No Small Disobedience

Introduction: Glitches

In the last couple of weeks in their history course, my kids have been learning about September 11, 2001. Over some lunch hours, I've gotten to listen in a bit and revisit that fateful day, which will be 25 years ago this fall.

In one of the documentaries they watched, there was an incredible piece of footage of a news reporter giving a report with the South Tower in the background right as it began to collapse. And the tape keeps rolling as he and his camera man run away, as the camera bounces along, because it was literally tape that was rolling, there are some frames in the video that kind of glitch out, and you see squares and lines instead of the footage. In other words, some information is missing from the video.

But that doesn’t make me question at all that that camera was actually there that day. It doesn't make me question whether that recording is an accurate portrayal of the events that happened that day. Even with some information missing, the tape is more than able to communicate the events as they unfolded.

And in fact, the glitches actually add to the authenticity as they bear witness to the fact that this was a real recording that was really bumped and jostled along. If it was too perfect, we'd suspect it was computer-generated or something, right?

All of this made me think about the first verse of 1 Samuel 13. Because this first verse is kind of like one of those frames that glitched out on the news recording.

Depending on your translation, you might read “Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel” (1 Samuel 13:1). Or, "Saul was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned over Israel forty-two years" (NIV). Or, if you have an older ESV Bible, you might even just see some triple dots. "Saul was… years old and he reigned … and two years over Israel."

The reason is that the original Hebrew text of this verse has some missing words. In fact, this whole verse is missing from some old Greek translations. It's kind of like the white squares and lines through the frame in the 9/11 video. We just don't know what was here originally.

And that's okay. Some people freak out about this kind of thing and jump to all kinds of unreasonable conclusions, such as, we can't trust anything that's written in the Bible as a result. But that's as silly as doubting the whole 9/11 video because of some glitched frames.

What we find here in verse 1 is exactly what we would expect for a historical document that was written in ancient history and preserved and passed along over thousands of years. And we can trust that God has His purposes for allowing verses like this to be not perfectly preserved in His Word, and one of those purposes is perhaps to have us marvel at just how much of His word is accurately preserved.

See, a startling majority of the text of Scripture is accurate and certain, and though glitches like this might be found here and there, none of them affect anything crucial to our faith. And we can see that here in 1 Samuel 13. Saul lived and became king and reigned, and we don't need to know exactly what age he was and exactly how many years he reigned for us to learn the key lessons from his life that we're going to keep learning today.

1. War is Triggered (vv. 1-4)

So, let's get into that together. Saul lived and reigned, and verse 2 tells us that he chose three thousand men of Israel to be a standing army.

Up until this point, Israel didn't have an army. Every man was the army. When there was a battle to fight, everybody came out and fought. But now that there is a king, and he has money and resources, he can pay for a standing army of 3,000 professional soldiers who are always on duty—always ready to protect and defend and can jump into battle at a moment's notice.

2,000 of these soldiers are with Saul in Michmash, and a thousand are with another man we're introduced to for the first time—Jonathan—in Gibeah of Benjamin. 3,000 total, and everybody else gets to go home.

Then, right away in verse 3, we read that this “Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it” (1 Samuel 13:3).

OK, this is really interesting. Back in chapter 10, when Saul was anointed, Samuel strongly hinted that he was supposed to take care of the Philistine outpost in Gibeah. The Philistines were one of Israel's main enemies at this point, to their northwest, and Saul, as king, was supposed to deal with them.

Instead, he did nothing, and his first victory was won against another of Israel's other key enemies, the Ammonites, to the southeast of their territory. But now the time has come to deal with the Philistines.

And interestingly, it's not Saul who throws down first. It's this Jonathan character who first defeats the Philistine garrison at Geba, a town not far from Saul's hometown, Gibeah.

Now this word "garrison" is interesting, because it could refer to a group of soldiers posted there—the common meaning of garrison—but the word could easily also refer to a particular leader in charge in that area. Some scholars think that's the best way to understand this word.

In which case, verse 3 would say that Jonathan struck down the governor of the Philistines that was at Geba, making this less an act of war and more an act of assassination. It's one of those things that we'll never know, and which doesn't change the story much, but is interesting to think about.

What's important is that this act—whether it was an attack on a group of soldiers or a targeted assassination—triggers a war. Verse 3 goes on to say that "the Philistines heard of it." And everybody knows what's coming next. So Saul blows the trumpet—the shofar, the ram's horn, used to summon Israel to battle.

“And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal” (1 Samuel 13:4).

