Printer safe version

Introduction

In our earlier studies in these books of Samuel we considered the opening prophecies of the Lord’s Anointed, the Faithful Priest – and king – who will bring into realisation through an endless eternity all the innermost longings and dreams in the heart and mind of an infinite God. And we noted how God also pledged to raise up an unshakable house for this king/priest, which Hebrews chapter three identifies as those who have come to Jesus for salvation made fit to serve with the Faithful Priest and King in an eternity of unimaginable revelation of God.

Then we discovered that God is not just concerned about our eternal destiny, but that He also wants the best for us now. In fact God loves us so much that He will even fight against us in order to bring us to the point where we recognise that dependence on Him daily, in a living relationship with Him is the key to our life.

In this study we shall see, by tracing the major threads in the life of King Saul, and looking at two specific incidents in it, why such daily dependence upon God is essential – for this life. It is not simply that a life-style of obedience to God is the price we have to pay for salvation, (although sometimes to listen to Christians you would think that it was).

Saul

Saul became king over Israel at the age of forty (1 Samuel 13:1), and reigned for thirty-two years. His reign was neither happy nor successful and he lost his dynasty, reputation and his life as a result of his disregard for God. Yet because we know all this we can easily miss the promising beginnings to Saul’s reign, and fail to appreciate how close we can stray to the root cause of Saul’s downfall.

Saul did not seek prominence. Chapters 9 and 10 of 1 Samuel present rather a quiet, and modest ‘young’ man, who was chosen by God to be the first king over Israel. Although physically outstanding (10:23), he was not naturally a charismatic leader (10:27). Nevertheless Samuel anointed him king on God’s instructions (1 Samuel 10:1-8) and assured him that God would be with him and he (Samuel) would be his guide. In confirmation Saul experienced a transformation from the Lord (a changed heart), was overwhelmed by a prophetic frenzy (10:9) and was revealed as king to the nation. Yet by the close of chapter fifteen Saul and Samuel were parted never to meet again in life, and the Bible records ‘And the Lord regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.’ How did it all go wrong?

Saul’s three campaigns

Chapters 11-15 are really the story of three military campaigns. The first is the story of a successful battle against Ammonite raiders.

^{1SA 11:1} Now Nahash the Ammonite came up and besieged Jabesh-gilead; and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a covenant with us and we will serve you." ² But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "I will make it with you on this condition, that I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you, thus I will make it a reproach on all Israel." ³ And the elders of Jabesh said to him, "Let us alone for seven days, that we may send messengers throughout the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to deliver us, we will come out to you." ⁴ Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul …

^{1SA 11:6} Then the Spirit of God came upon Saul mightily when he heard these words, and he became very angry. ⁷ And he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen." Then the dread of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man. ⁸ And he numbered them in Bezek; and the sons of Israel were 300,000, and the men of Judah 30,000. … ¹¹ And it happened the next morning that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp at the morning watch, and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. …

Next in chapters 13 and 14 we find a war against the Philistines.

^{1SA 13:2} Now Saul chose for himself 3,000 men of Israel, of which 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, while 1,000 were with Jonathan at Gibeah of Benjamin. … ³ And Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. Then Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear." ⁴ And all Israel heard the news that Saul had smitten the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become odious to the Philistines. The people were then summoned to Saul at Gilgal.

^{1SA 13:5} Now the Philistines assembled to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen, and people like the sand which is on the seashore in abundance; and they came up and camped in Michmash, east of Beth-aven. ⁶ When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait … then the people hid themselves in caves, in thickets, in cliffs, in cellars, and in pits. …

^{1SA 13:8} Now he waited seven days, according to the appointed time set by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattering from him. ⁹ So Saul said, "Bring to me the burnt offering and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. ¹⁰ And it came about as soon as he finished offering the burnt offering, that behold, Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him and to greet him. ¹¹ But Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, ¹² therefore I said, `Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.' So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering." ¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. ¹⁴ "But now your kingdom shall not endure. ..."

