small and simple things

This morning my scripture study took me to 1 Samuel 7. I was originally just there to check a cross-reference from Joshua 24, but I forgot which verse I was looking for, so I read the whole thing and then just kept going.

I thought it was interesting how 1 Samuel 8 is like the same thing as this. But that's not the point of this entry. The point of this blog is in 1 Samuel 9.

Background: the people of Israel have just been bugging Samuel, a prophet, to give them a king. Samuel, like all prophets, realizes that this is a bad idea and tries to talk them out of it. They won't listen, though. So the Lord says, as He often does, to just give them what they want, since they want it so bad--even though they won't like it in the end.

So that brings us to 1 Samuel 9, which opens with a family from the tribe of Benjamin--Kish is the father's name, and he has a son named Saul (yes, THE Saul who, as we know, eventually becomes king).

That fateful morning that Samuel is looking for the new king of the Israelites, Kish loses his herd of donkeys. Examine:

1 Now there was a man of Benjamin, whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power.

2 And he had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

3 And the asses of Kish Saul’s father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses.

4 And he passed through mount Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not.

So the asses are lost, and Saul can't find them anywhere. At this point, Saul decides that they've wandered close enough to the prophet that they could conceivably go visit him and ask him to ask God where the asses are, and find them that way. The big problem is that he has no present to give to the prophet of God (which, incidentally, I think is kind of cool that he thought that was a problem).

Anyway, so then they meet Samuel, and Samuel feeds them and it turns out that Saul is going to be the king of Israel, and the whole future of the nation of Israel--and the world--is changed.

And it's all because Kish lost his asses and couldn't find them.

Later, in 1 Samuel 9:20, Samuel tells Saul not to worry anymore, because the asses have been found. It's clear that they only were lost in the first place because Saul needed to go searching for them--so that he could find the prophet, and his destiny.

As Alma said, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." Or, in the words of Nephi in the story I read yesterday: "And thus we see that by small means the Lord can bring about great things."

So, something to think about. I'm sure Kish was pretty upset that his herd was lost. That's a life or death thing, when your livelihood gets lost. It's a big deal. When the herd first went missing, I bet Kish and Saul didn't think, "Aha! This is the make-it-or-break-it moment that will lead us to change the history of the world!" Rather, they were probably thinking something like, "Holy crap, how are we going to feed our families??"

Sometimes God lets us lose things so we can find Him. Sometimes bad things happen to us that seem like chance--but really, there's nothing haphazard about the situation at all. Sometimes the things that seem like they are obstacles are really just leading us to the blessings we need most.

UPDATE: I was going to upload a picture from here, but Samuel isn't in the list of Bible Heroes yet! So lame. One of these days.