Whatever is coming is really big, because Saul knows that his 3,000-man army isn't going to be enough. So he summons the whole nation together again, just like he did with Nahash the Ammonite. He was so successful that time, it's not hard to imagine Saul thinking this is just going to be a rinse-and-repeat. We dealt with those enemies, let's take out the Philistines now!

Notice that Saul gets the credit for striking down the Philistine garrison or governor. This doesn't necessarily mean he stole the credit. As king, as the top leader, he's taking responsibility for this. And the odds are that Saul's name attached to this would be an important way of adding his authority to these actions and making sure that Israel falls into line.

So, everybody meets at Gilgal once more. Here we go again.

2. Things Fall Apart (vv. 5-7)

But, alas, this is not going to be a simple repeat of his previous victory. There is no surprise attack on the Ammonites here, with things cleared up in a day. Instead, things fall apart. Things fall apart really quickly. And it starts with the Philistine counter-muster in verse 5.

“And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven” (1 Samuel 13:5).

Now there are some things here we just don't understand. It seems almost impossible that the Philistines with their five cities could produce thirty thousand chariots. Thirty thousand chariots probably couldn't even fit, let alone be used, in the hills and ridges and valleys of this area.

We do know that Hebrew numbers are notoriously difficult to translate into English. Some people who study ancient Hebrew think this should be translated as "three thousand" or even "thirty units." This is probably one of those areas where the original readers understood some things that we just don't understand anymore.

But what is clear is that there are chariots there. Chariots were like the ancient version of tanks. And even if the Philistines can't use them very effectively in the hill country here, just having them there would have been intimidating.

We read next that they had six thousand horsemen and "troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude." In other words, a number too big to be counted.

So, yeah, this seems like a challenge. Probably not the challenge that they were expecting.

Still, they should have been up for this challenge. What had God told them in Deuteronomy, a text that Saul should have been familiar with since that was one of the duties of kings (Deut 17:18)? “When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 20:1).

And time and time again in the book of Joshua and even Judges we see Israel going up against forces way bigger than them and being given the victory. This is nothing that God cannot handle and has not handled.

But nobody seems to remember that here. Things fall apart really quickly as the people completely freak out. Verse 6: “When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns” (1 Samuel 13:6).

OK, this is a huge problem, and a huge problem for Saul's leadership. The job of a king at this point is to rally the troops and encourage them to trust in the Lord together and then get them organized to respond effectively to their enemy. Instead, we hear nothing from Saul, who apparently has fallen back to his passive ways. From everything we can see, it looks like he takes no initiative, just sits on his hands and waits to see what happens.

And what happens, in this leadership vacuum, is that people scatter. They're literally hiding in caves and cisterns like the Philistines are monsters coming to get them. Verse 7 says that some of them escaped across the Jordan River to the land on the other side, putting as much distance between them and the Philistines as they can.

Literally, Saul's army is running and hiding. And the few who are with him "followed him trembling" as verse 7 finishes up.

This is really bad. Things have completely fallen apart for Saul. This is a new leader's worst nightmare. His kingdom, his reign, is going to be over right after it just got started.

3. Saul Forgets His Place (vv. 8-9)

So, what does Saul do? Verse 8 says, “He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him” (1 Samuel 13:8).

OK, there are a few things we need to think about here. Apparently, at some point here, Samuel had told Saul to wait for him at Gilgal for seven days. The text doesn't tell us when this happened, but it's filling us in now that it had happened.

Now some people get tripped up because way back in chapter 10, Samuel had told Saul, “Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do’” (1 Samuel 10:8).

You could wonder if what Samuel is referring to there is what's happening here. And it's almost certainly not, because of everything that's happened in between. So much has happened, including Saul being chosen at Mizpah, defeating the Ammonites, and them all going to Gilgal together to sacrifice peace offerings before the Lord, like we read at the end of chapter 11.

So with everything in between, these seven days are not the same seven days that Samuel referred to back in chapter 10.

Now, of course, some more critical scholars think that this is the same seven-day period being referred to, and all of the text in between is clear evidence of how multiple sources were stitched together somewhat sloppily to produce the book of 1 Samuel, which is full of mistakes and contradictions as a result.

And I just ask, like, have you never made plans with people to do something that you did with them before? How many times have I texted my wife to say "I'm going to be home in a few minutes"? And would some scholar read my text messages and come up with some silly theory about how clearly I didn't write these messages because they all say the same thing, so obviously it's a later author who is impersonating me?

Look, Gilgal was one of the main centres where Samuel ministered from (1 Sam 7:16). It seems typical that, before engaging in battle, Israel would seek God through sacrifice. And at some point in here, Samuel told Saul, "I'll meet you in Gilgal in seven days."

