Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Do I Know God's Will? | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 10:1-16

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Is God working in my mundane life? How can I be sure that God's plan is good? What is God's will for my life? In today's episode, Keith shares how 1 Samuel 10:1-16 reminds us that God still works miracles through our mundane lives. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 10:1-16

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Have you ever been told news that you just had a hard time believing? Maybe the news was too good or too unexpected or just too weird. Well, I think it's safe to say that when the prophet Samuel told Saul that he was Israel's first king, Saul would have had a hard time believing that news. I mean, Israel didn't even have a king.

and if they were to get a king, why should Saul think it would be him? God is so patient and gracious to us. He takes time to confirm to Saul that he heard right. He truly was the first anointed king of Israel. But the way God confirms it to Saul isn't through some sort of miracle, but instead through very mundane, ordinary circumstances. Before I share that story with you from 1 Samuel 10, Can I share another story with you? A crazy story that was written up in Reader's Digest in the late 1940s.

It's about how God used very ordinary circumstances to reunite a husband and wife after World War II. On January 10, 1948, just a couple years after the conclusion of World War II, Marcel Sternberger got on a train in a Brooklyn subway. It was a train he'd never been on before because he normally took a different train, but he had changed his schedule to visit a sick friend. that morning. So now he was boarding a new train to get back to work. And the train he got on was packed with people. There were no seats available. But just as he was getting ready to give up, a man jumped up and ran off the train, realizing he was about to miss a station. So Sternberger quickly took that man's seat and sat down. Next to him was a man reading a Hungarian newspaper. Sternberger thought that was weird because he had been born and hungry and didn't run across

many Hungarians in New York City. So while he would normally not strike up a conversation with a stranger on the subway, he felt compelled to say something to him. So he looked over the man's shoulder and said in Hungarian, I hope you don't mind if I glance at your paper. The man was surprised to be addressed in his native language, and so during the half-hour ride into downtown, they talked and became acquainted with one another. Sternberger's companion voluntarily shared his tragic life story. His name was Paskin. and he'd been a law student when World War II started. He was eventually put into a labor battalion and sent to Ukraine.

Later, he was captured by the Russians and put to work burying the German dead. After the war, he walked hundreds of miles on foot, finally returning to his home in Hungary, and he discovered that his entire family was gone. Strangers were living in the apartment he had once lived in with his father, mother, brothers, and sisters. And when he reached the apartment he and his wife had shared, together. It was also occupied by strangers. Finally, he located some old friends who had survived the war. They sadly informed him that his entire family was dead. The Nazis had taken them and his wife to Auschwitz,

where they were all presumably killed in the gas chambers. Stunned by the news, Paskin fled Hungary, overwhelmed by grief. He headed west toward Paris and eventually immigrated to the United States, arriving there in October of 1947. As Sternberger listened to this man tell the story, it somehow seemed familiar to him. Suddenly, he remembered why. He had recently met a young woman at the home of some friends who had also come from Hungary. She had been taken to Auschwitz, but then transferred to work in a German munitions factory. All her relatives had been killed in the gas chambers.

After she had been liberated by the Americans, she was brought to New York in the first boatload of displaced persons. That all happened in 1946. Sternberger had been so moved by her story that he had written down her address and phone number, hoping to invite her to meet his family to help her with her terrible loneliness and grief. Sternberger thought it impossible that there could be a connection between this man that he met on the train and this woman that he had met at the friend's house. But when he reached his train station, he stayed on the train with his new friend. And he asked as casually as possible, is your first name Bella?

the man went pale and said, well, yes, how did you know that? Sternberger fumbled for his address book and he asked, was your wife's name Myra? Looking as though he might faint, Paskin said, yes, yes. Sternberger suggested that they get off at the next station, but he didn't explain why. He took Paskin to a nearby phone booth. While Paskin stood there like a man in a trance,

Sternberger dialed the phone number and after a long delay, he had Myra Paskin on the line. Sternberger reminded her of their recent chance meeting at the friend's house, and she remembered him. Without explaining why, Sternberger asked Myra where she had lived in Hungary before the war, and she told him her address. Sternberger turned to Bella and said, did you and your wife live on such and such a street? Yes, Bella exclaimed, as he turned white as a sheet and began trembling. Sternberger urged him to stay calm, but then explained that something incredible was about to happen to him. He handed Bella the phone, saying, here, take this telephone and talk to your wife, Myra.

