I have been taking a journey through the book of Samuel and as I was reading I came across an incredible revelation of the power of God. Almost hidden in the words is a story of odds and chances, and the purpose that God has for Saul.
The story begins with Samuel asking a question to God. He asks him who is to become the first King of Israel. God delivered Saul directly to the hand of Samuel and told him “This is the man! This is the one who shall be King.” [1 Samuel 9:17]
Samuel was quick to reveal to Saul what God had told him, and what God’s intentions were for him. He got him up early the next day and anointed him with oil, and explained to him that he would become the King of Israel [1 Samuel 10:1]. Saul didn’t believe him, and so to prove that this was God’s decision Samuel revealed to Saul all of the things that would happen to him that day, and every thing came to pass exactly as Samuel had told him. It was only then that Saul had a radical change of heart and turned back towards Samuel.
Sometimes we want proof of the things God has for us, and God won’t always give us direct proof, as is the case for Saul. But instead of direct proof, God gave Saul indirect proof by showing him that every other prophecy for that day had come true so far, so why wouldn’t the prophecy of his leadership come true also? It is trust like this that we need to have in God. Just because God hasn’t answered our direct question doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a plan for us, and sometimes he speaks to us in different ways to what we expect.
Saul had been prophesied to become the King of Israel and it was by this prophecy that God changed Saul from the inside out. He was a well known man and when all of the people saw him prophesying at the end of the day, they were quite clearly shocked. It was such an incredible change in Saul that the words they said later became famous across all the land “Is Saul also among the prophets?“[1 Samuel 10:11]. This is just another instance of God performing the seemingly impossible and showing that he is bigger than what people perceive to be impossible.
The Bible clearly teaches us that there is no such thing as “chance” and that the “odds against something” are never too big for God.
Samuel called all of the Tribes of Israel together so that he could pick a king among them. He took each tribe and cast “lots” which were smoothed stones with multiple sides, they were used in a similar manner to how we use square dice today, or perhaps how we flip a coin. In those days the priests used lots to determine the will of God.
Samuel cast the lots and whichever tribe came up would be the tribe that was chosen. The tribe that came up was the tribe of Benjamin, and out of this tribe lots were cast again to pick a family. The family that was picked was the family of Matri, and finally a lot was cast to choose a king from the men in the Matri family. The man that was chosen with the “roll of the dice” just so happened to be Saul, son of Kish. This is an incredible result, especially considering it in today’s world, a world that believes so strongly in odds and chance.
God chose Saul before the lots were even cast, and the odds of picking him through casting of lots was around 1 million to 1! Those are incredible odds!
But why did Samuel choose to cast lots after God had already chosen Saul? He chose to cast lots because of the incredible faith he had in God’s decision. He chose to cast lots to show the people of Israel, and us, that God’s decision is final and no imaginary worldly “odds” or “chances” could stop God’s decision from becoming reality.
We need to be living our lives with the same faith that Samuel had. We need to realise that God is bigger than all apparent “odds” and that his destiny for us is far greater than we could possibly imagine. We live in a world that constantly tells us that our chances are small, but when we look to the Bible we see that chance doesn’t even exist, only God’s decision exists. It’s time to start living in that faith and believing in what God has for us.
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