Pivotal Errors (1 Samuel 13)

I have been, I have been listening to a lot of history

podcasts lately. In particular, there's this one

woman named Sarah Payne. Does anyone know, does anyone

recognize her? Yeah.

She's a retired college at the US She's a retired professor at

the US College of Naval Warfare. But she says this term called

pivotal error. A pivotal error is a fatal

mistake made by a leader or a nation that creates a point of

no return. It destroys any hope of things

going back to normal the way they were.

Pivotal errors that are something that a nation can

never come back from. The status quo gets ruined so

badly that any sort of turn around, it'll never be what it

once was. Most pivotal errors lead to

ruin, and an example of this would be Japan at Pearl Harbor,

right? Operationally, Pearl Harbor is a

resounding success. Japan inflicts maximum

casualties, 21 ships destroyed, 188 aircraft, over 1000 wounded

Americans, and 2000 dead. Japan loses fewer than 100 men

and 29 planes. That is insane.

But in terms of grand strategy, Pearl Harbor was a catastrophic

failure. Pearl Harbor was meant to be an

attack that would dishearten the American people from entering

the war, and it was supposed to create a peace deal.

Instead, the entire nation gets enraged.

It unites the American people in such a way that it's not

politically viable for the president to declare war.

And we all know how that went for Imperial Japan.

Pivotal error, Terrible move. Pivotal errors are a terrifying

concept. A mistake so bad it's the point

of no return. And our scripture today leads

heavily into this concept. We're continuing in our series

today in First Samuel. Samuel has grown to be a wise

and faithful judge. And normally in Israel, the

judge is the person who acts as the connection point between God

and his people. He's not really the leader.

The judge is only the leader because he talks to God.

But God still calls the shots, and the people have to wait on

God before making a move. Israel will complain about this.

It's a system that takes too much time and too much

dependence on God. So they say we want a king like

everyone else. We want this guy to lead us into

battles. We want quick, quick response

times. We want to be able to to flip on

a dime. We don't want to do this thing

where we got to wait on God's judgment, wait on God's

decision. They don't trust this current

system where they have to wait on Yahweh.

And God tells them, look guys, it's a bad idea.

Hey, God tells them that the king system is a terrible

mistake. It is not going to go well for

Israel. They want it anyway.

So God meets them halfway. He adds a king to the judge

system. Samuel hears from God and

appoints King Saul. So the judge is still this vital

connection point, but now they have this king who's going to

lead them into battle and govern the nation.

And for a while, things to be seem to be going well.

They're winning battles. They're charging into battle

with their king. Everything is awesome until

today. King Saul will make a pivotal

error. That is the beginning of his

end. And what Saul does in this

account leads to his ruin. He will never come back from

this. In fact, he's going to make more

of these errors in the following chapters.

And its decisions will threaten the future of Israel and the

relationship with God. So why is this in here?

Why do we have accounts of failed kings?

His error is meant to serve as a cautionary tale for us to see it

and watch closely for us to see Saul and say, don't make this

mistake. Do not fall into this.

So my question for today is what are we meant to learn from King

Saul's pivotal error? What are we meant to learn?

Turn with me to first Samuel 13. There's going to be a lot in

here about battle strategy and, and just like so, so just try,

try to follow along. I'll try to contextualize it as

much as as possible, but it, it, it's a bad situation.

It's an ugly situation. You do not want to be Israel

here. So Saul was 30 years old when he

became king and he reigned 42 years over Israel.

He chose 3000 men from Israel for himself. 2000 were with Saul

at MC Mash between Oh and in Bethel's Hill Country, and 1000

were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin.

He sent the rest of the troops away, each to his own tent.

Jonathan attacked the Philistine Garrison in Gibeah and the

Philistines heard about it. So Saul blew the ram's horn

throughout the land, saying let the Hebrews hear, and all Israel

heard the news. Saul has attacked the Philistine

Garrison and Israel is now repulsive to the Philistines.

Then the troops were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.

Moving on. The Philistines also gathered to

fight against Israel. 3000 Chariots, 6000 horsemen and

troops as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

They went up and camped at Mcmash, east of Beth Aven.

The men of Israel saw that they were in trouble because the

troops were in a difficult situation.

