Saul's kingship gets off to a great start in I Samuel 11. The Israelites had wanted a king, after all, to unite them and help organize their defenses against enemies. Saul does precisely this in compelling fashion.
At this point in the story, the bad guy is the Ammonite king, Nahash. He has it out for the Jews who live beyond the Jordan River, the Gadites and the Reubenites, oppressing them. To add injury to insult, he has been gouging out the right eye of all the Israelites in order to bring disgrace upon their nation. Even when he is sued for peace by a group of holdouts in Jabesh-gilead, Nahash insists he will only spare their lives if he is allowed to mutilate their bodies anyway. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, they ask for time to see if any of their brethren will deliver them. If not, they agree to surrender themselves to Nahash's twisted designs.
When word of their plight reaches Saul, the Spirit of God comes upon him and he is enraged (vs. 6). He sends a thinly-veiled threat throughout the territory that all Israel had better assemble for battle, or they would suffer serious consequences. Three hundred thousand from the northern tribes and seventy thousand from Judah rally to his side. Saul sends words to Jabesh-gilead that they will indeed have a deliverer and be saved.
The next day, the slaughter of the Ammonites is great. With a unified force and King Saul at the head, the Israelites realize they are much more powerful united than separate. The people are glad and renew the kingship of Saul at Gilgal (the circle of stones where the Israelites first crossed the Jordan under Joshua). As the Bible tells us, "there Saul and all the Israelites rejoiced greatly" (vs. 15).
Ah, if it could only ever be so.
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