1 Samuel chapter 9 verse 1 to chapter 10 verse 16. Let's listen to the word of the Lord. And there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Pecorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. And he 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." Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to Saul, his son, take one of the young men with you and arise, go and look for the donkeys. And he passed through the hill country of Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shelishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then they passed through the land of Benjamin, but did not find them. When they came to the land of Zuth, Saul said to his servant who was with him, Come, let us go back, lest my father cease to care about the donkeys, and become anxious about us. But he said to him, Behold, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is held in honor. All that he says comes true. So now let us go there. Perhaps he can tell us the way we should go." Then Saul said to his servant, "'But if we go, what can we bring the man? For the bread in our sacks is gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?' The servant answered Saul again, Here, I have with me a quarter of a shekel of silver, and I will give it to the man of God to tell us our way." Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he said, Come, let us go to the seer. For today's prophet was formerly called a seer. And Saul said to his servants, Well said, come, let us go. So they went to the city where the man of God was. As they went up to the hill, to the city, they met young women coming out to draw water and said to them, is the seer here? They answered, he is, behold, he is just ahead of you, hurry, he has come just now to the city, because the people have a sacrifice today on the high place. As soon as you enter the city, you will find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat till he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice. Afterward, those who are invited will eat. Now go up, for you will meet him immediately." So they went up to the city. As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel Tomorrow, about this time, I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the land of the Philistines, for I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me. When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord spoke to him, Here is the man of whom I spoke to you. He it is who shall restrain my people. Then Saul approached Samuel in the gate and said, Tell me, where is the house of the seer? Samuel answered Saul, I am the seer. Go up before me to the hive place, for today you shall eat with me, and in the morning I will let you go and will tell you all that is on your mind. As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. And for whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house? Saul answered, Am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? Is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way? Then Samuel took Saul and his young man, and brought them into the hall, and gave them a place at the head of those who had been invited, who were about thirty persons. And Samuel said to the cook, Bring the portion I gave you, of which I said to you, put it aside. So the cook took up the leg and what was on it, and set them before Saul. And Samuel said, See, what was kept is set before you. Eat, because it was kept for you until the hour appointed. that you might eat with the guests. So Saul ate with Samuel that day, and when they came down from the high place into the city, a bed was spread for Saul on the roof, and he lay down to sleep. Then, at the break of dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, Up, that I may send you on your way. So Saul arose, and both he and Samuel went out into the street. As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, Tell the servant to pass on before us, and when he has passed on, stop here yourself for a while, that I may make known to you the word of God. Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? and you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage. When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel's tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys, and is anxious about you, saying, What shall I do about my son? Then you shall go from there further and come to the yoke of Tabor. Three men going up to God at Bethel will meet you there, one carrying three young goats, another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a skin of wine. And they will greet you and give you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from their hand. After that you shall come to Gibeah Elohim, where there is a garrison of the Philistines. And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying. Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man. Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. Then go down before me to Gilgal, and behold, I am coming to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you will do." When he turns his back to Leif Samuel, God gave him another heart. And all these signs came to pass that day. When they came to Gibeah, behold, a group of prophets met him, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, and he prophesied among them. And when all who knew him previously saw how he prophesied with the prophets, the people said to one another, What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets? And the man of the place answered, And who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets? When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place. Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant, Where did you go? And he said, To seek the donkeys. And when we saw that they were not found, we went to Samuel. And Saul's uncle said, please tell me what Samuel said to you. And Saul said to his uncle, he told us plainly that the donkeys had been found. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he did not tell him anything. