Observation: Gosh...if only there was some way the people of Israel could have known that Saul's reign would not work out well. I mean, yes, God did specifically tell them through the prophet Samuel that it wouldn't work out well, and laid out all the problems monarchy would create. And yes, God did say through Samuel that by choosing a human king, they are rejecting God as king. And okay, when they press on and ask for a king anyway, the one they choose by lot is Saul, and he's...hiding with the luggage for some reason? The text doesn't say why (though later in the book there are indications that Saul suffered from a debilitating mental illness, so that could contribute to it), but they go grab him and bring him out anyway, because this king thing is happening today, no ifs, ands or buts. "Long live the king!"
If only God had given us some heads up that it wouldn't go as planned...
Application: Okay, it's easy to sarcastically pick apart someone else's decisions knowing the whole sad story, but come on...the signs were there. God tried to let the people know this wouldn't end well. And it didn't.
In an age where you don't commonly have God's voice booming from a cloud, and you don't have one established prophet to speak with God's voice, it may feel a lot harder to hear God's voice, or to interpret the signs of what we should or shouldn't be doing today. But I believe signs still do come. We just have to have our eyes open.
Sometimes we get an idea so firmly stuck in our brains that we assume it's got to be from God. Otherwise, why would we feel so strongly about it? But no matter how strongly we feel, sometimes we can waste a lot of time and effort running into the same brick wall over and over again, refusing to listen or accept that maybe God has something else in mind for us.
It's a blessing to be able to check in with God's word, check in with Christian friends and request their prayers, and check in through our own prayers, to figure out whether it's time to change course. If an idea we had doesn't work out, that doesn't mean our effort was in vain. If there had never ben a Saul, there wouldn't have been a David, and if there hadn't been a David, we wouldn't have the Messiah from David's line: Jesus. But it won't always work the way we expect, and we save ourselves a lot of misery by just paying attention. God gives us signs, and often they are not subtle. We just have to be open to them.
Prayer: God, help me read the signs you set out, and believe them. Amen.
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