1 Samuel 16:2

Take an heifer. It was entirely natural and proper for the prophet to visit Bethlehem to make a sacrifice. The ark was still at Kirjath-jearim. It is known that the sanctuary was in Nob during at least a portion of Saul’s reign (ch. 21:1-6), but we are not told whether the yearly feasts were held there as they had been in Shiloh. Since the cessation of sacrificial offerings at Shiloh, these had been conducted at various cities throughout the land (PP 609). At such sacrificial gatherings the prophet would instruct the people concerning the great plan of salvation and would encourage them to send their young men to the various schools of the prophets, in order to raise the intellectual and spiritual tone of the nation. The king would thus have no question about Samuel’s visiting Bethlehem. So far as the people were concerned, it was a routine ministration by the prophet, similar to a district meeting today.

Say, I am come to sacrifice. It was not in the public interest that the act of anointing David be known at once. Was not Saul’s anointing conducted in much the same way?

Did the 30 elders who then responded to the invitation to attend the feast know why Samuel had given Saul the seat of honor? They were not present while Samuel and Saul communed together after the feast (ch. 9:25). Neither they nor even Saul’s servant witnessed the early morning anointing (chs. 9:27 to 10:1). Nor did Saul’s family learn of the anointing until the time of the Mizpah meeting for selecting a king (ch. 10:20-27).

The anointing of Saul was to him a declaration of God’s plan for his life. He was invited, but not compelled, to accept God’s summons. Such anointing gave him no license to initiate action to bring about his actual installation, publicly, as king. The record shows clearly that even after his selection at Mizpah, Saul returned to his home and waited for the Lord to lead in the next move.

The only difference between Samuel’s anointing of Saul and his trip to Jesse’s home was that at this time there was already a king, suspicious of every move the prophet made since he had announced the Lord’s rejection of Saul. This sensitiveness was no doubt greatly increased by Samuel’s hesitancy to join his king in worship. There may have been a considerable interval of time between chs. 15 and 16.