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks for this word. We pray that you'd be with us as we go through this word, that you would direct us in the preaching and the hearing of this word, that we might see Christ in this, that we might see you working out your purposes for your people for good and not for evil, that we might be encouraged, God, to continue to grow in trust and hope in you through Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray these things, Jesus, in your name. Amen. This is one of those stories in the Bible that as you're going through, you're thinking, where is this going? What does looking for lost donkeys really have to do with anything? It's just an ordinary sort of thing that would happen, and yet God is working through all of this to accomplish His purposes. We're looking at this in three sections, just by the actions in each section, verses 3 to 14. verses 1 to 14, just a search for lost donkeys, very mundane, very ordinary. And then in verses 15 to 27, there's a search for the prophet, but not for any necessarily spiritual guidance, rather mundane and ordinary purpose. And then chapter 10, verses 1 to 16, you see these things coming together more clearly, and you find that Saul is now anointed for the kingship. He goes looking for donkeys, and comes back to his family, the anointed prince of Israel. You look for one thing, you find something else. But there are things in this story that are revealed about Saul that gives an idea of what kind of person he was and what kind of king he will be. But also deeper than Saul, there's a story of how God directs all things for his own purposes. Saul is introduced in the first couple of verses of chapter 9. He comes from a prominent family. Anytime you have a genealogy given like this, it's usually a good indication that someone in the family or the family self is well off. And that seems to be the case with Saul's father Kish. a Benjaminite from the tribe of Benjamin and a man of wealth. The Hebrew is a mighty man, a man of power and in this context would be the idea of having wealth. Now this man Kish had a son named Saul and Saul was a striking young man. The word describing him, a handsome young man is the word used to describe Moses as the baby, that he was beautiful. Saul had an appearance to him that was just striking. you would pay attention to him if he walked into a room. All the ladies would kind of glom toward him and all the guys would maybe, okay I like him after all, and would go with him like that. And plus he was tall. He was a head taller than everybody else around him. So all of these things bode well for him in the story. He seems to be, as he's introduced to us, if this was going to have a king, this might be the kind of guy we'd go for. The physical characteristics are there. You see him as he searches for the donkeys, some good things about his own personality that shine through as well. The donkeys are lost versus 3 and 5, so he's sent out to search for them. Donkeys matter for them. This is part of the workload they have, part of the wealth they have, and they have missing livestock. It's a big deal anytime. Growing up on the farm, we would have our animals get loose down then. The pigs got out more than once, and the last time they got out, we chased them through head-high corn stalks. I'll tell you about that story some other time. It was the last time we had to chase the pigs. Sometimes the cattle would get out, we'd have to go find the cattle. Sometimes your dogs get lost. Our dogs got lost one time and we got a call from the local bank in town. Apparently our dogs were having their way with the bushes in front of the bank. So we had to go in there and get the dogs. Your animals are lost, you go get them. And this is simply what Saul is doing. Nothing particularly special about this. This is just what you do. So his dad says, Saul, take one of the servants, go with you and go find the donkeys. And they traipse around for three days, going from one part of the country to the other part of the country and coming up with nothing in all of this. Finally, after three days, Saul is set to go home, saying, well, you know, they're lost. We're not going to find them. We made a thorough search. Remember, that's a rather rugged country, so it's uphill and downhill. It's not just walking around a level oval track for three days. It's a lot of work they've engaged in. They're tired, and they're frustrated, most likely. But then Saul's servant has an idea, and the search changes from donkeys to looking for Samuel. The servant's advice is given in verse 6. There's a man of God in this city as they approach some place in the land of Zoth. And he says, this man is held in honor by everybody. All that he says comes true. You remember what was said about Samuel's words, that not a word of his fell to the ground. because God had anointed him as a prophet and spoke through him. This is what's happening here. Samuel's reputation. And he's an older man by now. He's at least in his 50s, maybe his 60s, possibly his 70s. He's been judging Israel his whole life. So he's known by the people as somebody significant. As one that God has spoken to. The servant knows this as well. Let's go find him. Maybe he can tell us where they went. Saul was concerned and said, well, good idea, but we don't have anything to give him. There's no gift to give him. Now, it seems to have been common in that day to give gifts to prophets, although the Bible doesn't look kindly on that. When gifts are given to the prophet, the prophet, if he's wise and good, will turn around and give the gift to somebody else. The one time a gift was offered and refused by Naaman to Elijah. Elijah's servants said, we can't turn this down. Went out and took the gift for himself and got leprosy. So giving gifts to prophets is not maybe the thing to do, but for the prophet to receive it, not so much. It may speak something, again of the spiritual character of Israel, that it wasn't a matter maybe of respecting, but maybe of buying something back from him. You can kind of go