Good Start, Bad Finish: The Rise and Fall of a Man Named Saul

I love sports. Watching it, that is, not playing it. I never was good at playing sports, but I consider myself somewhat of an expert at watching it. As I’m writing this, I’m remembering watching a basketball game in which my team had a large, seemingly insurmountable lead. The other team didn’t cooperate, and they slowly began to catch up. It felt like I was watching it all happen in slow motion, and I couldn’t do anything about it. After such a great start, my team fizzled. They made one bad play and one poor decision after another. And in the end, as the horn sounded, the other team hit the winning goal. What started great ended up being a catastrophe. 

That pretty much sums up King Saul’s career. He started strong, the kind of king Israel wanted. But as you read 1 Samuel, you see him making one poor decision after another. It’s like watching him in slow motion, and you can’t do anything to stop his decline. In the end, his kingship was a catastrophe.

Israel’s greatest threat in those days was a people called the Philistines. This powerful nation controlled iron technology in the area, and they restricted Israel’s access to blacksmithing and metalworking. This meant that Israelites had to go to the Philistines to buy farm tools or to even get those tools sharpened. It also put Israel at a real disadvantage in weapons. In the entire nation of Israel, there were only two swords, and they belonged to King Saul and his son Jonathan.

One day, the Philistine army began to move. They had established a post deep within Israelite territory, and Israel was bracing for an attack. Saul split his forces, sending a group under his son Jonathan on a surprise attack on the Philistine garrison at Geba. Jonathan was successful, but it only angered the enemy.

Nothing prepared Israel for the Philistines’ response. The enemy gathered a force of 3000 chariots, 6000 horsemen, and “troops like the sand on the seashore” (13:5), and they faced Saul’s army at Michmash. The Israelites were afraid.

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, and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. (1 Samuel 13:6-7a)

They ran away and hid. 

Meanwhile, Saul was at Gilgal waiting on Samuel. In 1 Samuel 10:8, Samuel told Saul to wait for him there for seven days and do nothing until he arrived to offer sacrifices to God. There was no ambiguity here. Samuel’s instructions were simple: 1) Go to Gilgal. 2) Wait for me there before you do anything. 

But the waiting wasn’t easy. Saul’s soldiers were running away, more and more each day. The ones who didn’t run away were wondering what Saul was waiting on and why he didn’t attack. He was feeling real pressure. Finally, on the seventh day, when Samuel could have arrived at any time and still kept the agreement, Saul was done waiting. He decided to do things his way instead of following the instructions of the man of God. He offered the burnt offering himself (1 Samuel 13:9), which only a priest could do. 

As soon as Saul completed the offering, Samuel showed up. Knowing what happened, he asked Saul, “What have you done?” Here’s how Saul responded:

“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 13:11b-12)

Saul had broken the law of God, but it was okay, according to him, because it was everyone else’s fault. He blamed his soldiers for running away, Samuel for making him wait so long, and the Philistines for gearing up to attack. Saul didn’t want to make the offering, so he “forced” himself to do it. He was afraid the enemy would attack and didn’t want to fight without the sacrifices, so he broke the law to make them. 

He actually thought he could get God’s blessing by disobeying.

Saul was a master at making excuses and blaming others. He could twist logic like a pretzel to justify disobedience. Before you attack Saul, ask yourself, “Do I ever get impatient?” I sure do. Have you ever been so tired of waiting that you took matters into your own hands, ignoring the clear teachings of Scripture and the Holy Spirit’s promptings? God uses these delays to test and strengthen our faith, but too often we refuse to wait, and we short-circuit God’s work in our lives.

Ask yourself: “When I sin, do I ever blame everyone else, or do I accept responsibility for my disobedience?” When you sin and the Holy Spirit convicts you of that sin, don’t try to spin it, make excuses, or blame someone else. Just cry out to God in repentance. 

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)

Samuel told Saul that he was a one-man dynasty as king. Have you ever heard of an event described as the “first annual” whatever it is? That always sounds like wishful thinking to me. How do you know it’s going to be an annual event if this is the first one? This one might be a failure. Well, Saul thought he was the first of a long line of kings in his family. Samuel crushed those dreams. This dynasty was a failure. None of Saul’s descendants would sit on the throne. By ignoring God’s rules, Saul had disqualified his family from leadership. Further, God had already chosen someone else to be king.

This wasn’t the last mistake Saul would make as king, and we’ll pick up there next time…

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