Foolish King
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If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) turn with me to 1 Samuel 13. Keep your Bible open in front of you this morning as we continue to work our way through this part of God’s Holy Word.
Look in your Bible at verse 1 of 1 Samuel 13.
1 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years.
1 Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel,
1 Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
1 Saul was … years old when he began to reign; and he reigned … and two years over Israel.
1 Saul was a young man when he began as king. He was king over Israel for many years.
Well, there you have it. It’s an odd start to the chapter. The translation of 1 Samuel 13 is famously problematic. It seems as if someone swiped the numbers from the original text.
But the Bible does speak elsewhere about the length of Saul’s kingship:
21 Then the people asked for a king, and he gave them Saul son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, who ruled forty years.
The apostle Paul, as he’s preaching in Pisidian Antioch, mentions the length of Saul’s kingship (perhaps rounded to the nearest ten) as part of the history of Israel.
It doesn’t really matter how long Saul served; it’s not a crucial detail as far the story is concerned. What we know is that Saul is king. He was a certain age and he reigned for a while. It’s one of those questions we’ll know the answer to someday.
Saul’s age isn’t the issue here; it’s his foolishness (and foolishness is no respecter of age or position). Anyone can act a fool, this we know.
Here’s the beginning of the saga that shows Saul to be a foolish king:
1 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty- two years.
2 Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Mikmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes.
3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, “Let the Hebrews hear!” 4 So all Israel heard the news: “Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.” And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.
5 The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Mikmash, east of Beth Aven. 6 When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.
We don’t know exactly when all of this occurs in the course of Saul’s life and reign as king, but we know how this looks. It has the appearance of pride or arrogance. What it is, is foolishness.
Foolishness Masquerades as Arrogance
Foolishness Masquerades as Arrogance
Saul gives the impression that he has it all together. He’s only going to take 3,000 men with him to fight the Philistines? And he’s going to divide them up—2,000 with him and 1,000 with his son Jonathan?
He had more men, but he sent them back home. Why? It looks like arrogance. Behind the mask, however, it’s foolishness.
Saul, foolish as he is, is going to poke the bear that is Philistia. He’s kicking the hornet’s nest, and we all remember how that turned out for Macaulay Culkin.
This is a bad idea. Saul is arrogantly, foolishly attacking the Philistines.
Actually, he doesn’t attack; Jonathan does. Saul takes the credit for Jonathan’s initiative. Jonathan and the 1,000 men with him attack. Saul gets the credit.
All this manages to accomplish is making Israel obnoxious to the Philistines. Whoopsie-daisy.
Saul has poked the bear. The bear is awake and is itching for a fight.
It’s 3,000 Israelites verses all the assembled Philistines. The author enumerates their force: three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore.
Israel realizes their mistake. I have to wonder what foolish king Saul is thinking at this point. “I immediately regret this decision.”
It’s panic and chaos in Israel. They realize their situation is critical. And so they hide. Some even cross the Jordan. Instead of fight, it’s run and hide.
The foolish king has landed his people in a pickle. They will soon be surrounded by the enemy. Pride comes before a fall. And a fool is in the driver’s seat.
This is what happens when God’s people don’t seek the Lord’s wisdom and rush headlong into whatever it is they feel is right.
What appears to be arrogance is, in all actuality, just foolishness. Yes, the enemy Philistines have to be dealt with. But it doesn’t have to go like this. Saul and his best laid plans aren’t going to take care of the Philistines. There are far too many of them, and Saul is too fool-hardy to accomplish such a task.
The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon Saul before they took on the Ammonites. It was the Spirit of the Lord that empowered Saul to lead his people to victory. That’s 1 Samuel 11. Here in 1 Samuel 13, there’s no mention of the Spirit of the Lord.
This is Saul’s doing. Saul believes he has it handled. Saul can do it; Saul can take care of it.
How often God’s people believe—arrogantly and foolishly—that they can handle all on their own whatever it is they’re up against!
It might look like arrogance or a belief in our own capability, but like with Saul, it’s just a bit of foolishness.
7 Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear. 8 He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. 9 So he said, “Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.” And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.