either way with that. The spiritual state of Israel is a bit dicey at this time. Remember they got tired of the judgment of Samuel. They want a king for themselves so they can be like all the other nations. And this is a clue that although Saul has a lot of good qualities, There may be some questionable things that you can see in him that prepare you for what kind of king you will be later on. Well, the servant has a third of a shekel of silver and that's enough to go, so they make the trip. They come close to the city, verses 11-14, and some young women are coming out to draw water for the evening. Saul and his servant ask, is the seer here? They say, yeah, he's just ahead of you. Hurry up, go. He's about to offer the sacrifice. They'll sit down at the meal. If you hurry, run, you'll catch him. And they make that trip up. They go very quickly. And as they were entering the city, Samuel is coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. Let's take a break here and consider some things we've looked at. Saul's character has already been shown. Physically you see this is the man. This is the guy. You're going to run for president, this is the candidate you want to have. Good looking, tall, good family, wealth, he's got it all. Character wise there are some really good things. He's obedient to his father. He's not spoiled. He doesn't say, well, dad, you know, they're only donkeys. Send a servant to do it. He's willing to go and do it himself. He's willing to take advice. So even though he's the son of a wealthy man, of a powerful man, he's not so full of himself that he'll discard advice from a mere servant. The servant says, let's go do this. And Saul says, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let's go do that. Some very good things. But there's maybe a bit of a warning flag here. And that warning flag is this. Saul seems to have no idea that there's a prophet in the area. Now it may be that he just didn't know that. But it may also be that if his servant knew it, why wouldn't Saul know it? Does Saul have an interest in spiritual matters? Israel wants a king. They want a king just like all the other nations have a king. And God is going to give him that king, one who physically has all the attributes, and even the character has many of the attributes, but he doesn't seem, at this point, to have a heart for God. How will that affect the relationship of Saul to the people? And how will that affect the relationship of Saul to God? And what is God saying to the people in choosing for them a man like Saul? A man that they wanted, having rejected God's perfect rule for them. Note too, God's providence in this. It seems like we're just looking for donkeys. This is just average everyday business. You're making the calls, making contacts. you're busy just doing the paperwork nothing extraordinary about any of this but God is behind all this directing it to his own ends it seems like it's just happenstance but there is no happenstance in life and there's no happenstance in scripture things are directed by God for his own purposes the very little things that we do add up to something significant in the end we may not see how significant it is at the moment we're doing these things, but they reveal something of God's directing us in the way that he wants us to go. Don't discount the little things in life that you do. They all matter. Don't discount the smaller obediences and challenges that you're given to do, because they come to you ultimately from God. To test your character, to take you places you might not have gone otherwise, to give you things that you will be given by God that you never would have thought to search out for yourself now we're given a picture of all this behind the scenes by God in this story here but what's true for Saul is ultimately true for all of us that God is directing our lives and notice too that as God is directing Saul in all of this Saul is making his choices freely he's making free choices out of his own will out of his own thoughts that God is directing perfectly to God's own end. We get hung up on this idea of the sovereignty of God and of God's preordination of all things and the election of His people as if somehow there's a contrast, a conflict between God's directing of all things for His own purposes and our personal freedom and choice. We can't resolve that completely. I don't know that the logical mind can do that, but you can look at scripture and see that both are upheld. We are free, we make choices, we are responsible and accountable for those choices, and at the same time, all of those choices are directed by God to His own glory and to His own end. And because God reveals Himself consistently through Scripture to be a good and glorious and compassionate God for His people, for those of us who are in Christ, we take comfort in that, and know that this is a good thing that God is doing. In verses 15 to 27, They found the prophet and we're told in verses 15 to 17 that God is behind all of this. That he's already spoken to Samuel about this fellow that he has coming to him. So we're told tomorrow about this time. Now this is the day before Saul got there. Saul's been on the road for a couple days. On the third day God speaks to Samuel and says tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin and he is the one I want you to anoint as prince over Israel. This is God who is doing this and his job will be to deliver God's people. The people have been being pushed on by the Philistines again. They've had a time of relative freedom during the judgeship of Saul, but I think you can argue that as the people have taken that for granted over time, God allows the Philistines to push in on them more and more, and so the people are concerned about their freedom. They cry out for a king, and God's going to give them a king. But what kind of king is he going to be? God has heard the cry of his people. He's responding to that again. He's going to be with his people. Everything that God does is for our sake, is for the sake of his people. That we might learn