"Strike 2: Blood Guilt," 1 Samuel 14:1-46, Andrew Evans

My name is Andrew Evans, I'm one of the pastors here at Church of

the Resurrection. It's great to be with you this

morning. Great to be worshipping with

you. We are continuing our series

looking at the story of First Samuel, the story of Saul

Primary. I guess at this point it's, it's

the, the story of King Saul then later becomes the story of King

David. So let me encourage you to turn

in your Bibles to that, to chapter 14.

It's on page 221 of the Pew Bible in front of you.

This is a long chapter. It's like 4.

Well, it's, I think it's over 50 verses in total.

We will, we're actually going to look at the four first 46

verses. We read the first third and we

will actually read the next 2/3 as we're going through it.

So we've got a lot to cover. Let's get started.

Before we get started, let me pray.

Father, I praise You for Your Word, how it challenges us and

comforts us. Pray that you would meet us this

morning in Your Word by Your Spirit, so that we would know

You more clearly, love You more dearly, and follow You more

nearly every day. I pray this in the name of our

King Jesus, Amen. Now some of you might know that

for a brief time after when I first came to this city, I

worked as a reporter. I was a pretty bad reporter,

frankly, but our boss assigned everybody a, an assignment to to

buy and read this autobiography by, I believe by, by at that

point, the deceased reporter Robert Novak title was the

Prince of Darkness, sort of captures the vibe of reporting

frankly. And we, the, the assignment was

to read it and to learn about how to be a really good

reporter, learn from him, from his first person account, how he

went about his work. And this is so often why we read

autobiographies, isn't it? We want to learn first hand how

somebody got through, got through life, navigated the

different trials and things. And then we can learn from their

successes and from their failures.

Maybe, maybe we find inspiration in their focus, in their

determination. Maybe we we learn they're like

tactics for negotiation or something like that, or how to

how to manage A-Team, things like that.

Whatever we want is we want to learn from their life story.

Now, autobiographies aren't new. You could trace them back to the

4th century, 5th century AD, but they are everywhere today, it

seems. It seems like every prominent

person writes an autobiography. Or maybe they pay somebody to

write an autobiography. Maybe some of you have been paid

to write an autobiography. The number one non fiction book

right now on the New York Times bestseller list is not You know,

how to Live Longer. But it is Kenny Chesney's

autobiography that is the right reaction.

That's right. Deeply, deeply meaningful.

I'm sure Kenny Chesney's great. He's fine.

And I think that frankly, if we we're getting really off track

here, I think that if we needed to, every one of us in this

room, if we really had to, we could probably write our own

autobiography. Maybe we don't want to.

Maybe we realize we need to live a few more years, but if we

really needed to, we could write our own autobiography.

I think there are a couple assumptions under assumptions

underlying our our understanding of autobiographies.

And these assumptions, I think are really telling.

The 1st is that we can understand life or our life as a

story. It's a narrative that begins

somewhere that that's going somewhere that that has a sort

of narrative arc. And we can capture this in a

book and the book is sort of comprehensible.

We can understand it. There's a story that we can see

in the world and in our lives. I think this is exactly right.

We naturally think this way, right?

We naturally think about our lives in terms of stories.

But the second assumption is that my life is its own story.

My life has a has a discreet narrative arc, and my life can

be captured between the covers of a book.

Now, I think that these assumptions undergird what we

could call an autobiography mindset.

And I think this mindset is really pervasive today.

You've probably heard the phrase, I love that for your

story. Now, probably most of the time

it's a joke, right? Sometimes it's serious,

sometimes it's serious, but underlying it are the same

assumptions that allow us to write autobiographies at all.

My life has a story. I'm writing it right now with my

choices and my decisions. My life is going somewhere and,

and I'm actively discerning that story and I really want my life

to have a happy ending. And I suspect that all of us to

1° or another have this autobiography mindset.

How many times are we invited to to think about our story?

I was at the Apple Store the other day and they were talking

about pictures and like how you can use it to tell your story.

Like, look, I just want to take a picture, but it's about your

story. It's just everywhere.

We're just sort of swimming in these cultural waters.

What is your story? Are you writing your story?

