1 Samuel 9 we arrive at a fascinating place. How do you choose a leader?
Leadership is such a big subject in the church today. It’s leadership this, leadership training that. It’s mostly derived from the wisdom of men, it is not callings. The difference between Saul and David could not be clearer. But still, we go down the path of choosing leaders for their qualifications, personality, their morals, their ‘good standing’. The spiritual evidence, the call of God, shown with the wonders, is not on the resume.
1 Samuel 9
Saul was a perfect leader on paper. I mean, it says, ‘there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he’. You can’t get better than that right?
Reputation in the eyes of people. It’s how we like to judge right?
But God is giving the people what they asked for. A king that they wanted.
So many parallels in today’s political environment, but I digress.
Saul is chasing down his fathers lost asses. He is not an ignorant person, he knows he can to the man of God for help, he knows he has to bring an offering (do we even think like that today?) So they go off in search of him.
God is ahead of the play.
The day before he has already told Samuel what’s happening.
‘Now the Lord had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came…’
1 Samuel 9:15
An absolutely fascinating interaction takes place here and worth taking the time to follow in detail. How do the things of God work?
1 Samuel 10
First, we see the anointing. That precious, precious thing, that now in Christ we can all experience with him. But here we see the Prophet anointing the man who would be king. Not that he tells Saul that. No, he is just telling him things related to the missing asses.
Then we see instructions, this is what you’re going to do.
And the beautiful thing is, despite this not being God’s plan for Israel, he still gives Saul an opportunity to be the best, because Samuel says to him,
‘And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man’.
1 Samuel 10:6
Saul is still focused on the missing asses. He had no idea it was now a matter of ‘kingdom’.
Samuel declares Saul king. The people shout ‘God save the king’. First time in history that we know.
But this is part here is fascinating. It’s typical of the bible. Just one little sentence, or a line. It doesn’t seem to say a lot but it also says so much. So easy to overlook or just skim over.
‘Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote in a book, and laid it up before the Lord’.
1 Samuel 10:25
Everyone goes home, except a band of man, ‘whose hearts God had touched’, stuck with Samuel.
And again the children of Belial emerge – the enemy has never abandoned his objective.
