Earthly Kings Pt 1 - You Have Done Foolishly
This sermon was preached at Immanuel Fellowship Church in Ellisville Missouri as part of our "Earthly Kings" series within 1 Samuel, exploring Israel's first king Saul and how his reign shows the unavoidable shortcomings of trusting in earthly solutions for our deepest longings and needs. For more resources on faith and Christian living, visit our website or connect with our community. You can email us at hello@ifcstl.com or call/text us at 636-431-4708
Introduction: The Hero in the Nick of Time
What a joy to be together today. We are turning a corner in our sermon series. We've been continuing through 1 Samuel, dividing this book into micro-series within the larger narrative. Last week we finished a series we were calling "New Days," where we talked about the longing that exists within the human heart to find renewal.
All of us living in a cursed and broken world experience hardship and exhaustion. We get to a point where we just go, "Man, I need a new day. I need a blank slate. I need something new." And how so many of us so often turn to lesser earthly, worldly things to give us our renewal. We build up idols around us. We put expectations on people and relationships to give us the renewal in our hearts that only Christ can give.
We talked about just how much earthly leaders, earthly kings, earthly idols can let us down.
Now we're turning a corner and starting a new series that we're calling "Earthly Kings." The next couple chapters in 1 Samuel are going to put this truth on display in really blunt terms. We're looking at a section of the text that basically covers the beginning of Saul's kingship—the first bit of Israel's time as a united monarchy before David gets on the scene, when it's just Saul.
What we're going to see in these chapters is that even though Saul is really, legitimately the epitome of an earthly king, he gives Israel none of the real desires they actually were seeking. He falls short, he fails, and he leaves Israel with all the needs they had before him—and then some.
As we go through these chapters, we're going to have this back and forth where we'll try to look at things through the eyes of Israel—the people who had turned to this earthly king, who had put Saul in this idolatrous position and put their hope in him, and how he fell short. But we're also going to be continually invited to see ourselves in Saul himself, in his individual story.
I legitimately think this is one of the most tragic stories in all of the Bible. Saul's life is this cautionary tale that shows us exactly how not to find our hope and healing in the truth of the Gospel.
This is maybe a silly and even exaggerated way to say it, but I think it's good: You could write a pretty good book on the life of faith by just taking Saul's life and inverting every major point the Bible teaches about him. There is not a thing the Bible records about poor Saul where he gets it right. It's really rough.
But it shows us this truth: earthly kings simply and purely can't get the job done. They can't do it.
The solution to the empty promises of earthly kings is really to put our faith in the true King, in Jesus. And I know that's the churchy kind of thing you expect a pastor to say, but I want you to hold on to that truth. There's power in that truth. And we're going to be coming back to that idea over and over in these next few chapters, considering the life of faith and what it means to actually look to our real King.
The Main Point
This gets me to my main point today. It's going to be pretty simple. It's simply this:
Faith is found in trusting God when our hope feels lost.
Faith is found in trusting God when we feel like our situation has become hopeless.
Often the reason we turn to earthly solutions, the reason we turn to idols, is because we're desperate. We get to a point where we just need anything to hold onto—any port in a storm. But as we're going to see in our text today, Saul shows us the foolishness of losing hope in our God, of losing trust in our God and taking things into our own hands.
Before we dive in, let me set up something I think will help us connect with this ancient story.
You know the storytelling cliche where the hero shows up in the nick of time? The situation is desperate. They're just about to lose. The bad guy's just about to win. He's just explained his evil plot. He's laughing, and the thing's coming down. And then right in the last moment, the hero shows up.
It is a cliche for a reason—it is an almost universal facet of storytelling, especially classic storytelling. We love this idea. We love the scene when the cavalry comes rolling up over the hill.
I would encourage you as we're sitting here to think for a second: Which one's your favorite? Which one of these nick-of-time scenes in a book or a movie pops in your head as we're talking about this?
You could think of:
Han Solo showing up to blast Darth Vader so that Luke can launch the torpedo and blow up the Death Star
The French showing up in the last battle in The Patriot
Rohan coming up over the ridge in Return of the King
Superman swooping down and catching the building right before it falls on the little kid
It's a cliche for a reason. Something in us sparks. We want that to be true. We want to know that the hero will show up when hope seems lost.
I think the reason this cliche is so universal is because all of us long for that. But I think the reason it can feel cheesy often is because we live life in the real world. And we've had many times where that didn't happen—where the bad guy does win, where the hero hits traffic.
What does that do to us? How does that affect a human heart? What does that do to our experience of faith and of trust?
