Last week we saw the marks of a great servant in Prophet Samuel. He is a man of integrity, faithfulness and a genuine love for his people.
• Today we will see the new leader Saul, and sadly, the opposite of what we see last week – the marks of a disobedient servant.
Let’s read 1 Samuel 13:1-15.
Let me explain two things before we go on. There are 2 problematic translations in this passage – verse 1 and verse 5 - both has to do with numbers.
• Different versions use different ancient manuscripts and the numbers in your bible version will be different.
Verse 1 – original Hebrew: “Saul was ____ years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel ___ two years.”
• Later manuscripts put in the blank, with 30 and 40 respectively. (Acts 13:21 mentioned Saul reigning for 40 years.)
• No one is sure of the numbers, but the most likely translation is “Saul was a year old from being anointed king, and he is now two years into his official reign” the event in chapter 13 happens.
Verse 5 has a problem with the numbers too.
• In the Hebrew manuscript it’s 30,000 chariots but most felt this may be inaccurate because there are only 6000 charioteers. 3000 is more likely the number. In Hebrew the figures 30,000 and 3000 look very similar.
But the main message of the passage is still intact. Nothing significant is lost with these because the context is that Israel is greatly outnumbered by the Philistines.
Saul was put in a very difficult position. This was a TEST of his trust and dependence on God as the new king of Israel. But he failed.
• His failure revealed the condition of his heart towards God.
• The problem is not with the problem. It is with his relationship with God.
• The crisis exposes his heart towards God and the things of God. This is the HEART of the matter.
The Philistines gathered against Israel and was greatly outnumbered.
• How do you stand up against a force “as numerous as the sand on the seashore)? You can’t. Only God can.
• Not only that, they had no chariots and no weapons. Later part of chapter 13 tells us the men were without proper weapons. 13:22 says only Saul and his son Jonathan had a sword and spear.
Beside these “hardware” problems, we have “software” problems.
• The men were so afraid they fled and hid in caves and thickets, in whatever holes they can find among the rocks.
• Some even fled across the river Jordan to the East. At the end of the day, verse 15 tells us Saul has only 600 men with him. Down from the 3000 he had.
This is the right setting for a pious heart. Saul needs to depend on God!
Samuel had told Saul to wait for him – 1 Sam 10:8 “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.”
• The words of Samuel have been prophetically accurate. We saw that in chapter 10 when he spoke to Saul and Saul knew it.
• But Samuel did not turn up at the time he expected. I say “he expected” because I don’t think Samuel was late. 13:10 “Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived.” How late can that be?
• Moreover, Samuel has never been inaccurate in what he says. He probably arrived near the end of the 7th day, but that’s not a time Saul would like.
Saul was COMPELLED to offer the burnt offering, he said. He was driven by fear and desperation, and his men were running away.
• So Saul took the matter into his own hands and broke God’s command by offering the sacrifices himself, a role reserved only for the priests.
• Saul probably says, “I can do it too. I’ve seen how Samuel did it and I can just do the same.”
No regard for God’s command. No respect for Samuel. Only the desire to satisfy his own needs and get the favour of God.
• Let me tell you the oddest thing here, which can happen to us sometimes. Saul says he needed to do the burnt offering to seek the Lord’s favour (v.12).
• This is a contradiction! We can never gain God’s favour doing something contrary to His will. We can never win God’s favour by acting apart from God’s Word.
No wonder Samuel said, “You acted foolishly!” You are a fool.
• Prov 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom…”
• Samuel said that if Saul had remained faithful, God would have established his kingdom for all time. But now his reign as king will not endure.
• This is a prophetic word. It is not just because of one unlawful sacrifice; it is his unfaithful heart. He is not a man after God’s own heart.
• We see this heart expressing itself in the following chapters. Saul has no FEAR of God in his heart.
Two things we can learn here:
(1) Don’t let the RITUAL rise above your RELATIONSHIP with God
• Saul places greater faith in the doing the sacrifice than obeying God.
• He believes that by doing the sacrifice, he will win the war.
(2) Don’t let YOUR WAYS rise above GOD’S WAYS
• This happens when we think we know better, we are smarter than God.
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It’s so easy for us to shift from trusting God to trusting the RITUAL to bring us blessings. This tendency is real for all of us.
• Man are generally very superstitious beings.
Two weeks ago, you see people lining up in front of ATMs across the island making deposits. They believe that putting in money on Li Chun (Feb 4) will bring in fortunes for them in the New Year.
They even came up with different “lucky hours” for people born under different zodiac signs, so if you belong to the “snake” you have to put in your money at this 2-hour timeslot.
Reporters asked the experts – fengshui masters and monks – and they say all these are not true. They debunked this as a modern myth, an idea created a few years ago on social media. Yet people still choose to believe it.
A corporation even announced to its staff that they would be receiving their pay cheques for the month on this day: “With their salaries being deposited on Li Chun for them, all 10,000 employees in Singapore will essentially have their deposit needs taken care of." How sad. They are perpetuating and reinforcing a lie.
Take God out of the equation and we are left with NOTHING, whatever ritual or discipline you are doing. The burnt offering would not save them; God will!
• The “ritual” is a means to an end and that end is God. We seek Him and worship Him. We pray and trust Him. We honour Him and obey Him.
• It’s the RELATIONSHIP and not the RITUAL that brings us the blessings.
I’ve people coming to me and say, “I’ve been going to church every week, how come this bad thing happen to me. I’ve been giving my offering regularly, how come this trouble comes to me.” It’s not the rituals!
We don’t hold God at ransom by the sacrifices we make. We don’t buy God’s favour by our offerings. Look beyond these. It is a relationship with God! Talk to Him and understand His will. Seek Him and know His heart. Honour Him and we will see the light.
(2) Don’t let YOUR WAYS rise above GOD’S WAYS
• Saul was pressurised to act because he felt that time was running out.
• The reality was that Israel was in no immediate danger. The Philistines didn't attack them as they feared.
Satan will scare us into thinking that we have to take things into our own hands, and that God does not care and you have to do it yourself.
• The truth is, God cares and He is going to fight for them. We’ll see that in the next 2 chapters.
So when you feel pressurised and afraid, WAIT. When you feel compelled to act, WAIT. Chances are, when pressurised, we do things our way.
• Ps 27:13-14 “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.”
• Ps 130:5 “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I put my hope.”
We wait and listen to Him. We get to know the truth and what to do.
When told that the practice of banking in money on Li Chun is just a myth, people still prefer to stick to “tradition”. They are not sticking to tradition; they are sticking to deception. Yet they finds it sensible to do so. Never mind if it is not true, it feels good and everybody is doing it.
People finds it so hard now to believe the truth. To heed God’s Word has become more and more difficult. Social media is more believable than the Word of God.
It is not about the lack of evidence. It is a matter of the heart.
• The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.
• Let us TRUST God and SUBMIT to Him with all our heart. Be determine to obey His Word and abide by His ways.
God’s desire is to lead us through difficult and stressful times. Fix our eyes on Jesus! We don’t fear evil because He is with us, with His rod and staff in hand.
• Trying times test what we are made of. It shows who we really are and who our God is.
• 2 Cor 4:7-9 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
It will always be well with our soul, when we trust and obey Him.
SONG: IT IS WELL