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 Mikmash, 12 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.”
Foolishness is Often Caused by Misplaced Faith
Foolishness is Often Caused by Misplaced Faith
Saul is impatient. He’s taking matters into his own hands. This is the “I can do it myself” mindset found in most toddlers and foolish adults. Like petulant children, we often insist on our own way; we believe we’ve got it handled.
Self-sufficiency might be the most dangerous belief of all. Self-sufficiency is deadly, it’s destructive; it’s faithless or, at the very least, misplaced faith.
Samuel had given Saul instruction about this; Saul just doesn’t listen or remember or care.
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.”
This is that time; this is what Samuel was referring to. This is a pivotal moment and Saul, instead of acting in faith, acts a fool.
Saul sees his men hiding, some of them running away. We read that Saul’s men began to scatter. You, too, would probably scatter after an entire week of hiding.
Samuel hadn’t come to Gilgal just yet, so Saul steps up to do what Samuel said he was going to do.
Saul takes matters into his own hands. Saul loses faith in Samuel, the Lord’s prophet, but has plenty of faith in himself.
Foolishness is the product of misplaced faith.
Faith in the Lord, faith in what the Lord had said through His prophet, Samuel, would have prevented Saul from doing what he did.
Foolishness, on the other hand, sped ahead with this ill-thought-out plan.
What Saul does here is foolish. It’s senseless, stupid. There’s a lack of understanding in the actions that lead Saul to this decision.
When Samuel arrives and asks Saul, “What have you done?” we see where Saul’s faith is (I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s misplaced).
He’s walking by sight and not by faith. All Saul can see is his men scattering. That, and Samuel didn’t come at the set time. Plus, the Philistines are all assembling. Saul tells Samuel, “All of this was happening and I realized I had not sought the Lord’s favor.”
It’s formulaic. It’s almost like he thinks it’s magic. “You know how it is; I had to seek the Lord’s favor.” It’s manipulation, voodoo.
The end of verse 12 is probably the most alarming. Saul says, “I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.”
Well, gosh, if you felt compelled, by all means. NO! This is a terrible idea. Even if Saul didn’t make the offering himself and had someone in the priestly order do it, it wasn’t for Saul to decide.
I felt compelled. If we followed all of our compulsions, we’d all be a world of hurt. I felt compelled to slam a six-pack last night. He felt compelled to embezzle money from his company. She felt compelled to cheat on her husband. They felt compelled to copy that assignment for class.
The fact that Saul felt compelled to do this and believed that was a good enough excuse, shows where his faith was.
He was trusting, not in God, but in Himself. Verse 8 tells us that Saul waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal.
Did Saul wait to the end of the seventh day? Did he rush ahead? Did he leave ample time on the seventh day for Samuel to arrive? We don’t know. All we know is that foolish Saul with a foolish faith in himself did what he wanted to do.
How dangerous, how scary, how sinful.
How foolish!
13 “You have done a foolish thing,” 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. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”
15 Then Samuel left Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin, and Saul counted the men who were with him. They numbered about six hundred.
Foolishness Shuns God’s Word
Foolishness Shuns God’s Word
Samuel comes right out with what he thinks about Saul’s actions. And Saul knows he has done wrong; he starts making excuses.
Saul has shown his tendency to be moved by circumstances and to rely on religious ritual to gain God’s favor (this won’t be the last time Saul does something like this).
He’s comfortable following his compulsion even beyond the word of God.
Saul had been told not to make a move until Samuel came and told him what to do. Samuel promised, which is the same basic thing as the Lord promising to tell Saul what to do at the just the right time.
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.”
Saul, the foolish king, rushes ahead beyond the guidance and clarity of God’s Word. Fools shun God’s Word. It happens all the time.
Samuel defines Saul’s disobedience as foolishness.
13 “You have done a foolish thing,” 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.
You have done a foolish thing...
It’s a foolish thing, indeed, to shun God’s Word and to believe you’re beyond the need of God’s Word.
The foolish thing Saul did was that he had not kept the command the Lord your God gave him.