When Paskin realized he was speaking with his wife, he broke into uncontrollable crying. Sternberger sent him by taxi to the address to be reunited with his wife. The article continues by describing the emotional reunion between the Paskins, each of whom thought the other was dead. Myra Paskins hardly remembers their union because of the sudden release of emotions. She said in Reader's Digest, I remember only that when I left the phone, I walked to the mirror like in a dream to see maybe if my hair had turned gray. The next thing I know, a taxi stops in front of the house, and my husband comes out. He walks up toward me.

She said details I cannot remember. Only this I know, that I was happy for the first time in many years. Even now, it is difficult to believe that it happened. We have both suffered so much. I have almost lost the capability to not be scared. Each time my husband goes away from the house, I say to myself, will anything take him from me again? Now, there are, of course, many possible explanations for what happened as a result of that subway ride one afternoon in 1948. Some would argue that the Paskins were just lucky, right? It was just all coincidence.

By contrast, this is how Readers Digest ends their article. Again, quoting from Reader's Digest, it says, skeptical persons would no doubt attribute the events of that memorable afternoon to mere chance. But was it chance that made Sternberger suddenly decide to visit his sick friend? And hence take a subway line that he had never been on before? Was it chance that caused the man sitting by the door of the car to rush out just as Sternberger came in? Was it chance that caused Bella Paskin to be sitting next to Sternberger reading a Hungarian newspaper? Was it chance?

Or did God ride the Brooklyn subway that after? noon. God works in and through ordinary circumstances. Sometimes we're looking for the miraculous and miss God in the mundane. We see something similar and yet no less dramatic and how God confirms to Saul that he's going to be the new king. To appreciate it, you have to put yourself in Saul's position. Samuel had anointed him as the first king of Israel, but no one else knows that this happened, and I'm sure that Saul has his own doubts. So Samuel gives Saul three signs that God is in the anointing. Now reading from 1 Samuel 10, verse 1.

When you leave me today, you will meet two men near Rachel's tomb on the border of Benjamin. They will say to you, the donkeys you set out to look for have been found, and now your father has stopped thinking about them and is worried about you. He is asking, what shall I do about my son? So that's the first sign. Samuel says you're going to meet two men on the road, and here's what they're going to say to you. It's going to seem very ordinary, but God is in that meeting. Now, here's the second sign in verse three.

Then you will go on from there until you reach the great tree of Tabor. Three men going up to worship God at Bethel will meet you there. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine. They will greet you and offer you. you two loaves of bread, which you will accept from them. So that's the second sign. You're going to see some men standing by a tree and they're going to offer you some bread. The third sign is that Saul will encounter some prophets playing music and the spirit of God will calm on him and change him into a different person. So these three signs are to indicate to Saul that God is with him.

Do you notice how ordinary they are? There are people you meet on the road. They are people who offer you some bread. While we are looking for a miracle, God shows up in the mundane. And that's really good news for us because our lives are full of the mundane. Paul Tripp says, if God doesn't rule in your mundane, then he doesn't rule you because that's where you live. Very few parts of our lives, if any parts at all, are what we would call it miraculous. Most of our life is pretty ordinary. So what are some of the ordinary experiences we have that God uses to communicate his love and presence to us like he did Saul? Maybe we see his love in a sunset or a hug from a spouse or a child. Maybe God's direction is seen in a job offer or a pastor asking you to join a small group

in your church or maybe even lead a small group. See God's signs of love and care and direction are everywhere in our life, but we might miss them if we are looking for the miraculous and not in the mundane, if we are looking for the spectacular, and God says he shows up in the ordinary. Ask God to give you eyes to see him in the ordinary circumstances of your life today. Amen.