Saul was anointed

The Bible is an honest book. It does not flush in singing praises to her kings, heroes and God. Nor does she shy away from reporting their weaknesses and sins. She does the same even to her God. However unreasonable and offending God's actions to our sense of morality, the Bible does not try to smooth them out, to harmonize or attenuate them.
The story of Saul, the first king of Israel, or as least its outline, is well-known. He was chosen and led Israel into battles against her neighbouring countries. Saul was a strategist and won many battles and the respect from the Israelites. Later, he did not obey God's command to exterminate the entire Amalekites. (Nowadays, had Saul done so, he would have been tried in an international court for ethnic cleansing. God's command is simply repugnant to our sensibility. Anyway, that was Old Testament time when even Abraham offered his beloved son Isaac as a human sacrifice. Simply put, they held a morality different from ours.) Consequently, Saul lost God's favour. God chose another king David instead. Out of jealousy, Saul spent almost all of his time chasing after David to kill him in his remaining career. In the end, Saul and one of his sons, David's best friend, Jonathan died in a battle against the Philistines. In short, Saul was a tragic character because of his personality flaw.
We have run too far ahead and let's rewind to examine the merits of Saul a bit closer. Here is how he first appeared in this Biblical tragedy. "... he (Kish) had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people" (1 Samuel 9:2). A handsome and tall young man. A good-looking and promising stuff to make a king indeed.
Kish lost (all?) his asses and sent Saul and a servant to fetch them back. After a lengthy futile search, Saul wanted to return "... lest my father cease to care about the asses and become anxious about us" (1 Samuel 9:5). Here was a son full of filial piety. He could be a good king, as least from the standard of Chinese culture. He cared about family values first. After he ascended the throne, we would expect him to bring harmonious family relations among his subjects.
Later he met Samuel whom God had earlier revealed that He had chosen Saul to be king. When Samuel told him so, Saul answered "Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?" (1 Samuel 9:21). A humble young man indeed. Aware of his lowly origin, he would not be an arrogant king in the future. Yawheh had made a smart choice. The next morning, Samuel anointed Saul (1 Samuel 10:1). Samuel sent him away and in a place called Gibe-ath-elohim, Saul met a band of prophets and he in turn was filled with the Spirit and began to prophesied among them (1 Samuel 10:10). It showed that Saul was indeed a vessel, an instrument of God.
Filial piety, humility, strategic prowess and the Spirit of God were Saul's initial asset. He was a successful warrior-king in his early career. He did not extract wealth from his subjects, nor did he carry away their children to serve him. None of Samuel's warnings came true in King Saul. Of course, with the wisdom of hindsight, we know why Saul fell from grace.
Here is a classical problem all theologians have to face squarely. Given that God is omniscient, why does He allow such things to happen? God knows the 'future' because He resides in eternity. For Him, all (past, present and future) is present. Why did He allow His chosen one to fall? Respecting the freedom of the chosen one does not seem a satisfactory answer. What else can be said to defend this omniscience nature of God?
The TV series 'Medium' did not attract my attention at first. I thought it was some combination of ghost and detective genres. I turn out to be wrong. The episodes are rather philosophical/ethical. The heroine has some incomplete knowledge of the future through dreams. Her job is to stop crime. What must she do? Sometimes, the script writer(s) chooses the following line: if one thing does not happen, something else (worse) will.
God has complete knowledge of the future. Yet, He allows bad and even evil things to happen. Otherwise, worse eventualities will. Of course, you are free to disagree. But this is our faith in God. He is our loving Father. We trust that He will arrange the best things for our good. Many times, we wonder why the bad are allowed to prosper and the good suffer, why the incompetent are allowed to occupy the top jobs while the capable left to rot quietly at the bottom. God knows. After all, the bad and the good; the incompetent and the capable are His children. We all share His image.

My God, enlarge our hearts so that Your wisdom may reside. Trample our pride to make room for Your loving knowledge. My God, remain not in silence. We long to hear Your reassuring whispers. Happy Birthday, Wulstan. Amen.