Bede : And when Samuel looked at Saul, the Lord said to him, etc. When John saw Jesus coming to him, instructed by the Holy Spirit, he understood him to be the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sins of the world, the one of whom the prophet Micah speaks: And you Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for me one who will be the ruler in Israel (Micah 5:2). — Commentary on Samuel Gregory the Dialogist : In this passage it must be noted that when a pastor is chosen in the holy Church, sometimes he is ordained for himself and for the people; sometimes neither for the people nor for himself; sometimes for himself, not for the people; and sometimes indeed for the people, not for himself. For himself and the people, when a chosen preacher is given to chosen subjects: because from the very thing by which the multitude of subjects is led to the eternal homeland, gifts of merits are heaped upon the good pastor. A pastor is given neither for himself nor for the people when a reprobate populace is permitted to have a reprobate pastor, since he presides in such a way and they obey in such a way that neither he who teaches nor those who are taught deserve to arrive at eternal goods. Of whom the Lord says through Hosea: "I will give them kings in my wrath" (Hosea 13:11). For a king is given in the wrath of God when one worse than the wicked is appointed to preside over them. Such a pastor is given when such a people is taken on to be governed, who may equally be condemned by eternal punishment. A pastor is given for himself, not for the people, when a good man is placed over the wicked; as the Lord says to Ezekiel: "I am sending you to the children of Israel, to an apostate nation that has departed from me" (Ezekiel 3:3). A pastor is given for himself indeed, not for the people, when even if a chosen preacher cannot convert his hearers to God, he himself nevertheless does not lose the eternal rewards of his labor. But for the people, not for himself: when a pastor is granted to good subjects who possesses gifts by which he benefits them but does not benefit himself. Such indeed were those about whom the Lord commands the disciples, saying: "What they say, do; but what they do, do not do" (Matthew 23:3). As if He were saying: What they have received that is useful for you, take from them as though it were yours; and leave in them as though it were theirs what they possess not for your gain but for their own destruction. Saul, therefore, with the Lord rejected, is chosen, and yet is declared to be one who will free the people of the Lord from the hand of the Philistines, because Almighty God often benefits His good faithful ones through those prelates who do not please Him in the exercise of that same prelacy. "And when Samuel looked upon Saul, the Lord said: Behold the man of whom I spoke to you; this one shall rule over my people." For this was done on the following day, which the Lord had promised on the preceding day, saying: "Tomorrow at this same hour I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him over my people Israel." He is therefore seen on the second day, who was promised on the first: because the preachers of holy Church search out the virtues of the elect in their hidden life. For those who are to be promoted, when they bring forth good things, promise something great from themselves. On the first day, therefore, a king is promised; because preachers behold the great works of the elect, and, as if the Lord were speaking, they recognize inwardly those whom they wish to appoint as rulers of holy Church. Samuel therefore sees on the following day, when the preacher beholds the one who is to be promoted in the great light of his manner of life. And then indeed, as if by the Lord's indication, he recognizes the one who must be appointed king: because the one who stands preeminent on the lofty height of holiness, he sees as worthy to be set above others. — Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 4, Chapter 4