The Beginning of Saul's Downfall

Saul's failure was that he did not truly believe what God had said of him.

He was small in his own eyes, and yet God had made him the anointed of Israel.

God had given him his spirit.

Saul needed to act in accordance with his calling.

So too, we must believe what God has said of us and act accordingly.

The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church.

May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor,

And seeing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

I'm really excited to get back into Samuel with you all.

Chapter 13 is a tipping point in the narrative, specifically in Saul's life.

A lot happens in this chapter.

Kind of chapters 9 through 12 has been Saul's ascendancy.

And now beginning in 13, we start to see his fall.

So many important things happen in here.

We're gonna cover them all.

But to get the most out of it, the most nutrition and most understanding, we'll do a quick little walkthrough of Sam's uh not Samuel, Saul's part in the story thus far.

You wanna see where he's come from, where he's been.

And so you'll remember, hopefully, in chapter eight, when Samuel's time as judge was complete.

The people did not want another judge.

They demanded a king for themselves.

Now the story makes clear that God was their king.

He had provided for them deliverance and justice and all they needed.

And yet that wasn't enough for them.

They wanted a king like all the nations around them.

A king they could see, a king who could ride out to battle before them, a king they could approach.

Didn't matter to them that God, the Lord of hosts, was their king.

They wanted

A human king.

This was nothing less than rejecting God as their king.

And yet, in his mysterious working out of events, God allowed for this human king to come to Israel.

God even folds this king into redemptive history.

For it is in the establishing of a human office as anointed king of Israel, the Christ.

In doing that, God pref prepares the way.

For the future Christ, the future ruler of all the universe, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

And so even this deviance of Israel from God was a way in which he established the office of Christ Jesus will one day reign from throughout all of eternity.

And we're introduced to the human king they ask for in chapter nine.

Chapter eight, they say we want a king.

Chapter nine, we're introduced to Saul, the one who ends up being this asked for king.

And we, as the readers, were kind of unsure as to whether or not he'd be the right man for the job, just based off of the clues we were getting from the text.

He had been ineffectually pursuing these donkeys and was ready to give up.

Because he was concerned about what his father might be thinking about him.

His servant was the one who needed to take initiative and move the narrative forward.

Saul also kept the matter of his anointing by Samuel secret from his uncle.

When it was time for Saul to be declared king in chapter 11, he was out hiding in the luggage.

And when it came time for him to rally the troops against Nakosh, king of Amorites, well, he

He leveraged Samuel's name in bringing all Israel together rather than simply relying on what God had said of him, him being the anointed one and calling them together under his

own authority.

So these are small things, but they're purposeful narratival insights.

And they kind of lead us as the audience to arrive at the conclusion that Saul paid more attention to how others responded to his actions than he paid attention to carrying out.

His actions.

We saw and saw a willingness to compromise his duty based upon the opinions of others and the feelings of others.

We also saw this concerning lack of initiative or uncertainty.

Again, with his kind of having to be led by the hand by his servant in chapter 9, and having to be forced to stand up and be anointed king in chapter 11.

But it wasn't all bad things we saw from Saul.

After all, there are some inherent blessings that come about simply by virtue of him being the anointed king of Israel.

We know this because of Hannah's prayer in chapter two, where she prophesied that God will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed one.

And we saw that because Saul also led Israel to battle Nahash, king of the Amorites, and he defeated him.

And afterwards, Saul gives God the glory.

Those are all good things.

That was chapters 11 and 12.

And it's in these chapters that Saul is officially coronated king, and Samuel leads Israel in repentance before the Lord.

Because of course Israel does need to repent.

They've chosen a king over God.

And so they repent to the Lord.

And God very graciously says he will continue to bless Israel if both they and their king, Saul, will continue to follow him.

That's chapter 12 brings us right up to where we are now in chapter 13.

Here we're going to hear about first Saul's first act as King of Israel.

How is his reign going to go?

Well, we're gonna see it here.

But again, don't get your hopes up because just as 9 through 12 were Saul's ascendancy, well, now 13 through 15 are gonna be Saul's downfall.