What? What direction is your story

going now? Our passage meets us in this

autobiography mindset, and it challenges it.

It challenges it not by by asking if our lives are in fact

a narrative, but it asks us this question, Whose story am I in?

Am I the star of my own story, or is there something else,

maybe something bigger going on in my life?

So we'll we'll look at this question by looking at 3

characters in our story. We'll look first at Jonathan,

and then we'll read the middle part of the of the passage and

look at Saul. And then finally we'll read the

last third and look at the people of Israel, those 3

characters. That's where we're headed.

So at the start of our story, at the start of our passage, Israel

is in a really bad spot. This seems to be sort of a

recurring theme in this book. Chapter 13.

King Saul, he mustered his troops.

Jonathan won a victory over the Philistines.

But this victory over the Philistines seems to have just

sort of kicked the hornet's nest.

And the Philistines, they're now swarming across the land and

striking fear into the hearts of Israel. 80% of Saul's troops

have abandoned him. Saul presumptuously, prematurely

offers a sacrifice to God. And this is the first of three

mistakes that he makes in that chapter, this chapter, and the

next chapter that we'll look at next week.

And as a result, God promises that he will take the Kingdom

away from Saul. At the end of chapter 13, we

learn of these Philistine raiding parties that are sort of

spreading out across the land like Hornets, just sort of

swarming. And we also learned of this

embargo that the Philistines have on weapons, on metal

weapons. The people of Israel, Gods

chosen people are outnumbered, they're weak and they're I'll

equipped. And it's into this bleak scene

at the beginning of chapter 14 that Jonathan steps Prince of

Israel. In this first verse, he, he

tells us, he invites his armor bearer to join him in going over

to the Philistines. We don't know exactly what he's

going to do, right? But we know that he leaves

secretly. He traverses this rocky terrain.

And then in verse 6, Jonathan clarifies what he's up to.

Look there with me, he says to his armor bearer.

Lieutenant, come, let us go over to the Garrison of the

uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will

work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by

many or by few. Jonathan wants to save Israel.

He knows that Israel is in a really bad spot and he need and

that they need help against the Philistines.

But notice here how he sees himself in relation to God.

He himself is not Israel's savior, not strictly speaking.

He is working for the Lord. He is an agent for God's

purposes. Who will save?

It will be the Lord. And the Lord can save with

either a big army or just two people out on a secret mission.

And Jonathan out loud here is wondering, maybe God will work

through me. Jonathan here is putting himself

forward for God to use. He's not presumptuous.

He's not assuming that God will work through him.

He's not trying to force God's hand here.

Perhaps God will work through him.

Perhaps God won't work through him.

But Jonathan here is acting out of a confidence that God will

save his people. And he's looking around for how

God could be at work. He's he's trusting God is at

work. Where is he at work?

He's looking around for that. And I think we actually see this

in this little epithet that he uses of the Philistines.

He calls them the uncircumcised. Feels kind of like a throwaway

word in a way. But I don't think we are to

simply read this as the Jewish way of saying those dirty dogs

over there. That's not that's not what what

he's saying. I don't think it's there's

something, there's a lot more going on here.

Circumcision was the covenant sign of God's people, the

covenant sign of God's promises that he made to God's people.

It's analogous to baptism today. Hebrew boys wore God's promises

on themselves, just like all of us who have been baptized are

wearing God's promises on ourselves now.

And God promised that his people would grow and spread and be a

blessing to the world. Nothing will destroy God's

people, not then and not now. God had promised that

generations before and given them the sign of circumcision to

help them remember that. Jonathan knows this.

He knows that God has chosen his people.

He knows that he's made these promises to them, that he will

not abandon his promises. All Jonathan is called to do now

is to look around and to see where God is at work, because he

must be at work. In other words, Jonathan is in

God's story. He's searching for his own part

in the bigger story of God's salvation of his people.

He's not focused on his own story.

God is central. God is the main character.

God, in fact, is informing every part of Jonathan's life.

And the result is this kind of beautiful, humble courage, isn't

it? He's not presuming of God, but

he eagerly steps out into the world to see where God is at

work and what role God is calling him to In that.

And in this way, Jonathan here is a model of faith for us.

