1 Samuel 9:3-10 – The need to have grit

Remember that the people of Israel had just asked for a king like all the other nations. Samuel was told to accede to their request. Then 1 Samuel 9:1-2 introduce us to Saul and his ancestry. Humanly speaking, Saul was a good fit to be the king. In order to be appointed as king, Samuel must be able to meet Saul from among the many people of Israel. It would, therefore, be natural for 1 Samuel 9:3-10 to describe how the two met. We can safely conclude that the Sovereign Lord had engineered the circumstances for the two to meet.  

As providence would have it, Kish the father of Saul lost some donkeys. So, he said to Saul, “Take now with you one of the servants, and arise, go search for the donkeys.” So far in the book of Samuel, we have met with two sets of fathers and sons: Eli and his sons, and Samuel and his sons. Now we see a third pair, Kish and his son, Saul. We can see that Saul was a son who had the father’s interest at heart. This was attested to in verse 5. He and his servant went a looking for his father’s donkeys. They passed through several places such as Shalishah and Shaalim but the donkeys were not there. These seem to suggest that they had been away for a while. So, when they came to Zuph, Saul decided that they should all return for he did not want the father to worry about them.  His servant then took the initiative and told him about Samuel saying,  “Behold now, there is a man of God in this city, and the man is held in honor; all that he says surely comes true. Now let us go there, perhaps he can tell us about our journey on which we have set out.” 

What’s surprising in this account is that Saul had no awareness of Samuel. Surprisingly, it was his servant who was more aware than he and suggested that they should go and consult Samuel. Here we are told that in those days, the prophet was known as the seer. Saul was at first reluctant, saying that they had nothing to present to the seer when they went to consult him. The servant then offered a fourth of a shekel of silver he had, to be given to the seer. The crux of the matter is this: their search of the donkeys turned out to be a search for the word of God, though it might seem incidental. It was not Saul who had initiated it but the servant. Had it not been for the coaxing of the servant he would not have gone to see Samuel. In this account, we see that Saul was one who would rather listen to others than to make his own decision. These are subtle hints that his disposition lacked the resilience that would be required of a future king. This account indicates to us that a person’s outward disposition is not as critical as his resilience if he wants to be effective.  Every one of us needs to cultivate the spirit of hardiness and fortitude in advancing God’s cause.