May 11--Hiding

1 Samuel 10:1-11:15 John 6:43-71 Psalm 107:1-43 Proverbs 15:1-3

Do you remember playing hide-and-go-seek as a child? There is something wonderful about hiding and there is something wonderful about finding the ones hiding. My brother and I found some places to hide that one might not even think existed—like just under the trap door in the hallway closet. Hiding there one was literally in the basement clothes hamper by the washing machine, yet suspended in mid air just below the closet floor. That was a great place to hide!

In today’s reading, we have one of the more famous hide-and-go-seek scenes in the Bible. It involves Saul, the very first king of Israel! He was said to be the most handsome guy in all of Israel, head and shoulders taller than all the rest, and he was the son of a wealthy, influential man. Not only that, but up until the hide-and-go-seek scene, he had already been told God had picked him, he had been anointed with a flask of oil, he had seen one thing after another come true exactly as God had said it would, he had experienced the power of the Spirit of the Lord coming upon him and giving him the ability to prophesy and he had been given a new heart by God. All that and Saul still hid! He thought of himself as “small” because he came from Benjamin, the smallest tribe, and he thought of his family as the least important of that tribe. So, when it came time for Samuel to call him out before all the tribes of Israel, the Lord Himself had to win the hide-and-go-seek and tell the people, “He is hiding among the baggage.” (1 Samuel 10:23). They brought out Saul and Samuel declared, “No one in all Israel is like him!”

What are you hiding from? What is it that God would have you do for His kingdom? In what way is it true of you, as it is of every child of God, that there is no one in the country like you? Arise! Perhaps, like Saul, you can so identify with people whose lives are at stake, that the Spirit of God will come upon you to save those people. In the rest of the story in today’s reading, Saul was enraged by the news that some Israelites were about to have their eyes gouged out by an evil Ammonite king. He rallied the country to go to the rescue of their 7,000 brothers from Jabesh-gilead. Saul then led 330,000 troops of Israel to victory over the Ammonites.

God wants you and me to stop hiding and step out by His Spirit to do great things for Him. In the New Testament reading today in John 6:63, Jesus says, “The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (New Living Translation). We can stop hiding and act not by the power of our own flesh and blood, but by the power of the Spirit of God, by the power of the flesh and blood of Jesus, the resurrected Son of God. All we have to do is believe, believe in Jesus, believe in the call on our lives, and believe in God’s power to accomplish His will through us! God has found you and will continue to find you! Stop hiding and believe!

Pastor Paul