Least and Impressive

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

LEAST AND IMPRESSIVE

1 Samuel 9:1-10

9:1 There was a Benjamite, a man of standing, whose name was Kish son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Becorath, the son of Aphiah of Benjamin. 2 He had a son named Saul, an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites — a head taller than any of the others. 3 Now the donkeys belonging to Saul's father Kish were lost, and Kish said to his son Saul, "Take one of the servants with you and go and look for the donkeys." 4 So he passed through the hill country of Ephraim and through the area around Shalisha, but they did not find them. They went on into the district of Shaalim, but the donkeys were not there. Then he passed through the territory of Benjamin, but they did not find them. 5 When they reached the district of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, "Come, let's go back, or my father will stop thinking about the donkeys and start worrying about us." 6 But the servant replied, "Look, in this town there is a man of God; he is highly respected, and everything he says comes true. Let's go there now. Perhaps he will tell us what way to take." 7 Saul said to his servant, "If we go, what can we give the man? The food in our sacks is gone. We have no gift to take to the man of God. What do we have?" 8 The servant answered him again. "Look," he said, "I have a quarter of a shekel of silver. I will give it to the man of God so that he will tell us what way to take." 9(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, "Come, let us go to the seer," because the prophet of today used to be called a seer.) 10 "Good," Saul said to his servant. "Come, let's go." So they set out for the town where the man of God was.

NIV

Does being a head taller than others qualify Saul to be the first king over Israel, or is it just because this is the will of God? Of course, we know this is God’s plan, and everything that is going to happen to Saul as he and his servant try to find the donkeys brings him straight to the presence of Samuel, the seer. We know the story, yet this portion of the narrative is just to introduce us to Saul the Benjamite. We will see that Saul speaks of himself as from the smallest tribe, and his clan is the smallest in the smallest tribe. Is that humility, or simply a fact? Certainly, being the son of Kish, who was a man of standing among the people, had some influence on the character of Saul, who was an impressive man without equal among the Israelites. However impressive Saul was, he was obedient to his father and set out to find the lost donkeys. This is where we find our truth for today. A son sets out to find the lost donkeys, bringing us right to the Son who set out to find his lost people. When Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree and went to his house to eat, he told him, “The Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” We were once lost, but now we have been found and saved. As Saul set out to find the lost donkeys, and ends up meeting a man of God, the prophet, or seer, Samuel and finds out that he will be the king of Israel, Jesus set up to find us and has told us that we are to be a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who belong to God to declare his praises for he found us in the darkness and called us out into his wonderful light. Now we live in the wonderful. Saul became a king, maybe just so God could bring David onto the scene. He used someone to bring us onto the scene so that we could be his royal priesthood, offering our sacrifice of praises, and offering ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to our God. We bring the sacrifice of praises to the Lord, who came to find that which was lost, and he found us, the least among people. We came from a humble background, poor in the standards of this world, and yet because of Jesus, we are now rich, with an eternal inheritance. We live in the kingdom of God with all the glory of God, having the Spirit dwelling within us, both influencing our thoughts and heart, and exploding within us his fruit and gifts, using us for the purpose of the Father. However, even if we are being used by God for his divine purpose, we should always know we are still the least among men. However, because of Jesus, we are impressive without equal among the people, because we are children of the King.