“And after these things he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom also he bore witness and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who shall do all my will.' ”
Having laid the foundation in God's oneness of purpose, goodness, compassion and longstanding generosity, Paul now moves on to the continuation of it in His provision for them of judges and saviours. He had never failed them. He had given them just and benevolent war leaders and rulers (‘judges'), leading up to the great prophet Samuel. Then when they had asked for a king He had given them the mighty Saul who had been over them for forty years (another indication of His longstanding goodness). And when He had had to remove him (a reminder that not all had been sweet and light) He had ‘raised up David' to be their king, to whom He had borne witness that He had found a man after His own heart, who would do all His will. Thus as all present would know David was the climax, the ultimate, of these earthly rulers and kings, yet, as they also knew, there was a greater to come. He pointed ahead to a greater David Who was to be expected, another to Whom God would bear witness, another Who would be after God's own heart and would do all His will. His purpose in the end was provide for them an everlasting King (2 Samuel 7:13; 2 Samuel 7:16; Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 11:1-11; Isaiah 32:1-3; Isaiah 55:3-5; Ezekiel 37:24-28; Zechariah 9:9).
‘For the space of forty years.' This period is not mentioned with respect to Saul in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, but it is found in Josephus and was therefore clearly a part of the Jewish tradition with respect to him. We must remember that ‘forty years, was to them a round number indicating a fairly lengthy period, a mature period, a satisfactorily complete period. (The patriarchs had tended to marry at ‘forty', that is, at maturity - Genesis 25:20; Genesis 26:34). In Judges it was the regular period of ‘freedom' (‘the land had rest forty years' - Judges 3:11; Judges 5:31; Judges 8:28, contrast Acts 13:1). In seeming contrast the Hebrew text of the Old testament says of Saul that he reigned for ‘two years'. But that also was an example of the ancient use of numbers and is probably actually to be seen as agreeing with the significance of the ‘forty years' here, indicating a reign which went beyond youth into middle age. ‘Three years' at that stage would have indicated that he reigned into old age.