Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We've made it 100 days. Congratulations. I hope you're doing something to

celebrate this milestone. All right, let's dive into today's reading. Have you ever heard of a Rube Goldberg machine?

Let me describe one and see if this rings a bell.

Imagine Domino's falling over row by row

until they hit a golf ball, knocking it into a paper cup, which is attached to a pulley system that drops the cup down and tips it over and spills the golf ball and you get the picture.

All the things in a Rub Goldberg machine have to line up perfectly to accomplish each detail so that the next

detail connects and the end goes off as planned. It's very complicated. And that's why

God is the best at Rube Goldberg machines. We see that in today's reading. Today God lets Samuel know

that he's the one in charge of appointing Israel's first king and he gives him a

heads up that the man he has in mind is on his way to meet him.

God arranged the circumstances of their meeting perfectly.

It involves getting some donkeys lost, putting an idea

in the servant's head and a silver coin in his pocket,

stationing some girls at the well at what was probably an unusual time of day to go to the well, and having it all line up not only with the arrival of Samuel back in town, but also with the feast and the timing God gave Samuel for when the new king would arrive.

Saul is a Benjamin, the tribe that was almost wiped out completely not long ago.

Remember how only 600 men survived?

And those survivors weren't viewed too highly among Israel

because they caused Israel's first civil war.

So apart from his appearance, Saul is an unlikely candidate to be king of Israel. But his appearance is the first

thing noted about him in scripture. As for his height, Jewish historians say the

average Israelite male in those days was around 5-6. So if Saul was a head taller than everyone, that would make

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