Ep. 79 - Saul Panics

Last we left our story, King Saul had just saved an Israelite town called Jabesh Gilead. It had been the first test of Saul as the first king of Israel. And following God’s leading, Saul was able to force the tribes to work together…and then with a force of 330,000 Israelites, King Saul…a shy farmer from the smallest family in the smallest tribe of Israel…led the Israelites to defeat the Ammonites. At the end of the battle, Saul made sure that the Israelites knew that God had saved Jabesh…not Saul. God had delivered the victory for Israel. But despite this amazing success, and even though thing seemed to be going really well with Saul, Samuel reminded the Israelites that having a king came at a cost. But would these warnings come true with King Saul? Surely shy guy Saul wasn’t going to go against God and wouldn’t be oppressing his people? Well, let’s find out.

So after the big victory at Jabesh Gilead, King Saul began doing…ya know…king stuff. Stuff like…building an army and putting his friends and family in charge of everything. And after two years of being king, Saul had managed to build a permanent army of 3000 men. These 3000 men were not just people who showed up for an emergency. They were what we call a “standing army”. That is to say, these men were soldiers…all the time…that’s all they did. They were soldiers who stood ready to defend Israel…no matter when it was needed. Two thousand of these 3000 soldiers were assigned to Saul, and one thousand were assigned to Saul’s son – whose name was Jonathan. Now as it turned out, Saul and his son Jonathan were two very different people. Where Saul was shy, Jonathan was bold. Where Saul relied on his own strength, Jonathan relied on God’s strength. Where Saul wanted to please the people, Jonathan wanted to please God. And these differences became very obvious right from the beginning of King Saul’s reign.

Now as Saul was doing his king stuff, the next question on everyone’s mind would have been…which of the surrounding nations would Saul fight next? I mean, Israel had lots of enemies on all sides. But probably most of the Israelites had a strong feeling about the answer to that question – because the people giving Israel the most trouble at that time were the Philistines! Now the last we heard from the Philistines was when they had attacked the Israelites at Mizpah. And I’m sure you kidzos remember…God defeated the Philistines by sending a huge thunderstorm. The Philistines were defeated so badly that through the entire time that Samuel led Isreal…at least 20 years…the Philistines avoided the Israelites. But over the last number of years, things had changed. Slowly but surely, the Philistines had been creeping into Israelite territory. And the way that the Philistines did it this time was by building garrisons. Garrisons were kinda like little forts or military bases that soldiers would live in. In those days, what usually happened was that if you invaded another country your army would sweep though the enemy territory, and when all the fighting was done…to make sure you stayed in control…you’d leave behind some soldiers. And where did those soldiers live? Well, in the garrisons. That was how it normally happened. But the way the Philistines did it with Israel this time was a bit backwards. Instead of invading with a huge army first, the Philistines just started building garrisons on Israelite land. They probably did it very slowly. The first garrison was probably just inside the Israelite territory. And when the Philistines didn’t meet any resistance, they would go a few more miles down the road and build the next garrison…and so on and so forth. Until the Philistines had built garrisons all the way into the very heart of Israel. So while at first the Israelites didn’t worry very much about the Philistines, after some time had gone by, they had become a huge problem.

So, what was Saul…this new king of Israel…who had specifically been made king to deal with Israel’s enemies…going to do about the Philistines? Well, not too much actually. As we already know, Saul was kind of shy…and as it turned out…wasn’t super fast to do anything. And so Saul just sat on his hands. But Jonathan wasn’t the sitting on his hands type. Jonathan was just chomping at the bit to attack Israel’s enemies. As far as Jonathan was concerned, the Philistines had invaded God’s land and attacked God’s people. Which to Jonathan meant that God was on their side and would help them defeat the Philistines. So…what were they waiting for! And so, wasting no time, the Bible says that Jonathan, “attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba.” (1 Sam. 13:3) Jonathan took his 1000 soldiers, marched right up to the closest garrison, and completely overran it. Not only was this garrison the closest one at hand, but it was probably one of the garrisons that was the deepest in Israelite territory…and would have been the biggest reminder of just how just how far the Philistines had invaded into Israel.

Of course, the Philistines were none too happy about their garrison being attacked. Very quickly the Philistines decided that Israel was enemy #1. As the Bible says it, “Israel had…become an abomination to the Philistines.” (13:4) And this whole situation kinda forced Saul’s hand. For sure, the Philistines weren’t just going to ignore what had happened to their garrison…and Saul had no doubt that the Philistines were going to be attacking Israel soon. So, the Bible says that Saul, “blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, ‘Let the Hebrews hear!’” (13:3) It might not have happened the way that Saul wanted (and Saul probably wasn’t too happy with his son at that moment), but no matter…what was done was done…and it was time to fight Israel’s next enemy. And the Israelites answered Saul’s call…and started gathering again at Gilgal.