him, we might trust him, that we might glorify him. And this is why God is acting in this way. And then when Samuel and Saul shows up, the Lord points out Saul to Samuel and says, look, there's the guy. That's the man I'm talking about. That's the one I told you about yesterday. So Samuel then comes out of the gate of the city to meet with Saul as Saul is going up to the gate looking for the seer, not knowing that Samuel the seer, Samuel the prophet is coming to him. And so it's, you know, having read all this, it's kind of funny to read Saul's question. Tell me where the house of the seer is. He's asking, talking to the seer himself. And Samuel says, I'm the seer. You're looking for me. Which must have been a shock to Saul and to his servant. And then as Saul introduces himself, he goes further. He says, by the way, I'm the one you're looking for and you're coming to dinner. We'll go up to the high place together. I'll make the sacrifices and then you'll eat with me. And then, you'll stay with me overnight and before I send you on your way tomorrow, I have a word for you that I'll tell you about. In the meantime, know that your donkeys are safe. Saul doesn't know that the donkeys are safe yet. He's still worried about that. Samuel comforts him with that and says, donkeys are taken care of. They're good. They're back home. And then he makes this statement that is kind of perplexing when you read it in English and certainly confuses Saul a little bit. He says to Saul, For whom is all that is desirable in Israel? Is it not for you and for all your father's house? I think the best way of reading that is to understand that Saul is saying in question form that Samuel is saying in question form that Saul is the one that Israel is looking for. Whom does Israel desire? A man like Saul. Who is Israel looking for? Somebody like him, from his father's house. Now Saul went out looking for donkeys. He winds up finding a prophet. And the prophet says, eat with me, stay with me, the donkeys are found, and by the way, you're the man that Israel is looking for. Now I think we can assume perhaps that Saul would have known at this point that Israel was looking for a king. And he might have figured out that this Samuel is telling him that he's going to be the king. He responds, I think, very appropriately. He says, am I not a Benjaminite from the least of the tribes of Israel? I mean, look at where I've come from. Why would you speak to me like this? It's a fair amount of consternation that he has as he responds to Samuel's words. And it shows something going back to his character again. Here's another good aspect of him. He doesn't seem to be an ambitious fellow, at least for personal gain. He's not looking to be a king. He's not looking to be great in the eyes of men. He's just looking for donkeys. He's probably pretty happy just being in his father's house and taking care of things there. He doesn't seem to be a striver. He doesn't seem to be a type A personality who's always on the move, always on the go, gathering this and gathering that. He recognizes, too, something of his own tribe's history here. Remember the Benjaminites at the end of Judges were almost wiped out because of some terrible sins they'd committed. And all Israel had risen against them. And Saul seems to be aware of this. And says, who am I for all of this? Maybe even implying that he feels that the tribe of Benjamin is not just small and least, but even despised. for what had happened several generations before. So it doesn't seem to click with Saul immediately. It doesn't make sense that he should be seen in this way. But this is what God has chosen. And so sacrifices are offered and Samuel takes them into the place and feeds them and there's even a special piece of meat that's been reserved from the day before for Saul. It's kept aside for him. He's the guest of honor at the dinner. He's given hospitality overnight. There's a special room in the house upstairs on the roof that's been given to him, and that's a good thing. In those days, people would sleep on roofs. In a hot climate like that, and the roofs were flat as well, it's where you would go. And so that's what he does. Up at dawn, Samuel calls out to Saul and says, Get up. Time for you to go. You and I have got to speak. And as they head out from the city, Saul, Samuel tells Saul's servant, go on ahead a little bit, you and I are going to speak. Now, we'll stop there for a moment again. I've spoken about Saul's character a little bit here. He seems to be an unassuming young man. But he also still seems a bit neglectful of God in all of this. But recognizing that he's not a big deal. His tribe isn't a big deal. And that would seem to be a good sign of a leader. Somebody who's humble. Somebody who doesn't think much of himself or of his family in proper ways, having the right esteem of himself. Somebody who's not looking and grasping for power. So here's another good thing about him. A lot of good things about Saul. But still there's that question, why didn't he know about Samuel? Why didn't he think to go someplace where they'd get guidance from God on this? And again God's providence confirmed again for us as Saul's meeting with Samuel wasn't even immediately directed by God, it was planned for by God. God telling Samuel the day before that Saul was going to be there and God telling Samuel to go out and meet Saul and that's the man that he wants right there. Well they have the special meeting and this is what we look at in chapter 10 verses 1 to 16. That meeting and the results of that. Saul is anointed as a king, as a prince in verse 1. Samuel takes a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, Has not the Lord anointed you to be a prince over his people Israel? You shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hands of their surrounding enemies. It's a heavy thing for Saul. He's a young man. maybe 20 maybe 21 he's not been looking for the kingship and now the kingship is literally poured out on him in the oil of anointing that Saul Samuel gives to him and he's charged with this