1 Sam 9:21, And Saul answered and said, "Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?" 
	There is something within our reading that we absolutely need to have worked into the very depth of our meager understanding of the ways of the Lord. This is a reality that needs to become a bedrock understanding of the difference between the way that man sees things and the way that God sees them. 
	We have this propensity to look for the strongest, the richest, the most beautiful, the most handsome, the most popular, and the most powerful to guide our choices in the manner of who should lead in the course of the governance of the hearts of mankind. We place supreme value on those external traits and possessions of a person to determine their worthiness of our consideration and our fealty. We will follow the most beautiful and try to emulate him or her with a consuming devotion, until a more beautiful or more handsome individual catches our fleeting eyes and our fickle hearts. 
	We consider those who are powerful, or wealthy, or famous as the ones to whom we should look in order to follow their paths to fame, riches, and supremacy among mankind. Thus we place our dedication to do what they did in order to achieve their amassed human glory and splendor from the audience of their adorers. 
	The Lord, on the other hand, has a completely different manner of choosing those who are to be servants of Him for the course of God’s work within His people. He does not seek the strongest and the bravest and the richest and the prettiest and the most powerful of humankind to do His work on this earth. By no means are these types incapable of being used by the Lord, as seen in the manner in which He humbled the heart and used the most powerful potentate of the day, King Nebuchadnezzar. We have dealt with this exalted king’s humbling and change of heart at the revelation of the True Lord of All Creation. 
	So it is fully evident that God can use such as these. But more often, much more often, God uses the lowly and the needy and the least among His people in order to show forth the Lord’s Providential hand on the course of all history. God is much more greatly in evidence in the use of those who are humble before Him and not of the greatest stature or wealth or popularity. These are the ones who are submitted to the working power of God instead of the foolish trust in their own devices. This is often the case with those who become the mightiest among the leaders and the servants of the Lord for His glory to be evidenced.
	Please turn back to the Book of Judges, Chapter 6, verses 13-16. Here we have the account of Gideon’s call to arms by the Lord. This is a tremendous example of how the Lord chose a man who was among the least of His people to become one of the more powerful of the judges of the people of Israel. 
	Judg 6:13-16, Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian." And the Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?" And he said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house." But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man." 
	Notice the key aspect to this whole discussion is the fact that although Gideon was the youngest of his household and of the least family in the tribe of Manasseh, the Lord chose him. God saw something in Gideon which allowed this young and least significant man to become a great warrior and deliverer of the people of God. This was because God would be with him. Gideon was not expected to have any greatness of himself. All that would be needed would be provided by the Omnipotence and the Omniscience and the Omnipresence of Jehovah. God would be with him! It was God Who gave the victory with only 300 men against the countless numbers of the Midianites. 
	This is what we have in place with Saul in our morning’s passage. There was something about Saul which was appealing to the eyes of humanity, and which was necessary for the choice of God to be evident. God chose Saul, for the purposes, as would become evident, of showing the difference in what man thinks is great as opposed to what God deems as necessary in order to accomplish His will and His purpose. 
	First of all, as indicated in verse 2 of this morning’s reading, Saul was a handsome man among his peers. 1 Sam 9:2, And he had a son whose name was Saul, a choice and handsome man, and there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of Israel; from his shoulders and up he was taller than any of the people. 
	Saul looked like one who would become a leader. He had the handsome face and the warrior’s height. He stood out among the people as one who was able to attract attention and devotion. This would be evident later on when the boy, David, would have that devotion to Saul established in his heart. This was to the point that David would not do anything to harm the king, even when Saul was seeking to kill him. There was a dedication that would be established within the heart of David to honor the king as the Lord’s choice and he was the dedicated servant of Saul.
	At the same time, early on, we see that Saul was humble of heart. When the prophet told Saul what was going to take place, how Saul was chosen by Jehovah to become the King of Israel, Saul was contrite and astonished. It was not his goal in life to be the king. He had not desired that placement above the rest of his people. He was only concerned about the missing donkeys of his father.
	Consider again verse 21, this morning’s passage, And Saul answered and said, "Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?"
