Saul
Typological treatment in the corpus
Saul, the first king of Israel (1Sam. 8-31), is identified in the corpus by Noordzij as the central type of the sinner. His sin is not primarily moral transgression but an ontological positional disorder: self-will — taking the initiative out of God’s hands and placing himself in the position of God as initiator. This inability to wait for God’s timing is the structural hamartiological characteristic that makes Saul a type.
Biblical anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| 1Sam. 8:4-9 | Israel asks for a king — God warns that this establishes carnal kingship |
| 1Sam. 13:5-14 | Saul offers presumptuously before Samuel arrives; Samuel announces the loss of the kingdom |
| 1Sam. 15:1-23 | Saul spares Agag and the best livestock; “to obey is better than sacrifice” |
| 1Sam. 16:14 | ”The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him” |
| 1Sam. 31:1-6 | Saul dies at Gilboa — the end of carnal kingship |
Typological exposition by author
Noordzij
In Moses and the Way to Sonship (MWZ), Saul is for Noordzij the central type of the sinner. Saul begins as a Spirit-anointed leader, but his path ends in self-will and divine abandonment. The hinge-text is 1Sam. 13:5-14:
“But later he became a self-willed man, who took the initiative out of God’s hands. Because he could not wait for God’s timing, he lost God’s blessing on his kingship already in the second year of his reign.”1
Self-will — autonomy-sin — is for Noordzij not primarily a moral transgression but an ontological positional disorder: the sinner places himself in the position of God as initiator. What is broken is not primarily a law but a relationship of dependence. Saul is the type of the one who is anointed in principle but chooses the way of the flesh over the way of the spirit.
The contrast in Noordzij’s system is sharp: Saul (type of the sinner) over against David (type of the sonship-man). Saul seeks affirmation in the eyes of the people (“honour me before the elders of my people”, 1Sam. 15:30); David seeks God’s face. Saul’s fall is structural: whoever trusts in his own initiative loses the presence of the Spirit.
Noordzij connects this to his broader hamartiology: sin is the condition in which the soulish dominates the spiritual. Saul is the type of the believer who misses the breakthrough into priestly-kingly sonship (after the order of Melchizedek) because he remains caught in soulish kingship.
Related types
- Connected: melchizedek (Melchizedek = type of heavenly priestly-kingly sonship; Saul = contrasting type of earthly, self-willed kingship)
- Via glossary: carnality