Sermon Tone Analysis

*‘A King Behaving Badly’ (1 Samuel 13-14)*

 

/introduction/

When Janette and I lived in Newcastle in the late 1990s we often drove past Wallsend cemetery.

This was back in the days of ‘Hey, Hey its Saturday’ and the ‘funny photo’ segment.

One day we were driving past and we couldn’t believe our eyes – there was a pizza delivery van in the cemetery.

Would’ve made a great funny photo.

I somehow pictured in my mind that the order must had been lost some years earlier and only now the pizza was arriving to its rightful owner.

That’s a pizza man taking his obligations seriously – far more than Saul was prepared to do.

Today we move into chapters 13 and 14 which tell us how Saul failed as the leader of Israel.

Saul fails because he does exactly the opposite of what he should do as a leader of God’s people – he disobeys God.

Israel need a king who will pray for them – teach them – not Saul the king but Samuel the judge whom God had appointed.

But the people ask for a king.

/the challenge of obedience/

/            Saul’s disobedience (10:8; 13:8-14)/

Let’s begin Samuel’s words to Saul in chapter 10:8, ‘Go down ahead of me to Gilgal.

I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do’.

Samuel instructs Saul – he is to wait until he arrives for further direction.

Seven days we’re in chapter 13 and Saul and his troops are at Gilgal waiting to fight the Philistines.

It’s code RED – Israel are at war and tensions are high.

13:7 continues with the details, ‘Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.

He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter.

So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.”

And Saul offered up the burnt offering.

Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him’.

Saul has a real problem.

He waits until the seventh day and still no Samuel and the situation is deteriorating.

No Samuel in sight - the troops are scattering.

Saul reasons with himself and decides that the problem is easily fixed – he decides to offer the burnt offerings and ‘gee-golly’ the next minute Samuel shows up.

Saul meets him and greets him and a conversation beings in verse 11, ‘“What have you done?” asked Samuel.

Saul replied, “When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favor.’

So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”

“You acted foolishly,” Samuel said.

“You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time’”.

Its easy to be sympathetic with Saul.

He is in a pressure cooker – he reasons that the enemy will soon be upon him and he felt a need to act in Samuel’s absence.

Saul’s plays the ‘two-card’ trick as old as Eden itself.

He says to Samuel in verse 11, ‘When I saw the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time’.

Read that ‘you’ in bold type.

‘This was YOUR fault Samuel, YOU weren’t here in time.

My problem with the burnt offering was YOUR fault’.

The blame game.

/            obedience is not easy/

Obedience to God often is not easy - it rarely is.

But who said it was easy?

Saul found himself in a pickle and he had to choose between doing what seemed sensible and necessary or obeying God’s command.

Saul was told to wait until Samuel arrived for Samuel is the bearer of God’s word.

It’s a tough choice.

It’s hard to be faithful and obedient to God in tough times.

You can only do that if you really trust him.

How hard is it to be obedient to God? Something seems to you to be worth doing – something you think necessary to do – highly desirable – it makes lots of sense - but God commands you not to do it.

You’ll only obey God if you really trust him.

Obedience and trust are two sides of the same coin – not just trusting God in the easy things, but in the hard choices where obedience to God is not the attractive option.

Andrew Murray says, ‘The secret of true obedience is the clear and close personal relationship to God.

All our attempts after full obedience will be failures until we get access to his abiding fellowship.

It is God's holy presence consciously abiding with us that keeps us from disobeying Him.

I must consciously include the Lord in every thought, activity, and conversation until the habit is established’.

By nature we choose the path of least resistance.

Responding to the moment.

Our instincts for survival are strong.

When our instincts point us away from obedience to God it takes a strong push to change course.

You’ll only obey God if you really trust him.

Not a blind trust.

A trust which Samuel reminded Israel was based on God’s ongoing faithfulness.

Peter puts it this way in 1 Pet 1:14-16, ‘As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy”’.

/meeting our real needs/

/            the leader we really need (Ps 146:3; Heb 1:8)/

Saul is a failed leader because he takes the path of least resistance – trusting in himself rather than in the word of God.

We may well ponder whether God’s ideal leader will ever be found.

The search for a leader is a frustrating business.

As try as they may, our politicians will not make this world a secure place.

This is God’s world and any leader who fails to be obedient to God cannot deliver peace and security in God’s world.

Psalm 146:3 says, ‘Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save’.

The human leaders that we choose – the king that we choose with the abilities that impress and attract us will not bring us peace and justice for this is God’s world.

Well then, what kind of king do we need?

God accommodated Israel’s sinfulness and allowed the people a king and a succession of kings throughout the centuries.

Genealogies such as those in Matthew 1 are a record of kings – a record of human sinfulness alongside the grace of God.

King after king failed but before this even happens Samuel says in 12:22, ‘For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own’.

And so God raised up a king - a king who is perfectly obedient to the word of God – a servant king who ‘gives and gives and gives’ rather than ‘takes and takes and takes’.

Only this king can deliver peace and security for his people.

Jesus is the king that God has appointed to rule over his people – a leader so unlike the leaders of other nations.

A leader who says, ‘Not my will, but yours be done’.

The easy way was avoiding the cross – at that moment with his enemies all around him Jesus chose obedience to his Father rather than follow his human instincts.

And the price was paid and the tomb was empty.

And God says this about his Son, ‘Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the sceptre of your kingdom’ (Heb 1:8)

 

The leader we really need is Jesus and he is the one that will usher in a world of peace and security.

Does this mean then that we ought not care about peace and security in the world now?

Righteousness is always our concern.

But its permanence is not until the world to come.

/            the word we really need (13:15; Jn 5:24, 6:68-69, 17:17)/

There’s a few words in 1 Sam 13 that we ought not allow to pass us by.

Saul has acted foolishly for he has not kept the command of God.

Remember at Gilgal in the heat of the situation, Saul needs the word of God and that is why Samuel is on his way.

But Saul disobeys the prophet and he is rebuked by Samuel.

Then in verse 15 this happens, ‘Then Samuel left Gilgal’.

The king no longer has the word of God available to him.

To be stripped of the direction of God’s word is to be truly impoverished and open to destruction.

It is one thing to be in terrible distress – it is another to be alone in that distress.

Saul had isolated himself from what he needed the most – the word of God for his way.

In 1864 Abraham Lincoln said to a group of African-Americans who gave him a Bible, ‘In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man.