1 Samuel 10:20
“So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was chosen.”
What does 1 Samuel 10:20 mean?
When Samuel gathered all twelve tribes to discover who God had chosen as king, the selection process pointed directly to Benjamin. This was a surprising choice, since Benjamin was the smallest tribe in Israel, and no one there expected to be the source of a king. The method of drawing lots (casting lots was a way ancient Israel determined God's will) kept narrowing down from tribe to people to family until it landed on a young man named Saul, who would become Israel's first king. What's striking is that God chose someone from an unlikely place, through an ordinary process, without fanfare or obvious greatness, reminding us that God's selections often confound our expectations about power and prominence.