78. From Donkeys to Destiny: God's Kindness When Others are Cruel

G' day and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

Have you ever been mean to someone and then needed them to do something for you?

Does it make you worried about what they might do?

Like, maybe you're unkind to your brother and then you need him to put clean clothes away in your drawer.

What if he's so angry as well as putting your socks in your sock drawer and he also puts a snake in there too.

Or maybe you say some mean words to someone at school and then you need their help with some work and so they deliberately teach you the wrong way to do something and so you never, ever find out what 4, 7, 91, 18 times 507 is.

Or what if you tease your mum about your new haircut and then you go to sleep and you wake up the next morning and your mum's cut all your hair off?

If you treat someone badly, you kind of expect them to treat you badly.

In the last episode, the Israelites treated God really badly.

They rejected him as king and and wanted a different human king.

So you might expect him to treat them really badly.

But you know what?

As we're going to see today, God is so much kinder than that.

He's so much better than that.

He's so much more faithful than that.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, God had kindly agreed to give the Israelites a human king, even though they'd been really evil to ask for a human king.

Even though they wanted a replacement for God, God still had good plans for his people, plans to bless them, faithful plans that he won't give up on even when the people are being really evil.

And his good plans involve a human king.

So who's this king going to be?

Well, elsewhere in Israel, a man named Kish has a problem.

His donkeys have wandered off and gone missing.

Thankfully, he has a son who's a young man who he can send to go looking for them.

So he calls his son over, a man named Saul.

As soon as anyone sees Saul, there's one thing that everyone notices.

He's really, really tall.

In fact, he's a head taller than anyone else in Israel.

In 1 Samuel 9, 3, Kish says to Saul, take one of the servants, go and look for the donkeys.

So Saul and the servant pack some supplies and they start walking.

They walk and they walk and they walk.

They're walking for days and days and days.

Verse 4 says, Saul went through the mountains of Ephraim and He went through the land of Shalisha, but he and the servant could not find the donkeys.

They went into the land of Sha Lim, but the donkeys were not there.

They went through the land of Benjamin, but they still did not find the donkeys.

Far out.

Donkeys, where are you?

Well, finally they get to the land belonging to the family of Zuf.

And here's where it starts to get a little bit exciting.

Because right back in chapter one, verse one, we were told that Zuf is the great, great, great grandfather of Samuel.

So it makes you wonder, is Saul about to meet Samuel?

Is Samuel going to make Saul king?

Is this where it all begins?

Just as we're thinking that though Saul turns to his servant in verse five and let's go back, my father will stop thinking about the donkeys.

He'll start worrying about us.

Oh, umm.

Ok.

I guess they're going home then.

But wait.

The servant seems to know something that Saul doesn't.

He says to Saul in verse 6, a man of God is in this town.

People respect him because everything he says comes true.

Let's go into the town now.

Maybe he can tell us something about the journey we have taken.

Hmm.

A man of God.

Hey, who could that be?

Saul says to the servant, if we go into the town, what can we give him?

The food in our bags is gone.

We have no gift to give him.

Do we have anything at all to give him?

The servant replies, look, I have one tenth of an ounce of silver.

Give it to the man of God.

Then he will tell us about our journey.

So Saul agrees to go.

Now, the man of God is a prophet.

But before prophets were called prophets, they were called seers.

As Saul and the servant are heading towards the town, they meet some young women coming out to get water from the well.

Saul asks them if the seer is in town.

The women are like, yeah, and if you hurry, you'll get to see him straight away.

In verse 12, they say, yes, he's here.

He's ahead of you.

Hurry now.

He has just come to our town today.

This is because the people will offer sacrifice at the place of worship.

When you enter the town, you will find him.

He will be there before he goes up to the place of worship to eat.

The people will not begin eating until the seer comes.

He must bless the sacrifice.

After that, the guests will eat.

Go now and you should find him.

So Saul and the servant hurry off.

As they enter the town, they immediately see a man coming towards them out of the city.

The man is Samuel.

That Might seem like a bit of a coincidence, but it isn't.

This has been God's plan all along.

God's good plan.

His plan to show great kindness to all his people.

You see, even though the Philistines had been beaten off many years ago, and even though the Israelites have had lots and lots of years of peace, now the Philistines are back and they're making life really hard for the Israelites.

God could just leave them to suffer.

After all, they've rejected him as king.

But despite that, God's still loving and kind and faithful.

And so he has plans to give them a saviour.

In fact, the day before, he had said to Samuel in verse 16, about this time tomorrow, I will send you a man.

He will be from Benjamin.

You must appoint him as leader over my people, Israel.

He will save my people from the Philistines.

I have seen the suffering of my people.

I have listened to their cry, just like God had listened to the people's cry and saved them so powerfully from the Egyptians.

Now he's going to save them from the Philistines, even though they don't deserve it.

You see, God's committed himself to caring for them and he's always faithful, even when they are unfaithful.

As soon as Samuel sees Saul, God tells him in verse 17, this is the man I told you about.

He will rule my people.

Remember, Saul doesn't know anything about that.

So he walks up to Samuel and he asks, please tell me where the seer's house is.

Samuel's answer is not what Saul's expecting at all.

Saul's wanting help to find the donkeys.

Samuel tells him about something much bigger and much more amazing.

He says in verse 19, I am the seer.

Go ahead of me to the place of worship today.

You and your servant are to eat with me tomorrow morning.

I will send you home and I will answer all your questions.

Don't worry about the donkeys he lost three days ago.

They've been found.

Israel now wants you and all your father's family.

Saul's like, umm, say what now?

