The Life of Samuel Series - Study #5

“Saul Steps on the Ball”

1 Samuel 12-13

Study #5 in The Life of Samuel Series 

INTRODUCTION:

“Ele pisou na bola.” This is a Brazilian saying that means, “he messed up.” Translated literally it says, “he stepped on the ball.” Soccer is the national sport of Brazil, as it is in most of the world. In Brazil it is called “futebol.” As a 5-time World Cup Champion, Brazil’s players are admired around the world for their fluid movements on the field and their ability to score goals under any conditions. I knew virtually nothing about soccer when I went to Brazil as a missionary in 1978. But I learned to love the sport and especially enjoyed watching it with Brazilian friends because they are always so passionate about it. 

One of the things that occasionally happens in soccer, even with professional players, is that a guy will get to running too fast, moving the ball down the field. Trying to turn or stop the ball, the player will accidentally step on the ball. This often results in him taking a tumble and the ball being taken over by the opposing team. Fans will groan, “Oh no, ele pisou na bola, he stepped on the ball!” 

That expression has come to be used in many different situations, but it always means, “he really screwed things up.” 

TRANSITION:

All of us at one time or another have stepped on the ball. All of us have made blunders that hurt ourselves and others. Every one of us has been guilty of errors in judgment, and lapses in character. Sometimes, we merely act stupidly. Other times we clearly act out of sinful motives. Regardless, these illustrate the truth of Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.” 

The Bible makes it clear that we are all sinners, both by nature and by choice. It is not sinning that makes us “sinners.” Rather, we sin because we are sinners. That is an important difference and distinction we must grasp. 

Today we continue with our study of the life of Samuel. In our last study we looked at 1 Samuel 8-11 that tell the story of Saul’s rise to prominence and his anointing as the new King of Israel. We ended with these verses found at the close of chapter 11: “Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Come, let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.’ ¹⁵ So all the people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD. There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites held a great celebration.” I mentioned that it is sad that Saul’s story does not end here, because in the very next chapter Saul stepped on the ball, big time! He messed up in a big way, so big in fact that it could not be fixed. As a result, God declared that the kingship would be taken away from him and another would be put in his place. Let’s look at how all this unfolded. 

NOTES on the Text:

Gilgal was a special place for the Jews. When they first came into Canaan, the Land of Promise, after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, Gilgal was the first place they camped after crossing the Jordan River. There they made a covenant with the Lord and erected a memorial to remind them of God’s faithfulness to them. Now Samuel calls the people together again at Gilgal to reaffirm Saul’s kingship. 1 Samuel chapter 12 begins with Samuel addressing the people as their long-time spiritual leader. 

He begins by reminding them in verses 1-5 that he has always been square with them in the past and has served them and the Lord faithfully. He invites anyone who has a complaint against him or proof of any unfaithfulness or dishonesty to step forward. But they all agree that he has been an exemplary spiritual leader and a just judge. I find this remarkable. After all those years not one voice could be raised against Samuel. He had lived his life in a fishbowl, visible to everyone, yet no one could find fault in him. Here he was at the end of his life and ministry—this was his “swan song”—yet he was finishing strong, with his testimony and integrity intact. He was quite a man! 

Then Samuel retells their national history, reminding them of some things they might have conveniently forgotten. Starting in verse 6 we read: “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your forefathers 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 fathers. ⁸ After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the LORD for help, and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place. ⁹ But they forgot the LORD their God; so, He sold them into the hand 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 Jerubbaal [i.e., Gideon], Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely.”         

Samuel is reminding them that Yahweh, the LORD, has been a great King for them if they remained faithful to Him. 

Then in verse 13 he shifts gears to talk about their recent history of rebellion: “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.  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 fathers.”          

It was never Samuel’s idea to anoint a king over the people. However, he was the guy caught in the middle. But he knew better than anyone that the Lord was acceding to the people’s request under duress. So, he uses this opportunity to put the fear of God in them. He lays out what happened to their forefathers when they rebelled against the Lord. He makes it clear that the same or worse could happen to them. He is calling them to own up to the fact that what they have done is wrong. He is calling them to repent. 

To drive home his point, he uses his prophetic authority to perform a miracle to show them that he is telling them the truth. It is interesting that he shows no doubt or hesitation that God will back him up with a show of supernatural force. Look at verse 16 and following: ^“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 upon the LORD to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the LORD when you asked for a king.” 

The time of wheat harvest is the dry time of the year at the end of summer. It seldom rains then. “¹⁸ Then Samuel called upon 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.” Samuel called on the Lord to send a real gully-washer to validate his message. And the Lord came through in a big way. It scared them half to death, because then they realized the weight of their sin and of God’s disapproval. 

But then notice how Samuel offered them hope. “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 [i.e., Saul] will be swept away.’”         

These verses offer both a promise and a threat. Samuel reminds them that God loves them and has chosen them to be His own people.

Ø  You do not need to be afraid of Him. (“Perfect love casts out fear.”)

Ø  Do not turn away from Him even though you have sinned. Rather, pull in closer to Him.

Ø  Serve Him with your whole heart.

Ø  Do not go after idols. They are a cheap substitute for the real thing, and they will do you no good.

Ø  Remember that He has chosen you for Himself, for His name’s sake.

Ø  So, reverence Him and serve Him wholeheartedly.

Ø  Never forget all the wonderful things that He has done for you.

Ø  WARNING: However, if you choose the path of evil and rebellion, then both you and your king are goners. He will sweep you out like the dirt off the floor. He will wash you out to sea. 

