A Lesson from Saul and Esther

When we are first introduced to Saul in the book of 1 Samuel, we are told both of his character and his physical appearance: He was “a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people” (1 Samuel 9:2).  So he was a good man, and he was also taller than any of the other Israelites.  This was emphasized again when Samuel was presenting Saul to the people as their king: “He was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward” (1 Samuel 10:23).  I find it interesting, then, that he is the one who was king when the Philistines came against them with Goliath.  We read that “Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together” when “Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span” came against them defying the God of Israel.  This was apparently over 9 feet tall, and so he was enormous.  He challenged the people saying, “Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.”  But the people feared him and no one dared go at first: “When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid” (1 Samuel 17:2, 4, 8, 11).  But who should have gone to fight him?  In my view it was Saul—he was the biggest of the Israelites, and though he doubtless was still significantly shorter than Goliath, as the king and anointed one and tallest among the people, Saul should have been the one to offer to go.  In fact, this is what the people had asked for originally when they requested a king of Samuel: “That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles” (1 Samuel 8:20, italics added).  They had wanted a king who would fight their battles, and the Lord gave them the tallest man among them, but that man failed to have the courage needed when it really counted. 

            I wonder if there is not a lesson in this story for us today.  The Lord gives each of us different talents and abilities: we know that “to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God.”  But we may not always use those gifts like the Lord expects us.  We are counseled to “always remember for what they are given.”  They are given not for our own personal benefit, but they are “given unto the church… that all may be profited thereby” (D&C 46:8-12).  In another revelation we are told this about the talents and gifts that we are given: “All this for the benefit of the church of the living God, that every man may improve upon his talent, that every man may gain other talents, yea, even an hundred fold, to be cast into the Lord’s storehouse, to become the common property of the whole church—Every man seeking the interest of his neighbor” (D&C 82:18-19).  Our gifts and talents were not given just to improve our own lives; they are meant to be used for the blessing of others.  So we might ask what gifts or talents has the Lord given us individually in order to bless those around us.   And do we sometimes, like Saul, fail to use that gift when it is most needed?  Or are we like Esther who risked her life when she had the opportunity to bless her people because of the unique position the Lord had put her in?  Mordecai told her, “Who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14)  We must learn to recognize, like Esther, when the Lord has placed us in a situation where our talents could uniquely benefit someone around us—and then use them to that end.