He’ll lose his kingship because he had not kept the Lord’s command.
In Israel (at that time) the kingship itself is under the authority of the word of God.
Saul, the foolish king, was compelled to do what he wanted to do, contrary to the Word of God. And it has disastrous results.
Same thing today. When we do what is right in our own eyes, when we follow our hearts, when we do what we want to do, when we decide our way is better than the Lord’s, when we determine we know more than Him, when we declare that His Word is outdated, when we start to believe that what God has said doesn’t really apply, when we question God’s Word—Did God really say?—it will have disastrous results.
We might not see it at first glance (I had to have it pointed out to me), but the saddest part of the story is in verse 15:
1 Samuel 13:15 (NIV)
15 Then Samuel left Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin, and Saul counted the men who were with him. They numbered about six hundred.
Saul has lost a lot of men; they’ve scattered. They are outnumbered, woefully outnumbered. They’re terrified, quaking with fear.
But the worst thing is that Samuel has left.
“The worst of Saul’s liabilities was that he was without the guidance of the Lord Yahweh from His prophet. 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 most—the Word of God for his way.” -DRD
Saul has lost what matters most. In his foolishness, he has shunned God’s Word. And when Samuel left Gilgal, the Word of God went with him.
Saul is on his own. Saul’s faith is in himself. That is as terrifying as it is foolish.
16 Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Gibeah in Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Mikmash. 17 Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned toward Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, 18 another toward Beth Horon, and the third toward the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboyim facing the wilderness.
19 Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, “Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!” 20 So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their plow points, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. 21 The price was two-thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads.
22 So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.
You might have noticed that the Philistines take a move from Saul’s playbook. They divide their forces and surround Saul and Jonathan and the remaining soldiers.
There are Philistines to the north, to the west, and to the southeast. The Philistines are in a dominant position, number wise and militarily speaking.
There are no weapons in Israel. Philistia had disarmed Israel at some point prior to this. The Israelites even had to go to the Philistines to get their farm tools fixed.
Israel, from just about every angle, is finished. Israel is helpless and their king is a fool.
But, in the Bible, helplessness isn’t what it appears to be. We know better, given eyes and ears that see and hear what God is up to.
Foolishness + Helplessness Does Not Equal Hopelessness
Foolishness + Helplessness Does Not Equal Hopelessness
Israel is, by every human metric, at a disadvantage. There is no iron in Israel; the Philistines control that.
1 Samuel 13:22 “So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.”
“We got no food, we got no jobs, our pets heads are falling off!”
There are no swords, no spears, no Samuel. There is only Saul. And that’s not good enough.
But this we know: the total helplessness of God’s people proves to be the backdrop for the Lord’s deliverance.
It’s precisely when it appears all hope is lost that God’s people, that faithful remnant refuses to despair.
God’s people have seen the Lord create deliverance out of nothing too many times to give themselves over to total despair.
God’s people have experienced the grace and the mercy and the wonder-working power of God at work for them and in them while they were yet sinners.
We know that while we were enemies of God, when we were dead, dead, D-E-A-D dead, Jesus burst onto the scene, pulled us out the muck and the mire, and bought us with His body and His blood.
This we know. We know that helpless doesn’t equal hopeless. There is always hope, even in the bleak situations caused by our own faithless, foolishness.
Saul, the foolish king, paves the way for the faithful King: Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God.
The foolishness of Saul, the foolishness of the people of God is no match for the faithfulness of the Lord Yahweh.
There is always hope, even when we’re entirely helpless, even when we’ve lost our capacity to hope.
You see, our helplessness just serves to magnify the greatness and graciousness of our indescribable Savior.
“Heavenly Father, we are fools. We depend more upon ourselves than we do you. We have placed our faith in our ability, in human systems, in our fellow man, instead of squarely and solely placing our faith in you. We shun your Word for our own wisdom, for the wisdom of this world, for religious gimmicks and games. We are foolish, just like Saul, and yet this we know: our foolishness is no match for your faithfulness. Jesus has come to save. He is our hope. He is our Helper, the One come to seek and save that which was lost. In Him and because of Him, we give you thanks. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”