And I want you to notice again how all the while throughout this whole narrative,

Hannah's prayer, the Lord brings low and the Lord exalts.

Continues to reverberate and echo through the background of the themes of the story here.

Let me start reading for you, verses one through four.

Saul lived for one year and then became king.

And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose three thousand men of Israel.

Two thousand were with Saul and Mitchmash and the hill country of Bethel.

And a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin, the rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent.

Jonathan defeated the garrison of Philistines that was at Giba, and the Philistines heard of it.

And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear.

And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines.

And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.

Might not look like it on the service, but there's a lot going on here.

Uh it's incredibly important details here.

So just in verse one, this is giving us the context in which this story takes place.

And it's primarily drawing our attention as the audience to the amount of time that has gone by.

We're two years later than we were in chapter 12.

Now we might reasonably think, all right, well, what has Saul done?

In two years reigning over Israel.

We actually know what he should have been doing because the narrative has made that clear to us earlier.

In chapter 9, 16, when God says who the king is going to be, he says he's going to bring Saul.

This is what God says to Samuel.

He says, He, that's Saul, shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines.

This is what Saul was supposed to do: wage war against the Philistines.

Samuel makes that clear to Saul in chapter 10, verse 1, when he says, And you shall reign over the people of the Lord, and you shall save them from the hand of their surrounding

enemies.

Saul knows that is what he's supposed to do.

And furthermore, this is actually the reason why the people asked for this king in the first place.

Back in chapter 8, when they ask for a human king, and Samuel says, You don't want that, it's not going to work out well.

The people reply to Samuel, No, there shall be a king over us.

That we may also be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.

So there's no doubt then about what Saul should have been doing.

He should have been waging war against the Philistines.

People knew that, he knew that.

But has he done that?

Well, we don't really have any reason to believe that he has.

It seems like the Philistines have been unchallenged.

In fact, who is it?

And what we just read today.

Who is it who takes the initiative to lead the attack against the Philistines?

It is Jonathan, Saul's son.

Just as Saul's servant took the initiative to do what Saul was supposed to do in chapter 9, so now his son Jonathan takes the initiative to do what he was supposed to do here in

chapter 13, and he attacks the Philistines.

But who gets the credit for it?

Well, verse 4.

And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated.

The garrison of the Philistines.

Not totally honest there.

But it gets worse than this.

There's actually more happening behind the scenes.

Let me first highlight two aspects of this story to help draw it out here.

So it says again, I'll repeat some parts: Jonathan defeated the garrison of Philistines that was at Giva, and all the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal.

Because Saul is down at Gilgal awaiting seven days for Samuel to come and offer a sacrifice.

Now, reach back in your mind back to chapter 10.

This is two to three years earlier, when Saul was first anointed by Samuel.

You'll remember he was anointed by Samuel, and various signs accompanied his anointing.

Specifically, the Holy Spirit rushed upon him.

Remember that?

Now listen to the instructions that Samuel had given to Saul way back then.

When he first received the Holy Spirit.

And see the similarities with our passage today.

Samuel had said this to Saul.

After that you shall come to Gibeath Elohim, that corresponds with Giba, we just heard of, where there is a garrison of Philistines.

Now, when these signs meet you, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you.

Then go down before me to Gilgal.

Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you.

What you shall do.

So you know what this looks like?

It looks like Saul was supposed to have taken that same garrison of Philistines three years earlier, when he had received the sign of the Spirit and was told to do whatever

your hand finds to do.

That phrase, do whatever your hand finds to do, accompanied with the mention of the Philistines and the rushing of the Spirit upon Saul, and the

Obvious call that Saul has to defeat the Philistines, all those things together strongly imply that Saul was meant to have taken that garrison of Philistines in the power of the

Holy Spirit.

That's what we'd expect.

And yet, back in chapter 10, there's really no conclusion to that story.

We don't hear anymore about the Philistines.

We don't hear about Samuel offering the sacrifices in Gilgal.

We don't hear about Saul going back to Gilgal.

