1 Samuel 11-14

Dear God, it is time to compile everything I’ve been praying through this week with 1 Samuel and see what you will bubble to the top for me to share in the Methodist Sunday school class in the morning as well as the Christian Men’s Life Skills class on Monday evening.

Here is what I have been praying through today:

Recap last week:

• Israel was new to the whole idea of having a king, but they wanted one regardless of the warnings Samuel gave them — They will trade freedom for security.
• Saul was the stereotypical choice for a leader in that he was tall and good-looking.
• Saul had no leadership experience and was scared, hiding at his own coronation service.
• God would give Saul his Spirit and gifts some as prophesying.
• God raised up men who would go with him to support him.
• There were detractors who didn’t believe in him as a leader.
• After the coronation, Saul went home and the men God gave him went with him.

God Helps Saul Lead

• Nahash the Ammonite threatens Jabesh Gilead (in Benjamin). They ask for 7 days before they each get one eye gouged out–backstory with Benjamin and other tribes from end of Judges

11 About a month later, King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the Israelite town of Jabesh-gilead. But all the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Make a treaty with us, and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.

² “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”

³ “Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If no one comes to save us, we will agree to your terms.”

• God inspires Saul to lead

⁶ Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he became very angry. ⁷ He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent the messengers to carry them throughout Israel with this message: “This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel into battle!” And the Lord made the people afraid of Saul’s anger, and all of them came out together as one. ⁸ When Saul mobilized them at Bezek, he found that there were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000^[b] men from Judah.

• Summarize the battle
• Saul gets popular support and saves the men who ridiculed him
  • Saul is in the sweet spot of being devoted to God. So much so that he spares the men’s lives who ridiculed him.
• Saul is confirmed as king. Samuel might have named him king, but now they are all in.

Samuel’s Farewell Speech

• They now have what they want
• They don’t have anything against Samuel personally
  • Was he trying to absolve himself of any guilt?
• Recounts God’s faithfulness to them and their faithlessness to God
• Now that God worked through Saul to defeat Nahash they are all-in again
• But Samuel warns them that God is still not pleased they asked for a king:

¹⁶ “Now stand here and see the great thing the Lord is about to do. ¹⁷ You know that it does not rain at this time of the year during the wheat harvest. I will ask the Lord to send thunder and rain today. Then you will realize how wicked you have been in asking the Lord for a king!”

¹⁸ So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people were terrified of the Lord and of Samuel. ¹⁹ “Pray to the Lord your God for us, or we will die!” they all said to Samuel. “For now we have added to our sins by asking for a king.”

²⁰ “Don’t be afraid,” Samuel reassured them. “You have certainly done wrong, but make sure now that you worship the Lord with all your heart, and don’t turn your back on him. ²¹ Don’t go back to worshiping worthless idols that cannot help or rescue you—they are totally useless! ²² The Lord will not abandon his people, because that would dishonor his great name. For it has pleased the Lord to make you his very own people.

• Imagine if this were to happen to you. Mobs are fickle, even today. The phrase “mob mentality.”

Saul starts fighting the Philistines

• Jonathan starts feeling himself a little. The Philistines were occupying Israel at the time. Jonathan attacks the Philistines at a town in Benjamin and starts the war/revolution against them.
• The Philistines are ticked and come to attack. Saul calls on the men capable of fighting to join him.
• The Philistines are ready to fight, but apparently Samuel and Saul had an arrangement where Saul would wait for Samuel to burn the offerings before battle so he is waiting.
• The army starts deserting, so Saul finally decides he needs to move ahead with the offering and get to fighting:

⁸ Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. ⁹ So he demanded, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!” And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself.

¹⁰ Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him, ¹¹ but Samuel said, “What is this you have done?”

Saul replied, “I saw my men scattering from me, and you didn’t arrive when you said you would, and the Philistines are at Micmash ready for battle. ¹² So I said, ‘The Philistines are ready to march against us at Gilgal, and I haven’t even asked for the Lord’s help!’ So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering myself before you came.”

¹³ “How foolish!” Samuel exclaimed. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. Had you kept it, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.”

• This story has always bothered me. Saul didn’t know where Samuel was. At least he tried to worship before going into battle.
• The Philistines were raiding the Israelite towns and there was nothing they could do to fight back because they had no weapons:

¹⁹ There were no blacksmiths in the land of Israel in those days. The Philistines wouldn’t allow them for fear they would make swords and spears for the Hebrews…

²² So on the day of the battle none of the people of Israel had a sword or spear, except for Saul and Jonathan.

