How does God determine who He'll use?

How does God determine who He'll use?

We know from what we have studied that the people's choice of a king, which had been motivated by their desire,

you may recall, to be like the nations around them, was actually a rejection of God as their king.

When Samuel was responding to the initiative on the part of the people, he actually took it personally.

He felt that somehow or another, their reason for asking for a king was because they had decided that he was too old,

he was too doggery, he was no longer good and sufficient as a leader.

And God had said to Samuel, no, you need to understand something Samuel, it is not you they're rejecting, it is actually me.

So we have this strange paradox that in their desire for a king, they are rejecting the one who is king.

And in the king they have, they discover that this is a king who disobeys God.

What possible chances there for a people who have a king now who actually disobeys God, who is the real king.

And so what we discover is that God says, well now for myself I have chosen a king.

So you see, despite his beginnings, despite the fact that he was big and tall and handsome, had floundered,

and he had failed and he was rejected.

In chapter 15 you just need to turn one page and you will see that there in verse 26.

Samuel, in responding to Saul's request for his companionships, as I won't return with you,

for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

And quite graphically in the interchange that happens with the tearing of his robe,

Samuel uses that immediately as a metaphor and he says in verse 28,

the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and he has given it to a neighbor of yours

who is better than you.

That little pointer now, sending us forward as readers and saying to ourselves,

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