That story is just kind of left incompleted.

And the chapter moves on.

But now in chapter 13, well, that makes sense of all this.

It seems like that quest given to Saul back then was still incomplete.

He still hadn't done it.

And now it's Jonathan who completes that quest for him.

Jonathan goes to Giba or Gileath Elohim.

Sometimes those names get switched in the texts.

And he takes the Philistine garrison himself.

That's not good news for Saul.

He's neglected his duty for two or three years now.

This also makes sense of our text, why Saul immediately goes from Mitchmash down to Gilead.

If you'll notice in the text, as soon as that garrison is taken, Saul responds by moving from Michmash down to Gilead.

And it's as if Saul was kind of reminded: oh, right, I was supposed to take that garrison.

And what else?

yeah, Samuel said to go meet him at Gilgal and wait seven days after that happened.

Well, everyone thinks I took the garrison, so I'm gonna head down to Gilgal and meet Samuel there.

It's like he picks back up the quest once the first part was completed.

And so then in our story, we have Saul moving down to Gilgal.

Jonathan has just defeated the garrison of Philistines.

Saul is now waiting for Samuel for seven days to show up and offer sacrifices.

But in the meantime, the Philistines are not pleased with having their garrison taken.

Let me read to you five and seven.

And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel thirty thousand chariots.

Other translations have three thousand, which is very likely more the more accurate number, and six thousand horsemen and troops, like the sand on the seashore in multitude.

They came up and encamped at Mikmash to the east of Bethon.

When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hard pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns.

And some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.

Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling.

What do we see then?

Well, the Philistines are now really stirred up.

They rally an overwhelming

Force.

Saul had 3,000 men split between him, while the Philistines have 6,000 horsemen.

And as far as ground troops, they have as many as the sand of the sea.

So Israel's pretty outnumbered here.

And Saul doesn't seem to be instilling confidence in the men.

They're hiding in holes and in cisterns.

That's never good.

And the ones who have accompanied him to Gilgal are trembling.

They're concerned about what's going to happen.

Let's continue here in the story.

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel.

But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him.

And Saul said, Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.

And he offered the burnt offering.

As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him and greet him.

Samuel said, What have you done?

And Saul said,

When I saw the people were scattering from me, and you did not come within the appointed days, the days appointed, and the Philistines had mustered at Mikmash, I said, Now the

Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.

So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.

And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly.

You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you.

Now, this section is the main point of the story.

Chapter 13 exists like a frame, and the center of that frame is Samuel's interaction with Saul.

It is here that we get the most dialogue and the drama and the most decisive information, and all of our attention is focused right here.

And in fact, again, the decision that Saul makes here affects the rest of biblical history.

So let's look at it closely here.

Saul goes to Gilgal, he waits seven days, and

Samuel's not there.

Now, to me, that's not surprising.

This is supposed to happen three years earlier.

We can cut Samuel a little break if he happens to be a bit late showing up.

Nonetheless, though, Saul gets nervous and he makes this terrible decision.

He offers the sacrifices himself rather than waiting for Samuel to do it.

He disobeys.

Now he's caught red-handed when Samuel shows up.

What does he do when he's faced with his failures?

What does he do?

He makes himself the victim, doesn't he?

He takes no responsibility.

He blames everyone around him.

He considers himself the victim of his circumstances.

The people were scattering.

And you, you, you didn't show up when you're supposed to.

And I've got the Philistines mustering up there, and I've gotta seek the Lord's favor.

So I I just forced myself to do it.

I didn't want to, but I had to do it.

Isn't Saul such a relatable thing?

Character.

I love the humanity we see in Saul.

uh How often do we do things like this?

We weave a story where we're the victim and the problem lies in everyone and everything around us.

And then when we sin, you're just forced to do it, right?

It's it's like Pastor Christopher just talked about.

No, no, no, sin is uncommon to you.

You're able to resist these things, but that's not what we do.

We say,

If this hadn't been that way, if he hadn't responded this way, if this circumstance had diff been different, I wouldn't have sinned.

But it was all against me.

And I was, I was forced to.

