Nuking

The people of Israel were an interesting lot, as the account given in the first book of Samuel shows. Not liking the idea of having God-appointed judges over them, they asked for a secular king. God told Samuel, the last judge of Israel, to tell them what a bad deal they would be getting; the people of Israel said, yeah, yeah, and asked for one anyway.

So God told Samuel to find one and give them a new king.

That king was Saul: impressive in his own way, extremely secular in many ways, and prone to interpreting God any way he felt like doing so. Saul was also the sort who liked to gain praise from other people's actions. And that kind of thing.

It did not end well.