1 SAMUEL 9 - DIVINE APPOINTMENTS

1 Samuel 9

Overall in this Chapter, we have a description of how a divine appointment between Samuel and Saul that would affect Israel’s history came about.  Within that, we see God’s heart for His people, and how we need to spend time on our own divine appointments with Him in order to grow in our faith.

The Chapter begins with Saul out searching with his servant for his father’s lost donkeys, and it ends up with Saul encountering the prophet Samuel, who selects him as Israel’s first king.  Prior to their encounter, they had never met each other, and the likelihood of them ever crossing paths was quite slim.  Yet, God was sovereignly working in each of their lives to cause them to meet.  We need to be open to the fact that God does things like this in our own lives as well, especially when it comes to opportunities to share the Gospel or to encourage someone, or perhaps when some word of wisdom or encouragement needs to be shared with us.  There are people that we need to meet, and people that need to meet us, all as God is working out His sovereign will in both others and us.  It may be a client, a customer, or a clerk in a store, or anyone else, but virtually every day there are people that God has put in our path for a reason, and we need to be cognizant of that and respond accordingly.

With God in control, there are really no random events in life, for He is at work in all things. 

But, note how we see God do that here.  He lets Saul make choices as to how to go about the business of searching for his father’s lost donkeys, and yet even through that He is able to bring about this divine appointment between him and Samuel.  This speaks of how much higher God’s sovereignty is than any way in which we could possibly conceive of it.  If we were sovereign, we would no doubt endeavor to control the choices that everyone made in order to bring about the results we wanted.  Yet, our God is so amazing that under His sovereignty, He allows us to make our own choices, but then He still has a way of working in and through them to accomplish His purposes.

Although it turned out later that there were many problems with Saul, the people wanted a king, and so God gave them a king.  Verse 16 tells us that God had seen the travails of his people at the hands of the Philistines, and that He had appointed Saul to save them from that.  Despite Saul’s spiritual shortcomings, God worked through him to bring about many great victories for His people over the Philistines. 

Again, this is a marvelous demonstration of God’s sovereignty, and of how He sees, cares about, and takes action to meet the needs of His people, and can work through anyone regardless of their qualifications.

At the end of the Chapter, there is another lesson on divine appointments.  In (v. 27), Samuel tells Saul to stop on his journey outside of the city, let his servant go away for a time, and allow Samuel to make known the Word of God to him.  Even more important than our divine appointments with others, are our divine appointments with God.  Spending time with Him, enjoying His presence, and letting Him teach us through His Word are absolutely essential for developing a living vibrant relationship with Him and for any growth as a Christian.  There is tremendous power in the Word of God, both to convict, change, and comfort us, depending upon the situation and our need.  Psalm 19 says that it can revive our souls, give us wisdom, rejoice our hearts, and enlighten our eyes.  No wonder Hebrews 4:12 says that it is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and able to penetrate to the deepest places within us, and no wonder 2 Timothy 3:16 says that it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, and that it will make us complete and equipped for every good work.

There is no substitute for spending time in God’s Word, and learning all that you can from it.  Growth, transformation, and equipping as a Christian for what God has called us to do does not happen in a vacuum or by osmosis. 

As more than one of the Psalms say, we are to meditate on it as much as we can, which in the original Hebrew means to literally chew on it until we have extracted everything from it that we can.  As Jesus said, man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Just as Samuel encouraged Saul to stop, and let other cares go for a time, so that he could focus his attention on time in God’s Word, we need to constantly be doing the same thing ourselves, for those times are the ultimate divine appointments that we have this side of Heaven.