a prince who will reign and who will deliver his people and now in case Saul is doubting this Samuel says here's how God will confirm this to you and will confirm to you that I'm not just blowing smoke, that I'm telling you what God has said. There are three things that are going to happen as you head back home from here. One is you'll meet a man with a message that the donkeys are found and that your father is worried about you now and not the donkeys. Secondly, you'll meet three men at the Oak of Tabor. They'll be carrying goats and wine and bread. and they will give Saul bread, and Saul will accept the bread. And finally as they approach the hill of Gibeah, the town of Gibeah, they'll be met with by a band of prophets. And the prophets will be prophesying, and the Spirit of God will come upon Saul. Now, there are further directions that he gives in verses 7 to 8. Gibeah has a garrison of the Philistines there. And after the Spirit comes upon him, Saul says, now when these signs meet you, when you find that these things have all happened, do what your hand finds to do for God is with you. One commandment, do what seems right for you to do because God is with you. Two, go to Gilgal and wait for me seven days and I will offer sacrifices, peace offerings, and burnt offerings for you. Seven days. wait for me and then I'll come and do it. Now I would argue that there's a time gap between these things because the meeting in Gilgal doesn't seem to happen for several months along the way and Saul will eventually take on the Philistines at Gibeah but he doesn't do this right away so I think we assume that there's a time gap here. He'll be changed and then some other things will happen and then verses 7 and 8 are to come into play as well there. Well Saul Heads back home. He makes the trip. He leaves Samuel and God gives him another heart. I think verse 9 is a summary statement of all that is happening in this story. As he leaves Samuel the process is set in motion. As he goes from there all these three signs come to pass. They meet the two men who tell him the donkeys are found. They meet the three men who have the goats and the bread and the wine. and then he comes to Gibeah. And the Spirit of God comes upon Samuel. The Spirit of God actually rushed upon him and he prophesied among them. Here is one of those mysterious passages. What was this band of prophets like? The Hebrew reads sons of prophets. Some would argue that these are just maybe Canaanite prophets. I don't know why that would be the case. I can see an argument for it. because they are nearby a garrison of the Philistines and I can imagine the Philistines not being happy with the worship of Yahweh but still would they be spoken of without criticism here if they were prophets of Canaanite gods. Likely I think they are a group of young men under Samuel's instruction. Samuel had begun to train some men under him to go and teach the law to the people. He had taken some priests under hand and said this is what we have to do to honor God in all of this. They were coming out and they were prophesying. They had instruments playing them and they were prophesying. Now a lot of people take this to mean that they were in ecstatic trance type states. Like you go to some churches today and you'll see people slapping tambourines together and clapping hands and speaking in tongues and falling down and a lot of commentators assume that this is what's happening here and I have a problem with that. because the scripture nowhere seems to indicate the prophets of God do that sort of thing. They're very clearly given the word of God to teach. So I think what's happening here is not this sort of ecstatic trance away from my mind type of worship, but rather they're just praising God. They're singing praise songs to God as they come down from the place they were at. And as Saul approaches them, as the two groups come together, that spirit of God rushes upon him. That spirit of praise of God comes upon Saul, and Saul starts praising God as well. And that's the evidence then that God has chosen Saul for this task. Now here's the other question that comes up. The spirit of God rushed upon Saul. And this creates a problem for us, because if we know the end of the story, Assault comes to a very bad end after a long reign and making a lot of mistakes spiritually in dealing with God and dealing with David, God's anointed. How do you factor in the fact that the Spirit of God rushed upon him? Some people would say, well he was saved and then he lost his salvation. I think that's not the case. I think what happens here is the Spirit of God rushing upon him is not his being saved, but his being equipped for the particular work that God has called him to do. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon people for a particular task. Bezalel and a couple of other men had the Spirit of God fill them for the work of building the tabernacle and doing the intricate artwork that was involved in all of that. And I think that's more the case here. Saul has been anointed to serve as king. And now the Spirit of God has come to confirm that anointing by changing Saul's heart so that he's able to do the work of the king. Remember his character has been kind of obedient, loyal, unassuming, not a take charge kind of guy. That's hard to do with that work of a king, being that kind of person. And so here it is that God transforms him to be able to do that work. Not saving him. Which is interesting, God gives the people a king, like all the other nations have, and God equips their king to rule them as the kings rule all the other nations. But he will rule them not as a believer, but as a man working in his own wisdom. This is written down years after this happens, the writer throws in a proverb here, an explanation of how significant this was to the people. And there's this proverbial saying in verses 11 and 12. The people who knew Saul previously said, this is different. This is new. Saul's not been this kind of guy. Again, an indication that he's not been a spiritually minded man. Now he