=The messengers with the raw meat.=--One day messengers came hurrying
through the towns and villages of central Canaan bearing sacks or
baskets of raw beef chopped into small squares. To the leading men of
each village, they handed a piece of the bloody flesh with this
message: "This piece of ox flesh is from Saul, the son of Kish, of
Gibeah in Benjamin. As this flesh is cut into small pieces so will the
flesh of the men of your village be chopped up if you do not come at
once, armed for battle, to help our brothers in Jabesh in Gilead east
of the Jordan, which is besieged by the Ammonites." "Who is Saul?"
many asked, and few could answer. Some perhaps were able to explain
that he was a brave and able young farmer, a friend of a prophet named
Samuel, in the tribe of Benjamin. But it was the raw meat that
persuaded them to obey the summons. Here is a real leader, they said,
a man who means what he says. And two or three nights later an army of
Hebrews, with Saul in the lead, came dashing in among the tents of the
Ammonites who were besieging Jabesh and put them to flight. The
Gileadites were saved; and for years to come they remembered Saul with
gratitude.


THE KINGDOM OF SAUL

Shortly after this victory there was a great gathering of the Hebrews
of Benjamin and some of the neighboring tribes and Saul was elected as
king. Would he also become a tyrant? Would he make their children
slaves and take the best of their flocks and herds and wheat and oil,
leaving them in poverty while he lived in luxury? There were many who
thought so. The prophet Samuel, himself Saul's friend, warned them of
the danger although he helped to make Saul king. But the danger from
the Philistines was so great and they had suffered so much from their