If that resonates with you, I think this text—and these next few texts—I think God has something healing in this for your spirit and your experience of faith in Him.
The Text: 1 Samuel 13:1-4
Let's pray and then jump into 1 Samuel 13.
Jesus, we just need you this morning. We need you to be our discipler. We need you to be our teacher. Holy Spirit, as we dig into this story that is really old and really removed historically and culturally from how we experience life, I pray that you would be our teacher, that you would cut through the differences and you would bridge the gaps and you would actually speak to our hearts what it needs to hear today. That you would do the ministry Jesus promised you would do—that you would challenge us and encourage us and remind us and teach us, and that all of us would leave this space today having heard from you what our spirits actually need. God, we can't do this on our own. We need you to do it for us, Father. So we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.
Starting in verse 1:
Saul was 30 years old when he became king, and he reigned 42 years over Israel. He chose 3,000 men from Israel for himself. 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash in Bethel's hill country, and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. And he sent the rest of the troops away, each to his own tent. Jonathan then attacked the Philistine garrison in Gibeah, and the Philistines heard about it. So Saul blew the trumpet throughout the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear."
Context: Israel's New King
We're stepping into this new section of 1 Samuel. We have to remember this is a continuation of this overarching narrative we've been working through. If you haven't been with us the last several weeks, let me remind us really quick:
Throughout its history up to this point, Israel has been really what we would call a loose confederation. They've found their identity more in their individual tribes. They haven't really been a united nation since they came into the promised land.
Now they're moving into that first season of their history where they really are one people, one nation—Israel under one earthly king. Saul has been anointed king, and so far he's proven himself. He's shown up to save the Israelites from their enemies. At this point in the story, Saul really feels like the hero.
The author gives this formula that will actually last the rest of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. This is how the Bible, generally speaking, describes and introduces us to a king's reign: "This is Saul. He ruled for this long. He lived here." That becomes this formula to kind of move Israel through its generations of history.
Saul Establishes a Standing Army
When we look at the beginning of Saul's reign here, this first couple verses lasts over several months, maybe even a couple years. What we see is the first thing he does is establish and organize a standing army.
Now, this is something that alot of us don't necessarily think about, but this is a dramatic cultural and technological step forward for a people group.
Historically, the way Israel fought their battles is when something bad happened, someone literally physically ran around to all the towns to say, "We need all the tough guys to meet up at this town to beat up the bad guys." And as many tough guys as were willing to go would go. And that's how you built an army. They hung out until the bad guys were beaten and then they all went home.
That works at a certain stage in a culture's development. But Israel is now a big chunk of land surrounded by established, organized countries that want their land. And that no longer works.
So Saul develops a standing army, a professional army—men whose full-time job is to stay with the king and keep the army running. He comes up with a 3,000-person army built up into three divisions. He commands two of them, his son Jonathan commands one of them. And they set up at two different strategic locations.
Understanding the Geography
Now, this is a point in the story where really to fully follow what's going on in our text today—and even the next couple chapters—you kind of have to wrap your head a little bit around the geography of what's going on here. I apologize that you woke up on Sunday morning and you have to get a little bit of geography. I know that feels like a punishment for some of you, but I promise it's helpful.
A lot of your Bibles probably actually have five or six pages in the back that are maps. If you have a Bible with maps in the back, I would encourage you to look at them.
If you look at a map of ancient Israel, the purple section is Israel—that's where all the different tribes are spread out. All the other colors represent the different countries that don't like Israel and want their land. That's an important piece to consider here.
Israel is large for an ancient nation, and it is surrounded on all sides by nations that are aggressive toward them.
Specifically, the Philistines on the coast—on the Mediterranean coast—the Philistines are so technologically advanced beyond the Hebrews that it is a supernatural miracle that the Philistines did not completely destroy the Hebrews and wipe them out from earth, from human history. It is a miracle that Israel survived the Philistines. We'll see a little bit of that in this text, and that's going to be some of the story throughout the rest of this book.
To give you a little bit of the scale here: that chunk of Israel is about 20% the size of Missouri.
Here's the way you could divide it up. Imagine Missouri starting on our easternmost edge, like the Mississippi River, and you bring it out just a hair past Wentzville. Then you go all the way up to the top of Missouri and all the way to the bottom of Missouri. That's Israel.
And they have a standing army of 3,000 people on foot to defend that entire country that has actively engaged hostile enemies on every border.
Here's the problem with that: That's not enough.
Can you imagine walking from the north to the south of Missouri on foot with 2,999 other guys? That's a rough setup.
