1 Samuel 13: 1-15
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
I'm one of the pastors here. If you'll grab your Bible and go to First Samuel chapter 13. If you didn't bring a Bible with you, if you don't own a Bible, there should be a blue one stuck down in the seat in front of you. If you don't own one, take this home with you. We want you to have a Bible.
Um, I would take a moment as we begin this morning to remind you why we're here and what we're doing here. If you belong to Jesus, you belong to a way of life. You've been called into a new existence because of the work of Christ and you are following him in faith. When we gather on Sunday, we do some things repetitively, intentionally repetitively because it's through repetition that we develop. It's through repetition that we grow.
Everything you've ever learned, you've learned by doing more than once. And if you do something once and you you learn it, then you have to do it again six months later, a year later, you go, "Ah, I I did do this once, but I don't remember how." Because that's how we learn through practice. So what we've what we're doing when we gather on Sundays is our Church family who is in community groups throughout the week, is walking in life together, who's trying to follow Jesus together, trying to be missionaries together, we're gathering to practice together, studying the Scriptures, singing, praying collectively. This is participatory. It's it's not something that you just do.
This isn't the whole of Christianity where you show up to an event. That's not what this is. that we have gathered as the people of God to do this collectively. And I just want to remind us of that as we go into the word this morning and study it together, that you would remember and be intentional about participating and being actively involved in your own growth as we repetitively try to study the Bible together as people who belong to Jesus and to each other. We told you a couple of weeks ago, Spencer did that Saul was not going to turn out well for him.
And then the following week, I said it won't turn out well for him, but we're not there yet. All right, team. We're there. It It's the beginning of the end. We're going to start things are going to start going poorly for Saul for a long time.
We're going to read a lot of things going poorly for Saul pretty much from here on out. So, if you'll go to chapter 13 verse one, it says this. Saul lived for one year and then became king. And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. Okay, so in the SV, the way that's worded is a little odd.
And if you have some other version of the Bible, it's quite possible that your version of uh chapter 13 verse1 says something different. Some versions just have dot dot dot. It'll say Saul lived dot dot dot and he was king over Israel dot dot dot. Some of them say he was 30 years old when he became king and he ruled for 42 years. And all of that is an indication that in the original manuscripts that we have, so there was an original version of this and then there are manuscripts that are hand copies.
We don't exactly know what what verse one says. It's the kind of the normal uh setup to explain a king. They would normally say became king at this age and reigned for this amount of time. That the best text we have says that Saul was one year old when he became king. Seems farfetched.
We saw him looking for donkeys and he was the tallest guy in Israel. So, he'd be a really tall one-year-old. Uh it it doesn't say one-year-old. It says he was a year old. And so, it seems like it's possible.
What it's saying is he had reigned for a year and then he did this once he had become two years. He actually was reanointed as king. It's possible that there's just some data missing. Um and there's a lot of people who do a lot of investigation in the text and try to understand when we match manuscripts together. We have a very reliable Scriptures, the most reliable historical document that exists.
But there are a few places that we go we're not exactly sure what was originally written here. And this is one of those. but doesn't change doctrine. Doesn't even really affect this story. Move to verse two.
Uh it says, "Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. 2,000 were with Saul in Mcmash and the hill country of Bethl. And a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibia of Benjamin." This is the first time we've been introduced to Jonathan. Jonathan is Saul's son. So, there has been some amount of time from the time that he was anointed because we were told he was a young man when he was anointed and now he has a son old enough to lead troops.
Saul also now has a standing army. Samuel told the people of Israel this would happen in chapter 8. They said he's going to take your sons and he's going to make them into a military. And he's doing that. When he called them all together, he had 330,000 fighting men.
Well, now he's down to 3,000 that he's going to keep ready to go. So 1% uh of what he had the first time when he went and fought in Nahash he has with him. It says the rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. So he's got a standing army. Verse three, Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Gea.
And the Philistines heard of it, and Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear." So Jonathan goes and leads his forces to win a victory at Gibba. Now Gibba was a Levitical city. The Levites weren't given um an aotment of land the way the rest of the tribes were. They were dispersed because they were the priests and they were going to help the people follow the Lord. And this is one of their cities.
And apparently as the Philistines have taken over and are exerting rule over the people of Israel, they have different places where they have more authority. And this is one of them. And Jonathan, who we just got introduced to, next verse, he's winning battles. That's great. But he uh defeats the garrison of the Philistines there.