They hid in caves and thickets, among rocks, and in holes and

cisterns. Moving on, some Hebrews even

crossed the Jordan of the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul, however, was still at Gilgal, and all his troops were

gripped with fear. He waited seven days for the

appointed time that Samuel had set.

But Samuel didn't come to Gilgal, and the troops were

deserting him. So Saul said, bring me, bring me

the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.

Then he offered the burnt offering.

Just as he finished the burnt offering, Samuel arrived.

So Saul went out to greet him, moving on.

And Samuel asked, What have you done?

Saul answered. When I saw that the troops were

deserting me, and you didn't come within the appointed days,

and the Philistines were gathering at Mcmash, I thought

the Philistines will now descend on me at Gilgal.

And I haven't sought the Lord's favor, so I forced myself to

offer the burnt offering, Samuel said to Saul.

You have been foolish. You have not kept the command

the Lord God gave you. It was at this time that the

Lord would have permanently established your reign over

Israel. But now your reign will not

endure. The Lord has found a man after

his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his

people. Because you have not done what

the Lord commanded. Let's stop there.

What are we meant to learn from King Saul's pivotal error?

My first point is this, after reading all that, almost

obedience is actually full disobedience.

Almost obedience is actually full disobedience.

I cannot begin to express how depressing that passage is.

OK, Saul and Jonathan get ready to fight the Philistines.

They got 3000 men total. The Philistines respond by

bringing 3000 Chariots, 6000 horsemen, and a crazy amount of

infantry that is 16 times the size of Saul's army.

Verse 6 is a very soft way of saying Israel is probably dead

here. Morale is at an all time low.

But it gets worse. Samuel tells the king, wait

seven days for my arrival so I can offer sacrifices to Yahweh.

Remember it's the judges system. OK?

The king still has to wait on the judge.

The king still has to wait on Yahweh.

And here's the problem. In those seven days of waiting,

Saul is bleeding troops. People are deserting his army

because they can see this battle is suicide.

Every day that goes by, more men leave and Saul's force becomes

smaller and smaller and smaller. To his credit, he waits.

And finally the time comes. The 7th day comes.

Samuel still isn't there, still more men leaving his army.

So what does Saul do? He does the sacrifice himself,

and right at that moment Samuel comes and says pivotal error.

Saul, if you had waited, God would have established you

forever, but now your line's going to end.

Hang on, hang. Like you're telling me that King

Saul is faced with a suicide mission.

He spends 7 days staring at the army that's going to kill him

while more of his army deserts him.

He waits each of those seven days for Samuel to come, and

Samuel doesn't come until the very end of the last day that

it's appointed. And because Saul gives in to

pressure at the last second, he's punished.

Saul obeys 95% of the way. And because he messed up at that

last 5%, now he's made a pivotal error.

God, what's with that? I think most of us would look at

this situation that Saul is in and just go, I'm with Saul.

I understand him. Like I wouldn't have lasted 2

days waiting for the three days Max.

I would not have waited the seven days.

Shouldn't we give credit where credit is due?

He's 30. He's looking at his death from a

cross. That's not right.

And maybe that gives insight into how we feel sometimes with

God in a situation like this. It feels like God is this this

boss who gets this awesome report from you and because you

misspelt the the footnote he gets on your case like dude,

this. Did you look at the rest of it?

This is what you're this, this is what you want to talk about?

Like God here feels like an Asian dad who spanks their kid

for getting an A and not an A+, right?

This is like you're, you're, you're crazy.

Come on. I'm doing my best, God.

I'm doing my best. I'm, I'm trying to be faithful,

but I can only, I'm only human. How can you call my partial

disobedience complete disobedience?

That doesn't seem fair. But our view here is skewed.

This is not 95% obedience. This isn't even partial

obedience. This is Saul attempting to

justify the wrong he did. This is Saul justifying

disobedience. Even though Saul waited seven

days for Samuel to come, at the end of the day Saul did not

wait. And not only did he not wait, he

attempted to do the priestly duties that kings are not

authorized to do. And then when confronted with

his disobedience, rather than seeing that he was wrong, Saul

is convinced in his mind that he is 95% right.

