Saul's lineage & God's OT promises link?
How does Saul's genealogy connect to God's promises in the Old Testament?

Saul’s Family Tree in One Verse

1 Chronicles 9:37 gives four of Saul’s uncles: “Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth.”

Keep reading to v. 39 and the whole chain is clear:

• Ner → Kish → Saul → Jonathan, Malchi-shua, Abinadab, Esh-baal.

Chronicles was written after the exile to prove that every tribe still had roots. Saul’s genealogy shows Benjamin is alive and well—and God is still tracking every name He promised to bless.


Benjamin: A Tribe God Refused to Lose

Genesis 35:24 lists Benjamin among Jacob’s twelve sons, tying him to the Abrahamic promise to form “a great nation” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Judges 20 records Benjamin on the brink of extinction; only 600 men survived. Yet here they are in Chronicles, restored. God kept His word that all twelve tribes would endure.

Genesis 49:27 predicts Benjamin will be “a ravenous wolf,” a fierce fighter. King Saul fits the profile—tall, warrior-king (1 Samuel 9:2).


Deuteronomy Anticipated Israel’s First Crown

Deuteronomy 17:14-15 foresaw Israel asking for a king and permitted it—so long as he was an Israelite. Saul’s genealogy proves he met the requirement:

• He was “a Benjamite, a man of standing” (1 Samuel 9:1-2).

• Israel’s first throne therefore springs straight from God’s earlier blueprint, showing that even Israel’s imperfect request still fit inside God’s perfect foreknowledge.


Why a Benjamite King before the Judah Promise?

• God had already promised that “the scepter will not depart from Judah” (Genesis 49:10), yet Saul is from Benjamin.

• Saul’s reign demonstrates two truths at once:

– Israel could have a king, as Deuteronomy allowed.

– God would still move the permanent throne to Judah through David (1 Samuel 15:28; 2 Samuel 7:16).

The Benjamite moment displays human choice and divine sovereignty side by side: God let the people have the king they wanted, then brought in the king He had chosen.


Preserved After Judgment: Jonathan to Micah

Though Saul lost the kingdom, God preserved his line for mercy’s sake:

• Jonathan’s son Merib-Baal (Mephibosheth) survived and received David’s covenant kindness (2 Samuel 9:7).

1 Chronicles 9:40-41 lists Merib-Baal’s son Micah and four grandsons—evidence that judgment on Saul never erased the tribe. God disciplines yet preserves.


From Saul to Paul—A New-Covenant Echo

• Centuries later, another Benjamite named Saul (the apostle Paul) would write, “I myself am…of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1; Philippians 3:5).

• Paul’s Hebrew name honors King Saul, showing that Benjamin’s legacy still mattered in the New Testament era. The same faithfulness that tracked every name in 1 Chronicles continued into the church age.


What Saul’s Genealogy Shows About God’s Promises

• No promise is too old for God to remember.

• No tribe is too small for God to preserve.

• Even human missteps cannot overturn God’s larger covenant plan.

Saul’s family list in 1 Chronicles 9 is more than ancient paperwork; it is a living receipt that every word God spoke to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and David is being kept—name by name, generation by generation.

What lessons can we learn from Saul's family for our own lives?
Top of Page
Top of Page