He's living all of his life before the presence of God.

And the result is that he gets to participate in God's

salvation. He goes up on this apparently

hopeless mission, discerns how God is directing him there, then

defeats a score of the Philistines.

You can sort of picture this in a movie.

And God then uses that defeat to throw the entire rest of the

Philistines into the into confusion.

Verse 15 says that the earthquaked there was literally

a panic from God spreading among the Philistines.

Jonathan is participating in something bigger than himself,

and the result is something that's so much bigger than him.

Friends, what an exciting way to live.

What an exciting way to live. Do you live this way?

Do you live looking for how God is at work in the world,

bringing salvation to His people wherever they are?

Are you living with this humble courage that's the inevitable

result of looking first at God and not at yourself?

Or are you trying to write your own autobiography?

Do you see yourself as part of God's story before your own

story? Jonathan here is inviting us to

view our lives in this way. Saul, though, is a different

story. So let's read this next section.

It'll be verses 16 through 30 to see what kind of story Saul is

writing. And the Watchmen of Saul and

Gibeah Benjamin looked and behold, the multitude was

dispersing here and there. Then Saul said to the people who

were with him, count and see who is gone from us.

And when they had count, and behold, Jonathan and his armor

bearer, we're not there. So Saul said to Ahijah, bring

the ark of God here. For the ark of God went at that

time with the people of Israel. Now while Saul was talking to

the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines

increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest,

Withdraw your hand. Then Saul and all the people who

were with him rallied and went into the battle.

And behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow.

And there was very great confusion.

Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that

time, and who had gone up with them into the camp, even, they

also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul

and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of

Israel who had hidden themselves in the Hill Country of Ephraim

heard that the Philistines were fleeing, they too followed hard

after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that

day, and the battle passed beyond Beth Haven, and the men

of Israel had been hard pressed that day.

So Saul had laid an oath on the people, saying, cursed to be the

man who eats food until it is evening, and I am avenged on my

enemies. So none of the people had tasted

food. Now when all the people came to

the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground.

And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was

dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the

people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his

father charge the people with the oath.

So he put out the tip of his staff that was in his hand and

dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand into his mouth and

his eyes became bright. Then one of the people said,

Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying

cursed be the man who eats food this day.

And the people were were faint. Then Jonathan said, My father

has troubled the lamb. See how my eyes have become

bright because I tasted a little of this honey.

How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the

spoil of their enemies that they found.

For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.

The word of the Lord. So Saul, here's the commotion

caused by Jonathan's attack and he musters his army to see who

might be missing. He figures out that his son is

gone with his armor bearer. And so he then goes to consult

with God. The reference to the ark here is

likely a a reference to the ephod, which is kind of a, a

holy vest that the priest would wear.

And then they could use that to discern God's will and function

kind of like a mobile ark, you could say.

And so Saul here calls the priest to consult with God.

Now, I think at this point we should have questions about

Saul. Why is Saul only now consulting

with God? Things have been dire for a

while now. Shouldn't Saul have been praying

to God, seeking his face, seeking his counsel perpetually,

particularly since he is Israel's king?

But then the battle grows louder, and Saul tells the

priest to withdraw his hand from the holy vest.

There's no time to consult with God now.

We got to go. So Saul rallies the army, they

head into battle, and they defeat the Philistines.

Now, the reality is that sometimes we have to make quick

decisions that don't allow for a lot of time of discernment or

prayer. That's just, you know, we've all

been in those situations, right? It's precisely in these

situations, though, that it's so important that we have been

cultivating a constant communion with the Lord.

Saul wasn't doing that. He goes to pray and then he

withdraws his prayer and he acts based on his own wisdom.

And the difference here with Jonathan is Stark, isn't it?

Jonathan is actively searching for where God might be at work.

His father doesn't even think he has time to pray.

And the result is that Saul makes perhaps his his biggest

mistake to date. And the narrator tells us in

verse 23 that the Lord saved Israel that day.

But in the very next verse, we see where Saul's focus is the

salt. The soldiers had been fighting

hard all day, and Saul then lays an oath on them.

Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am

avenged on my enemies. His focus is myopically on

himself, isn't it? He must be avenged on his

enemies. Forget that it was the Lord who

saved. Forget that Israel is God's

people, that these are ultimately God's enemies.

Saul must be avenged on his enemies.

Whose story is Saul writing? His own.

Who's the main character in his story?

He is. What role does God play in his

story? A shrinking one, apparently.

If Jonathan is part of God's story, God is only part of

Saul's story. Saul here I think is is a

classic example of this autobiography mindset.

He's so focused on his needs, on his circumstances, his problems,

that he cannot attend to what God is doing.

It's like Saul's life is a puzzle.

God is just one piece that he fits in when he can.

But the reality is that God isn't a part of the puzzle of

our lives at all. God is the table that the puzzle

is laying on in the 1st place. Without him, we do not exist,

our lives do not have any support, any coherence at all.

Augustine's Confessions is considered to be the first

autobiography in the West, written around 400 AD.

But there is a really big difference between The

Confessions and The Prince of Darkness or Kenny Chesney's

autobiography. If our autobiographies are

written in the first person, you know what I did, what I felt,

what I experienced, This funny story that happened to me, his

was written in the second person.

His entire autobiography is a prayer, and he's praying to God,

searching for how God has been at work in his life even before

he ever realized it. In his writing, he's discovering

who he is in relation to God, how God is at work, how God has

been at work to draw him to himself.

This is true of us as well, whether we realize it or not.

God is the one holding our lives in His hands, and so we should

live our lives in the second person, always looking for how

God is at work, how you Lord are at work, always thinking about

ourselves, not in reference to my story, but in reference to

him. And a quick way to do this is to

think about when do you pray? Do we pray like Saul, only

offering up prayers, quick prayers, you know, short prayers

that we drop off in the middle of crisis?

Or are we, like Jonathan, living all of our life in the presence

of God? Are you talking to God

throughout the day? Are you wondering when you see a

traffic jam? God, what are you doing here?

It could be God, what are you doing here?

Or God, you know, how are you? How are you at work even here?

Are you offering little praises to God when you see a

particularly glorious fall tree? Are you orienting yourself all

the time to God and what he is doing, how he is at work?

I'm not talking about performative spirituality.

I'm not talking about walking around saying praise the Lord

all the time. That's what the Pharisees did.

There's not necessarily something wrong with that if

it's deeper than performance. But I'm not talking about

performance here. I'm talking about a real, deep,

abiding sense that you were going through all of your life

in the presence of God, seeking His face, curious about His

action in the world. Of course, this does mean

spending focused time with Him in prayer and study, but it

means more than that as well. It means focusing our attention

not on ourselves and on our story, but on God and what He is

doing, the story that he is writing in the world.

The result of of Saul's autobiography autobiography

Mindset, is catastrophic. Saul is so focused on himself

that he can't see how tired his army is.

The land is literally flowing with honey.

This is what God promised, and yet the people can't partake of

the blessings of the land. Jonathan inadvertently puts

himself under a curse. Saul is so focused on himself

that he cannot bless his people, and he ends up cursing his son.

So that's Saul. Let's now look at the final

section of the story and think about God's people.

Verses 31 to 50 to 46. They stroke down the Philistines

that day from Mick Mash to Ajalan, and the people were very

faint. The people pounced on the spoil

and took sheep and oxen and calves and slaughtered them on

the ground, and the people ate them with the blood.

Then they told Saul, behold, the people are sinning against the

Lord by eating with the blood. And he said, you have dealt

treacherously. Roll a great stone to me here.

And Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people, and

say to them, Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and

slaughter them here, and eat, and do not sin against the Lord

by eating with the blood. So every one of the people

brought his ox with him that night, and they slaughtered them

there. And Saul built an altar to the

Lord. It was the first altar that he

built to the Lord. Then Saul said, Let us go down

after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the

morning light. Let us not leave a man of them.

And they said, do whatever seems good to you.

But the priest said, let's draw near to God here.

And Saul inquired of God, shall I go down after the Philistines?

Will you give them into the hand of Israel?

But he did not answer him that day.

And Saul said, Come here, all you leaders of the people, and

know and see how this sin has arisen today.

