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Rise and Ruin
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Have you ever felt like you just don't understand what's happening in your life? We've all been there. Maybe it's in between jobs. Maybe it's in the midst of some difficult tension or conflict with someone you love. Maybe it's a physical issue you're dealing with, or a season of doubt.
Whatever it is, we've all been in seasons where we just don't understand what's happening. The passage we're studying today is going to give some of us encouragement — but for others of us it might bring a bit of a challenge, a nudge, a moment of conviction.
We're in a series called Rise and Ruin, looking at the rise of King Saul and eventually his tragic ruin as a leader. Today we're reading from 1 Samuel 9:1 all the way to 10:16, and then we'll zoom out to consider what God might be saying to us through this story.
Verses 1 and 2 give us a brief bio of soon-to-be King Saul:
"There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish... a man of wealth. And he had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people."
Honestly, this low-key sounds like they're about to set him up on a blind date. What's the main thing the writer wants us to know about Saul? He's tall, he's handsome, and he comes from some money. You might wonder why the story starts this way — and we'll come back to that, because it's important.
Then the story takes a very random turn.
"Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost."
So, tracking with the story so far: Saul has aura, and he can't find his donkeys. Bible stories can be weird sometimes. His father sends him to go look for them. Saul obeys, searches everywhere, and still can't find them.
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When they get to the land of Zuph, where Samuel lives, Saul's servant suggests they ask the man of God who lives there — the prophet Samuel — to help them find their way. Then the "coincidences" begin to stack up:
"As they were entering the city, they saw Samuel coming out toward them on his way up to the high place."
Samuel just so happened to be in the city that day. And as they were walking in, Samuel just so happened to be walking out at the very same moment. But look at what God had already said the day before:
"Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines... because their cry has come to me."
I love that phrase — tomorrow about this time. At this specific time.
Then Saul walks up to Samuel and asks, "Tell me, where is the house of the seer?" Now pause — this is Bible shade right here. Imagine bumping into someone at the White House and asking them if they know where the president is. Samuel is the most well-known spiritual leader in all of Israel, and Saul has no idea who he is.
Samuel answers, "I am the seer." Then he tells Saul not to worry about the donkeys — they've already been found — and drops this bombshell:
"And to whom is all the desire of Israel turned? If not to you and your whole family line."
In other words: Saul, you're the king they've been asking for. Imagine you're just trying to find your dad's donkeys, and suddenly you're being told the future of an entire nation rests on you. Saul can't even fathom it:
"Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?"
Samuel then hosts Saul as his guest of honor, seating him at the head of about thirty invited guests and setting aside a special portion for him. Notice the language: You weren't seeking it. You don't deserve it. You weren't expecting it. But it was kept for you until the hour appointed.
The next morning, Samuel takes Saul aside and says he wants to reveal to him "the word of God" — to make known what's been happening in his life. Then, in chapter 10:
"Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, 'Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel?'"
Samuel gives Saul three signs to confirm the prophecy is true. The third and most important:
"Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man."
A quick note here: this isn't the new birth, and it isn't the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit we experience in the new covenant. This is a temporary work of the Spirit, empowering Saul for his role and preparing his heart for the work. You see this pattern throughout the Old Testament. And just as Samuel prophesied, all three signs came to pass.
So let's zoom out, because there was a lot happening in that story. The donkeys. The winding road. The random trip. The people. Saul's confusion. Samuel's prophecy. The weird confirming signs. What in the world is happening in Saul's life?
Remember the question we started with — do you ever struggle to understand what's happening in your life? The dots aren't connecting. The road you're traveling just keeps hitting dead ends. This passage reveals something that can anchor us in those seasons. It reveals a doctrine we call the providence of God.
You don't see it mentioned explicitly, but it's all throughout this passage and all throughout the Bible. At a very basic level, here it is in a nutshell:
The providence of God means that no matter what happens, God is always in control and always working to accomplish his good purposes.
There is always a bigger picture that we can't fully comprehend in the moment. Dr. Tony Evans put it this way: "Providence is the hand of God in the glove of history." History is just happening. Your life is just happening. You don't see the hand of God — but Scripture reveals his providence so that we can know by faith that behind the events happening around us, God is actually working. And if our trust is in Jesus, he is working for us.