At first sight it seems that the cause of Saul’s failure is easy to identify. Samuel rebuked Saul for daring to offer a sacrifice to the Lord, thus usurping the role of priest. From this point on Saul is in decline. Was Saul’s failure simply not being content with the role of king, and wanting to add the title of priest as well, or is there something more disturbing in these stories? There is certainly an element of irony in Saul’s combining the roles of king and priest. Whether consciously or not Israel’s first king parodies the functions of the Anointed One in the great prophecy to Eli (1 S 2:27-36). But Saul, although anointed king, was not the Anointed One; his failings were too fundamental. Nevertheless if we look more closely at the story of these two campaigns it is hard not to feel great sympathy for Saul because his situation is much closer to our own than we might think, and we can trip up just like him.

Saul’s reign began with an Ammonite raid, on Jabesh-Gilead. When Saul heard about it he issued a challenge and all Israel mustered to him. With an army of three hundred and thirty thousand men he routed the Ammonites. Then a few years later disaster struck, or rather Saul’s son Jonathan did. Israel’s chief enemy was the Philistines. A kind of uneasy truce prevailed, but it was clear which power was the strongest. Then Jonathan, seemingly unprovoked, attacked the Philistine garrison at Geba (13:3). The inevitable happened. The Philistines assembled a massive army - 30,000 chariots, 6,000 cavalry and foot soldiers ‘like the sand of the sea’. This was serious. Saul again sent out the rallying cry to Israel. All the euphoria of beating the Ammonites had evaporated. Turning out to beat up an Ammonite raiding party was easy, facing the Philistine ‘professionals’ was quite a different matter. Even Saul’s standing army of 3000 deserted, leaving him with only six hundred men (13:15), to face the Philistine war machine.

What happens next is decisive. Saul and his men sit and wait, for a week. Then Saul offered a sacrifice to God. Samuel appears, seemingly immediately, and condemns Saul for his actions. But what was it that Saul had done? It is clear from his explanation that Saul felt caught in a desperate situation. His army was getting smaller by the day. What made it worse was that his son was the cause of the Philistine invasion. He had to do something, but what? ‘You didn’t come, and so I forced myself to entreat the favour of the Lord’, is the gist of Saul’s defence. It is easy to sympathise with Saul. He was king and therefore responsible for the fate of the nation. But was he?

Who was responsible for the preservation of Israel? At his inauguration Samuel had told him that God would be with him, and in chapter 12:22 Samuel assured the people that ‘The Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name’. So whose responsibility was it to defeat the enemy? Saul was king but the kingdom still belonged to the Lord.

The reason for Saul’s failure

Saul felt a responsibility to preserve the nation. It is important to see however that God never gave Saul this responsibility, and also to see how Saul came to believe that he did have to bear that burden.

What Saul sought to do, was not to usurp the office of priest, but to use the sacrifice in order to ‘force God’s hand’ and coax God into ‘doing something to help’. The Bible calls such attempt to force divine power, idolatry. Saul was attempting to use God, as one would use an idol, thus making God into an idol. It is no surprise that he failed.

We might be forgiven for thinking that this problem erupted suddenly upon Saul, but the text of these chapters makes clear that the seed was sown much earlier. The events of chapter 13 took place at Gilgal, following a wait of seven days for Samuel to appear ‘at the appointed time’ (v.11).

Yet when we read chapter 13, there is no record of any instruction about waiting. It is therefore often assumed that the narrative is deficient and has not recorded the instruction from Samuel. But quite the opposite, the whole narrative from chapter 10 onwards is skilfully constructed just so that we stop at this point and ask – ‘instructions, what instructions?’ To discover the instructions we need to go back some years earlier to chapter 10:8 -

 ‘And you shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do.’

In chapter 10 this reads like a one-off instruction, but given the story in chapter 13 we can now see that these were standing instructions, and when we appreciate that we can begin to understand how Saul’s failure was not merely that he did not wait long enough for Samuel at Gilgal in chapter 13. We can now note that he had not sought Samuel’s guidance at all in chapter 11 before launching out on the battle against the Ammonites. It seems that because this task looked easy he ignored God, and did the job himself. Of course defeating the Ammonites was easy, and Saul had received such support from the people that he began to believe in himself, and depend upon himself. He felt competent and in control. But with control comes responsibility. Control and responsibility are fine when things are going well, but quite a different matter if things get tough. So it was with Saul when faced with the ruthless might of the Philistines. In desperation Saul’s response was to attempt to force God to help. Can we see the irony; Saul wanted to enlist God in Saul’s service, because Saul had convinced himself that the responsibility belonged to him.