For the as the Lord lives, who saves Israel, though it be

Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.

But there was not a man among all the people who answered him.

Then he said to all Israel, you shall be on one side, and I and

Jonathan my son will be on the other.

And the people said to Saul, Do what seems good to you.

Therefore Saul said, O Lord God of Israel, why have you not

answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in

Jonathan my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim.

But if his guilt is in your people Israel, give Thummim.

Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped.

Then Saul said, cast a lot between me and my son Jonathan,

and Jonathan was taken. Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell

me what you have done. And Jonathan told him, I tasted

a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand.

Here I am, I will die, and Saul said, God, do so to me, and more

also you shall surely die, Jonathan.

Then the people said to Saul, shall Jonathan die who has

worked this great salvation in Israel?

Far from it. As the Lord lives there shall

not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked

with God this day. So the people ransomed Jonathan

so that he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing

the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own

place, the word of the Lord. If Jonathan and Saul and Saul

show us two different approaches to our story, the character of

the people here shows us what happens when God's people lack a

leader who was attentive to God. Verses 21 and 22, we saw how the

the how God's people found new courage when God saved Israel.

The turncoats returned to Israel.

Verse 21, the hiding cowards emerged with strength in verse

22. And this is all because God

saved Israel that day. Verse 23, you could say that

because of God's action they were becoming like Jonathan, but

the result of Saul's self-centered leadership is that

the people become very faint. This is verse 31, the second

time that that's repeated in this story.

Not only are they not able to completely defeat the

Philistines, but they're so hungry that they jump on the

Philistines animals and eat them with the blood, which the Mosaic

Law explicitly forbids. There's just swinging wildly

right from newfound courage to faint weakness to lawbreakers,

all in the span of hours, and all because their king is doing

just such a bad job. But Saul continues his myopic

self centeredness, doesn't he? He proposes that his famished

army now March through the night to pursue the Philistines.

But the priest, probably in kind of a good political move,

proposes, hey, why don't we stop and consult with God about this?

And here the story reaches its highest point of tension.

God doesn't answer. Saul assumes it's because

somebody has sinned, and he finds out through this sort of

casting of lots that Jonathan unwittingly broke Saul's rash

vow. Jonathan agrees to die, but the

people then step in to save him. The people have to step in to

save their Savior from their king.

It's just all so backwards. A king should save his people.

A king should lay down his life. But Saul here is proving that he

is just not that kind of king, is he?

He is the center of his own story.

And the result is that the people are left leaderless,

swinging wildly from courage to weakness to sin to desperate

defiance of their king. If God is only part of the

King's story, then the people are left searching for a story.

They need a better king, a leader like Jonathan, who is

gladly finding his part in God's bigger story.

Only then, when they find that leader, will they find their

meaning. Will they find their direction?

Only what then? Will they be able to fully feast

in the land of milk and honey? Now, this is the penultimate

sermon in our series looking at First Samuel.

We'll finish it next week on the final Sunday of Ordinary Time

and then Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Yes, Thanksgiving is that close. We will be an Advent and we will

be preparing for Christmas. The story of Saul really feels

like it's ending on a downer. It doesn't get any better next

week, guys, and it doesn't seem like it fits with this season

that we're moving into, of, of Thanksgiving and good cheer and

parties. Saul seemed like such a

promising king, but he's ending so badly.

We're disappointed with him, but his story also calls us to look

for the greater king. We see how badly things are

going there and how much is that like things that are happening

here? We long for leadership that can

just keep the government open, feed the poor, protect the

vulnerable, pursue peace around the world.

Sometimes we might even think that we found such leadership

and our leaders might succeed for a time, kind of like Saul.

But at the end of the day, we will always be disappointed.

If our hope is in earthly leaders, we will continue to

swing wildly, just like Israel. We need a faithful king to come,

just like Israel did. So all story here is pointing

us. It's preparing us for Advent by

pointing us to our need for Christmas.

We don't need presents and lights and parties.

We don't need good cheer. We need a king.

We need a king who loves the Lord and who is focused squarely

on him. It's only by the coming of our

King that we can find our place in God's story.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, his Son, our King.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.