible things about Jews. And it’s common knowledge that much of the anti-Semitism throughout history has come from Christians.

In the same way that Saul hounded David, God’s anointed, for the rest of his life and tried to destroy him, the church has hounded Jews, the people of David’s greater son, the Messiah, and tried to destroy them. Eventually Saul was killed and David became king, even as the Son of David will become king of the Jews in God’s kingdom at the end of the age.

Saul’s misunderstanding, and that of the church, has been tragic. We need to repent, as Jesus preached, and embrace the people of Israel and the faith of Israel, even as we claim to embrace the Messiah of Israel.