1 Samuel 11:7
And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
Saul was coming in from the field behind his herds when he heard loud wailing over a calamity and asked what ailed the people that they wept, and then he learned of the shameful Ammonite threat against Jabesh-gilead. When that threat was repeated to him his dormant powers were roused so that he stood up as a hero and a king. The Spirit of God came upon him as upon Samson to summon Israel to the rescue. In that power he took a yoke of oxen and hewed them in pieces and sent them throughout all the coasts and territory of Israel by the hands of messengers. The message warned that the oxen of whosoever did not come forth after Saul and after Samuel would be served in the same way.
The fear of the Lord fell on the people and all Israel obeyed and came out together with one consent. Three hundred and thirty thousand men gathered on the plain of Bezek under Saul's command. That gathering formed the large army that defeated the Ammonites and saved the city. The summons and victory display Saul's energy and military skill. Yet he was only the agent through whom the Lord wrought Israel's deliverance.
When first called to the throne Saul was humble and self-distrustful. At first he ascribed the glory for this deliverance to God. But success in it made him self-confident, and afterward he took the honor to himself. That self-confidence soon led to presumption and sacrilege in offering the unbidden and unauthorized sacrifice at Gilgal.