Sometimes God will grant prayers that are not in our best interests in order to teach us some hard lessons. That’s what happened in the account we have today in these three chapters. The Israelites came to the aging Samuel asking for a king to lead them. That was wrong. God was their king. Samuel went to God with the people’s request. God surprised Samuel by telling him to agree with what the people wanted, but also instructed Samuel to warn them it was a bad idea. So, Samuel told the people that a king would make many excessive demands on them. He warned them that the day will come when they would cry out and plead for the Lord to remove the king, but God “will not answer in that day.” But the people went from asking to demanding. 

To make a long story shorter, this is how Saul becomes their king. Saul was a very tall and very handsome man, the type which always attracts attention. But his resume doesn’t exactly knock you over with his accomplishments. For example, when some donkeys were lost, Saul was assigned the task of finding them. We learn later that after three days he still hasn’t found them, but it doesn’t matter since now the story shifts to his anointing as king. God’s Spirit comes over Saul and soon he is introduced to the people as their king. Some people are wondering, “Wait, how can this man be our king?” And when he is called to come forward, and they can’t find him, it turns out he’s hiding among the baggage. So, they got what they asked for, but Saul was not a great king and actually his life was marked by multiple frailties and failures. 

For me, the lesson here is it’s always best to go with God’s plans, follow his answers to our prayers, even when we don’t agree. If we insist on having things our way, God might go along with us until we are very sorry we didn’t trust and obey.

“All this trying leads to that vital moment when you turn to God and say, ‘you must do this, I can’t’” (C. S. Lewis).

Rev. Harold Hazen