I didn't want to.

I was forced to.

That's not how we respond to temptation.

That's not how Saul should have responded.

But oftentimes that's how sin goes.

Well, I want you to remember Saul's response here when he was confronted with his own sin.

It's very important.

We're gonna come back to this in a few months.

Remember how Saul responded.

But moving in a little deeper, more specific detail, verse eight, it was very important for us to see.

It says the people were scattering from him.

And of course, this is the first thing he mentions to Samuel, why he made that sacrifice.

This is so much in line with Saul's character, isn't it?

He couldn't bear losing the support of the people.

He cares too much about how others view him.

He's overly concerned about how others view him and not concerned enough about what God has already said about him.

God has called him anointed.

He needs to believe that.

God gave him authority and duty and responsibility.

He needs to act on that.

But instead, it appears that Saul's perception of himself is only as solid as what others happen to be thinking about him at the time.

God has given him authority, but in his mind, it's the people who give him the authority.

If they leave, it feels like he has nothing left.

Saul's confidence is not in God's declaration about who he is.

Rather, it comes from others.

Again, we've seen that pattern throughout his story, and this is a huge example.

I believe that God presents this.

As the foundation upon which all of Saul's failures are built, him doubting what God has made him.

Later on in chapter 15, when Saul is decisively forsaken by God, God speaks this word, this clear and final words to Saul, and it really just seems to boil all his failures down

to this one statement.

This is what God will later say to Saul.

Though you are little in your own eyes,

Are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

The Lord anointed you king over Israel.

Wow, that is a deeply insightful look from God into Saul's heart.

The core of his failure was not believing what God had made him, but being small in his own eyes.

It's strange, isn't it?

We don't think about that, but but strangely enough, Saul thinks too little of himself.

It's not that he should have been prideful.

No, but it is that he should have trusted what God said about him.

And don't be deceived, by the way.

It's not meekness that we see in Saul.

It's not humility.

Those are virtues.

No, it's a lack of faith.

God says, you're anointed.

Saul should have acted with confidence, authority, love, humility, and risen to the station God had set him in.

Doesn't matter, remember Gideon, doesn't matter if I have this many troops or 300 troops.

God is gonna have victory through me.

That should have been his mentality, but it wasn't.

He considered himself through the eyes of man rather than through the eyes of God.

See that coming up a little bit as well.

And where did this lead?

Well, it led him to fear and then to fear's close associate, disobedience.

And he made a panicked and anxious decision directly against the commandment that God had given him.

He offered the sacrifices himself.

And it's here that I want us to step back from the text for a moment and examine our own lives.

Remember, these things are written down for our example and our instruction.

So let's think about this.

The question we need to ask ourselves is: where do we, as God's people, find our self-identity?

Now, I don't want to lose the men when I say self-identity.

I think some guys often hear self-identity and they think, oh, who cares?

You know, just just live your life.

Stop being so emotional about it.

I know I've I've thought that before.

you know, self-identity is maybe for for low esteem or low confidence people, but you know, I'm a man, I'll be fine.

Um, but self-identity is not just an emotional thing.

It's actually one of the most practical aspects of our lives.

Because we act in ways that reflect how we think about ourselves.

We do.

We act in ways that reflect how we think about ourselves.

So if I think I'm the center of the universe, I'm so special, I'm gonna act in accordance with that, right?

Others become competition or threats or resources to be manipulated for my own benefit.

And I'm gonna value all my priorities over the priorities of others.

I'm acting in a way that reflects how I think about myself.

I'm most important.

Other end of the spectrum, if I think I'm totally worthless, well, I'm gonna act in ways that show that.

Maybe not taking care of myself, no self-respect, no real ambition or desire to kind of do anything or assert anything is I'm no good anyway.

Well, there's the other end of the spectrum.

Maybe I think of myself as the guy who everybody just loves.

I'm just such a likable guy.

Well, then I'm gonna act in ways to try to make that true.

And I'm not gonna be able to stand it if someone doesn't like me.

Because after all, I'm the guy who people like.

And so what do I do?

