Thoughts on 1 Samuel 9

Today’s reading: 1 Samuel 9; Romans 11

The last few days I keep feeling like I should be writing about Romans, just because Romans is so theologically dense, but on this plan we read Romans twice a year and we are taking two years to go through the Old Testament, so I’m going to keep putting off the theologically dense for the fun of our Old Testament reading for now 😁

Thoughts on 1 Samuel 9

1 Samuel 9 got me thinking about the fascinating mystery of God’s sovereignty at work alongside our free will.

Clearly Samuel and Saul’s meeting was ordained by the Lord as God was intending for Saul to be anointed king of Israel. The circumstances of their meeting seem like they are entirely coincidental, but God told Samuel the day before, “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin…” But where is God’s hand in “sending” Saul to Samuel? Saul was just out looking for lost donkeys and the servant thought to stop by the city to visit the Seer before heading home. Did God let the donkeys out to get lost? Did God decide for Saul and the servant which direction they would go searching for the donkeys? Did God make the servant suggest going to the Seer? Did He make Saul agree to go see Samuel? Did He orchestrate the servant having just enough money to offer the Seer that Saul would agree to go? How is this God sending Saul to Samuel???

For as much as it all appears circumstantial and coincidental, God declared it would happen before it was a foregone conclusion. When the servant suggests going to see the Seer about the donkeys they aren’t a day’s journey away such that God could say to Samuel, “Oh great! They’ve decided to come to see you! I just checked with Google maps and it says they should arrive in 24 hours!” No, the servant makes the suggestion when they are just outside the city; close enough that it’s worth it as a last ditch effort when they really should already be turning back. When God told Samuel He would send Saul to him, it was well before Saul had even known there was a Seer in the city to visit.

This is what is so amazing, unfathomable, confusing, and impossible to wrap your head around about God’s sovereignty. God is not a puppet master up in heaven pulling all the strings, giving us only the illusion of free choice. God values our free will highly enough that we are held eternally accountable for the choices we do and don’t make. And yet, despite our free will, God is astoundingly capable of bringing about His purposes. He can send Saul to Samuel without Saul having any idea he is being sent, but it is still God’s intentional sending.

Thoughts For Us

This can be a very heady or theological topic, but I think there is a really important aspect of this for us to keep in mind as well. Saul did not know he was being sent, but his showing up in the city to see Samuel was his being sent by God.

Too often we look for some kind of supernatural marker to indicate what God is doing or that we are in His will, but the vast majority of the time that is simply not how God works. Will He at times move in an obvious or supernatural way to make His will clear? Sure, He certainly can and has at times. But let’s recognize that even with something so big and important as the first king of Israel, Saul just thought he was out looking for donkeys up until the moment Samuel anointed him king (in the next chapter).

My point is that you may very well be so dead on in the middle of God’s plan and intention for your life that He Himself is sending you out for a very specific purpose, and you could have absolutely no idea. You could just be out looking for some lost donkeys while God, in His sovereignty, is putting you exactly where He desires.

I don’t think we need to worry as much about specifics as we tend to. If you are trying to follow the Lord and you are actively seeking His will, He is not going to let you wander off a spiritual cliff somewhere. Is there a big decision before you that could be really impactful, with neither choice being clearly better spiritually, and you’ve been praying about it but don’t feel like God is giving you direction? Then just make your choice and be at peace with the Lord. He is a good and loving Father to His children; if He wants you to go one way, He is not going to leave you hanging while you’re actively seeking His will.

It seems like a lot of people default to thinking about God’s plan for their life like one of those old choose-your-own-adventure books. As you go through the book, some of the choices are more obvious, but others are much less so, but there is really only one right path through the book, and if you make a wrong choice, even if it seemed like a good choice at the time, you’re permanently on the wrong path now. We think about our life with God this way, as though He has one ideal path laid out for us and we can either follow it exactly or one wrong choice will leave us permanently on the wrong path, or at least a lesser path than what God intended. But this is not how God works. He gives us freedom and choice, He gives us opportunities to run with if we desire. And while yes, we can certainly squander the good opportunities He is trying to give us, and we can certainly convince ourselves a choice is the right one when it is clearly against His will, if we are genuinely seeking Him, we don’t need to constantly wonder if maybe we made the wrong choice back on page 37, or be paralyzed by fear of making the wrong choice today.

If God can lead His chosen king to his anointing when he thinks he’s just out looking or donkeys, He is certainly capable of bringing you through to the works He has prepared for you as well.

I may not be able to understand His sovereignty, but I don’t know if there is any more comforting reality than the sovereign power of our loving Father in heaven.