These are a people who did most of their travelling on foot, who would have measured journeys by days, and for whom "meet me in this city in seven days" would not have sounded as strange as it does to us.

So Saul is supposed to wait for Samuel. But something happens to Samuel along the way. He is delayed. Saul couldn't text Samuel to see what the hold-up was, but he's not there on time. And the people keep scattering from Saul, who looks more and more like a desperate man who has been abandoned by Israel's prophet, priest, and now its people as well.

Before we are too hard on Saul, I want you to imagine the most desperate situation you've ever been in. When your biggest disaster is unfolding in front of you.

For most of us today, though, we have a false sense of security that comes from having cell phones in our pockets at all times. If the worst thing imaginable is happening to us, we can call for help. We can call a friend or a parent or an ambulance or our insurance company or our pastor or somebody.

But Saul is stuck. He's it. He's gotten himself in this situation, and nobody can get him out of it. And it looks like he's going to lose the kingdom as a result. If Israel is scattering before these Philistines, they're just going to be able to walk in and take over. Not only is his reign over, but Israel as they knew it might be over.

So what does Saul do? Saul takes matters into his own hands. Verse 9: “So Saul said, ‘Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.’ And he offered the burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:9).

If they need to make an offering to seek God's help in this battle, and if Samuel isn't going to come like he said he would, well, Saul would do it himself.

Sure, Samuel said to wait for him, but Samuel's not here, is he? Something must have happened. Maybe Samuel died. He was pretty old, wasn't he? Maybe the Philistines got him. Surely Samuel wouldn't expect him to just sit there and do nothing while his whole army runs away from him, would he? As a leader, Saul's allowed to come up with a Plan B, isn't he?

And yes, technically, Saul's not a Levite, so he's not allowed to offer sacrifices. Yes, this is kind of breaking the rules, but it's a desperate situation, you know? Desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm sure it says that in the Bible somewhere.

And after all, he's a king. If anybody is allowed to offer sacrifices, it should be him. If anybody is allowed to fill in for Samuel, it should be him, right?

We don't know exactly what was going through Saul's mind, but we know what he did: he offered the sacrifice, even though Samuel said to wait for him, and even though he was not authorized by God to offer sacrifices.

4. Samuel's Rebuke (vv. 10-14)

And anybody who has ever been caught with their hand in the cookie jar will have no problem identifying with what Saul must have felt like as the events of verse 10 unfolded: “As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, 'What have you done?'” (1 Samuel 13:10-11a).

That's not how you want to be greeted by the prophet. "What have you done?" You can't hide anything from God, and you can't hide anything from His prophets.

Now we need to pay a lot of attention to what happens next, because this is one of the most crucial insights into the heart of Saul that we find. See, Saul was not the first or the last person to blow it, to flinch, to crumble under pressure and sin like he did. We could argue that Saul's successor David actually sinned in even greater ways than he did.

But how did David respond when God's prophet called him out on what he had done? “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’" (2 Samuel 12:13). If you want a fuller account of what was going on in David's heart, read Psalm 51. Read Psalm 32. David confessed his sin and repented from his sin. And wrote it down for other people to read!

He had nothing to hide. Nothing to prove. Just pure honesty.

Saul, on the other hand, starts making excuses. “…Saul said, ‘When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering’” (1 Samuel 13:11–12).

Saul talks like a typical politician here, spinning things to make himself look like the good guy. Saul talks like Adam and Aaron here, blaming their sins on other people. Saul talks like a man whose main goal is not to be reconciled with the God he sinned against, but to look good in the eyes of the people he's trying to impress.

And Samuel sees right through it all and responds with painful clarity: “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you’” (1 Samuel 13:13–14).

Wait, wait a second. Are you serious, Samuel? Saul disobeys like this just once, and now the kingdom is being taken away from him?

Yes, that's exactly right. And there should be no surprises here. This is exactly what Samuel had told them, which we just read last week.

“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king… But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king’” (1 Samuel 12:15, 25).

Three times in Samuel's address here he singles out that the Lord commanded Saul to do something, and that he didn't do it. He deliberately broke the express command of God. And now his kingdom will be swept away.

Think of the irony there: he probably offered the sacrifice because, from his perspective, it looked like he was going to lose the kingdom. But had he actually obeyed God, the Lord would have taken care of him and established His kingdom forever.

Instead, by taking matters into his own hands, he lost the very thing he was trying to preserve. By trying to keep his kingdom, he's lost it.