And you look at Saul's reasoning for why he needed to disobey

verse 11. He says, when I saw that you

didn't come, but Samuel did come, when I saw that the troops

were deserting me and the Philistines were descending,

that sounds like the real reason I forced myself to do the

offering. No one forced you, dude.

No one forced you. Saul is skewing the facts,

framing it in a way that makes him look better than he really

is. It's not that Saul was 95%

obedient. Saul was wrong, and he tried to

justify 100% wrong by framing what he had done right.

And the scary thing here is, I don't think Saul's being

necessarily insincere his I don't think his intentions are

malicious. I think he genuinely is blind to

the wrong in his heart. I think he genuinely believes

that what he has done is not all that bad.

That's the scary thing, guys. Is there full disobedience in

your life that is parading itself as almost obedience?

Is there sin in your life that you've miscategorized so you

don't see it as a threat to your relationship with God?

Maybe you go to church every week, you serve, you give

generously to the poor. You're doing a lot of things

right. Great.

But there's this one area of your life that you refuse to let

God into, this person in your life that you refuse to forgive.

You know what they did to me, God, this pet sin in your life

that you refuse to let go of. I don't know.

Just let me keep this you. Could you almost tell God, God,

I'm doing all this other stuff for you.

Just just let me have this one. And maybe it's your work where

you convince yourself that you're providing for your

family. You're being responsible, but

your kids hardly see you, your marriage is neglected, your

spiritual life is dry. Maybe you got anger that's

turned to bitterness, but you are convinced in your mind you

are justified in your anger, so you never bring it to him.

Maybe you act concerned about everyone in church and in

people's families, and you're like, oh, there's all these

problems going on and but in reality, you're just looking to

spill the tea. Yeah, you're just like, you hear

about, you hear about this. Maybe you're a control freak and

you know, you're a control freak, but you figured out a

language that justifies your sin.

I'm just trying to be wise about my decisions.

I'm just trying to be faithful with my options when it's

actually really rooted in not being able to trust God.

These are things that we have going on that allow us to frame

our sin and make it feel real small.

And every year you figure out more language to justify it.

Every year your heart hardens towards dealing with it.

Every year you convince yourself more and more that you are right

in thinking this way. Every year you find better ways

to hide it, mask it. And every year you ignore

sermons, Bible passages, pastoral advice, or convictions

in your heart to change. And if that's you, please do not

take this passage on Saul lightly.

This mindset is the pivotal error that is leading you to

spiritual ruin. You turn back now and we repent

before God and we seek godly counsel.

Find an honest community that will tell you hard truths before

it's too late. Find good men and women that

will tell you what you've been blind to.

And maybe there are some of you in here after hearing all that

and you're just saying, Pastor Denny, you don't understand.

You don't understand what I'm going through.

You don't understand what I'm up against.

You don't understand who I'm facing, how difficult it's been

for me to remain faithful. I'm under a lot of pressure.

It's been impossible for me to hold my ground.

And that's a genuine struggle. And I don't want to discount

that. But there's a danger to that

thinking also. And that's my next point.

What are we meant to learn from King Saul's pivotal error?

To stop letting circumstances determine our actions?

We need to stop letting our circumstances determine our

actions. And if this second point bothers

you, after everything I've said, believe me, I don't like it

either. I, I do not like it.

I I, I don't like it. And and it gets worse when you

hear just exactly what's going on in this passage and the rest

of it, it is terrible. There's all circumstances are

terrible. So Saul says, Saul tells Samuel,

I had no choice. Samuel tells Saul pivotal Eric,

because you failed to hold God's word here, your line won't sit

on the throat forever. And with that news that Saul's

line is going to end and God is not pleased with him.

Saul goes to the front lines of this hopeless battle.

Great state of mind to be in. Let's read verse 15.

Then Samuel went from Gilgal to Gibeah and Benjamin.

This is after Samuel just said the kingdom's gone from you like

you. You're not going to your lines

off the throne goes to the front line.

Samuel Saul registered the troops who were with him about

600 men. Saul, his son Jonathan and the

troops who were with them were staying in Geva of Benjamin and

the Philistines were camped at Mcmash.