Saul kind of sets up strategically in the middle where he has access to some routes to kind of move his troops quickly. But the problem is it's not enough.
The Philistine Threat
They just had this big incursion on the east from the Ammonites and everything went awesome. Saul showed up, he mustered the army—not just his 3,000, but he called all the troops in—and they beat the Ammonites and it was awesome. This is why Saul looks like the hero right now.
But while he moved all his troops over to the east, the Philistines said, "This would be a great time to move into Israel." And so they start moving in from the west.
You have to remember these ancient nations didn't really have the same mapping technology we do. They didn't have the same strict borders we understand. It was very gray, very fuzzy. It was more like people groups than land. There was a ton of intermixing. A good 20, 30, 40 miles of land might just kind of exist in this weird category of disputed territory where each town might be 30% this and 70% that. That's how these ancient nations work.
The Philistines have been moving into Israel, taking up more and more land until we get to our point in the text. And Israel is cut off entirely from the Mediterranean. They have no access to the Mediterranean, which has destroyed their trade and destroys their access to new technology.
This is a weird thing, but it's an important piece of the history. What we're going to see here is the Philistines have advanced to the Iron Age. They have all the technology that goes with the Iron Age, and the Israelites are still in the Bronze Age. If you don't remember your high school history class, that's fine. But that means the technology difference is astounding. We're going to see some of that as we go on here.
What you need to know for this beginning part is that this is all really normal, ancient Near Eastern army-king stuff. This is exactly what happens. A country finally gets it together enough to raise up a king. The first thing the king does is organize a standing army and set up taxes to pay the standing army so they can defend the borders. That's what happens. That means there's a new king in town. That means these tribes want to be a country. They're going to figure it out.
Jonathan's Raid
Now, we're told here in these first couple verses that there are these Philistines garrisoned in a place called Gibeah. This is deep into Israel, but they have a full military garrison there.
So Jonathan goes, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm just going to go raid. We're just going to go attack them in the middle of the night, see what happens."
He has ludicrous success. He destroys the entire garrison. The Philistines have to flee and lose this position.
That's great for Israel. It's great in large part because Saul, who's the king, whose job it is to take care of that stuff, wasn't doing anything. Jonathan stepped up and did this.
But it creates an environment where immediately they know, "Well, we just destroyed a Philistine base. They're going to respond in turn. So we've got to get ready."
Saul realizes 3,000 is not enough, and he sounds the horn. They send the guy running to all the towns: "Send your best troops. Things are about to go down. We just beat the Ammonites, now we're going to beat the Philistines. Let's get this thing going."
And so soldiers start flooding in to where Saul has garrisoned at this place called Michmash.
The Philistines Arrive: 1 Samuel 13:5-9
Read with me in verse 5:
The Philistines also gathered to fight against Israel: 3,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and troops as numerous as the sand of the seashore. They went up and camped at Michmash, east of Beth-aven. The men of Israel saw that they were in trouble because the troops were in a difficult situation. So they hid in caves and in thickets and among rocks and in holes and in cisterns. Some Hebrews even crossed over the Jordan River to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul, however, was still at Gilgal, and all his troops were gripped with fear. He waited seven days for the appointed time that Samuel had set, but Samuel didn't come to Gilgal, and the troops were deserting him. So Saul said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offering." And he offered the burnt offering.
The Mismatch
This is where things go south really quick.
The Philistines show up, but they don't just show up. They really show up.
They bring as many chariots as Saul had in his entire standing army. I want you to think about that for a minute. They bring as many mechanized troops as Saul had in the whole army. They bring double that in cavalry, and they bring a standing army so large that Saul's scouts can't safely count it. They have to leave before they finish counting it.
Can you imagine that for a moment? If you are Saul or one of his troops, the mismatch here is palpable.
And you have to remember the technology difference. Israel's living in the Bronze Age. This means their weapons—at this point, a lot of them would literally still be made of stone blades. That's the kind of things they're bringing to the table.
The Philistines were in the Iron Age. They had chariots and spears and swords and armor.
The difference is like this: Imagine on your side you had 3,000 dudes with World War I bolt-action rifles. Okay? I got a decent army here. 3,000 guys. They all got rifles. And the bad guys show up with 3,000 tanks and then 6,000 machine gun-mounted Humvees, and then their guys with rifles.
You go, "This isn't going to go well for me." That's the way this is stacked up.
Israel's Army Flees
The mismatch is so bad that Saul's troops simply surrender their position to the enemy and flee with no fight.
