Reading for the Day: Divine Set-up

In today's First Reading, donkeys belonging to Saul's family have wandered off and Saul's father tells him to go and look for those donkeys and to take a servant with him. 


Saul must have been irritated at the donkeys for wandering off and at his father for sending him, a"handsome young man" (!), off to look for the donkeys. And look for them he did. Through the "hill country of Ephraim...  through the land of Shalishah... through the land of Shaalim... and through the land of Benjamin, but they failed to find the animals". . 


The journey had taken them three days and Saul wanted to head back: "When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, “Come, let us turn back, lest my father forget about the donkeys and become anxious about us.” They also had run out of food. 


But Saul's servant suggested that they go see Samuel, the seer, and ask if the seer could provide any help. Saul hesitates however because he had nothing to offer Samuel to which the servant replies that he had some money.


So Samuel and his servant go off to look for Samuel and the next morning, Saul ends up being anointed King of Israel.


The narrative reveals that all of this was part of God's plan. God tipped off Samuel on what was happening so Samuel could dazzle Saul with knowledge of what Saul was up to. 


But Saul didn't know any of this of course. From his point of view, he was just being sent off to do an irritating task that was turning out to be an impossible and tiring task. At some point, he wanted to just declare a mission a failure and was only prevented from doing so by a servant who he happened to bring along with him and who happened to have a quarter shekel of silver.


I wonder how many times we've chased our own donkeys and almost gave up, not knowing that all of this was a divine set-up job.