I can tort my life to try to please other people.

There's a variety of ways this can work, but just notice this immediate practical effect of how we think of ourselves.

We act, we do things based upon how we view ourselves.

The mindset about ourselves leads to fruit.

The question then very quickly becomes how should I think about myself?

We do, it's gonna affect how we act.

Okay, well then how should we?

Well, the Bible has a lot to say about this, actually.

The Bible teaches about God.

The Bible also teaches about us.

This is one of the reasons why James calls the Bible a mirror in which one can see himself.

Well, what does the Bible say?

Who does the Bible say we are?

Some will think, well, sinners.

But actually, no, that's not primarily not for Christians.

That's really not what the Bible teaches as our identity.

Our identity is not founded in sin.

Saints, sons of God, walking in the newness of life, alive with Christ.

Yes, these things.

As you read through your New Testament, look at the way it talks about Christians.

Our identity is not primarily founded in sin.

Ephesians 2.

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, but God made us alive together with Christ.

You were a sinner, yes.

Of course you still sin.

We all know that.

But your primary identity is not sinner right now or ever again.

It is someone who is with Christ.

We need to be

Thinking that, that'll cause us to act differently.

Or read Romans 6, specifically 11.

So also you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Interesting.

Here's a verse that commands us regarding our self-identity, regarding the way we think about ourselves.

We're commanded to see ourselves, not from the perspective of what we have done.

But we're commanded to see ourselves from the perspective of what Christ has done for us and who he has made us.

In other words, your sins are not the truest thing about you.

God's love is the truest thing about you, and his grace is the truest thing about you.

And we need to think that way.

Consider Colossians 1:13.

Colossians 1:13

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.

I don't

Live in the domain of darkness.

And I don't, I'm not a part of the kingdom I happen to be in spatially.

No, I'm part of Christ's kingdom.

He's my king.

I'm not a slave to sin.

That self-identity changes the way we act and respond to things.

What about if instead of thinking I'm too tired and too depressed and too burdened and too busy?

You saw First Timothy 1 7.

For God for God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.

Or Romans 8, 31, if God is for us, who can be against us?

In all these hardships, I'm more than a conqueror through Christ who loved me.

This is important to think the truth of Scripture to ourselves.

Or how about this one?

When you're feeling uncared for, uncherished, unappreciated.

James 4, 5.

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?

I'd love to go more into this, we can't.

But this is an amazing verse.

This idea, he jealously yearns over us.

That's describing this righteously jealous, rageful feeling that a husband might have if someone were trying to cheat on his wife.

This happens in context and

In James, with the adultery coming right before it.

So this is showing us God's spirit is like this jealous husband who says, No, you may not have this person.

This person is sacred to me.

You will not have this person.

She's mine.

That's the way God feels about our soul, us, the people He's made us.

That will, that's good to say to yourself.

That's true.

That's good to say to yourself about your children as well.

That'll help to strengthen your prayers.

With no pride, with no pretense or presumption, you can say about yourself, God loves me so much, He is stirred to a jealous rage over the thought of someone or something taking

me away from him.

That's good for you to hear, it's true.

And there are really too many scriptures to go through, so you'll just have to go through it in your Bible with a highlighter and

Highlight those things that it says about yourself and think those things.

You're a person who is taken care of, Matthew 6.

You're a person who has no wants, Psalm 23.

You're a person who God is going to avenge those who do evil to you, 2 Thessalonians 1:6 and Romans 12:19.

2 Thessalonians 1:6 Romans 12:19

There are many things.

You're God's children, Romans 8:14.

Romans 8:14

So believe these things about yourself because God has said them.

And don't let a fear of failure or a disbelief in what God has made you mask itself as a humility and lead to a passivity in your life.

You don't live according to what he said.

No, that was the ultimate downfall of Saul.

He didn't believe what God had said, and so he didn't act in accordance with what God had said, and he was undone.

His reign was undone.

And the consequences were great.

Let's look at the consequences here in thirteen through fifteen.

And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly.

You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you, for the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

But now your kingdom shall not continue.