But while the Israelites were getting their army together, the Philistines were getting their army together too. And the Philistines’ army was…huge! 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and so many regular soldiers that, as the Bible says, they were “as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude” (13:5). The Philistines weren’t messing around. They immediately brought together a massive, well-equipped and professional army…and they marched it right into the heart of Israel…encamping at a place right next to King Saul’s hometown…a place called Michmash. And the Philistines didn’t pick Michmash by chance. Not only did encamping their army right next to supposed King Saul’s hometown send a message, but it also just so happened that Michmash was on the way to Gilgal (where Saul’s army was gathering). Meaning that in order to join Saul’s army, the Israelites would have do to pass by the massive Philistine army. The Philistines wanted the Israelites to get a good look at what they were about to fight. And this little tactic worked. Because as the days went by, and more and more Israelites gathered for battle, and more and more of those Israelites saw the Philistine army, the Bible says that the Israelites, “saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits.” (13:6) So the Israelites were basically like, ‘Are you crazy? We’re not fighting that army!’ And instead of gathering together at Gilgal, they began running in every direction and hiding in as many places as they could find. Some even frantically crossed over the Jordan river into the land of Gilead where the Ammonites had just been defeated.

As for Saul, the poor guy was sitting there in Gilgal waiting for his massive army to show up…ya know…the same 330,000-man army that had showed up just a couple of years ago when it was time to fight the Ammonites. But as time went by…not too many men were showing up. And after a few days, hardly anybody had showed up. And not only that, but the people who did show up were literally shaking in their boots. And to make matters worse, once these scared Israelites saw how small the army was turning out to be, said to themselves…ya know what…maybe this isn’t going to work…and took off as well.

Now even though his army was much smaller than he would have liked, King Saul was still keen to attack the Philistines as soon as possible. Because he knew that the longer he waited, the smaller his army was going to get. But there was a problem. The Israelites had a tradition that they would always offer sacrifices to God before they would start a battle. And no Israelite army would fight unless the right sacrifices and offerings had been made. And according to God’s law, only a priest from the line of Aaron could perform those sacrifices. And none of them were around. And even if they were, it wouldn’t have mattered, because Samuel had told Saul to wait for him for 7 days…after which Samuel would join Saul at the camp and perform the sacrifices. And this made Saul super nervous. Because as each day went by, more and more Israelites were getting cold feet and Saul’s army was getting smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, the 7 days went by…and wouldn’t you know it…no Samuel. For whatever reason, Samuel had been delayed. And when the few Israelites left in the camp realized that Samuel hadn’t come, they probably said to themselves, ‘Even Samuel is giving up on fighting the Philistines’, and then even the few men who had stuck around started abandoning the camp in droves. Even Saul’s so-called professional standing army started deserting him too. Poor Saul. Here he’d declared war on the Philistines, a huge Philistine army just waiting to take him down, and even the little army Saul had was slipping through his fingers. Things were not looking good. What was Saul going to do?

Well, this is when Saul panicked. He felt like he had to do…something. And so, Saul spoke up and said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” (13:9) If the Israelites needed an offering before they fought, well then Saul was going to give them an offering. And then Saul, knowing full well that it was against God’s law, went ahead and offered up the burnt offering himself…just like a priest would have done. But just as King Saul was finishing with the offering, that’s when Samuel arrived. And when Samuel saw what Saul was doing, no doubt his eyes went wide. And Samuel said to Saul, “What have you done?” (13:11) And so Saul answered Samuel, and said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the Lord.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.” (13:11-12) So basically, Saul had made a huge mistake…and was blaming everyone else for what he had done. Yah know…the people were leaving me…you were late…the Philistines were about to attack! And that’s why I had to break God’s law. Have you ever run into these people who can never admit when they’ve done something wrong? No matter what happened, nothing they did was ever the problem? Yah…that’s kinda what Saul was like. And it was going to be a recurring problem in his reign as king of Israel…as will find out later.

So, how did Samuel respond to all this complaining and blaming from Saul? Well, Samuel was having none of it. And now that Saul’s character had been fully revealed…and it was clear that that Saul couldn’t take responsibility for his own actions even when God’s law had been broken…the consequences would have to come. And Samuel answered Saul and said, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you. For the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.” (13:13-14) Yikes. So usually in a monarchy, the king would pass his throne down to one of his sons after he died and so the king’s family would rule over a kingdom for a long time. This was usually done to stop people from fighting horrible battles over who would be the next king. Well, Samuel was saying that this was not what was going to happen with Saul. The reign of Saul’s family would not continue for very long…the throne would not be passed down to his son. And not only that, but Samuel continued and said, “The Lord has sought for himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (13:14) So not only would Saul’s family not continue to reign over Israel, but God had already chosen someone else to replace Saul. This time, it wouldn’t be someone who was tall and handsome…it wouldn’t be someone who the Israelites would look at and be super excited about. But instead, he would be a man after God’s heart…someone who would do what God wanted him to do…no matter what was going on.

After saying this to Saul, Samuel left him and his dwindling army, and went back to Gibeah. No doubt, after saying this to Saul in front of everyone, it didn’t do anything to stop the Israelites from leaving the army. And by the time that everyone who was going to leave had left, Saul was left with only 600 men in his army. 600 men against tens of thousands of Philistine chariots and horsemen…and probably hundreds of thousands of Philistine soldiers. What was King Saul going to do? Would the Philistines attack and put an end to King Saul right then and there? Would the Philistines finish what they had started and occupy all of Israel? Well, we will find out all about it…next time.