Common Sense Reborn

Chosen

²⁰So Samuel brought out all the tribes of Israel before the Lord, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen by lot. ²¹Then he brought each family of the tribe of Benjamin before the Lord, and the family of the Matrites was chosen. And finally Saul son of Kish was chosen from among them. But when they looked for him, he had disappeared! ²²So they asked the Lord, “Where is he?”

And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.” ²³So they found him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else. (1 Samuel 10:20-23, The Life Application Bible)

Blessed Friday family. I pray this message finds you with peace and safety today. It has been over ten days since I last put a post together. We just wrapped up our first training exercise. I was on night shift, working about thirteen hour shifts every night, culminating with a very long night as the exercise concluded and we began to consolidate gear. So I have not had the energy to put anything together, but I have a lot to share with y’all over this weekend. Let’s start with the verses above.

I have fallen behind on my 9-month reading plan of the Holy Bible (I should catch up by the weekend). I am currently reading 1 Samuel in the Old Testament, and the Gospel of Luke in the New. The Life Application Study Bible has some amazing insight and research in the Gospel of Luke, which I will be sharing this week. But for today, I wanted to share the verses above because it really speaks to us as Christians today.

In the verses above, the Prophet Samuel’s time as the final Judge of Israel (see the Book of Judges) has come to an end. The nation of Israel begged Samuel to ask God for a King to rule over them, “like all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:5). God grants Israel this request because God recognizes that His Chosen people had constantly rejected Him time-and-time again, so He would put a King over them. God tells Samuel “they are rejecting me, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any more” (1 Samuel 8:7). God chooses Saul to be their first King because Saul looked the part, described as being a foot taller than anyone else in the nation of Israel. God gave what Israel was asking for, an image of what a King should look like, but in reality, God was their king and if they had submitted their lives to Him, He would have continued to bless them and protect them. But the people wanted a king they could see and have a face/persona to look to for guidance. While Saul had the physical qualities to make him look the part of a King, as we see when God is trying to anoint Saul before the people, Saul is found hiding. To me, this paints a comical image that has been represented in media several times. The insecure hero, who does not believe he is cut out for the task ahead, trying to sheepishly hide anywhere he can.

And who could blame Saul. He went from plowing his father’s field to being told he would be Israel’s first king. Do not mock Saul from having this moment of initial doubt, because he would quickly rally Israel to battle a brutal King of the Amorites. Saul was chosen to lead the people of Israel by God, and God blessed him and allowed him to begin a line of mighty kings (the second king was David, and from David’s lineage came the last king, the King of Kings: Jesus Christ).

God has chosen YOU for greatness. You have been blessed and ordained for a time such as this. You serve the King of Kings and the Prince of Peace. You are a follower of Jesus Christ, the High Priest and King of the entire world. Are you “hiding among the baggage” of your past sin and mistakes? Do the people in your life know which King you serve? Are you going forward to proclaim the victory your King has won over this world? If you can not answer these last two questions with a resounding “YES!”, then you are right there with Saul, hiding from the responsibility that God has chosen you for.

Tomorrow, I will try my best to be back here with an update on current events happening around the world. I will wrap up with some of the new music I missed last week. Trip Lee dropped a banger of amazing Christian hip-hop. Steven McWhirter released a live version of his powerful, testimonial worship songs. There were far too many amazing singles to mention. The song I want to share below came from the GMA Dove Awards. I wish I could share what came before this stunning performance by Katy Nichole (I searched the webs but could not find it, you can see it by watching the 54th Annual Dove Awards here). The moment I can referring to comes when the award’s show host, Tauren Wells, gave a powerful prayer for the people of Palestine and protection for Israel, and ended the prayer with allowing Ms. Katy Nichole to sing the name of Jesus over the crowd. I speak the name of Jesus over you today. I speak the name of Jesus to remind you that you have been chosen for a time such as this, a time to stand for peace, for love, for kindness, for compassion, for mercy. I speak these things in Jesus’ name.