There was a Benjaminite kid named Saul who was a full head taller than everyone else. He goes out one day looking for ome sheep that have wandered off and eventually finds his way to Samuel, who old him his sheep had already been found and also, he will be made king of Israel soon.
When the time comes to choose a king, all of Israel meets and Samuel starts drawing lots, which was not a random thing, but a way of telling what God wanted. I think it would be frowned upon in most Christian churches today, but that was the way they made a lot of decisions back then. Sure enough, Samuel drew Saul’s lot and he was made king.
Everybody went home pretty unimpressed that the crown should go to kind of a backwater little clan, but not long after a town was attacked by ammonites and Saul led an army and defeated them though and everyone loved him. That seems to be about the quickest way to impress the Israelites, raising an army and winning a battle.
Once Saul is accepted as king, a bunch of his followers want to find those guys from before who made snarky comments about Saul being king and kill them as an example and a tribute to Saul, but he denies them because this is a good day in which the Lord has saved Israel.
Samuel chews everyone out one last time for having a king, but tells them to just do the best they can to follow the Law still anyway. I think it’s really interesting that God chose Saul as king, or that he chose anyone as king really. We’ve seen that God has no trouble killing His people and unleashing terrible plagues among them when they act against Him, but I guess wanting a human king isn’t really a sin per se because God never told them not to do it, it’s just kind of stupid because God is in charge of the entire universe so they’re just adding another level of middle management to their own nation.
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