And the Philistines find out about it. And then Saul announces it to the people of Israel. Let the Hebrews hear. And it says this, "And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines, and the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal." Okay.
So when Nahash of the Ammonites came and surrounded uh the city, and Saul found out about it, he uh called for all of Israelite, all the Israelites to gather. 330,000 came. So now, uh, he's doing the same thing. He's announcing, "Okay, it's time to go.
We've started something with the Philistines. Y'all show up and let's go." That's what's happening. So they're they're putting out a call for the people together. Verse 5. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.
Can you imagine getting that scouting report? They had 30,000 chariots. They had 6,000 horses. How many troops?
You ever been to the beach? It's like that. Just scarier. I mean, it is massive. The amount of Philistines that have arrived to fight that have mustered to to come to war.
And it says they came up and encamped at Mcmash. Now, if you're paying attention, that's where Saul had been. He's moved to Gilgal, but they've now come all the way in to where he was had. He had a standing army. They've arrived to exactly where he just was and they have covered the land.
So it says they came up and encamped at Mcmash to the east of Beth Haven. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hardpressed. The people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and inistns. And some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. This massive invading force comes and the people scatter and hide. And behold, villages and cities look like ghost towns. People have gone to caves. They've gone to rocks, meaning they've gone to places that are uninhabited and unlikely to have an army march through.
They've gone into sisterns, which are big containers to catch rain water. So, it's unclear to me whether they had rain water in them or these were sistns that weren't functioning or if it was dry at this time. They go to tombs. It's bad. They're terrified.
All of normal life has ceased. And it says those who are with Saul are trembling. It also means that nobody's coming to Saul. The announcement, gather, let's fight.
All people heard was, oh no, the Philistines, and they went and hid. Verse eight, he waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. Okay, so we've just jumped into something that we don't have all the details on. The Bible gives us all the details we need. There are a lot of times it doesn't give us all the details we want.
So, whenever you're reading a text, it's giving you the information that you need. It's giving you the information that you should have, but it doesn't necessarily give us all the answers that we want. So, we know that Saul and Samuel have some agreement. Saul's in Gilgal and he's waiting. Now, we know that he's waiting on Samuel and that there's some sort of agreement between the two of them and that Samuel has appointed a time.
Now, in chapter 10, there was a time where Samuel told him, "Go to Gilgal, wait 7 days, I'll be there and we'll we'll do uh burnt offerings and peace offerings." And it seems like it's possible that this was somewhat regular or this is information at least that's happened before. And so, he tells him, "Go to Gilgal." And he's got some instructions. And we're going to find out in a moment that he's going to break the commandment that was given to him that Samuel's going to say it was a commandment from the Lord. So that what Saul is doing is waiting at Gilgal for Samuel on the word of the Lord for what he's supposed to be doing. So here's what happens.
He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. So he was apparently waiting for Samuel to come offer the burnt offering and the peace offerings. Samuel doesn't arrive.
So Saul just says, "Bring it here to me." Now, this situation is terrible. Saul's the king. Everybody's looking to him to lead, you know, because he's the king and it's his job to protect the people of Israel. That's what those worthless fellows that we read about in chapter 10. They said, "How will this man save Israel?" And, you know, we said they had a point because he was hiding when they were trying to come get him.
And they were like, "I don't think this guy can do it." And that's his job, though, to save, to protect. and he now is uh he has 3,000 people that he's gathered to him. There's 30,000 chariots, 6,000 uh horsemen, and countless multitude of soldiers. And it says his people are starting to scatter. So he just says, "Bring the burnt offering to me." And he offered the burnt offering.
As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came with I mean, sitcom timing. As he offered the burnt offering, as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel came and Saul went out to meet him and greet him. And Samuel said, "What have you done?" which is not what you want a prophet or God to ask you. That's what God asks Adam in the garden. That's what God asks Cain after he's killed his brother.
That's what Joshua asks Achen after he has taken some of the devoted things and led them to destruction. That's what Samuel asks Saul. What have you done? He shows up at the end of the burnt offering. Samuel Saul goes out to meet him.
It says he went to meet and greet him. We don't know his posture. We don't know if he went down kind of like, "Oh, hey." Or if he was actually genuinely excited to see him, really relieved to see him. He's in trouble. And Samuel's been in this sort of thing before.
