The challenge of what is possible (1 Sam 14:47-52)

As a young Christian, I read the story of Gladys Aylward, daughter of a postman and a postal worker, who left school at 14 and worked as a domestic servant. Sometime after she came to faith at 18, she felt a call to become a missionary in China, but after three months of study at the China Inland Mission and, given her obvious struggles with theological study and languages, she was not recommended for further training. Yet, sitting in her room as a housemaid, earning little but determined to save for her fare to China, she said to God, ‘Here I am, use me.’ She could only afford to travel on the trans-Siberian railway and landed in the Chinese-Russian war zone, but eventually found her way to China, where she helped set up an inn and shared the gospel with those she met. During WWII she led some 100 orphans out of war-torn China and later established orphanages in Taiwan and Hong Kong. While our life need not be so dramatic, her story makes me wonder what is possible for those who submit and seek the Lord. It is appropriate to consider this as our passage evaluates Saul’s reign and thereby elicits the question of what could have been.

On the positive side, Saul achieves a measure of deliverance from the enemies that threaten Israel, something the people longed for in a king (1 Sam 14:47; 8:19-20). Despite the negative aspects of his character prominent in the last two chapters, Saul is a valiant warrior in the tradition of his father and tribe (1 Sam 14:48; 9:1). Unlike many later kings, notably David and Solomon, he only has one wife. He neither tries to increase his consequence through many wives and concubines (a sign of a rich and powerful man who can afford them), nor does he use marriage as a way of establishing foreign alliances, a strategy that the law warns against because of the danger of idolatry (Deut 17:17). Thus, not everything is bad about this man.

Nevertheless, the concluding sentence points to the sad fact that Saul’s horizon never moves beyond the human plane: he is constantly on the lookout for brave fighters (1 Sam 14:52). There is, of course, nothing wrong with seeking out talented people who can do the job that needs doing, but the complete absence of any reference to God is a warning sign. Christians can sometimes err in the opposite direction and only look for commitment to God without considering whether someone has the necessary skills to do a job when both aspects are important. In Saul’s case, however, his perception of himself and others is limited only to the human potential, so that we may wonder what could have been possible if only he sought God.

Like in Saul’s case, God sometimes brings situations into our lives that challenge us. If we are naturally confident, we may throw ourselves into resolving these on our own steam, sure that we can handle what comes our way. Others of us, aware of our weaknesses, crumble as we only perceive our limitations. Both attitudes look only at the human level without reference to God and either over- or underestimate the possibilities. The same can be true of tasks that God calls us to, where we either denigrate or rely only on our abilities, both of which can thwart God’s purposes. A worship leader in a church I visited was so full of himself that his presence disrupted the atmosphere of reverence for God. At the opposite end, Moses’ protestations that he could not speak almost destroyed the opportunity he had to serve the Lord (Exod 4:10, 13). Whether in life challenges or in ministry, we are called to be people of faith who look not to what is visible, but to what is invisible: to the God who is faithful.

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