I Shmuel 10: Ultimate Powerball

Shmuel sets up a very intricate future to do list for Shaul after his initial inauguration. Everything comes to pass and Shaul joins a band of traveling prophets and begins to have visions with them. Shmuel gathers the nation together for a lottery in front of the Urim v’Tumim to “select” the new king. Similar lotteries so far include the lottery to determine who was responsible for the defeat against Ai in the book of Joshua, also in the book of Joshua, multiple lotteries divide the land. This time, the lottery is meant to select the next king. The function of the lottery is to bolster the point that God made the decision. However, Shmuel already knew who the king was going to be and already anointed him! Shmuel also had the respect and gravitas to announce the next king from God. Why would Shmuel need to run a lottery here? The secondary function of the lottery is to provide added drama and suspense to the moment. This lottery is run almost the same as the lottery in Joshua after the defeat at Ai. The drama there is built up to provide a runway for the guilty party to admit their guilt before the final lot is drawn. The problem in our chapter is there is no need for a confession. In fact, the buildup of the drama may have had a negative affect and led to Shaul running away to hide like Jonah centuries later. So building suspense does not seem to fit as the answer. Perhaps because the people knew that Shmuel was not supportive of the idea of a king that if he just came out and announced a choice, that may have been suspect. This is further bolstered by the fact that Shaul is not from the tribe of Yehudah and is instead from the tribe recently condemned to annihilation. Had Shmuel, a royal skeptic, simply announced a king from Binyamin, it may have thrown the whole process for a loop. Therefore, God needed Shmuel to go through the pageantry to select a king. Another possibility is that God is specifically reenacting certain events in the past to send a message. As mentioned earlier, using the lottery evokes the lottery that split the land into multiple tribes. Standing before the Urim v’Tumim also evokes the battle selection in the civil war at the end of Judges. Those two events, in different ways, divided the nation. This lottery and selection of a king by the Urim v’Tumim is meant to unite the nation.