This is not just a story. This challenge lies before every one of us. What part does God play in our living daily? How do we view the tasks that lie before us, including those activities that we call ‘God’s work’? Who is responsible for the outcomes of our labours?

Saul was thus overwhelmed by a responsibility that he did not own, because when he was young and learning the trade of kingship, he had not learned the habit and disciplines of communing with God. He had not developed the practise of obedience to Him. So he had not the experience of knowing that God is adequate for all matters, and that even if things do not turn out the way we might expect, the responsibility for the outcomes belongs to God. If Saul had learned the habit of dependence on God, and submission to God during the good times, then he would not have been panicked when faced with a difficulty that seemed impossible, but which we will learn through Jonathan (in our next study), was no problem to God.

If we live like this, only really seeking God when things get tough, and then try through ‘fervent’ or desperate prayer to get God to help us, it will not be surprising if we fall into the trap of Saul, and feel that we must somehow force God’s hand.

I have a great sympathy for Saul, because I can identify with this problem. I have been there. There was a time in my life when I felt that I could achieve anything that I put my mind to, and I drifted along a path that left little real space for God. But God was gracious to me and confronted me with someone who radiated the Lord, and I saw that I was missing the most important aspect of the Christian life, the daily and living fellowship with a Saviour who is LORD.

This is a lesson that applies to all of us –

• It applies to kings and those in authority;
• it applies to church leaders;
• it applies to parents;
• it applies to those who run businesses;
• it applies to husbands and wives;
• it applies to students;
• it applies to individuals.

God asks us to be obedient to him, to know his living fellowship in our lives, and to leave all of the outcomes up to Him. It is only by living in daily fellowship with the Lord that we can learn that He is indeed able for all of the challenges that we meet, and that obedience to Him is our pleasure, leaving Him with the responsibility for keeping us ‘on account of His great name’. If we do so we will discover that He is abundantly adequate to the task. This is not saying ‘trust God and all of your problems will disappear’, and we shall pick up this issue later.

Can we see the danger of not learning good habits and disciplines while we are young? Saul’s decline is sad but easy to plot. In chapter 11 he started ‘doing it his way’ without reference to God, without seeking the Lord’s mind. By chapter 13 he had become so used to taking charge himself that he had forgotten who is really responsible for the protection of the nation, and sought to force God to support him. Finally in chapter 15, when God’s will is specifically made clear to Saul, he has no hesitation in substituting his own ideas and changing God’s direct instructions.

That is why Frank Sinatra’s song ‘My Way’ makes my blood run cold, because so, so sadly that is mankind’s epitaph.

Futility

The end of Saul’s reign is particularly tragic. It can be told in the story of two more military incidents. The first occurs in 1 Samuel 22, when Saul having hounded David out of the country murders the priests who served the tabernacle. This sets the scene for the last battle, the story of which begins with the dramatic encounter with the witch at Endor.

^{1SA 28:3} Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah his own city. And Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists. ⁴ So the Philistines gathered together and came and camped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped in Gilboa. ⁵ When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. ⁷ Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her." And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor."

^{1SA 28:8} Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, "Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you." ⁹ But the woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?" ¹⁰ And Saul vowed to her by the LORD, saying, "As the LORD lives, there shall no punishment come upon you for this thing." ¹¹ Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" And he said, "Bring up Samuel for me." ¹² When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul." ¹³ And the king said to her, "Do not be afraid; but what do you see?" And the woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being coming up out of the earth." ¹⁴ And he said to her, "What is his form?" And she said, "An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe." And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage.

^{1SA 28:15} Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?" And Saul answered, "I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and answers me no more, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do." ¹⁶ And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has departed from you and has become your adversary? ¹⁷ "And the LORD has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. ¹⁸ "As you did not obey the LORD and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the LORD has done this thing to you this day. ¹⁹ "Moreover the LORD will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines, therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the LORD will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!"

There can be few more puzzling Bible stories than this passage. In it Saul consults a medium in order to contact the dead Samuel. What are we to make of the incident? Does it tell us anything about the spirit world and possible contact with it?