We don't exactly know. But immediately Samuel says, "What have you done?" The prophet of the Lord is standing with the king of Israel and he says, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Mcmash, I said, Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord." So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. Now, if you'll notice, we're going to point out a few things here. One, the question was, "What have you done?" The answer is, "I offered the burnt offering." But there were a lot of words before we got to that, which as a parent of two young children, I experienced this on a weekly basis. Why is your brother crying?
Earlier this morning, I was having my breakfast. It's like, no, no, no, no, no. What did you do? Why is this broken?
Well, you see, while in the course of human events, no, no, no, no, no. G, get me to the answer. And he he puts off the answer, but he gives a lot of his reasoning. He's going to lay the groundwork for here's why I've done what I've done as he starts to explain it. And if we're being honest, if I'm reading this text, y'all, he was in a bad spot.
And none of the things he says sound to me like they have real good, clean answers. He says the people were leaving. Okay, that's a legitimate problem. I I mean, if we're there and you start seeing soldiers packing up in groups and heading out and people are starting to go, "Well, if Samuel's not coming." And they they're like, "Let's best thing to do is pick a cave.
Let's go." Like you you they've been looking to Saul to do something. And what he's been telling them is, "Wait, we're waiting for Samuel. We're waiting for Samuel. We're waiting for Samuel." Well, Samuel doesn't show up at the appointed time. Now, we don't know if this was later in the day on day seven or if this is day eight or day nine.
It just says you didn't show at the appointed time. I have a feeling that Samuel feels a little bit like where Gandalf says that a wizard is never early or late. He shows up right when he wants to. I think he probably feels that's what prophets get to do. Prophets aren't late.
They show up when they want to. Like I'm whenever I'm here, it's go time and not a second before. But he says, "You weren't here." The only answer he apparently had been giving them was we're waiting for Samuel or Samuel doesn't come. He'd been telling them we're waiting seven days. We're waiting seven days.
He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. He doesn't come. Then he says, I saw that they had gathered and I started thinking they're going to attack us.
So I I forced myself. I was forced. I had to. I had to. And y'all, do you ever feel that situation where you feel like you've got to do something?
People are expecting something of you. You feel like something's got to happen. Something's got something's got to be handled. And you just This was bad. This is bad.
This is bad. This is bad. I had to. As a pastor, I'll talk with people and they'll go, "What what do you want?
What do you How would you do this? How would you handle this? How would you handle this?" And there's really no there's no good earthly answer. Samuel doesn't have Well, here's how to keep the morale of people. Have y'all ever tried to lead something where where like you had to keep morale?
Like y'all, I've I've worked at a fireworks store my pretty much my whole life. Grew up in it. I managed a firework store since the time I was 18. And I've been managing for two busy days around Fourth of July 20 teenagers. Two days.
And they're getting paid to be there. there. And I've had times where I'm like, "Oo, this is falling apart. I got to send some of them home because of their attitudes, but I can't send all of them home. I can't have a coup." Like, I just trying to manage some teenagers for two days.
Go coach a little league team. See if you don't have some morale issues where you're like, "I'm losing it. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to lead this." He's trying to lead the people of Israel in a very terrible situation. And he feels like I I had to.
Here's what Samuel says. Verse 13. And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly." What you said is so foolish. What you've done is so foolish. Your approach to this is so unwise.
You've done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. You were commanded a command. A command from the Lord. A command.
You were commanded a command. You didn't do it. That's Samuel's response. Saul's saying, "What what do you expect me to do?" Samuel says, "I expect you to obey. That's what I expect you to do.
I expect you to have followed the command of the Lord." I think we need to see in this text that there is no set of circumstances that excuses disobedience. That there there is no set of circumstances that excuses sin. That there is not a time when you get to look at the Lord and say, "I had to." There is not a time where obedience wasn't an option. We don't get to say things like, "Well, I if I didn't if we didn't sleep together, they'd break up with me. If we don't live together, I don't know how we'll pay our bills.
If I tell the truth about this, I'll never I'll I'll be the worst salesman in the company." Well, this is just how our industry works. There just isn't a time when we can list out a set of circumstances. Y'all, this is as bad as earthly stuff gets. There's not a time where obedience isn't an option. There's not a time where disobedience is excused.
That's Samuel's answer. What What would you do? What would you have me do? He says, I'd have you obey. I'd have you act like the Lord is the Lord.
So this what he says. You've done foolishly. You've not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.
