Saul with Samuel was a winning combination. But Samuel would not live forever, and before he completely handed over to Saul he felt compelled to warn Israel of the dangers of ignoring God and doing things their own way; just like Joshua and Moses had before him (Joshua 23-24, Deuteronomy 28-32).
Read 1 Samuel 12:1-5
1 Samuel said to all Israel, ‘I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. 2 Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and grey, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day. 3 Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.’
4 ‘You have not cheated or oppressed us,’ they replied. ‘You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.’
5 Samuel said to them, ‘The Lord is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.’
‘He is witness,’ they said.
Before he issued his dire warnings, he needed to get the people to agree that he had the right to warn them. They agreed that his leadership had been faultless. However Samuel couldn’t say the same for them.
Read 1 Samuel 12:6-12
6 Then Samuel said to the people, ‘It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. 7 Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the Lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the Lord for you and your ancestors.
8 ‘After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place.
9 ‘But they forgot the Lord their God; so he sold them into the hands of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. 10 They cried out to the Lord and said, “We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.” 11 Then the Lord sent Jerub-Baal (Gideon), Barak, Jephthah and Samuel (some manuscripts have Samson), and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety.
12 ‘But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, “No, we want a king to rule over us”– even though the Lord your God was your king.
In Samuel’s eyes this was their biggest mistake.
Why?
If God had demonstrated that he would do all he had promised under covenant, and that he would save them from their enemies (despite them not obeying their side of the covenant) asking for a king was in effect saying that God wasn’t good enough for them.
Read 1 Samuel 12:13-15
13 Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. 14 If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God – good! 15 But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors.
Was Samuel already concerned about the integrity of their new king (v14b)?
Read 1 Samuel 12:16-25
16 ‘Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! 17 Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain. And you will realise what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king.’
18 Then Samuel called on the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel.
19 The people all said to Samuel, ‘Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.’
The people came to their senses (yet again, and temporarily). Thunder and rain during the ‘dry’ season was enough to frighten them – for now.
20 ‘Do not be afraid,’ Samuel replied. ‘You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22 For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. 23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24 But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. 25 Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.’
What other great leaders of Israel gave these specific warnings?
What specific warning did they all pick out?
Moses (Deuteronomy 30:15-19) and Joshua (Joshua 23:14-16)
‘Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless’ (verse 21 above).
Do we have anything God would consider an idol?
‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’ (Matthew 6:21)
Or what do we devote more time to than God?
Facebook rather than God’s book?
An idol is any person, object or activity you give a higher priority in your life than a relationship with God. An idol can be your home, your job, a vehicle, a relationship, or even your family. An idol can be a pet, a computer, or what you look at on that computer. An idol can be alcohol, drugs, sex, or any sin. An idol can be the work you do for the Lord that consumes all your energy and time. God says He’s a jealous God. He wants our time and attention.
Scott Presson https://www1.cbn.com/devotions/kill-your-idols
What happened next?
The Philistines were a continual thorn in the flesh, the peace agreement with them was very one-sided in their favour (Look ahead at 1 Samuel 13:19), and it allowed them to have military outposts throughout Israel.
For Saul to exercise his new authority the obvious thing would be to demonstrate that his nation was more powerful than the Philistines.
Read 1 Samuel 13:1-4
1 Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel for forty- two years.
2 Saul chose three thousand men from Israel; two thousand were with him at Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan at Gibeah in Benjamin. The rest of the men he sent back to their homes.
3 Jonathan attacked the Philistine outpost at Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul had the trumpet blown throughout the land and said, ‘Let the Hebrews hear!’ 4 So all Israel heard the news: ‘Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become obnoxious to the Philistines.’ And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.
If Saul was thirty years old (v1), his son Jonathan could only have been a teenager – maybe just thirteen. Obviously the men who Saul had chosen would be experienced soldiers, and of the thousand that had been allocated to Jonathan, I expect some were specifically ordered to make sure he was kept safe!
The outpost that Jonathan attacked would not have needed to contain more than a token force; the Israelites had accepted the presence of the Philistines and knew there would be harsh reprisals if they attempted to rebel against them.
