Reserved for You
15 Now Yahweh had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying, 16 “Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He will save my people out of the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me.” 17 When Samuel saw Saul, Yahweh said to him, “Behold, the man of whom I spoke to you! He will have authority over my people.” 18 Then Saul approached Samuel in the gateway, and said, “Please tell me where the seer’s house is.” 19 Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you are to eat with me today. In the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. 20 As for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don’t set your mind on them, for they have been found. For whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you and all your father’s house?” 21 Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?” 22 Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the guest room, and made them sit in the best place among those who were invited, who were about thirty persons. 23 Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it aside.’” 24 The cook took up the thigh, and that which was on it, and set it before Saul. Samuel said, “Behold, that which has been reserved! Set it before yourself and eat; because it has been kept for you for the appointed time, for I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day. 25 When they had come down from the high place into the city, he talked with Saul on the housetop. 26 They arose early; and about daybreak, Samuel called to Saul on the housetop, saying, “Get up, that I may send you away.” Saul arose, and they both went outside, he and Samuel, together. 27 As they were going down at the end of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” He went ahead, then Samuel said, “But stand still first, that I may cause you to hear God’s message.”
God had told Samuel a day early; the portion was cooked before Saul arrived. Grace runs ahead of the man it honors — and he shrinks from it.
Now Yahweh had revealed to Samuel a day before Saul came, saying,
The curtain lifts on the other side of the coincidence. While Saul tramped after donkeys, the appointment had been fixed: tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people 1 Samuel 9:16. The word is prince — a leader under a king, not king — a title that keeps God's own kingship intact even while Israel's demand is granted. And the reason given is startling after chapter eight's rebuke: for I have looked upon my people, because their cry has come to me — the language of Egypt Exodus 3:7. Israel asked wrongly and God still heard their real distress. The concession is also a rescue.
As for your donkeys who were lost three days ago, don’t set your mind on them, for they have been found. For whom does all Israel desire? Is it not you and all your father’s house?”
Samuel answers the small question before it is asked and then hands over the large one. The move is pastoral: settle the anxiety a man came with, then tell him what he actually came for.
Saul answered, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?”
Saul's first recorded words about himself are self-diminishment — and the book will make readers weigh them twice. Gideon said the same thing and meant it Judges 6:15; the humility is real here, and it is also the seedbed of the later ruin, because a man who cannot believe he belongs in the office will spend the office defending himself. Benjamin was in fact the smallest tribe, nearly exterminated in the era just past Judges 20:46–48, so the modesty has facts behind it.
23 Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it aside.’” 24 The cook took up the thigh, and that which was on it, and set it before Saul. Samuel said, “Behold, that which has been reserved! Set it before yourself and eat; because it has been kept for you for the appointed time, for I said, ‘I have invited the people.’” So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
Then the reserved portion — the thigh, the priest's own share Leviticus 7:32–33, cooked and set aside on instructions given before Saul crossed the threshold. It is the chapter's picture of election in a single dish: the honor prepared while the man was still looking for livestock. Saul eats at the head of thirty guests, sleeps on the roof, and walks out at daybreak into the sentence that changes his life: stand still first, that I may cause you to hear God's message 1 Samuel 9:27.
settled What this mark means