Before we move on into chapter 13, I want to look again at verse 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.” Samuel recognized that he had a vital ministry of prayer for the people of God.  Furthermore, he regarded failure to pray for Israel as a personal sin against God. I believe that prayer for one’s nation remains an obligation for a believer. Each one of us has a prayer responsibility—to pray for our family, our unsaved friends and acquaintances, our church, our leaders, etc. If I do not pray for them, who will? We ought to pray for one another. There are many needy people. God forbid that we should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for one another. 

In chapter 13 the true nature of Saul begins to show. I told you in our last study that I am not convinced that Saul was a converted man. I do not know if he had a personal relationship with God. He was a religious man, like so many people in the world today, but was he a godly man? Moreover, he was not really a king, at least not on the inside. He looked like a king. He talked like a king. But underneath he was no king at all. He was a phony. 

We read in 1 Samuel 13:1-2 that when Saul began his official reign one of the first things that he did was to put together a standing army of about 3,000 armed men. He had 2,000 of them under his direct leadership, and he put his son, Jonathan, as commander over the other 1,000 men. In verse 3 we read that Jonathan led his men into battle against the Philistines encamped at Geba, winning a great victory. Verse 4 says: “So all Israel heard the news: ‘Saul has attacked the Philistine outpost, and now Israel has become a stench to the Philistines.’ And the people were summoned to join Saul at Gilgal.” When the word got out, apparently Saul’s name got substituted for Jonathan’s as the winning general. Was that a coincidence? 

But winning a battle is not the same as winning a war. Apparently, all they did was to stir up a Philistine hornet’s nest. If I read it right, verse 5 tells us that the Philistines had 36,000 men against Israel’s 3,000. To do the math, that means that in a face-to-face battle each Jew would have to kill 12 Philistines. Apparently, many of the Jews were good at math too, so they headed for the hills, muy rápido. Verse 6 says: “When the men of Israel 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. Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were quaking with fear.”         

Fear will do strange things to you. Fear will cause your knees to knock, your hands to sweat, and your voice to tremble when you must stand in front of an audience. Fear will cause you to cut and run when you see a bear coming after you. Fear will cause you lose your perspective and forget that “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” Or, in the words of the prophet Elisha to his servant in 1 Kings 6:16, “Don’t be afraid…Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” I am not saying that fear is an unnatural response. In fact, from a human standpoint, given the odds it only made sense to conclude that this war was lost before it even began. The Jews were in for it now. 

But it is in times like this that we find out what a person is really made of. Character is forged through trials and adversity. Samuel had given clear instructions to Saul to wait seven days for him in Gilgal (cf. 10:8). Saul understood the instructions. There was no misunderstanding. Samuel had promised to come and offer up a sacrifice to the Lord before they went into battle. But as the time passed, Saul got increasingly nervous. Finally, the seventh day arrived, and Samuel had still not shown up, so Saul took matters into his own hands, ignoring the clear instructions of the prophet. “⁸ He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. ⁹ So he said, ‘Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.’  And Saul offered up the burnt offering.” Apparently, he concluded that being the king gave him the right to not only ignore Samuel, but also to ignore God’s clear instructions that only a priest from the tribe of Levi could offer a burnt offering. 

There is a little verse in the Bible that says, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” It means that God has a way of bringing our hidden sins to light.” Sure enough, just as Saul was finishing up the sacrifice, Samuel came walking up. Samuel’s first question was, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?” But rather than admitting his guilt Saul immediately began making excuses. Saul replied in verse 11, “When I saw that the men were scattering [i.e., his soldiers were at fault], and that you did not come at the set time [i.e., it was Samuel’s fault], and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash [i.e., it was the enemy’s fault], ¹² I thought, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the LORD’s favor [i.e., it was God’s fault].’ So, I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering [i.e., it was fate’s fault/I am a victim of circumstances].” Literally Saul said in verse 12: “So I forced myself to offer the burnt offering.” This is all a pattern of rationalization to cover up his bad behavior. He was lying and being falsely pious. The truth is he just took matters into his own hands. Saul was told in the beginning that if he obeyed God, he would be blessed; but if he disobeyed, there would be judgment. The ruler must obey the Lord. 

Samuel pronounces God’s judgment on Saul in verses 13-14: “‘You acted foolishly,’ 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 leader of His people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.’” To disobey Samuel was to disobey God because the Lord spoke through him. Now Saul hears for the first time that his kingly line will not endure, and that God already has someone in the wings who in due time will take his place as king. Although Samuel is saying this by way of revelation, even he does not yet know who this person will be. Only later does God lead him to David, the son of Jesse who will be the next king, and is called, “…a man after God’s own heart.” 

I find it interesting to note that even after being confronted with his sin that Saul showed no remorse or repentance at all. It appears that it did not even phase him. I do not think he was able to take in the fact that what he had done was really that important. But isn’t that how we all are? We can easily recognize sin in someone else’s life, but we can become so blind that we overlook sin in our own life. 

CONCLUSION:

We are going to leave the story hanging right here until a later date. The Israelites are outnumbered 12 to 1. They are surrounded. They have inferior weapons. And to make things worse, God is mad at their newly appointed king. Could things get any worse? 

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17 we read that, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” And in 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11 the apostle Paul, speaking of the sins of the ancient Israelites, tells us: “Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did… ¹¹ These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.” If that is true, and we know that it is, then what does God want us to learn from this story? What life lessons can we glean from this passage?