Table of Contents
Saul is the hinge between two kinds of rule. Before him, Israel had judges and a God who ruled directly; after him came the line of David. On this site his story is read in several ways: as the moment the people chose a human king, as the work of spirits from the lower heavens, and in Paul Wallis’s reading as a king deposed for being too merciful. This page gathers those readings.
The first king
From direct divine rulership to human-centered political system follows the change step by step. The people ask Samuel for a king like the other nations, YHWH consents with a warning, and Saul becomes the first anointed king. The Oahspe gives the name a meaning on The Book of Saphah:
This king was called Saul, signifying OF THE LORD GOD. Prior to this the Israelites acknowledged no God nor Lord, but covenanted with the Great Spirit, E-O-Ih.
Oahspe, The Book of Saphah
Spirits behind the throne
In the Oahspe the anointing is not a step forward. On Dagon, the familiar spirits of the lower heavens work on the new king:
The familiar spirits now inspired Saul to change the words of the commandments to the LORD YOUR GOD, as a conciliatory stratagem to please the nations and tribes of people who worshiped Baal, Dagon, Ashtaroth, Haughak, and other Gods and Lords of the lower heavens
Oahspe, The Book of Saphah
The Amalekites and the fall
The break between Saul and his God comes over a war. Isra’el – The Powerful Yisra cites 1 Samuel 15:2-3, where YHWH commands Saul, through Samuel, to destroy the Amalekites completely, people and animals alike. Paul Wallis reads what follows as a matter of power, on Who Is Yahweh?:
For instance, it is when YHWH’s successor King Saul runs a war more mercifully than the way YHWH would have done that YHWH deposes him, afflicting him with a spiritual parasite which ultimately drives the king to insanity and suicide.
Paul Wallis, The Eden Conspiracy
Wallis returns to this period in the videos When Yahweh was replaced by a human king and Did Jesus worship Yahweh?.
David and Goliath
Saul is also the king in the background of the most famous fight in the Bible. On David and Goliath, Saul doubts the young shepherd and offers him his armor, which David refuses before going out with his sling and five smooth stones. King David follows David from Saul’s court to the throne.
Endor and Gilboa
At the end, with the Philistines gathering and no answer from God, Saul goes to a medium. The Medium of Endor tells how she summons the spirit of the prophet Samuel at his request, and Elohim points out that she says she saw elohim ascending out of the earth, one of the places where the word clearly does not mean the one God. On 1 Samuel, chapter 31 closes the book: the Philistines defeat Israel at Mount Gilboa, Saul and his sons die, and their bodies are desecrated. Asherah, Queen of Heaven notes that the Philistines had a temple of Ashtaroth in the time of Saul, citing 1 Samuel 31:10.
Related pages
- From direct divine rulership to human-centered political system
- Dagon
- Who Is Yahweh?
- The Medium of Endor
- David and Goliath
- King David
- 1 Samuel
- Isra’el – The Powerful Yisra
For every page I tagged with Saul, see the Saul tag archive.