• These were not ideal battle conditions for Saul and his army.
• Jonathan decides to go on the offensive with just him and his armor-bearer

⁶ “Let’s go across to the outpost of those pagans,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!”

⁷ “Do what you think is best,” the armor bearer replied. “I’m with you completely, whatever you decide.”

⁸ “All right, then,” Jonathan told him. “We will cross over and let them see us. ⁹ If they say to us, ‘Stay where you are or we’ll kill you,’ then we will stop and not go up to them. ¹⁰ But if they say, ‘Come on up and fight,’ then we will go up. That will be the Lord’s sign that he will help us defeat them.”

¹¹ When the Philistines saw them coming, they shouted, “Look! The Hebrews are crawling out of their holes!” ¹² Then the men from the outpost shouted to Jonathan, “Come on up here, and we’ll teach you a lesson!”

“Come on, climb right behind me,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer, “for the Lord will help us defeat them!”

¹³ So they climbed up using both hands and feet, and the Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armor bearer killed those who came behind them. ¹⁴ They killed some twenty men in all, and their bodies were scattered over about half an acre.^[b]

¹⁵ Suddenly, panic broke out in the Philistine army, both in the camp and in the field, including even the outposts and raiding parties. And just then an earthquake struck, and everyone was terrified.

Saul’s Foolish Ego

• This Israelite army takes advantage and starts attacking the Philistines. For some reason, Saul makes a stupid, ego-driven vow. It’s kind of a weird flex:

²⁴ Now the men of Israel were pressed to exhaustion that day, because Saul had placed them under an oath, saying, “Let a curse fall on anyone who eats before evening—before I have full revenge on my enemies.” So no one ate anything all day, ²⁵ even though they had all found honeycomb on the ground in the forest. ²⁶ They didn’t dare touch the honey because they all feared the oath they had taken.

• Jonathan didn’t know about the command and ate some honey
• A soldier tells Jonathan afterward and Jonathan is openly critical of his father:

²⁹ “My father has made trouble for us all!” Jonathan exclaimed. “A command like that only hurts us. See how refreshed I am now that I have eaten this little bit of honey. ³⁰ If the men had been allowed to eat freely from the food they found among our enemies, think how many more Philistines we could have killed!”

• Then after the sun goes down, the men are so hungry they start eating the Philistines livestock without properly preparing it, so Saul makes them stop and has meat properly prepared.

Saul Seeks God, and God is Silent

• Saul, who has been given the gift of prophecy, stop to ask God if they should keep chasing the Philistines, but God is silent.
  • To Saul’s credit, he discerns God’s silence and doesn’t layer his own thoughts. His gift of prophecy seems to be legit and he recognizes when it’s not happening.
• They finally figure out God is silent because of Saul’s vow and Jonathan’s violation of it.
• Saul decides to fulfill his vow and kill Jonathan.
• The men step in to save Jonathan.

⁴⁵ But the people broke in and said to Saul, “Jonathan has won this great victory for Israel. Should he die? Far from it! As surely as the Lord lives, not one hair on his head will be touched, for God helped him do a great deed today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he was not put to death.

• I used to think God was silent because he was mad Saul’s vow had been violated. After studying this story, I think God was exasperated that Saul made the vow in the first place.
• Saul stops pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines head back to their own territory.

Summary of Saul’s Reign

• Saul was a successful king in warring against the neighboring nations:
  • Moab
  • Ammon
  • Edom
  • Zobah
  • The Philistines
  • Amelekites
• Saul’s reign saw constant war with the Philistines and he lived up to Samuel’s prediction that he would take the best young men and put them in his army.

⁵² The Israelites fought constantly with the Philistines throughout Saul’s lifetime. So whenever Saul observed a young man who was brave and strong, he drafted him into his army.

Final Takeaways

• I think to some extent, Samuel felt like he failed. The last of the Judges.
• My personal assessment of Saul is that he respected and feared God, but he didn’t seek God.
  • When we pray to God or worship him, are we doing it for him or doing it for us.
    • University of Chicago’s General Social Survey spanning 50 years shows married people are generally 30 points happier on a happiness scale than unmarried people. But I don’t get married to I’ll be happier. I get married because I love the woman I married.
• He wanted to know what hoops he had to jump through to get God’s favor.
• His insecurity drove an ego that pushed him into foolish behavior

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, please be with me tomorrow morning and Monday night. Open my heart and soul to speaking your words to the people you are putting in front of me. Increase and let me decrease. And correct me wherever I have it wrong. Give me a humble heart before you and before men.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen