Don’t set your mind on the donkeys

As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not set your mind on them, for they have been found. (1 Samuel 9:20)

Saul had a mission from his dad, a man called “Kish” (no relation to Caleb Savari, I don’t think, I hope not anyway), to go find these asses that had been lost.

Saul, dutiful, handsome devil that he was, went out to find them. They went through four towns and could not find them. They looked everywhere. Eventually, being the kind of guy that Saul was, which isn’t that great, he and his buddy were going to give up the search. His friend / buddy / servant rebuked him and told him that they were near the Man of God. They should seek him out first.

This is a weird story, but man it’s powerful. The LORD caused those donkeys to be lost so that Saul would go on a search for them. He went all over the place looking for them. Then he met the prophet of God. He would not have met Samuel if the donkeys hadn’t been lost and Saul hadn’t traveled to four cities to find them, in vain.

Not only this, but the LORD prepared Samuel for Saul before Saul even got there. The LORD was in control of this entire thing. Then Samuel tells Saul that he was about to tell Saul all that was on Saul’s mind. If this isn’t a picture of Jesus, I’m not sure what is.

This is when he tells Saul not to set his mind on the asses. Technically speaking he said donkeys, but I feel each term has it’s own appropriate application. That’s for another post at another time.

I’m in a time when the Lord set some donkeys loose in my life, and it’s been hard, confusing, and painful. In searching for the donkeys, I’ve been finding the Lord. I know I can’t read this story and take Samuel’s promise as a promise to me — namely, the promise that “the donkeys have been found.”

However, I can see that in a manner of speaking, the LORD has set donkeys loose in my life. I spent the last 108 days, or so, looking for those donkeys. I don’t think I’ve found the donkeys in the way I’ve been looking for them. I do know that I’ve been finding Him.

I need to daily choose to believe that the donkeys have been found, because to Him, they were never lost. They just weren’t in my possession, for a time. I think I would save a lot of heartache trying to look for the donkeys if I let them go, didn’t set my mind on them, and just sat at the feet of the donkeys’ Master and wait on Him.

Whatever happened to Saul’s donkeys?

Samuel anoints him king, and says:

When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, ‘The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, “What shall I do about my son?”’ (1 Samuel 10:2)

The lost are found. Eventually.