He goes before you know!
“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 hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me.” 1 Samuel 9:16
God cares for you! God deeply and greatly cared for His people. They got theirselves in trouble time in time again because of disobedience (which we all have) but yet He still loved them. Because their cry for help came to Him and He heard their pleas, He was going to save them. They had been HAND DELIVERED BY GOD HIMSELF as they had crossed out of the land of Egypt, back into the land they belonged. He had parted the Red Sea for them so they could cross over on dry land and then drown their enemies in the very same path they were on as He closed the sea behind them. They forgot. How quickly we can forget the previous miracles of God if we aren’t careful to thank Him, and live a life worthy of that saving. David recalled the past savings so to remember that God is the same in his current trials - just as He was in His past. He always will be.
The problem was, they wanted and demanded a king so a king is what God gave them. How that eventually turned out is a lesson for another time and day but today, God was going to save them.
1 Samuel 10
18 And he said to the people of Israel, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ 19 But today you have rejected your God, who saves you from all your calamities and your distresses, and you have said to him, ‘Set a king over us.’ Now therefore present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your thousands.”
This is where Saul would come in. This is where he would be chosen from among them to rule and reign.
Don’t reject the hand and goodness of God in your life, and be stubborn and defiant to look for another path apart from Him. How quickly Asa forgot the past battle He won and sought the help and arm of man, instead of God. He never turned back to God. It’s time to repent.
Back on track. It was an ordinary day. Saul and his servant went out looking for his father’s donkeys that had wondered off, at his father’s request. They had looked in several places with no success and no doubt God was leading them to a specific place. Go read Samuel 9 for yourself. They had searched and searched until finally Saul told his servant they needed to go back to his father and stop worrying about the donkeys. No doubt his father would be worried about them.
The servant had an idea’ 💡! Let’s go and find the man of God who is held in honor. He’s a seer, a prophet if you will. He’ll advise us and tell us where the donkeys are. So Saul went.
Samuel, the prophet, was there and was about to go up to eat a meal on the high place where the people were sacrificing. This seemed like an ordinary day but was a divine set up and appointment from God. May I add that when the “other Saul” in the New Testament was traveling on the road to Damascus and he had a direct visitation with God on that road, God had already set up and appointed other men to help him. This is basically where this Saul and his servant were at! Another time and day on the message of “the other Saul as well.” My point is that sometimes you may be traveling on a road in life not knowing where you’re going or what to do, and then suddenly God shows up and arrives right on time. He’s heard your plea.
God had already told Samuel a day before Saul came, that he was coming . It was a DIVINE set up that could never have been orchestrated by man. The kind of set ups and appointments that we desperately need as we cry and plea our hearts out to HIM. When we seek anywhere else we won’t find. Saul was desperately seeking for these donkeys and the people had been crying out before God, and suddenly He appeared. But note: HE ALREADY goes before we even know. Samuel already knew about this divine set up before Saul did.
God told him that about this time tomorrow I’ll send you a man from the land of Benjamin. Samuel was to anoint him as the leader over the people, as they wanted, and he’d end up saving them from the hand of the Philistines. God can and God will deliver you from the hands of the enemy if you are His. For He said in v 16 “FOR I HAVE LOOKED UPON MY PEOPLE, BECAUSE OF THEIR CRY (for help) HAS COME TO ME. He hears your plea. May we pray and praise more than we speak of our issues.
When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord told him that he was the man He spoke of: the one who would rule over HIS PEOPLE as their king. There’s so much more to this story that I could talk about or write a full book on the next few chapters. Today it’s a message that even in our most frustrating moments - when we can’t seem to find our way but we seek, OR on just what seems like an average ordinary day as we go on a wild goose chase, GOD CAN SHOW UP THERE OR ANYWHERE HE CHOOSES. When we least expect, in the most unlikely places, by using the most unlikely people, and in the most unexpected situations. Don’t doubt what God can do and don’t doubt Him. Stay open. If you have prayed, He has heard you and has bid someone or something to come! He goes before you know.
God uses other people over and over throughout the Bible to help, guide, lend, speak to, or whatever the case may be. He uses others because we are His creation and He uses who, when, where and what He wants to. We are His chosen vessels; His hands and feet. He can even use those who don’t know Him because again, He created all; The heavens and the earth, and alllll in it! It’s time to get expectant for the hand of God to move.
Just when it seems nothing will change or all hope is lost. 💥 Let’s be like the servant of Saul as they looked desperately for the father’s donkeys. God first and foremost cares about you, His child. His chosen you are. His people. He cares for you no matter what you’ve done or where you’ve been. He just wants you to come, arms wide open His is. He secondly cares for what you’ve lost just as the men cared about the donkeys. But surely as we come to find out the father CARED way more for the son than the donkeys. God cares about what you care about too. The donkeys were fine and found but read about what was told to Saul in chapter 10, verse 2.
“‘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?”’
God cares about you! Your heart! And your hearts desires! He knows all about you, where to find you and what to do.
Do you trust Him, seek Him and take Him at His word indeed? Indeed our Father in heaven knows best! I just had that thought 💭 yesterday: “Father knows best.” He deeply cares for you. Don’t we truly want what’s best for our own, yet we seek Him? Why? Because He knows what we don’t know. We must trust Him with the process!!! A process it is but read Philippians 1:6.
If we knew it all we wouldn’t need to be here and we wouldn’t need Him, but we do!
He’s all around you. He stands behind you. He knows what’s lies ahead because He has already went ahead of you, and so you are hemmed in. You are His. Take comfort in that. You may not know what in the world is going on but He has the whole world in His hands. Each and every one of and each and every bit. He has every bit of knowledge and knowing. He knows all about it. And He NEVER falls off of His throne!
The power belongs to Him. It’s all in His hands. He’s never late but always on time and He never slumbers or sleeps (psalm 121:4) as we think. Again, Father knows best and if it’s in our hands we only make a mess. May we have a child’s heart to sing and know like the song says: “He’s got the whole world in His hands”. 🌎 You and me, sister and brother. Yes, He’s got IT! Trust and know that He is GOD. On your journey and day to day moving by faith, and desperately seeking, you will find when you least expect that the hand of God has already arranged. And suddenly He (and the hand of God) will move in your situation and for you. He’s already prearranged! He has heard your sincere cry and it has come to Him, if you have cried out sincerely. He knows all about it and He knows all about you and where your heart is, as well as where each heart is. Trust in God and He will do what He said and it’ll come about as He’s planned.
Again on an ordinary day something extraordinary happened: Saul was appointed and anointed king and didn’t even know or ask to be. Not only did the father find his donkeys but his son became a ruler out of all the other people that could have been picked. Even Saul didn’t understand why he was being treated this way because he asked the question, was he not a Benjamite of SMALLEST tribe of Israel, and was his family not THE SMALLEST of the families of the tribe of Benjamin?
God doesn’t care how small you are or how small you think of yourself, just like the story of Gideon. God can use anyone and use anything that he wants to. He can save and deliver you. Just read about the story of Esther. There’s nothing that He cannot do and on ANY appointed day and time, HE CAN “SUDDENLY” turn your situation around . If you’ve got a God size problem, He can solve it. He is more than able!