There are two distortions on either side of this biblical truth, and both make their way into the church.
Deism says God created the world but then stepped back and lets it run on its own. The problem — beyond the fact that it's unbiblical — is existential: it means you are on your own. Your future depends 100% on you. Some of us take that as a badge of honor... until we look back at our lives. Isn't anyone else glad God didn't always give you what you wanted? That he didn't always let your plans materialize? If our future is completely dependent on our own wisdom and decisions, that is a terrifying reality.
Fatalism says your choices, your prayers, and your actions don't make a difference because everything has already been completely predetermined — like you're just a robot that's been programmed. The problem: it means you don't matter at all.
Deism says you're alone. Fatalism says you're trapped. But the Bible says you are loved and led by God.
"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." (Proverbs 19:21)
Your choices matter. Your prayers matter. Your actions matter. And yet somehow, in a way we can't fully comprehend, they unfold within the broader story of God's divine purposes.
Why is there so much detail about losing some donkeys? This is a major turning point in Old Testament history — why make such a big deal about donkeys? Because it shows us that God is sovereignly working even through what seem to be random, unexpected circumstances.
Who sent Saul to look for the donkeys? On one level, his dad did — that's literally what the text says. But did you catch what God told Samuel? "Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin." God was using an unexpected farming problem to change the course of a nation and lead Saul into his calling.
And here's the point: Saul wasn't aware of any of this. Most of the time, you and I aren't aware of everything God is doing. We carry so much anxiety because we can't figure out specifically what God's will is or how the dots are going to connect. Saul was not aware of how God was working — but God was working.
The late Dr. Tim Keller said this in his sermon Your Plans, God's Plans:
"God's guidance according to the Bible is more something God does than something God gives."
God does give wisdom and guidance (James 1). But so much of our life is actually being led by God through circumstances we don't expect — circumstances beyond our control, or ones that seem random, mundane, or ordinary.
So here's the encouragement: You are waiting for guidance from God, but you are being guided by God right now — in ways you cannot fully see or completely understand. It doesn't answer every philosophical or personal question. But it lets us know deep in our bones that our good and powerful God is always in control, always working to accomplish his good purposes in our lives.
The people in Saul's hometown doubted and mocked him. But it wasn't just others — Saul doubted himself. He knew he wasn't qualified:
"Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my clan the humblest of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin?"
Benjamin was the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons, and his tribe was the smallest. But the bigger indictment is in Judges 20: some Benjaminite men brutally abused and murdered a young woman, and instead of bringing them to justice, the tribe protected the abusers. So God raised up an army and decimated the tribe of Benjamin. That stain tarnished their reputation for generations.
Now it makes sense why Saul felt so insecure. He's from the least significant tribe — a tribe with an embarrassing historical stain. And yet God chooses him to be king and empowers him by his Spirit.
You see this everywhere. God has a habit of choosing unlikely, ill-equipped, even insecure people to accomplish his redemptive purposes — Abraham and Sarah, who couldn't have kids; Moses, who couldn't speak well; Joshua; and on and on. And the Bible tells us why.
Remember Gideon in Judges 7? God told him his army was too big — that's like trying to get out of debt and God saying, "Nah, you've got too much money." God kept shrinking the army until it was a ridiculous number. Why?
"The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" (Judges 7:2)
You see the same thing in the New Testament:
"God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise... what is weak in the world to shame the strong... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." (1 Corinthians 1:27–29)
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us." (2 Corinthians 4:7)
Here's the thread: God's purposes never depend on human qualifications — and that's by design — so that the only reasonable headline over our lives is: To God be the glory for the great things he has done.
I don't want to settle for a life I can live in my own strength. I want to be part of something above what I could produce by my own wisdom, creativity, and power — something that can only be explained by the power of God and only results in the praise and glory of God.
This is hard to wrap our minds around — philosophically, and personally, because of choices we've made. As you read this story, there's a tension between God's judgment and God's mercy.