seems to be praising God. Now he seems to be giving glory to God. What has changed about him? And yet the writer also knows what Saul's end will be. And so do other people. And so after Saul's reign or during his reign, people who know this incident say, well, he's a changed man. He's gone from one dull in spiritual matters to one expresses of them. But then how useful was this change? Because Saul still dies as an unbeliever. The outward appearance has changed, the outward concerns have been changed, but not the inward man. And it becomes a proverb for the people of that time. Has Saul become one of the prophets? Oh, he's a different man. But does it really matter in all of this? Well, that's maybe a reflection on Saul's entire kingship, an editorial insertion that we have. After this, Saul goes home. His uncle speaks with him and the servant and says, well, what happened? Where did you go? You've been gone so long. And the servant said, well, Saul says, well, we went to seek the donkeys. And when we didn't find them, we went to Samuel. And Saul's uncle may know who Samuel is and says, well, what did Samuel tell you? I know about this Samuel. He's a prophet. He's a judge. He's a pretty big deal. What did he tell you? And Saul says, tell us about the donkeys. That's it. But about the matter of the kingdom of which Samuel had spoken, he didn't tell them anything. And so here's another example of Saul's character. The half answer he gives his uncle. Even after all of this, he's still not one to see what God has done for him. Which may mean on one hand that he's a bit spiritually deaf, dumb and blind at this point. Or two, it's just his character to not be ambitious and seek for oneself. I mean, you can certainly sympathize. I mean, if you go home after a few days and something wonderful has happened to you, you've been given this great office and you tell your family this, they're going to say, stop telling stories, man. Who do you think that you are? I remember how Joseph was treated by his brothers when he had those dreams. Now, Joseph maybe made the mistake of being a bit cocky about the dreams he had, and that aggravated his brothers. But, telling them that wasn't received by them well. Because, Joseph, who are you little guy? And maybe Saul was afraid that he would be responded to the same way. Or maybe it's just like, I don't understand any of this. Again, however you read it, he's not become arrogant. He's not become full of pride. It's a fair enough response to all that's happened to him. So here's Saul's character, part three. All of these things that happened to him. They've come to pass. He's had an experience of the power of God on him. And yet he still remains humble about what charge has been given to him. So it's a good sign. God's providence part three. All that God said would happen has happened. And God has given the Israelites the king that they want to have. Because in conclusion, Saul has positive qualities. He's physically impressive, he's obedient and loyal, he's open to suggestion, he's not ambitious for himself. All good things, but dense on spiritual matters. No real interest in things. In so many ways, the perfect leader, but in the most crucial thing, completely lacking. No interest. and the things of God himself. Now, does this mean it's a failure on God's part? No. Remember, God's providence is overruling all of this. The people have rejected God as king. He's given them his word. They've been given his law. He says, if you obey me, I will take care of you. I will fight your battles for you. I will defend you. If you will be faithful to me, you will do well. but the people tire of that and say we want a king and so in God's sovereign providence he gives them the king that they want. The king who will serve himself and not the people and not God which is exactly what the kings of the other nations do. But this is not just a matter of judgment of God on Israel for their sin. It's also a matter of preparation, because you see in Saul the kind of kings, the kind of leaders that we want for ourselves, and how ultimately unsatisfying and disappointing these types of men are. But Saul is also paving the way for David, who will be a king after God's own heart. And David, despite his failures, illumines for us the perfect king. our Lord Jesus Christ, who is humble, who is meek, who doesn't assume power for his own sake, who doesn't lift himself up, but lifts up the glory of his Father, and is completely in tune with spiritual matters, desiring to do nothing but to serve his Father. And the service that he gives to his Father is perfect obedience to his law, and the saving of his people, our salvation, by his dying on the cross. Israel meets their first king. We meet here the first king of Israel. But the king of Israel that matters is not Saul and is not David. It is Jesus Christ. He is the king who rules perfectly. He is the king who loves He is the King who suffers and dies for the sake of his people and whose death we have life and in whose resurrection we are raised up to new life in him. Let's pray. Father we thank you for this word. We pray God that you fill us and bless us by your Spirit in these things. We pray that as we consider the lessons about leadership and kingship that we look at in Saul, even in this chapter here, that we would not be so overwhelmed with that, or concerned with that, that we forget, Lord, the fact of your providence in ruling over all things for your glory. You are sovereign, Lord God, in all aspects of our lives. And the end of your sovereignty for us is our salvation. and our presence with you forevermore in this life and into the life after this, Lord God. We thank you that you work all things together for good to those who love you, who trust you, who are called according to your purpose, and are grateful, God, that even the work of unbelieving people is directed, Lord God, by you toward this end of the salvation of your people and the glorifying of your name in our Lord Jesus Christ. We praise you and thank you, Lord Jesus. I pray in your name, Amen.