Remember, Saul was camped out at Michmash, and when they showed up and they saw them, Saul's army just said, "No, no, we're not doing that. No." And they just leave and they begin hiding and running everywhere they can. Some of them, if you look at the map, leave the country. They cross the Jordan. They go, "You know what? Canada sounds better. I'm just done." And they literally abandon their nation.
This is intense, guys. And also this is a really big issue.
You see, Saul had camped at Michmash because this was a raised position. It's still there. We can go look at it. It is a raised position that was surrounded by these dry wadis. And that made it this incredibly valuable high ground that they just gave up and walked away.
They give up the high ground and they go. And if you don't know what a wadi is, this is a land formation that exists in certain parts of the world—places that are dry and arid and have rainy seasons and dry seasons. What a wadi essentially is, is it's a part-time river. We have part-time streams around Missouri—streams that run in the spring and they get dry in the middle of summer. But in Israel, they have full-size rivers that run in the rainy season and get dry in the summertime. And then they become these really unique land formations.
During the rainy season they become these long stretched-out oases—huge valleys with big tall cliff faces around them, deep valleys that flow as rivers and fill up with plants. But the minute the dry season happens, they dry up. And during the dry season, these become roads. They pack down and they're dry. And they're great ways to actually set up commerce and move between cities.
In Israel, a lot of the ancient cities are strategically located around wadis because they create these excellent built-in infrastructure for moving troops back and forth. Michmash was built on this ridge surrounded by these. It was an incredibly defensible, great position.
But when the army shows up, Saul says "nope." And they back up a couple miles and they plant themselves in a place called Gilgal.
By the way, this is another little bit where it just gets confusing. If you look at your Bible map or you look this up later, in this couple-square-mile area, there is Gilgal, Geba, Gibeon, and Gibeah. Yeah, I know. And archaeologists aren't 100% sure which one's which, actually. But they're all right there in the same area. And Saul's at one of them.
What you need to know about this is that he's given up this amazing position, encamped his army just a couple miles away—close enough that they can all keep an eye on each other, their scouts are looking at each other—but he's in a way worse position.
And it's literally obvious to everyone that this is a losing proposition.
Gripped with Fear
The text says that Saul's troops were gripped with fear. That doesn't translate fully into English. These guys are terrified.
And by the way, they have every reason to be terrified. They're about to die. This is really bad for them.
The text tells us that Saul waits seven days for Samuel to show up. This is a little interesting textually, because the text hasn't said anything about Samuel telling Saul to wait seven days until right in this moment. But without getting too much into the weeds, what it seems like is that with Saul as the king in charge of the army and Samuel as a priest and a prophet in charge of Israel's spiritual health, they've kind of set up an agreement: when there needs to be military action, call the horn, sound the horn, and within so many days, I'll show up and I'll offer God's guidance and I'll offer the sacrifice.
That seems to be how it's set up. Samuel communicates that way to Saul early in his reign. It doesn't explicitly tell us that here, but it seems like it's kind of assuming that.
Regardless, Saul has an expectation that Samuel will be there within seven days to speak as the prophet, to speak for the Lord before they go into battle, to offer the sacrifices.
And he doesn't. He doesn't show up.
Day seven comes around, and Samuel is nowhere to be found.
And the text says at this point, the troops are just deserting. You have to remember, most of his army is not a standing army. Most of his army is just dudes who live in other parts of the country, who have their own farms and their own families. And they showed up because the king called. But they looked across that wadi at the other camp and said, "It's not worth it. You know what? Honestly, I think the Philistines should probably just have this area. This one's probably just for them. I'm going to go back home."
And so they wait till the night and they're just leaving. His army is melting away around him. And Samuel has not shown up.
A Desperate Moment
Guys, I think this is really important to see right now. Everyone there knows how badly this battle is going to go. Everyone there.
Saul needs his prophet to show up. He needs someone to come and speak with the voice of the Lord, to offer sacrifice, to give the rousing speech, to draw them back to God's faithfulness and His strength, to rally their faith. He needs God's intervention.
And nobody shows up.
It's been seven days. He said he would come. He didn't.
And so Saul takes things into his own hands. "Bring me the offering," he says. And he offers up the offering and seeks the favor of the Lord himself for their coming battles.
Here's the deal. You can probably guess by context clues where this story is going. That was not the right decision for Saul. He should not have done that.
But, man, isn't it easy to sympathize with him in this moment?
He's a leader. He's trying to hold this thing together. He can see not just his kingdom, but his own family, his own life, the people of Israel itself—he sees it all dangling in the balance in front of him. Soldiers are leaving right and left. He's desperate. He has to do something, anything.