But destroying this small outpost was taken by the Philistines as a signal for all-out war.
Was Saul surprised that Jonathan had attacked the outpost?
What else would a young teenager who had been given an army to play with do?
Why did Saul not attack the outpost himself?
What was he expecting to do with his two thousand men?
Note in verse 4 that everyone assumed that Saul had attacked the Philistines.
Read 1 Samuel 13:5-10
5 The Philistines assembled to fight Israel, with three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers, and soldiers as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth Aven. 6 When the Israelites saw that their situation was critical and that their army was hard pressed, they hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in pits and cisterns. 7 Some Hebrews even crossed the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead.
It wasn’t the army that hid in verse 6, but the ordinary people guessed what would happen and did their best to protect themselves. But that doesn’t mean that the army weren’t afraid as well.
Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.
8 He waited for seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter.
Saul was well aware that the instructions given to him by Samuel (in 1 Samuel 10:8) related to this specific time.
9 So he said, ‘Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.’ And Saul offered up the burnt offering. 10 Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.
How had Saul failed?
He disobeyed the word of the prophet.
He demonstrated that his attitude towards God was no better than the attitude of the heathen kings around him, ‘before you go into battle, appease the gods with a sacrifice’.
He had no relationship with God and so was not able to trust him in the way that Samuel had demonstrated at Mizpah.
Read 1 Samuel 13:11-12
11 ‘What have you done?’ asked Samuel.
Saul replied, ‘When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, 12 I thought, “Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the Lord’s favour.” So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering.’
Saul was getting desperate – he was out of his depth. He had never led an army into battle before, and he didn’t understand what God wanted of him.
Read 1 Samuel 13:13-14
13 ‘You have done a foolish thing,’ Samuel said. ‘You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. 14 But now your kingdom will not endure; the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.’
Saul has forfeited his kingship. God actually allowed him to remain as king for forty years, but already Jesse had been selected and already the Lord had appointed his young son David to be a king after his own heart.
Read 1 Samuel 13:15-18
15 Then Samuel left Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin, and Saul counted the men who were with him. They numbered about six hundred.
Not only had his soldiers deserted, Samuel had left him, and it seemed God had too.
Battle at Michmash
16 Saul and his son Jonathan and the men with them were staying in Gibeah of Benjamin, while the Philistines camped at Michmash. 17 Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three detachments. One turned towards Ophrah in the vicinity of Shual, 18 another towards Beth Horon, and the third towards the borderland overlooking the Valley of Zeboyim facing the wilderness.
The Philistines were expecting all-out war, but while they waited for a reaction to their presence they may as well send out raiding parties to take whatever they found. It seems Saul was powerless to respond.
Why?
Read 1 Samuel 13:19-21
19 Not a blacksmith could be found in the whole land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, ‘Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears!’ 20 So all Israel went down to the Philistines to have their ploughshares, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. 21 The price was two-thirds of a shekel for sharpening ploughshares and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads.
Israel was in a time of transition – they had lived for a long time through the Bronze Age but bronze was relatively rare and expensive, so flint knives, arrows, spears and axes were still in use. Iron was comparatively more readily available but was new technology which the Philistines guarded jealously. They had such a stranglehold on Israel, there were very few iron weapons available to Israel’s soldiers.
Bronze tools also needed repair and resharpening. I can imagine almost a protection racket operating – whenever an enterprising Israelite attempted to set up as a blacksmith, he would be encouraged to stop. By closing down the Israelite blacksmiths they could also control the availability of any metal tools or weapons.
Read 1 Samuel 13:22-23
22 So on the day of the battle not a soldier with Saul and Jonathan had a sword or spear in his hand; only Saul and his son Jonathan had them.
23 Now a detachment of Philistines had gone out to the pass at Michmash.
When Archbishop Stephen Langton introduced chapter divisions in the 13th century he occasionally made his division a verse early, or late. Or maybe he understood the value of suspense!
What happened next will have to wait for our next study.