5. Things Fall Apart Even Further (vv. 15-23)

And after that, Samuel leaves Gilgal, and Saul heads to Gibeah. Saul counts how many people are with him, and it’s only six hundred men. In other words, not just the civilians, but 80% of his professional army has quit and run. This is awful.

And things fall apart even further. While Saul can't hold anything together, verses 17-18 tell us about three Philistine raiding parties who make further incursions into the land. And verses 19-23 tell us how the Philistines had enforced a monopoly on iron in Israel, removing all of the blacksmiths. “So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them” (1 Samuel 13:22).

Barely any army. Barely any weapons. I don't know that it could get any worse. This is a complete and total disaster.

And verse 23 ends on an ominous note: “And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash” (1 Samuel 13:23). This is exactly where we're going to pick up next week, with one of my favourite stories in the book of Samuel, where Jonathan—who we only found out in verse 22 was Saul's own son—shows some initiative and faith and is powerfully used by God to rescue them from this dire situation.

6. Conclusion: No Small Disobedience

But today, we focus on Saul's failure to obey. Many authors over the years have looked at Saul in this passage and thought that maybe we should give him a break, that maybe Samuel was being too hard on him. And they fail to grasp that this is actually right at the heart of this passage.

The point here is that there is no such thing as a "small" disobedience. There is no such thing as tiny sin. There are no circumstances, however dire, that justify disobedience.

This is so hard for us to grasp because it's so common for us to believe that our survival, even our comfort, is a high enough priority that we're allowed to set aside the commands of God if they get in the way of what we think we need to do.

I've had conversations with other pastors, men who said in the strongest voice that they believed that the Bible was the inerrant word of God, and when I pointed them to specific verses in the Bible that flatly contradicted the way they were doing things, they responded with "Well, but if we did that then this and this and this would happen."

I've had conversations with other Christians, people who would say in the strongest voice that the Bible was the inspired word of God, and they encounter things in the Bible that challenge what they think, and instead of saying "Let's look at what the Bible actually says," they respond with "Well, if we did that, then this bad thing would happen, and we can't let that happen."

The assumption here is that God must be okay with disobedience here and there because otherwise, we might experience some difficulty or discomfort, and he doesn't want that to happen. So we have to take that job or move in with that person or abort the pregnancy to finish the movie or listen to the gossip. We can't confront that friend or family member or be generous with our money or speak up at work about the things that are happening.

We have to disobey. Otherwise, we might lose something. Otherwise, we might suffer.

It's the assumption that Saul makes in this chapter. It's the assumption made by early Christians who, before becoming Christians, had been idol-makers. Sometimes they made excuses to continue their craft, saying, "I have nothing else to live by." Church father Tertullian responded: "So you have to live? What have you to do with God, if you live according to your own laws?"

Jesus said we had to lose our lives for his sake. It's easy to say we're willing to do that, but here is where the rubber hits the road. Will we actually obey when it means putting our finances or our safety or our family or our reputation in harm's way?

Or will we trust that God really is able to take care of us and work all things for good? Just like Samuel told Saul: your kingdom would have been established. Just like Abraham believed God was able to raise up Isaac.

And that even if we did lose everything, it's better to do that than to live apart from God? Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego believing God could deliver them from the fire, but were going to obey Him even if He didn't.

Jesus didn't just tell us to lose our lives—He practiced what He preached when, in the Garden of Gethsemane, as his followers abandoned him and left him alone, he refused to flinch. “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’” (Matthew 26:39).

And over the course of the next hours, “… He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Think about that. Jesus' death, on one level, was a matter of obedience. Of refusing to disobey His father and do His own thing even if that meant being nailed to a cross.

Which means that we have zero excuses for disobedience. We'll follow Jesus all the way to the cross rather than turn aside to live according to our own priorities and laws.

But Jesus’ death means that we have more than just an example. We also have hope. If all we had was an example, then you'd get to go home with a big helping of guilt today, nursing a sore conscience for all of the times that you acted like Saul, excusing your sin because, frankly, you didn't trust God to keep His promises to you.

But because Jesus died, we also have hope. Because Jesus was wounded for all of your disobedience. He was crushed for all of your attempts to make excuses. Jesus died to justify you and forgive all of your guilt.

Which means that we don't have to justify ourselves like Saul did in this passage. We can own our sin, confessing and repenting our disobedience to the Lord. And we can freshly ask Him for the strength to walk in the obedient footsteps of Jesus, no matter the cost.

There's so much freedom in doing that—in knowing that we can just trust and obey and leave it to the Lord. Let's pray for His help to do that as we go to the table today.