So prophetically proclaiming, it's not going to follow your line. Y'all are done. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. That's David. We're going to see that.
And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Okay. What Saul did in his in this moment of absolute trying to fix the situation was what? He He offered a burnt offering. That's what he did.
That was the disobedience. He offered a burnt offering. And that apparently he had been commanded to wait for Samuel to do that. So he does a a thing that Samuel was going to do, a good thing. The activity is good.
It not his place to do it. But the problem is he does it in disobedience. So he does a good religious activity that he thinks this is a good thing we're supposed to do. We're going to seek the favor of the Lord. He does that action, but it's wrong.
That that is actually the disobedience that he has is in that exact moment. So there's obedience that's driven by faith. There's obedience that's driven by faith. That's what Samuel expected from Saul. And there is religious activity that's driven by fear.
When Saul does this, it's very clear that he doesn't know the Lord. He doesn't understand him. He He's treating him with a fundamental misunderstanding of his goodness, of his sovereignty, of his kindness. He's doing a religious activity. He's doing a thing that's okay to do, a thing that's even good to do, but he's doing it with the wrong motive.
He's doing it with the wrong heart. Samuel was going to show up and offer a burnt offering. But Samuel was going to do it to a Lord that he knew, to a Lord that he trusted, and because the Lord is good. Saul did it. same thing, same activity, but he did it trying to seek the favor of the Lord as if he's not in a position where the people of Israel are already favored, where he as the king is already favored, where God is already good and kind and merciful and gracious.
He did it as if somehow God could be bought. He's not treating him like he knows him. He's treating him like a mob boss. Do you realize that?
Like it could be the same gift, a nice watch, and it can be given to someone because you love them. You want them to enjoy it. You enjoy the relationship. You're trying to develop the relationship. Or it could be given as a bribe.
If I give it because I love them, I'm I'm honoring them. If I give it as a bribe, I'm dishonoring them. I'm saying, I think you're the type of person who will accept a bribe, who needs one, whose favor must be bought. So that in doing this action, he actually dishonors the Lord and fundamentally shows he doesn't understand who he is and what he's like and how kind he is and how merciful he is. And there's a way for us to do things to do the practices of Christianity over here like Samuel would have where it's in response to who he is and how good he is and how glorious he is and how kind he is.
And there's a way for us to do it like Saul was going like Saul did it. That this is faith-based and based off of who he is. It's in dependence on God and his goodness. This is somehow circularly self-reliant. What I mean by that is Saul's like, "Yeah, I did the thing.
Now he does his thing somehow based off of Saul's activity. This shows up in our life. You'll hear it. You may hear yourself say it. You may hear someone else say it.
You may feel it when you're thinking through things. You'll say things like, "I don't know why it's not working. I'm doing what I'm supposed to." Meaning, I I did my religious activity which rolls up to God who goes, "Thank you for your payment." And then here come your blessings. You'll hear people say, "Yeah, I tried Christianity. It didn't work." Meaning, I did the activities.
And the things are the same. Prayer, being a part of a community group, walking in Church family, being kind, being generous, sharing the Gospel. serving. Same activities, completely different heart posture. There's a way for you to be utterly terrified and exhausted in your relationship to Jesus.
You're like, "This is so hard. It's so hard to be a Christian." And it's possible. That's because you're over here. There's no joy. There's no peace.
There's no forgiveness. There's no hope because he's not that good. It's really hard to appease a mob boss and hope you get good things out of it. That is a stressful situation. There's a way for us to be full of activity and have zero faith.
So obedience is expected. There's actually no other option but obedience. But it's obedience from this heart posture that God is good, that he's sovereign, that he's kind, that he's merciful, and that we can trust him. That Samuel would be like, "Yeah, how about you just trust him?" You know, you know Samuel was there when God defeated the Philistines with thunder.
Saul's like, "The army's leaving." Samuel's like, "They are I don't see how you don't know how unimportant your army is. If the God if God is for you, who can be against you? But all Saul sees is what's right in front of him. And he wants there to be obedience that's faith-based. Not obedience.
You could say, "Well, I'm doing all the stuff." But see, what happens a lot of times is we excuse our sin and then try to do enough religious activity to make God pleased with us. Rather than to walk in obedience, trusting the Lord to be kind and good because he is where there's joy and peace and forgiveness. Okay. Verse 15. Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.
