1 Samuel 15 tells of the final break between Samuel and Saul and ends with these words: 'As long as Samuel lived, he never again saw the king; but he grieved over him. The Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king of Israel.' What led to this was Saul's behaviour in a campaign against the desert raiders, the Amalekites. Samuel, as God's nabi, had commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites and put them all under the herem. They, and all their possessions, were to be sacrificed to God in a 'holy war'. Saul defeated the Amalekites but did not obey the order about the herem. He ordered the destruction only of what was useless or worthless amongst the possessions of the Amalekites, and although he had the people killed, he kept alive their king, Agag, presumably hoping to obtain a valuable ransom from him. When Samuel challenged Saul about what he had done, Saul said that he intended to sacrifice the best sheep and cattle of the Amalekites to God, but Samuel rejected Saul's explanation, answering him in words very similar to those with which a much later prophet, Amos, challenged Israel (Amos 5: 21-24). Saul admitted his sin, and Samuel took upon himself the responsibility of killing Agag to fulfill the command of the herem. Samuel then returned to Ramah, his home, to wait for the Lord to bring Saul's rule to an end. We should note that Samuel was not led to take any action himself to bring Saul's rule to an end; that was solely for God to perform. Only God could bring to an end what God had begun in the anointing of Saul to be Israel's first king.

In this harsh account, set in a time of struggle for Israel against her enemies, Saul emerges as a sad figure. He had accepted his election to a position of great responsibility but under severe testing had lacked the depth of obedience, and therefore of faith, that the servant of God required. He admitted his failure to Samuel and asked that his rejection by the prophet-and therefore by Israel's God-should not be made public (15: 30-31). Implied in this is his acceptance that his rule will come to an end according to God's will, because he is no longer the instrument which God can use.

In his presentation of the stories of Saul, the writer of 1 Samuel makes clear to us his own understanding of the responsibility of kingship. Only he who allows God to be the true King of Israel, through his total obedience, can be earthly king over God's people. The first king is measured by this standard and fails to reach it, but he remains the anointed one until God withdraws this privilege from him. We can look much further than the writer of 1 Samuel could and put his understanding of kingship within the context of the whole Bible. Saul was the first of a line at the end of which stands the one who was completely obedient, who is described in John 1: 49 as the King of Israel.