Read 1
Samuel 13-14 & Luke
14:1-24
To discover:
As you read consider how Saul’s fallibility is seen.
To ponder:
Humanly speaking there is so much
promise in Saul and his heir, Jonathan. Both are courageous. Indeed, like
Gideon, Saul sends soldiers home keeping just three thousand to tackle the
Philistines (Jud 7v1-6). Like Joshua he is prepared to face an enemy as
numerous as “the sand on the seashore” (Jos 10v4). But however fit as a
military leader, he proves unfit as a spiritual one, throwing away all the
promise bound up with him and Jonathan.
First,
seeing his men scattering through fear at Gilgal, he disobeys Samuel’s explicit
instructions (10v8) by failing to wait for him. His motives seem right in
making the offerings himself to gain “the LORD’s favour” in case the
Philistine’s attacked. However they displayed a lack of faith in God’s word
mediated by Samuel, and so in God’s ability to protect Saul and his men until
Samuel arrived. Samuel’s instructions were a test of whether Saul was prepared
to obey God’s law which required absolute obedience to his prophet (Deut
18v19), and so whether as king he was prepared to be subject to God himself.
Indeed, the event establishes the truth that Israel’s
kings were always to be under God’s law and so the authority of the prophets
who often rebuked them.
Once
more then, we see the absolute authority of God and his word over all other
authorities, including our own. Christians can easily veer towards pragmatism
in organising church life, dealing with difficulty or doing evangelism. But furthering God’s purposes
never justifies disobeying his word.
Samuel’s rebuke
here is clear: Saul acted “foolishly,” disobeying God’s “command,” and so
forfeited having his line rule Israel
“for all time.” Rather, he is told the LORD had found “a man after his own
heart and appointed him leader.” This phrase highlights that Saul was the sort
of leader the people desired rather than that God did.
At this point
Saul and Jonathan are left with just 600 men and no weapons but their own, because
the Philistines had banned blacksmiths from making them. Despite this, while
Saul and the army rest (idly?) under a pomegranate tree, Jonathan displays
glorious faith in attacking an outpost with just his armour bearer, convinced
that “nothing can hinder the LORD from saving.” He displays humility too,
recognising he might have read the situation wrongly. So, trusting God’s
governance even of the Philistine’s decisions, he decides to take it the LORD
had given them into his hands only if they respond in a certain way. Because of
Jonathan’s actions, panic strikes the “whole” Philistine army, exacerbated by
an earth quake. Saul then brings the ark and enters the fray, Hebrews that
deserted to the enemy rejoin him, as do those who had hidden in fear; and so
“the LORD rescued Israel.”
But
it is just at this high point that
Saul blew it. We see the oath he forced the people to take was wrong by its
consequences: It meant that the army could not be refreshed by the honey the
LORD provided in the woods, which in turn led them to eat the plunder with such
hunger that they didn’t first drain the blood, directly contravening God’s law
(Deut 12v23). Jonathan’s comment affirms Saul should have at least let his men
eat the plunder during the day (14v29-30). Because even hasty oaths before a
holy God are binding, it also brought risk to Jonathan because he ate honey
unaware of the ban. The fact that God didn’t answer Saul because of this and
caused the lot to show Jonathan as the reason, means Jonathan had sinned
unintentionally – but only because of Saul’s foolishness. This in turn lead to
disunity in the ranks as Saul vowed to kill Jonathan but the men vowed to resist
him, because Jonathan won his victory with God’s help. It warns us of how thoughtless
action even in God’s name, can have devastating consequences, and often for
those we love.
Praying it home:
Praise God for his word in
scripture, through which Christ governs us. Pray that you would not just act
according to its commands but according to its wisdom.
Thinking further:
None today.
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