And the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army. They went up from Gilgal to Gibia of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him about 600 men. So when he said people were scattering, he went from 3,000 fighting men hoping people were going to be showing up, waiting for them to get ready, waiting for the people to come to him at Gilgal. And all that ends up happening is he gets down to under 25% of what he had.
In Judges chapter 7, the Midianites were like the sand on the seashore. And Gideon had 10,000 men and God said, "It's too many." And wielded him down to 300 and then won the victory. If Saul knew what God was like, if he knew what he was like, he'd be looking at 600 being like, I don't know, maybe too many. But Saul's not Gideon. And his heart isn't towards God because that's what Samuel says.
He's going to go find someone whose heart knows it, whose heart drawn toward him. And Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them stayed in Gibba of Benjamin, which is the place they won. But the Philistines encamped at Mcmash. And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines and three companies. One company turned towards Oprah to the land of Shuall.
Another company turned towards Beth Horon. and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the valley of Zebuim toward the wilderness. So, we're going to pick up there next week. Philistines are on the move and this is going poorly. But I want to show you what what Samuel says.
Look back at 13. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart.
And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. This text, this situation, the people of Israel is crying out for a faithful king, someone who will obey the commandment of the Lord, have a kingdom forever. And he says he's gonna find him. Ultimately in the story of 1 Samuel that's David and then the promise of an eternal kingdom is made to David that from David is going to come a king who this is fulfilled in the people who are hiding. They need someone to stand in for them and be faithful.
They need someone if Saul just had faith if he just trusted. If if Samuel had shown up and it was just Saul and Jonathan and he says, "Where is everybody?" And he said, "They all left, but we waited on you and we trust the Lord." You can feel, you almost know Samuel would say, "Oh, the Lord is trustworthy. It's going to be just fine." But he doesn't. But they needed somebody to stand in, somebody to have faith on their behalf, somebody to go ahead of them. And they don't have it.
Samuel says, "God's going to get it." And that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. And I want you to know that we have that. that in the midst of our disobedience that we try to excuse by our circumstance and in the midst of our religious activity that dishonors God rather than honors him, in the midst of the times that we think he owes us something, that we actually have someone who has gone before us, who has ex executed his kingship faithfully, who has fulfilled the commandments of the Lord and who has stood in to claim the victory on behalf of all of us. That our hope is not in our behavior or our religious activity. It's not in our obedience.
that's in his and then we follow him in obedience. Not placing our hope in our obedience, but placing our hope in him. The king who's gone before us, who has secured the victory. What what the people hiding in rocks and tombs and sistns are waiting for is the news that hey, come out. The king has won.
Come out. He was faithful on our behalf. Come out. Hear hear the good news of the rescue and the hope. And I would say to you that if you are like the New Testament says, dead in your trespasses and sins, there is a king who has been who has fulfilled the commandment on your behalf, who is good and has gone before and who has won the victory.
And you can come put your trust in him. You can come place your hope in him. And that Church family, as we follow him, we get to fall in joyful obedience because he's already accomplished everything for us. This text begs for the king that we get to have. So may we rejoice that we don't have to hide.
That we aren't going to be conquered because our hope is finished and fulfilled and accomplished in Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy. And we thank you that we get the hope that is missing in this story. That you do have a king after your own heart who has followed your commandments and has a kingdom forever.
And may we rejoice and may we follow in obedience. May we put aside all our religious activity that is somehow set up to make you pleased with us and trust that Christ has has done the work to bring us in and that your pleasure is for all those who have trusted in him. We have freedom and hope. May we repent of sin and our disobedience and may we run to Jesus in Jesus name. Amen.
Band's going to come back up. We're going to take communion which is a practice given to us by Jesus to proclaim his death until he comes. It is for the Church if you have not placed your hope in Jesus. Communion is not for you because it is us saying that what stands between us who has gone before us where our hope lies is in the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. It is a tangible reminder of the reality of the cross, the hope of the resurrection.
And so, Church family, take a moment to consider your sin and your obedience, your religious activity to see whether or not that you are excusing rebellion or practicing religious activity for the sake of putting God on your good side in a way that dishonors him rather than acknowledges who he really is. and then joyfully come take communion where you remind yourself that Jesus Christ paid the penalty. Jesus Christ is the king who has executed faithfully the office so that he might have an eternal kingdom and that we are free. When you are ready, we invite you to take communion. And if you have a gluten allergy, there's communion in the back.