Daily Bible Reading - April 27 - The Lord's Anointed Savior

King Saul isn't a very likely model of what the Messiah would be, given how rebellious to the word he turns out to be (as in 1 Samuel 13). However, the language used to describe him in 1 Samuel 10-12 is very similar to the language describing the Messiah. Saul was the one "whom the Lord has chosen" (1 Sam. 10:24). In 1 Sam. 12:5 he is called the Lord's "anointed," which is a translation of the Hebrew term for "messiah" (the Greek term is christos, "Christ"). So think about these parallels between Saul in the account of 1 Samuel 11 and Jesus, the Christ.

1) We need savior to defeat a vicious enemy.

Israel needed someone to save them from Nahash the Ammonite (1 Sam. 11:1-4). We need someone to save us from the Devil (1 Peter 5:8; John 8:31-34; Revelation 12:17; Acts 4:26-27).

2) Only the Lord's anointed can save us from the enemy.

King Saul was God's anointed, and through him God secured a great victory for Israel (1 Sam. 11:5-11, 13b).

Jesus is the Lord's anointed, and through Him we have victory over the Devil (Matthew 1:21; Luke 4:18; John 12:27-33; Colossians 2:15; 1 Corinthians 15:56-57).

3) The saving work of the anointed should lead us to serve him more.

In the case of Saul, the people renewed their commitment to follow his leadership (1 Sam. 11:12-15).

We should be even more ready to serve our Anointed One who has delivered us (Luke 1:68-75).