(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
1 Samuel 9:3–10, “And the asses of Kish Saul’s father were lost. And Kish said to Saul his son, Take now one of the servants with thee, and arise, go seek the asses. And he passed through mount Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not. And when they were come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant that was with him, Come, and let us return; lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us. And he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honourable man; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; peradventure he can shew us our way that we should go. Then said Saul to his servant, But, behold, if we go, what shall we bring the man? for the bread is spent in our vessels, and there is not a present to bring to the man of God: what have we? And the servant answered Saul again, and said, Behold, I have here at hand the fourth part of a shekel of silver: that will I give to the man of God, to tell us our way. (Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.) Then said Saul to his servant, Well said; come, let us go. So they went unto the city where the man of God was.”
Having been introduced to Saul, a man who was very good looking but came from the smallest of all the tribes. The tribe of Benjamin had almost been completely destroyed after they defended their men who had followed Sodom’s sin but had just been saved so they were still rebuilding by the time Samuel was Judge of Israel. Moving from an introduction, we seem to head into the mundane. We read about a man who lost his donkeys and sent his son to find those donkeys. This gives us and idea of Saul’s importance in the scheme of things. His family had some status because they had servants but they didn’t have sufficient contacts to help them look for their lost donkeys. Benjamin’s land was next to Ephraim’s so Saul had to go away from his home territory and move into an area belonging to another tribe. They didn’t find the donkeys there so they kept looking but eventually Saul realised that they had been looking for the donkeys for quite a while so they should go home so that his father wouldn't worry about him rather than the donkeys. Saul’s servant knew that there was a man of God living nearby so they decided to ask this man if he knew anything about the donkeys. Saul knew that such people didn’t work for nothing, for the Law required that priests be paid for their work. The servant said that he had some money so they decided to give that to the man of God. They went up towards the place where the man of God lived.
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