Raiding parties. The Philistines forces are big

enough to do this. They can split up and separate.

Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three

divisions. 1 headed towards Orfa or the Orfa Rd. leading to the

land of Shuol. The next division headed towards

Beth Moron and the last division headed toward down the border

Rd. that looks out over Zebuin Valley toward the wilderness.

Moving on. No blacksmith could be found in

all the land of Israel because the Philistines had said

otherwise. The Hebrews will make swords.

It was Spears. So all the Israelites went to

the Philistines to sharpen their plows, Maddox, axes and sickles.

The price was 2/3 of a shekel for plows and Maddox and 1/3 of

a shekel for pitchforks and axes and for and for putting a point

on a cattle rod. So on the day of the battle, not

a sword or spear could be found in the hand of any of the troops

who were with Saul and Jonathan. Only Saul and his son Jonathan

had weapons. Now a Philistine Garrison took

control of the past at Mcmash. And the chapter just ends on

that. That verse 23 is like that's

that's the nail in the coffin. How many troops are with Saul

from 3000 to 600? 2400 men deserted him against

3000 Chariots, 6000 Calvary and unnumbered infantry.

And you thought that was bad? It gets worse.

Verse 16 to 18 and OR, and that last verse 23 is talking about

that the Philistine forces are so vast they can send out these

raiding parties and lock Israel in.

And the names of these cities are roadways that Saul would

call for help to get reinforcements.

And that final line in verse 23 is telling you that was the last

one. That was the last escape route,

That was the last way that reinforcements could come.

All the passes are blocked. No one is coming to save them.

This battle will not be a defeat.

Like they lose this one battle and they run away.

We retreat and fight another day.

These guys are backed into a corner.

Saul is facing annihilation. Every single person there is

going to die. Down to the last man and what do

they have to fight? Verse 19 to 22, farm tools,

sharpened farm tools that they have to pay the Philistines to

sharpen. And only Saul and his son have

actual weapons of war. They are outclassed, outgunned,

outnumbered, and there's no way out.

This battle is over. This is done.

So when Saul says my troops were deserting me, the Philistines

were surrounding me. You did not come when you said

you would. It is very understandable to us,

very relatable. When have you felt, like Saul,

that you're in circumstances so bad you have no choice but to

take matters into your own hands?

You feel you have no choice but to tell God my hand was force.

I had to disobey in this instance.

God, your way doesn't work here. Or we pray to God and he doesn't

respond fast enough. So we have to rush and we say

God is late. I just got to, I just got to do

it. I just got to do it on my own.

There are pressures that build. There are needs that we need to

have met that can no longer be ignored.

Our hand feels forced. And you're telling me that your

second point of this sermon is stop letting your circumstances

determine your actions. That is, does not make sense.

Doesn't make sense, especially when you look at this.

But I want us to look at what Samuel says in verse 13 one more

time, verse 13, that phrase here.

It was at this time that the Lord would have permanently

established your reign. Despite the horrible

circumstances. Samuel's word here reveals to us

God had plans for Saul beyond this battle, this military

disaster. Right now, God's already

planning ahead of it. And, and Saul's in the picture.

He's alive. It was supposed to happen.

Saul's battle was supposed to go this way.

And in the moment of greatest danger, Saul was meant to choose

to follow God. And you might argue that Saul's

failure here is both physical and spiritual.

Saul mismanaged his forces. Saul failed to hold on to them,

raise morale, whatever. But our Bibles are making very

clear to us, no, no, no, no, no, that that stuff doesn't matter.

Saul's failure wasn't politics, military strategy.

Saul's failure was spiritual. The battle was always supposed

to go this way. Saul's forces were meant to

dissolve. Saul was meant to get cut off

from the northern tribes. Saul is right where he's

supposed to be. According to God.

These circumstances are God's making, and Saul was supposed to

obey and follow God's lead for a victory.

If he had obeyed instead of giving in, God would have been

able to work powerfully in his life.

In other words, when obedience mattered most, Saul backed out.

And that's what I want us to understand about Saul's pivotal

error. We need to reframe this idea in

our minds. You are not obeying despite

impossible odds. You are choosing to obey when it

counts the most. Amen.

