You Have Done A Foolish Thing - 1 Samuel 11-13 Series

The Crown – Season One – Episode 3

You have done a foolish thing

We left chapter 10 a little confused. Saul seems to lack initiative. He doesn’t exhibit the skills associated with leadership. In some ways there is not a lot of hope for his reign. Yet, Samuel says some very encouraging things about Saul.

1 Samuel 10:6–9 (NIV) — 6 The Spirit of the LORD will come powerfully upon you, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. 7 Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you. 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.” 9 As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul’s heart, and all these signs were fulfilled that day.

And, he has some good people around him.

1 Samuel 10:26 (NIV) — 26 Saul also went to his home in Gibeah, accompanied by valiant men whose hearts God had touched.

But look at the next verse:

1 Samuel 10:27 (NIV) — 27 But some scoundrels said, “How can this fellow save us?” They despised him and brought him no gifts. But Saul kept silent.

There are some doubters!

So, what will it be?

Saul’s first test will come in Chapter 11 against a nation called the Ammonites.

Nahash, the king of Ammon, is threatening an Israelite city, Jabesh-Gilead. They want a treaty and Nahash agrees so long as he can gouge out the right eye of every person. This will allow them to do servants work but will make them unable to fight effectively. Jabesh-Gilead asks for a week to make a decision hoping they can get the support of the rest of the nation.

Word gets to Saul, and he takes decisive action. And he’s quite creative. He cuts up a pair of oxen and sends them all over Israel with the message, “This is what will be done to your oxen if you don’t come and help out.” That does the trick and the whole nation of Israel comes together as one. Saul develops a military strategy and they defeat Nahash. He proves to be a good leader. He gets the nation act as one.

Saul goes to Gilgal which is an important city. It’s where Joshua first brought the people into the promised land. We have cities like that – Lexington/Concord or Gettysburg or The Alamo. There they have a big celebration. Saul is off to a great start.

Chapter 12 is often labeled as Samuel’s farewell address. It’s really more like a changing of the guard address. Samuel, although he is nearing the end of his career, will still be around a while and will show up in the coming chapters. But his role is changing now that Saul is King. He repeats a lot of what he said earlier about his displeasure of them wanting a king. He recites a bit of their history. Warns them that they must obey. And reminds them that God will not reject him. He will be true to his covenant.

But we want to focus more on Saul, so let’s move to chapter 13. It’s another big test as this is Saul’s first encounter with the Philistines – Israel's’ arch enemy. They have been torn in their side for centuries. They are prominent in the book of judges. Remember Samson won a great battle against them. They live on the southwestern coast but have moved inland and set up camp at Mikmash and they have come to fight. We are also introduced in this chapter to Saul’s son, Jonathan. He will prove to be an upstanding man. He will become David’s dearest f friends. We’re not going to focus so much on him but remember that name.

The Philistines are loaded for bear – I think that’s the expression.

They have an impressive army!

1 Samuel 13:5 (NIV) — 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 Mikmash, east of Beth Aven.

They have state of the art technology that Israel doesn’t have. They can make weapons out of metal. The Israelites are basically sharpening sticks.

1 Samuel 13:19–22 (NIV) — 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 plow points, mattocks, axes and sickles sharpened. 21 The price was two-thirds of a shekel for sharpening plow points and mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening forks and axes and for repointing goads. 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.