The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people.

Because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.

And Samuel arose, went up from Gilgal, and the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army.

They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin.

Look at the profound effect the sin had in Saul's life.

And not even just primarily Saul's life, look what it meant for Jonathan and all his descendants.

God would have established his kingdom over Israel.

Forever.

But now it's going to come to an end, be replaced by David.

And yet, immediately, when we say that, we're presented with a bit of a theological conundrum that we have to think through.

The tension is between God's plan, declaring the end from the beginning, and the fact that Saul genuinely could have chosen differently.

And if he had, his family would have reigned over Israel forever.

Now here's the core of the tension.

It's this.

David would not have replaced Saul if Saul hadn't disobeyed.

But for the prophecies of Scripture to come true, Jesus had to arise as a kingly descendant from Judah, of David, one of David's descendants.

We already have a prophecy in Scripture saying the Messiah is going to come from Judah.

Again, that's from David.

It's in Genesis 49 10.

It says this the scepter, that ruling authority.

Shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

God has already ordained Jesus to come through Judah.

That's David's tribe, not through Benjamin, Saul's tribe.

So how then can God say that he would have established Saul's kingdom forever when he has already promised to establish David's kingdom forever in Jesus Christ?

There seem to be places in scripture in which characters are presented with a choice, and yet it seems like they could not have chosen otherwise because their choice lines up with

a plan that was already predetermined by God.

And that's confusing.

How do we reconcile that?

You see it most clearly in the crucifixion of Jesus, with the choices that led to the crucifixion of Jesus.

Could the crowd have just said, let him go?

Could Pilate have just made him be let go?

Well, Luke writes something about this in Acts 4 27.

Luke says, For truly and this city were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you had anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the

peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

So the gospel of Jesus was predestined before the foundation of the world.

So could Pilate have done anything differently?

What about Adam and Eve?

Could they have just refused to sin and then there'd be no gospel and no Jesus and no cross?

What then do we make of the gospel being established before the foundation of the world?

These are confusing conundrums to us that the Bible presents.

How do we reconcile humans' genuine choices and the weightiness of those choices with God's sovereign plan?

Well, the Bible does not give an answer to these things.

It doesn't.

What it does give are facts, a parallel set of facts.

And what we need to do is accept those and the way in which they present themselves.

The facts of Scripture are these that God has predestined and determined from the end to the beginning, that nothing happens apart from his preordained plan.

That's one fact.

Another fact is that humans make genuine decisions, which have genuine consequences, and for which we're

genuinely held responsible.

There are ample examples of both of these facts in scripture.

Biblically, they must both be affirmed.

Biblically, neither can be denied.

And so the best practice for us as humble believers is to accept them both and just deal with the tension we feel between them, but to accept them both.

And we have just a a perfect example of that right here.

You know,

Somehow, this prophecy that there would be a throne established forever in Judah through David, fulfilled in Christ, this prophecy begins with Saul's own disobedience and

neglecting his own throne from being established forever.

It's pretty mind blowing.

And as a result, what do we see?

God has chosen someone else to be prince of Israel.

This won't be an asked-for king.

This will be a king by the commandment of God.

This won't be a king like the nations.

This will be a king after God's own heart.

Now, what this does, saying this is a king after God's own heart, what this does, this invites us as the audience to compare David to Saul.

God essentially says, Saul, I'm not picking someone like you, I'm picking someone like me.

Well, this means that those places in the text.

That contrasts Saul and David's character, those are the exact places we want to look to see in what ways David reflects God's heart.

That's gonna show us what God's heart is like.

This is one of the reasons why I've been emphasizing Saul's character so much for us.

Then when we see David come onto the scene, we say, whoa, David's different than Saul.

And they say, Yes, look at that.

That's a highlight of what God's heart is like.

So in the coming weeks, we're gonna be seeing the differences between Saul and David, and that's gonna highlight for us.

The ways in which David is a man after God's heart.

And of course, we all want to emulate that ourselves.

And so Saul then has been rebuked for his disobedience, lost his dynasty, and we now begin the earliest process of David being lifted to the throne.