He is so unimportant.

He can't really believe that all of Israel would be interested in little old him.

He replies, but I'm from the tribe of Benjamin.

It's the smallest tribe in Israel.

And my family group is the smallest in the tribe of Benjamin.

Why do you say Israel wants me?

Samuel doesn't answer straight away.

Instead, he takes Saul up the hill to the high place where the sacrifice and feast are about to Happen.

There are about 30 people there.

Surprisingly, Samuel doesn't just give Saul a seat down one end.

No, he takes him to the head of the table, the place where you put the most important person, and he sits him down there.

Even more surprising, he shows that he's actually been preparing for Saul's arrival.

He specifically asked the cook to keep aside the best piece of meat for the most important person at the feast.

And now he gives that piece of meat to Saul.

Saul's like, what on earth is going on here?

After the meal, they go back to Samuel's house.

Saul and Samuel go up on the flat roof and spend a lot of time talking.

We don't know what they talk about because God's decided not to tell us.

He does tell us what happens the next day, though, Samuel tells Saul and his servant to get ready to leave.

As Samuel's walking them out of the town, he says to saul in verse 27, tell the servant to go on ahead of us.

I have a message from God for you.

A message from God?

What on earth could that be?

After the servants walked on ahead, Samuel takes out a flask of olive oil and pours some of it on to Saul's head.

That's called anointing him.

You anoint someone to show that they have a special job to do.

The Hebrew or Israelite word for someone who's been anointed is Messiah.

The Greek word for someone who's been anointed is Christ.

So now Saul is a Christ, a messiah.

He's been anointed for a special job.

And it turns out that special job is to save God's people.

Samuel tells Saul in chapter 10, verse 1, the Lord has appointed you to be leader of his people, Israel.

You will rule over the people of the Lord.

You will save them from their enemies all around.

Far out, Brussels sprout.

This is amazing.

It's huge.

But hang on a second.

How's Saul meant to know that it's true?

Maybe Samuel's just a crazy old man.

Maybe he's just making it all up.

It'd be so weird if Saul starts acting like a king, only to find out later that Samuel was lying all along.

Well, because God is really kind.

He's actually set up a bunch of signs to show Saul that it really is true.

He gets Samuel to tell Saul these signs and the things that are about to happen in the future.

That way, when Saul sees them, he'll be able to tell that this really is all from God.

So Samuel tells Saul the three signs.

See if you can hear all three signs in verse one.

This is what he says.

He says this will be the sign that the Lord has appointed you as leader of his people.

After you leave me today, you will meet two men.

They will be near Rachel's tomb on the border of Benjamin at Zelzar.

They will say to you, the donkeys you were looking for have been found.

But now your father has stopped thinking about his donkeys.

He's worrying about you.

He's asking, what will I do about my son.

Then you will go on until you reach the great tree at Tabor.

There, three men will meet you.

They will be on their way to worship God at Bethel.

One man will be carrying three young goats.

The second man will be carrying three loaves of bread.

And the third one will have a leather bag full of wine.

They will greet you and offer you two loaves of bread.

You will accept the bread from them.

Then you will go to Gibeah of God.

There's a Philistine camp there.

When you come near this town, a group of prophets will come out.

They'll be coming from the place of worship and they'll be playing harps and tambourines, flutes and lyres.

And they'll be prophesying.

The Spirit of the Lord will enter you with power.

You will prophesy with these prophets.

You will be changed into a different man.

After these signs happen, do whatever you find to do.

God will help you.

Go ahead of me to Gilgal.

I'll come down to you.

Then I will offer whole burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.

But you must wait seven days.

Then I will come and tell you what to do.

Umm.

Ok.

I guess if it isn't true, Saul's gonna know pretty quickly.

As Saul turns to leave, God does something wonderful.

He changes Saul's heart.

This is God preparing Saul to be the king of his people.

And as he goes, everything happens exactly the way God said it would.

Everything happens just how Samuel told Saul.

Which means everything that Samuel told him is true.

Saul really is going to be the king and saviour.

As Saul's getting near home, the last sign happens.

He sees the prophets coming out.

Just then, God's Holy Spirit enters Saul and he starts prophesying his will, speaking God's word.

Because that's what God's Holy Spirit does.

He helps people to speak God's word.

All the people who know Saul in the town are amazed.

He's never done anything like this.

In verse 11, they ask what's happened to Kish's son.

Is even Saul, one of the prophets.

Something in Saul's changed.

But what is it?

What's changed?

Strangely, Saul doesn't want to tell anyone.

In verse 15, we read how Saul's uncle asks him, where have you been?

And Saul says, we were looking for the donkeys.

When we couldn't find them, we went to talk to Samuel.

The uncle asks, please tell me, what did Samuel say to you?

Saul answers, he told us the donkeys had already been found.

But Saul did not tell his uncle what Samuel had said about his becoming king.

How sad that God's given a king who can save the people, but no one knows about him yet.

You know, it isn't just the Israelites who treat God badly.

Everyone does, including you and me.

In the Bible, Book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, it says, all people have sinned and are not good enough for God's glory.

And because we've all sinned, God could easily just forget about us.

But in his kindness, he hasn't.

In his love, he's given us the perfect savior, King.

King Jesus.

Not because we deserve him, but because he's so kind.

Jesus is our true Christ or Messiah, the king anointed to save us.

And he does save everyone who puts their trust in him as their king.

Back in Israel, Samuel's about to show everyone who the new king is.

But will this new king be up for the job?

Will he be able to save God's people?

Will he lead them into battle?

Well, that's a story for next time.