Saul repents to Samuel, entreating him, “. . . I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice” (I Sam. 15:24). At Samuel’s refusal to return with Saul in I Samuel 15:27, 28, to worship he turned, “around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, ‘The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today. . .’” Interestingly, Saul refers to God to Samuel, as your God, rather than my God in two instances (I Samuel 15:21, I Samuel 15:30). In I Samuel 10:9 the scripture says, “So it was, was he had turned his back to go from Samuel, that God gave him another heart . . .” Ezekiel 11:19 prophetically promises, “And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh. . .” (KJV) God promises to give us a new name in Revelation 2:17, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (KJV). Saul of Tarsus became Paul the Apostle; the name Paul means, “little”(Lockyer, ATMOTB, Page 269). How ironic it is that King Saul sought an earthly kingdom and lost everything while egomaniacally trying to please the people; while, Pharisee of the Pharisees, Saul of Tarsus gained the Spiritual Kingdom and lost every worldly thing, while preserving his integrity, and not pandering to the status quo.
Lockyer, Herbert. All the Men of the Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958.
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