But we got to jump back to the story here.

There's a big battle, it seems like it's about to happen.

How's this gonna go?

I'll finish this out with 15 through 23.

And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal.

The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army.

They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin.

And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

That's not good.

He lost a lot of men.

And Saul and Jonathan, his son, and the people who were present with them, stayed in Gibeah of Benjamin, and the Philistines encamped at Mikmash.

And raiders came out from the camp of the Philistines in three companies.

One company turned towards Ophra, to the land of Shual, another company turned towards Betharan, and another company turned towards the border that looks down on the valley of

Zeboim, toward the wilderness.

Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords and spears.

But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his matdock, his axe, or his sickle.

And the charge was two thirds of shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and one third a shekel for sharpening the axes and setting the goads.

So on the day of the battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan.

But Saul and Jonathan, his son, had them.

And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of

Mi'kmash.

It's a cliffhanger.

That's where we have to stop.

The story is primarily about the interaction between Saul and Samuel.

Next time we're gonna get into stories that deal with this battle.

But it doesn't look like it's going to go well.

We've got Saul, he's just lost his dynasty, and he's got 600 men, and they're encamped at Giba.

That's only one mile from Mi'kmash, where the Philistines are.

The Philistines are sending out raiding.

Parties are attacking all around, overwhelming forces.

The Philistines have imposed a sort of weapons ban on the Israelites, not allowing blacksmiths, no blacksmiths, no swords, no spears.

And to add insult to injury, Israel, if they want to fight, they've got to take their gardening tools over to the Philistines and ask them to sharpen them for them.

And so as the battle lines come together at the end of this narrative, Israelite outnumbered 100 to 1.

Israelites fighting with what what amounts to sharpened hose and and rakes, things of that nature, only Saul and Jonathan having swords.

Where's this battle going to go?

We'll have to wait and watch.

But the odds are very bad.

In closing, though, I want to bring back to your mind that central picture of chapter 13.

Saul acting out of his

His perception of himself seen through the eyes of others and not seen through the eyes of God.

Saul's failure was that he did not truly believe what God had said of him.

He was small in his own eyes, and yet God had made him the anointed of Israel.

God had given him his spirit.

Saul needed to act in accordance with his calling.

So too, we must believe what God has said of us and act accordingly.

How we think of ourselves affects how we act.

We need to think of ourselves the way God tells us to.

Where has God placed you?

What are responsibilities He's given to you?

What is the words that you can tell from Scripture that He speaks to you in having those responsibilities?

Just your own identity.

You're not primarily a sinner.

That's not the most true thing about you.

The most true thing about you, the way you must consider yourself, according to Romans 6, is that you're dead to sin.

You're a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

You're beloved.

God is jealously, He jealously yearns over you.

I encourage you once again to go through scripture, see what it says about you, think on those things, let that become the way you reference yourself, the way you think about

yourself, and then act in accordance with that.

Lead to a life of following the Lord and faithfully acting out and believing what he has said of you, what he has done for us all in Jesus Christ.

Let me pray for us as we close.

Lord God, I thank you for what you have done for us in Christ.

You've seated us along with you in heavenly places.

You've made us your own, your sheep, your children.

We're taken care of.

We're blessed.

We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

uh You say so many things.

And God, I pray that by your spirit you would apply those truths to us such that we would believe them, such that when we think about ourselves.

It wouldn't be through the eyes of others, how others look at us.

It wouldn't be through whatever kind of skills or giftings we have, but we would see ourselves through your eyes, and that we would act from that.

Maybe it leads to humility, maybe it leads to boldness, maybe it leads to turning the other cheek, or maybe it leads to uh pursuing a uh different action.

Lord, let us live in with regards to what you have said.

Help us to believe what you have said of us.

We thank you for this example in Scripture.

We thank you for the book of 1 Samuel.

And the joy it is to read through your scriptures.

Thank you for giving us so many of them.

A big book of scriptures to teach us and equip us to do righteously and to follow you.

We thank you for these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio.

To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m.

or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.