What happened when Saul left God out
Notes
Transcript
A Side Note
A Side Note
Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
Saul was year old when he became king, and he reigned two years over Israel
Saul was … years old when he began to reign; and he reigned … and two years over Israel.
Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years.
A few LXX manuscripts have 30. They are rather late, but they are the only ones that volunteer a number. Now Saul’s eldest son Jonathan is already old enough to command an army of 1000 men. That’s awfully young, but it is not impossible. Today we fix “adulthood” as roughly beginning at 18, but in the Bible that wasn’t the case. Saul could easily have married as a teenager, say 14 or 15, and had a son who was now a teenager himself. So 30 is not impossible. These few manuscripts could preserve the original reading.
Forty-two is a conclusion from other passages.
Ishbosheth was forty when he became king after Saul 2 Samuel 2:10
Yet he does not appear on the list of Saul’s sons at the end of 1 Samuel 14. This is likely because the list is the number of sons Saul had when he became king. Ish-bosheth wasn’t born yet.
Acts 13:21 states that Saul reigned for forty years. Now if Paul was speaking in round numbers, then this verse would have originally said that Saul reigned for 42 years. This is also the length stated by Josephus at one point.
If all this is too complicated for you, you might just go with “the message”
Saul was a young man when he began as king. He was king over Israel for many years.
I. He lost his army
I. He lost his army
When he left God out of his military planning. There’s no mention of God’s spirit empowering him; there’s no inquiring of God. This was exactly what the people wanted Saul to do - to fight their battles without them needing repentance.
First by mismanagement. This is some time after the previous battle. He sends home some of the people that show up to fight. Obviously he thinks that the battle will not require everyone. However he miscalculates when Jonathan defeats the Philistine outpost, that angers the Philistines and they come out in force.
The smaller army that Saul has raised is no match for the Philistine forces and Saul knows it. So he calls for a larger army. But because some of them made the trip once and were sent home, they don’t do it again, so Saul is not successful in raising the same kind of army.
This reduced army is met with an overwhelming show of force - 3,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and a large number of footsoldiers. They do not have the confidence backed by Yahweh, and Saul has no spiritual advice to bolster their courage. So his army runs in terror in every direction. Just 600 men still follow him.
However, this is still twice what Gideon had to defeat the Midianites. it’s more than enough for those who know that the battle is the Lord’s. But for those who fight as man to man, it is clearly hopeless, and that what Saul is doing.
II. He lost his kingdom
II. He lost his kingdom
When he left God out of his worship. He treats the sacrifice as if God was like the pagan deities, needing the ritual in order to be appeased. But God is not like that. He wants obedience to his words first.
The promise is the one Samuel made in 1 Samuel 10:8 . But he could have come at any time on the seventh day and he would have kept his promise. In fact, he did come on the seventh day, but Saul doesn’t wait. He is a man of action, and his army is vanishing. He hopes the sacrifice will get his army to return.
Samuel’s rebuke calls his own words to Saul the “command of the Lord.” The same Hebrew word used to describe Moses’ words. In other words, the word of the true Prophet is equal to God’s Words, and therefore equal to inspired Scripture and is equally authoritative. So-called modern prophets in Charismatic circles either don’t give their words that much weight, or they are crazy.
Saul’s response blames everyone but himself - Samuel because he didn’t come; the people because they scattered; and the Philistines because they had mustered at Michmash.
III. He failed his job
III. He failed his job
Saul’s primary mission was to provide protection for the Israelites from foreign invaders. The anticlimactic conclusion of this battle is a failure of Saul’s job in every possible way.
First, the Philistines had reestablished an encampment in Michmash, and used their army to harrass the Israelites in organized raiding parties.
Second, we are giving background info - The Philistines had taken away blacksmithing operations, so the Israelites couldn’t make military grade weapons. They knew that taking away a people’s weapons was a great way to keep them oppressed. That’s why they were such a threat.
Third, this was also economic oppression, as the Israelites had to take their farming equipment down to the plains and pay two-thirds a shekel per plowshare or mattock, and one third for axes and goads. That meant that the only weapons the Israelites had were either farming implements, or basically sharpened sticks and stone axes. Except for Saul and Jonathan. The only military weapons that Israel could find were given to the King and his son.