Martin Buber's Theopolitics

The Arcanum of the Monarchy | 165

The Arcanum of the Monarchy: The Anointing and After

Through a series of seemingly random events, narrated in the form of a saga,
YHVH brings Saul to Samuel, who has kept the elders with him following his an-
nouncement to them (rather than sending them home, as the final text has it). The
actual election of Saul is a hidden event that takes place inside the divine mind;
we are not given access to it. What we do get through our narrative, Buber argues,
is a description of the manner in which YHVH enacts his promise to Samuel to
grant the people their wish while transforming it at the same time. Buber com-
ments on even apparently insignificant elements of the saga in his portrayal of
the core narrative of Saul’s rise to kingship as a manifesto for indirect theocracy.
From the moment Saul’s father loses his donkeys, the saga follows a unifying
vision of the mysterious ways of YHVH.^53 Hiddenness, secrecy, and mystery are
the dominant themes of this narrative; “the anointing story and what holds it to-
gether are only to be understood from an atmosphere of conspiracy.”^54 A hero so
imposing that he stands head and shoulders above all others (9:2) and a prophet
famous throughout the land (9:6) meet for a secret encounter (9:25) and a secret
anointing (10:1); the Spirit seizes the hero and he prophesies in public (10:10) but
then hides his destiny from his family (10:16) and conceals himself when others
seek him (10:22); he answers doubts about himself with silence (10:27) and recruits
a secret guerrilla army (10:26) for a clandestine military operation (14:11):

The apprehension of the secret incidents serves this apparently prolix Ritar-

dando with incomparable efficacy. The divine providence is so strongly felt

because it is secretive; the straying of the donkeys and the gossip of the girls

apparently determine the tempo. The fable-colored glass of this mundane-

seeming saga is suitable as no other to hide the white blossom of the holy.^55

All this, in Buber’s reading, is carefully arranged by the narrator, the “master of
the esoteric style,” and serves to justify the contradiction of YHVH himself, in
granting the kingship to Israel even though it rejected him.
Samuel invites Saul to a clandestine sacrificial meal at which (according to
Buber) the elders of the people are present. Samuel signals to all, by seating him
in the place of honor (9:22) and assigning him the sacrificial portion (9:24), that
Saul is the one who will fulfill the elders’ request. No further explanation is re-
quired; the elders have been waiting for him. Any verbal announcement would
spread rapidly and reach the Philistines, thus defeating the plan. Samuel and Saul
then have a discussion (9:25), whose content is hidden, but which Buber holds to
be about affairs of state and military strategy. The anointing takes place the next
morning.
The account of Saul’s anointing begins at 9:27, as Samuel and Saul are exit-
ing the city. Samuel has Saul send his servant ahead so he can privately tell him
a davar elohim, a word of God. Once again, the contents of the conversation are