The higher the stakes, the more anxiety provoking the

circumstances, the more impactful your obedience

actually is. My patience is so much less

impactful to my kids when they're calm and everything's

good and they're happy. It means significantly more to

my children when it's day four of them not sleeping through the

night and they have fought me all day yesterday because they

haven't been sleeping. And all they do is yell

gibberish at me. And they're probably like, you

know, yelling baby profanity in their minds at me and, and the,

and the difficulty of the circumstances, right?

How difficult, how unreasonable my children are being makes my

patients in that moment so much more impactful.

This, this might have been another instance.

This might have been oversharing for my 5 year old, But but in

one of my bedtime talks with Eli, I told him that if I would,

if he was ever in danger, I would save him even if I died to

make that happen. And he starts and he started

crying and he was like, you're going to die.

And I was like, no, no, not yet. Like it's like we're going to

finish the conversation later. But you know, you got to give

him perspective of everything. But he understood at the end of

the day, he understood the higher stakes.

The impact was immediate. We need to understand this about

our faith when our circumstances feel overwhelming.

The call to obedience will never be more noble and more needed

than in that moment. It's a call to obedience that

got Pastor Dietrich Bonifer executed in Nazi Germany when it

counted most. It's a call to obedience that

that sent Jim Elliott to cannibalistic tribes that

received the gospel after they had killed him.

It's a call to obedience that sent Jesus Christ to the cross

because God planned to save not just Israel from them, their

sin, but the whole world. The higher the stakes, the more

impactful the obedience. And if you are afraid of the

consequences of being obedient to God, I want to share a track

record with you as an encouragement.

And, and I wish we, we wish this all had reflected on this before

he went to this battle and did what he did in Exodus.

When God tells Moses to fight his enemies and that he has to

keep the staff raised and anytime he starts drooping it,

Israel starts losing. Every time they raise it back

up, they start winning. Why did God give that command?

What? Because he wants to see.

He wants them to see what determines the battle, the staff

being raised, not the amount of troops, not technological

advancements. If they obey Yahweh wins

obedience, not their circumstances and judges for

when it came to Deborah fighting again a wave of Chariots and God

tells their infantry to charge you could I was there.

You could still see this hill and this valley below the the

like Israel is on this hill safe from the Chariots.

God says go down from the hill and charge tanks.

Terrible idea. That's his command.

They obey, they charge, and God sends rain for their charge and

the Chariots all sink in the mud.

Israel wins that battle because Yahweh wins obedience over

circumstances and judges. 7 Gideons, few men against

thousands. Yahweh wins in this battle.

Here Saul's kind of win. It does not make sense.

We have archaeological military records, historical accounts

written by enemies of Israel. They fight the battles that our

Bibles record, like this one. And it does not make sense how

Israel wins again and again, battle after battle, victory

after victory. When Yahweh is involved, when he

gets into the ring, obedience to Him is more important than our

circumstances. It changes the outcome.

It rewrites our conclusion. Saul's pivotal error here is

that he will not understand this.

He will keep governing out of fear of his people and fear of

his life. He is going to live his life

ruled by circumstances instead of obedience to Yahweh.

Time and time again he will fail to answer the call to be

faithful when it matters the most.

That's his pivotal error that leads him to ruin.

Is there something that you are going through that looks crazy

like this? You are overwhelmed with your

circumstances. You are up against an unwinnable

situation and you feel pressured to disobey.

You feel like that's the only choice you have.

And we have to see that sometimes those circumstances

you're in, that uncomfortable situation is actually God's

making. And moments like this are when

obedience should be our highest priority because it's going to

count the most. We got to remember who we're

dealing with. We're dealing with Yahweh.

We're dealing with our God. The decisive factor is not our

circumstances. The decisive factor is who

fights in your corner. Factoring God into our equation

should tip the scales. That should change our plans.

Because Yahweh wins. And what's most important in

those moments of crisis is obedience to Him, not your

circumstance. So when it counts most, when you

are called upon to obey despite your circumstances, will you

follow through? Will you continue on?

Will you be faithful? What are we meant for to learn

from King Saul's pivotal error? God calls us to full obedience,

not obedience shaped by convenience, pressure, or

circumstances.