Saul was not given to Israel because God wanted him to fail. Nor did God pick the worst possible specimen of humanity to give the nation as their king; He picked a physically superior man, whose appearance and stature seemed to perfectly suit the task he faced. Saul had all the requirements the people thought important in a king. This verse also says that God changed Saul’s heart, so obviously God wasn\u2019t trying to sabotage the reign of this man. In fact, God prepared Saul for kingship by having the Holy Spirit come over him. Even though God knew Saul’s kingdom would fail, the failure would not be due to any lack on God’s part of giving Saul everything he needed to succeed. Here young Saul was even given the gift of prophecy as a confirmation of the Holy Spirit’s power on his life. Saul experienced a change, but then, over the next few years, he allowed human pride and sin to take over and choke out the life that God had given him.<\/p>\n
The truth is none of us can succeed without Jesus Christ giving us a changed heart, a changed life. Here is a \u201crecall notice\u201d that sums up the issue well:<\/p>\n
\nThe Creator is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in the primary key component: the heart. This defect is most commonly known as sin. Symptoms reported include: loss of direction, a lack of peace and joy, increasing selfishness, fearfulness, idol worship, and rebellion. The Original Equipment Manufacturer, who is not at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized replacement service free of charge to correct the malfunction. Jesus has already taken the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs on Himself, so no additional fee will be required or accepted. Surrender of defective heart will activate complete replacement protocol with guaranteed results. Please surrender immediately.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
“LORD, we choose to humble ourselves before You this day. Please work through us, we ask, in Jesus’ name.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n
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1 Samuel 10 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1<\/sup>\u00a0Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>upon his head, and kissed him, and said,\u00a0Is it\u00a0<\/em>not because the\u00a0LORD\u00a0hath anointed thee\u00a0to be\u00a0<\/em>captain over his inheritance?\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel\u2019s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?\u00a0\u00a03<\/sup>Then shalt thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Beth-el, one carrying three kids, and another carrying three loaves of bread, and another carrying a bottle of wine:\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And they will salute thee, and give thee two\u00a0loaves\u00a0<\/em>of bread; which thou shalt receive of their hands.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy:\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And the Spirit of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee,\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>thou do as occasion serve thee; for God\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>with thee.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and, behold, I will come down unto thee, to offer burnt offerings,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>to sacrifice sacrifices of peace offerings: seven days shalt thou tarry, till I come to thee, and shew thee what thou shalt do. 9<\/sup>\u00a0And it was\u00a0so\u00a0<\/em>, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>this\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>is come unto the son of Kish?\u00a0Is\u00a0<\/em>Saul also among the prophets?\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0And one of the same place answered and said, But who\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>their father? Therefore it became a proverb,\u00a0Is\u00a0<\/em>Saul also among the prophets?\u00a0\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0And when he had made an end of prophesying, he came to the high place. 14<\/sup>\u00a0And Saul\u2019s uncle said unto him and to his servant, Whither went ye? And he said, To seek the asses: and when we saw that\u00a0they were\u00a0<\/em>no where, we came to Samuel.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And Saul\u2019s uncle said, Tell me, I pray thee, what Samuel said unto you.\u00a016<\/sup>And Saul said unto his uncle, He told us plainly that the asses were found. But of the matter of the kingdom, whereof Samuel spake, he told him not. 17<\/sup>\u00a0And Samuel called the people together unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0to Mizpeh;\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And said unto the children of Israel, Thus saith the\u00a0LORD\u00a0God of Israel, I brought up Israel out of Egypt, and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all kingdoms,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>of them that oppressed you:\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him,\u00a0Nay\u00a0<\/em>, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the\u00a0LORD\u00a0by your tribes, and by your thousands.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0Therefore they enquired of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0further, if the man should yet come thither. And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the\u00a0LORD\u00a0hath chosen, that\u00a0there is\u00a0<\/em>none like him among all the people? And all the people shouted, and said, God save the king.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0Then Samuel told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>in a book, and laid\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>up before the\u00a0LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. 26<\/sup>\u00a0And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and there went with him a band of men, whose hearts God had touched.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0But the children of Belial said, How shall this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. But he held his peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saul was not given to Israel because God wanted him to fail. Nor did God pick the worst possible specimen of humanity to give the nation as their king; He picked a physically superior man, whose appearance and stature seemed to perfectly suit the task he faced. Saul had all the requirements the people thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6465"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16159,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions\/16159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}