Last week we heard about Saul looking for donkeys. This week we discover him hiding amongst stuff. I’ve gone for the more theologically complex word, stuff! In the reading you would have heard, baggage. The Hebrew Word for baggage, is a broad, highly flexible term used hundreds of times across the Hebrew Bible to describe physical objects.
Are you hiding amongst stuff?! More on that later.
The verse that caught my attention the most in the passage is where Samuel says:
‘But you today have rejected your God who always delivers you from all of your calamities and your distresses. (1 Samuel 10:19, LEB)’
The people of Israel, at this point in the story, knew their history, as it was passed down from mouth to mouth. It is likely that Moses came to their minds here as Samuel spoke. Moses means drawn out, like the English word deliver and the Hebrew word for deliverer, moshia, is like the name Moses. It was God who delivered them in the past through Moses.
God is always in the business of delivering his people. They seemed to be in the habit of forgetting this, through outright neglect or just from having a short memory. It was a requirement of the people to keep the words of God in the foreground of their minds. They had not done that well.
By not choosing to let God’s words dwell in us or by suggesting negative thoughts in our minds, the enemy can influence us. Thoughts come and go as the old proverb attributed to Martin Luther says:
You cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.
In other words are you going to entertain the negative thoughts or are you going to shoo them away? Recognise them for what they are. I’m preaching to myself here too!
God always knows what’s best for his people. The people didn’t want him to be the one leading them. They saw the surrounding nations had kings, so they thought it was better to be like them and go with the flow, not against it.
Moses, years before had given them instructions about having a king in Deuteronomy 17. He knew what was coming. Samuel had warned them of taking a king as you can read a couple of chapters earlier. God still permitted them this desire, but it wasn’t his perfect will. It was his permissive will. He exhorted them, reminding them that he was the one who had delivered them in the past from calamities and restrictions.
Be careful what you ask for!
Depending on the Bible translation you read, it warns about the danger of demanding things from God that aren’t good for you. Ps 106:14–15 says:
And they ⌊craved intensely⌋ in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. So he gave to them their request, but he sent leanness into their souls.
A Similar Thought in Proverbs
“…give me neither poverty nor riches but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonour the name of my God.” (Proverbs 30.8,9)
In short, giving Israel King Saul was not God’s pleasing will, but He permitted it to happen to serve His ultimate, perfect will.
Recently through a dream I was shown something I needed to pay attention to. It was followed by a picture of a flagpole with a flag flying. What did it mean?! I asked myself. A line from an old song came to me There’s a flag flown high from the castle of my heart for the king is in residence there. (NB. Not in spoken sermon. The link takes you to an appropriate 1980s instrumental version with words you can sing along too. When I say 1980s version I mean of an electronic game from that period). He was reminding me that he’s the King, the one that is living in my life. Is he your King?!
Theologian Matthew Bates says:
From a biblical standpoint, why did God give us the gospel?… God gave the gospel first of all because we all need a king’.
Saul needed to have courage to take on the Kingship. He went into hiding, even though he had been chosen and anointed quite clearly, as we saw in previous chapters. It wasn’t his choice to be king, he needed to be coerced out of hiding into stepping forward into that role. The Lord pointed out where he was in hiding. A bit like in the garden of Eden where The Lord is walking there and says to Adam and Eve where are you?!
Are you in hiding from God, a situation or circumstance? Not a great place to be. God chases us down in his mercy and patience, we can’t hide from Him anyway! What he sees and wants for us is best.
God knew that Saul could be king by relying on His power. I am not sure Saul fully recognised the need to align with God’s power and purposes.
Saul had forgotten who had called, chosen and anointed him already. He was not operating in a humble way but a proud way hiding in amongst the stuff.
If God calls you, he will equip you. Don’t hide behind your fears and insecurities but trust God, he will enable you to do and be what he’s called you to.
Saul is not a great example of a King as we see in this passage. He becomes an even worse example of God’s anointed King as the story goes on.
Contrast this with Jesus.
Jesus came as one who was in God’s perfect will to show us the way as a servant leader and also to be that way. This is the gospel in a nutshell. You can read about his kind of kingship in a little book in the New Testament called Philippians, focusing on chapter 2
Saul was not reliable as a king but Jesus is. His Jewish name, Yeshua, means deliverer and saviour just like his predecessor, Moses, who was just a man. Jesus is the God man and also King. He is the one who will, like Samuel said, deliver you from all your calamities and distresses.
Finally, I want to repeat the two simple questions I’ve already asked. Are you hiding behind stuff and who is King of your own life you or Jesus?