	However, there was a change in the heart of Saul as he turned from listening to the Lord, to making his own way on this earth. As so frequently happens when we find ourselves blessed by the abundant placement of the Lord into those arenas of human honor and esteem, our hearts are turned from the humbleness before God into the self-styled lust for honor from men. We begin to crave the things of this earth which are before us, setting aside the relationship of utter dependence upon the One Who placed us into that position. This is what took place in Saul as he began to desire the things of this age over the things of God.
	1 Sam 15:16-19, Then Samuel said to Saul, "Wait, and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night." And he said to him, "Speak!" And Samuel said, "Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are exterminated.' "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord?" 
	Saul had taken it upon himself to disobey the command of the Lord. He thought he knew better. He saw the destruction of the Amalekites and all their wealth as something wasteful. He would use the argument that he wanted to bring back the best to sacrifice to the Lord. This was clearly just an excuse used when he was faced with the fact that he had been caught in his disobedience. He then blamed it all on the others as having made him so disobey the Lord, that it was their fault and not his own, even though he was the king and the commander in charge. Thus we see the beginning of the end of his humility and the growth of his regal stature in his own eyes. His pride and his coveting the acclaim and the adoration of the people would soon consume this one, who had been humble, the one who had said - Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin?
	In 2 Sam 7:18-22, we have the next king of Israel before the Lord in the honest acclaim of the glory of God and the honor of the Lord that was in the heart of King David. This shepherd boy was given the place of dominion over the tribes of Israel. He did not take that lightly. We know that he, as a man, abused that placement with Bathsheba, but he humbly repented and bore the shame of that sin with all diligence unto Jehovah and before the people. He did not allow the placement of himself upon the throne to dissuade him from coming to the Lord with the reality that he was but a humble shepherd whom the Lord had elevated and whom the Lord was going before. 
	2 Sam 7:18-22, Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord, and he said, "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that Thou hast brought me this far? "And yet this was insignificant in Thine eyes, O Lord God, for Thou hast spoken also of the house of Thy servant concerning the distant future. And this is the custom of man, O Lord God. And again what more can David say to Thee? For Thou knowest Thy servant, O Lord God! "For the sake of Thy word, and according to Thine own heart, Thou hast done all this greatness to let Thy servant know. For this reason Thou art great, O Lord God; for there is none like Thee, and there is no God besides Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 
	There was a heart within this king which recognized the insignificance of man when viewed through the eyes of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the One Who had created all mankind. Who was a man when seen in the scope of the eternal plans and purposes of Jehovah? David understood the extreme value of the relationship which honored God above all else. It did not matter how powerful or how rich or how popular a person might be in the esteem of the eyes of this age, it was nothing in comparison to the splendor and the majesty and the awesome strength of the Lord God Almighty! Every human would but return to dust, no matter what he or she did on this earth. Nothing of man could withstand the passing of the years and the death of physical bodies. 
Therefore it is utter necessity of all to give honor and praise and adoration to the One from Whom all life has come and unto Whom all will be in supreme submission. There will be nothing to cover up the manner in which we willingly served or rejected Him through the course of our walk on this earth. David knew the reality that God was above everything and that everything was fully subject to the manner in which God so chose to work. Therefore it is vital to maintain that proper and humble esteem of God rather than being caught up in the schemes and the wiles and the allurements of this age.
Consider but one of the Psalms written by David to give expression to the reality that God is the Lord God Almighty and that man is here as the instrument of the Lord for His plans and His purposes to be accomplished on this earth. It is all the work of Jehovah’s Omnipotent hand. Please open to Ps 8, and read along with me as we bring this morning’s consideration to a close for this week.
Ps 8, O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth, Who hast displayed Thy splendor above the heavens! From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease. When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him? Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God, And dost crown him with glory and majesty! Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How majestic is Thy name in all the earth! 
Thus we hold ourselves before the eyes of our inner man. We need to see the fact that God is everything and that we are His servants for His plan and His purpose on this earth. We must never elevate ourselves in our own esteem, but learn to be humble servants of the Lord, meeting the needs of others as we so honor the majesty and the glory of God. So be it.
And Saul answered and said, "Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me in this way?" Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Dan 4:37. "Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise, exalt, and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride." Amen.