For forty years I led you through the desert … yet your sandals did not wear out." Duet. 29:5
“So they all went to Gilgal, and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they made Saul king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites were filled with joy.”
This was Saul’s finest moment. He rescued the town of Jabesh-Gilead, and decimated the army of the Ammonites. Most importantly, he gave the credit to God when he told the people, “The Lord has rescued us today.”
So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”
And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.”
Samuel was about to anoint Saul as king over Israel, but he was hiding. Was Saul displaying humility here? Did he feel unworthy to be king? Was he afraid of the responsibility? Perhaps all of them.
Being humble and shouldering responsibility are not mutually exclusive. Our responsibilities are truly God-given, and should cause us to lean hard on Him.
When they reached the edge of town, Samuel told Saul to send his servant on ahead. After the servant was gone, Samuel said, “Stay here, for I have received a special message for you from God.”
This day was like no other Saul had ever lived before. He had set out to find his father’s donkeys, and he found his destiny instead. But what would he do with his good fortune? Would he treat it as an opportunity to serve and bring glory to God, or would he try to exploit it for his own limited, selfish ends?
But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said.
Despite Samuel’s warning, the people insisted on having a king. “We want to be like the other nations”, they said.
Because they failed to understand their identity as ‘a nation whose God is the Lord’, they would eventually lose their identity as a nation altogether.
Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!”
The stone was a memorial, a visible reminder of what the Lord had done for them. The stone was large, so that it would not be easily overlooked.
“And sure enough, without veering off in other directions, the cows went straight along the road toward Beth-shemesh, lowing as they went. The Philistine rulers followed them as far as the border of Beth-shemesh.”
The Philistine priests came up with this plan to send the Ark of the Lord back to the land of Israel. It was a plan designed to prove whether or not the plagues that had befallen Philistia were indeed the judgement of God or not. The Ark of God was placed on a cart (along with golden idols for good measure I suppose). The cart was to be pulled across the border to Israel by two cows. But not just any two cows. These two cows were chosen for the job because they had just calved a few days earlier, and because neither of them had ever been under a yoke. In other words, nothing short of a divine miracle would do.
What a sight it must have been to see these two beasts pull away on their own— away from their calves —up the long road to Israel.
“But the next morning the same thing happened—Dagon had fallen face down before the Ark of the Lord again. This time his head and hands had broken off and were lying in the doorway. Only the trunk of his body was left intact.”
There was no voice from heaven. There was no handwriting on the walls of the pagan temple. And yet the message was crystal clear. It is not that there are no gods equal to the God of Israel. There are no gods besides the God of Israel.
After the battle was over, the troops retreated to their camp, and the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated by the Philistines?” Then they said, “Let’s bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. If we carry it into battle with us, it will save us from our enemies.”
Ah, but they were mistaken. The Ark of the Covenant was not some sort of good luck charm to bring them success in battle.
Israel was defeated that day because the hearts of the people and their leaders were far from the Lord.
And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”
If we have a communication problem with God, it is not because He is not speaking. Rather, it is because we are not listening.
“Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi would always be my priests. But I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me.”
Life and death, prosperity and poverty, happiness and despair are in the Lord’s hands. Only a fool thinks he can control his own destiny.
