Saul offers a burnt offering, and is rebuked
13
📚Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,13:1 Some manuscripts of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (Septuagint) have Saul’s age here as thirty when he became king. The Hebrew here does not have the word generally used for “one”, and has the plural for year. So some scholars think the first line of the text should read – “Saul was thirty years old when he began to reign”. Acts 13:21 says that Saul reigned for forty years.⚜
2 📚Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel. Of these two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in Bethel mountain, and a thousand were with Jonathan 📖 in Gibeah of Benjamin. And he sent the rest of the people away, each one to his tent.
3 📚And Jonathan struck the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet 📖 throughout the whole land, saying, “Let the Hebrews 📖 hear”. 4 📚And all Israel heard it said that Saul had struck a garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become odious 📖 to the Philistines. And the people were called together after Saul to Gilgal.
5 📚And the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty 📖 thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and people as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they came up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-Aven 📖. 6 📚When the men of Israel saw that they were in a tight place (for the people were hard pressed), then the people hid themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in high places and in pits. 7 📚And some of the Hebrews went over the Jordan to the region of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.
8 And he waited seven days in accordance with the time that Samuel had set, but Samuel 📖 did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 📚And Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering here to me, and peace offerings”. And he offered the burnt offering.
13:9 Samuel’s instructions had been very clear and they had been given at a time when he had given three signs that God was speaking through him (1 Sam 10:1-7).⚜
10 📚And it came about that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, suddenly Samuel came, and Saul went out to meet him to greet him.
11 📚And Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines had gathered together at Michmash, 12 📚therefore I said, Now the Philistines will come down on me to Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favour 📖. So I forced myself 📖 and offered a burnt offering”.
13 📚And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you 📖. If you had, now the LORD would have established your kingdom in Israel forever 📖.
13:13 Saul had some good qualities, but here are two great weaknesses. He was foolish (1 Sam 26:21), and he lacked an obedient heart (1 Sam 15:10-11, 24). Many people there are who cannot be trusted with leadership because of these two failings. In our study of Saul we can see many ways in which a leader may fail and make himself unfit for leadership.⚜
14 📚But now your kingdom will not continue. The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be the leader over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you”.
13:14 1 Sam 15:28; 1 Sam 16:1; Ps 89:20; Acts 13:22. From the context we can understand that a man after (or according to) God’s heart is a person who will be spiritually wise and obedient, and not like Saul who was foolish and disobedient. But no doubt it will be profitable for us to consider in more detail why God regarded David as a man after His own heart. We can see why David was such a man by studying his history and the psalms he wrote. In general it means that David knew something of the heart of God and tried to keep his heart in harmony with what he knew. But more specific qualities and attitudes of heart can be mentioned.
Let us strive to obtain the following qualities and heart attitudes seen in David, and earnestly pray that God will produce them in us. And let us remember that David did not have such qualities and attitudes by nature. He was a fallen human being with a sinful nature just like the rest of the human race, and this he himself understood quite well (Ps 51:5). His sins were his own, his good qualities were produced in him by the Spirit of God, with, of course, David’s cooperation.
(a) David had great confidence and trust in God, not in himself – 1 Sam 17:37, 47; Ps 18:2; 23:1-6; 28:7; 44:6-8; 56:4.
(b) David always praised God for what was accomplished, not himself – Ps 9:1; 28:7; 33:1-3; 34:1; 56:4.
(c) David wanted glory and honor to be given to God, not to himself – 1 Sam 17:26, 36, 46; Ps 25:11; 29:1-2; 31:3; 34:3; 115:1.
(e) David delighted in the Word of God and made it his business to know it and obey it – Ps 12:6; 17:4; 19:9-11; 56:10; 119:11, 16, 17, 67, 74, 89, 101, 105, 133, 148, 160, 162, 172 (assuming here that David wrote Psalm 119); Ps 130:5.
(f) David was a man of integrity, faithful in the tasks given him to do, whether it was tending sheep or ruling a kingdom – 1 Sam 17:34-35; 1 Kings 9:4; Ps 78:70-72. Dishonesty, unfaithfulness, lying, crookedness of any kind were all hateful to him – Ps 15:1-5; 26:4-5; 101:1-8. He knew that God was a God of truth and faithfulness and determined that he would be a man of truth and faithfulness – Ps 25:5; 26:3; 31:5; 51:6; 86:11.
(g) David did not strive to gain position or power (as is the usual way of men), even though God had chosen him to be king. He patiently waited for God’s time and God’s way – 1 Sam 24:4-7; 1 Sam 26:7-11; 1 Sam 31:1-5.
(h) David was a humble man who was aware of his weakness and helplessness and tried to keep himself free of that pride and arrogance which God hates – 2 Sam 12:7-13; Ps 25:7, 11; 40:17; 51:1-17; 131:1-2.
(i) David loved God, God’s name, God’s work, God’s people, God’s house – Ps 8:1; 16:3; 18:1; 26:8; 27:4; 34:3; 51:13; 119:97, 127; 2 Sam 24:17. We may say that this love was at the center of his being, governing his whole course of life.
(j) David had the fear of the Lord which made him spiritually wise and obedient – Ps 5:7; 19:9; 34:11-14; 119:63, 120.
(k) David showed his love and gratitude toward God by both words and deeds – Ps 30:12; 35:18; 119:62; 2 Sam 24:24; 1 Chron 29:2-5.
(l) David was teachable. He longed to understand God’s truth and God’s ways and walk in them, and was willing to examine himself and correct anything he saw to be wrong – Ps 25:4; 27:11; 43:3; 86:11; 119:59; 139:23-24.
(m) David was a man of prayer who acknowledged his need and helplessness and opened his heart and life to God to meet his need, a man who nourished his spiritual life in the presence of God – Ps 5:3, 7; 40:17; 42:1-2; 51:11 (his psalms are full of this and innumerable references might be given).
(n) He loved God’s holiness and wanted his whole life to be conformed to it – Ps 19:13-14; 24:3-4; 29:2; 30:4; 51:7-10; 103:1, 3; 119:11, 133; 145:21.
Such are some of the qualities which made David a man after God’s own heart. Others could be added to this list but these are enough to show why God was pleased with him.⚜
15 📚And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul counted the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.
Soldiers without swords and spears
16 📚And Saul and his son Jonathan and the people who were present with them, stayed in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines were camping at Michmash. 17 📚And the raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three groups; one group turned toward the road that goes to Ophrah, to the region of Shual, 18 📚and another group turned toward Beth-Horon, and another group turned toward the border that overlooks the valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
19 📚Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout the whole land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “So that the Hebrews cannot make swords or spears for themselves”.
13:19 The Philistines believed in total disarmament – for Israel, not for themselves. Of course this gave them a tremendous advantage in any battle between the two nations.⚜
20 But all the Israelites would go down to the Philistines, so that each one could sharpen his plowshare and his sickle and his axe and his mattock. 21 And there was a sharpening charge for the mattocks and for the sickles and for the forks and for the axes and to set the points of the goads.
22 📚So it came about on the day of battle that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan, but they were found with Saul and with his son Jonathan.
13:22 Two swords for a whole nation! But they had bows and arrows and spears, etc.⚜
23 📚And an outpost of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.