The books of Samuel and Kings have many stories of the supernatural. In a sense this is merely another story of things beyond our understanding, and so, as we do with the other such stories, we try to understand them in their own context. In this case the setting is clear. Samuel has died. David has gone, been driven, into exile. The Philistines are massing for war, and Saul is again desperate.

The witch appears to contact the spirit of Samuel who gives a message of doom to Saul. Whether or not it was the spirit of Samuel that appeared is not explained, although the text rather assumes that it was. And the prediction given to Saul of defeat and death for himself and his sons came true. But what was the point of the incident?

The young man Saul, head and shoulders above the people in chapter 10, filled with the ‘Spirit of God mightily’ at the beginning of his reign, has now come to this, a broken and pathetic man grateful for the ministrations of an outlawed witch. But remember Saul’s career. The habit of independence from God in chapter 11 led to the attempted forcing of God’s hand in chapter 13, and eventually to the blatant substitution of his will for God’s in chapter 15. Saul’s problem in his life was that he had first neglected and then rejected God’s word.

And now he is desperate. His problem in the story is that he cannot obtain any message or guidance from God. The reader may be forgiven the reaction that it is a bit late for Saul to start seeking God, but that is not the flavour of the narrative. God is silent, but it does not seem to be because Saul is late in turning to Him. The problem in the passage is to do with the means of access.

There are three roles of mediation between God and man which infuse the Bible. These are prophet, priest and king. All of these come together in Jesus, the Anointed One, but in the lifetime of Saul they are represented by different people. Samuel was the prophet, David is the anointed king and the priests served the tabernacle. Any one of them could have served as a mediator with God. Saul’s problem here is that it seems that he has no-one to turn to. Samuel is dead. But so are the priests, killed by Saul’s own direction in chapter 22, and David has been chased into exile by Saul. The picture is stark – there is no man left who might help him. The only one living has been chased away. So Saul resorts to desperate measures. If there is no-one else then he must somehow resurrect Samuel.

But he gets no help from the ghost of Samuel. To appreciate the sense of the answer he received we might borrow the question asked by another supernatural apparition in a different context.

^{LK 24:1} But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. ² And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; ⁵ and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

Why do you seek the Living One among the dead?

God is the eternal Living One. David accused Goliath in chapter 17 of ‘taunting the armies of the Living God’. Saul was looking for God, but God is not to be found ‘among the dead’. So Saul got no assistance from God through the dead. He simply found his own fate confirmed. Might it have been different? Did he have an alternative? We cannot predict how things would have developed otherwise, but it was open to Saul to have recalled David from exile and given him the recognition as king that his son Jonathan already had. He could have turned in repentance to God’s king (the man after God’s own heart) but he was too stubborn and sought instead among the dead.

This is a picture of man in arrogant independence from God. Refusing to admit his futility and failure, mankind tries all kinds of practises and lifeless philosophies but in vain. There is no Living One among the dead. Yet just like Saul there is an answer lying within reach. For Saul it was David the true king, but exiled and rejected. For man it is the Messiah Himself, the Lord Jesus, enthroned by God (Hebrews 1 / Psalm 110) but yet still outlawed and despised by man. Nevertheless upon repentance and acknowledgement as king, as Lord, Jesus the Messiah becomes the unbreakable interface with God, and He becomes our Saviour, and the One who will take the responsibility for the outcomes of our endeavours.

In this short story is a very vivid illustration of another saying from the New Testament. In Acts 4 Peter challenges the council with the ringing declaration – AC 4:12 "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved."

Postscript

It comes as no surprise to us when we read in 1 Samuel 31 –

^{1SA 31:1} Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ² And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul. ³ And the battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. ⁴ … Saul took his sword and fell on it. …⁶ Thus Saul died with his three sons, his armor bearer, and all his men on that day together.

Saul had made his bed, so to speak, and he must lie on it. But what about Jonathan; he died on the same day as his father. Yet Jonathan had behaved very differently from Saul, as we will consider in our next study. As a taster therefore may I leave you with the question – who was responsible for Jonathan’s death? Did Jonathan get a raw deal?

Sometimes in life things happen (even to Christians) that seem very unfair. Whose fault is it when such things come? In our next study we shall hope to explore the Bible’s answer to Jonathan’s fate.

Crossroads 25.05.03 - DAB