Last week, in chapter 8, we saw the Israelites reject God's leadership and demand a king like the other nations. So in his judgment, God gave them exactly what they thought they wanted. That's why chapter 9 starts the way it does — emphasizing that Saul is outwardly impressive. Just a few chapters later, God gives his perspective:
"Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature... For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7)
The people wanted a king who was outwardly impressive. But someone who's outwardly impressive can lead you in dangerous, regretful directions. Interestingly, when the Bible notes someone's impressive height, it's almost always associated with Israel's enemies — the tall soldiers who made the spies feel like grasshoppers, or Goliath. The Bible isn't saying tall people are evil; it's teaching that God is not impressed by the things we tend to be impressed by. Good looks are not a sign of God's favor.
Now, after their rebellion in chapter 8, we'd expect chapter 9 to begin with God abandoning the relationship: You wanted another king? Fine. You're on your own. But that's not what happens. Instead, God continues to take care of his people. And here's the tension: in one sense Saul is an expression of God's judgment; and yet in another sense, God in his mercy will use even Saul to accomplish his good purpose for his people.
"I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel... He shall save my people... for I have seen my people, because their cry has come to me."
That's wild. I'm way more petty than God. They reject him to his face, and he won't abandon them. He even calls Saul a prince — because Saul will rule under the providence of God, who remains the King of kings.
God is so powerful and so merciful that he accomplishes his good purposes even through sinful decisions.
This isn't the first time. Think about Joseph. His brothers didn't just steal his snacks — they sold him into slavery, trafficked into a foreign nation. And yet God was working the whole time. Genesis 50:20:
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."
It doesn't answer every question or resolve every tension, but it declares the truth that God is always at work — even through sinful decisions.
The most profound example is the crucifixion of Jesus. There is no crucifixion and no salvation without this tension — that God is in control and at work even through sinful decisions.
"This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." (Acts 2:23)
Jesus was killed unjustly. And yet it was the justice and judgment of God mingling with the mercy, grace, and love of God — working through the sinful decisions of real people in real history — to bring about the salvation we desperately need.
The eternal Son of God came to earth, lived a perfectly righteous life, and willingly laid down his own life. "You cannot kill me unless I lay down my own life," he said. Because of the joy set before him, he took the judgment of God that you and I deserve, so that you and I could enjoy the mercy we could never earn. Even in this most heinous crime in all of human history, God was in control, accomplishing his good purposes for all who would put their trust in him.
Some of you are living with consequences that are the result of your own sinful or foolish choices. This isn't just theory to you. The regret stings every time you wake up, because every day is another reminder of what you can't change — and it was your fault. You live with those consequences in your circumstances, your conscience, your mental health, your relationships.
The good news isn't that your decisions don't matter — because they do. The good news is that they are not bigger than the mercy of God. They are not bigger than the providence of God. If he can take Joseph's brothers' betrayal and use it to save a nation — if he can take the crucifixion of his Son and accomplish the salvation of the world — then he can take even the sinful and painful parts of your story and use them to accomplish his purposes.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)
God is not just making the best of a bad situation. He's not scrambling to come up with a plan. Somehow, in a way we can't fully comprehend, he accomplishes his eternal purposes through unexpected circumstances, unlikely people, and even sinful, regretful decisions. Our circumstances — and even our sin — do not have the power to stop God's divine purposes. But we do have a choice about whether we'll consciously experience and enjoy the awareness of his good purposes.
The encouragement is simple: He's at work. Turn to the person next to you and tell them, "God is at work in your life." You may not understand it all, but God does. He has a plan, and he's inviting you to enjoy and experience it. Maybe that's what led you here today.
But here's the challenge. Saul becomes king — and that role was a stewardship he ultimately squandered because of his own selfishness. That's why we call this series Rise and Ruin.
Listen: you did not get where you are on your own. I don't care about your degrees, your hustle, your networking — you weren't even born where you were born on your own. There are circumstances you don't even know about that God arranged.
And especially if you're in a leadership position: you have a stewardship in your hands. God's providence has given you the privilege of leading other people. What are you going to do with it? Will you be a conscious participant in God's work, or will you squander it because of selfishness, sin, and the temptations that come with power?
God's providence invites us to trust him and to steward the opportunities he gives us — even when we can't see it or understand it.