So he does.
Ask yourself, honestly, if you were in this position, would you do any different?
He has to do something.
Making It Personal
This is where this text, I think, gets incredibly relatable. We try and consider it from the perspective of Israel and the perspective of Saul. So let's do that for a second.
Put Yourself in the Place of Israel
Put yourself in the place of Israel for a moment. Now we, by God's grace, we don't have Canada showing up with tanks. That's not a thing we face in our real life. But if you put your hope into some earthly solution, some earthly king—whether it's a political leader, a spiritual leader, a specific romantic relationship, a specific job you wanted, a degree you thought you needed—only to find that it actually just fell short. Like, really fell short. Like, completely fell short.
Like, the new job was just as toxic and unhealthy as the old job. Like, the new relationship still had you and all of your problems. Like, that new elected official was just as corrupt, but in different ways.
Anybody? When—and I mean when, not if—when this happens to us, how easy is it to embody the heart and soul of the Israelites and just tuck tail and run away? To just detach and say, "Nope, been down this road. Not doing that again." Just run away and hide.
You see, we thought we had a salvation. It didn't work. I'm just going to peace out.
Beloved, this is Israel. They demanded a king, they sought out a king, they committed to a king, and now their king isn't as smart or as strong as they hoped. And so what are they doing? Hiding and running. They put all their eggs in this basket, and it didn't turn out great. And now they're hiding and running.
Put Yourself in the Place of Saul# When Hope Feels Lost: Finding Faith in Desperate Times (continued)
Put Yourself in the Place of Saul
How about putting yourself in the place of Saul. Have you ever found yourself in one of those moments where your circumstances just stack up and feel completely hopeless?
And by the way, when I say that, I mean like, big things and small things, right? There's big scary stuff that happens. Lost jobs, bad diagnoses, broken relationships, addictions. We have small stuff. Frustrating, dysregulating days at work, repeated fights in our marriage that seem like they never get resolved. Kids that just won't sleep an entire night. Anyone? Anyone? Just me on that one.
Step back into that hero in the nick of time movie. We all have these moments. We all have these moments, big and small, where we just want Superman to show up.
And when you're in that moment, when it's real life in your life, how many of us honestly are actually holding out hope that that will happen? How many of us honestly are going, "The walls are caving in. My best bet is to hope Han Solo will swoop in at the last second"?
No. Most of us take stuff into our own hands and go, "Well, this isn't working. I got to fix it. Whatever I can do. Any solution works. Any port in a storm."
Faith seems foolish to most of us in those moments.
Samuel Arrives: 1 Samuel 13:10-15
Read on with me and see what happens next in our text. Verse 10:
Just as he had finished the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. So Saul went out to greet him. And Samuel asked, "What have you done?" Saul answered, "When I saw that the troops were deserting me and that you didn't come within the appointed days and the Philistines were gathering at Michmash, I thought, 'The Philistines will now descend on me at Gilgal, and I haven't sought the Lord's favor.' So I forced myself to offer the burnt offering." Samuel said to Saul, "You have been foolish. You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. It was at this time the Lord would have permanently established your reign over Israel. But now your reign will not endure. The Lord has found a man after his own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over his people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded." Then Samuel left from Gilgal to Gibeah in Benjamin. Saul registered the troops who were with him, about 600 men.
Two Hours Too Soon
Apparently, Saul should have waited, like, two additional hours.
That's really rough, because the text says, "As he was finishing the offering, Samuel arrives."
Oh, it's painful to read, isn't it? You can imagine the scene of Samuel walking up and the smoke is still coming up off the altar and Saul is praying blessing over the coming battle. And that awkward moment when he shows up and they lock eyes.
And look at Samuel's challenge to Saul. "What have you done?" Calls him a fool. He says this was going to be the moment that God would have cemented Saul's reign and Saul's kingdom and Saul's dynasty. But instead, he is denying Saul a dynasty. "Your kingdom won't endure. I'm going to raise up another king who will actually do what God says."
Where Is the Grace?
Am I the only one who reads this and just immediately kind of goes, "Man, God's punishment feels really harsh and sudden"?
Where is the grace in this? The situation was so hopeless and Samuel didn't show up quick enough, and the soldiers were hiding and deserting, and all Saul did was offer up a sacrifice. He did that because he wanted God to be with them. He wanted God's involvement with his people. Why is God so dramatically harsh with Saul here?
This is actually the question that plagued me all week long as I was trying to write this sermon. But I actually think the answer for us is really important. I think it's kind of really the key to this text.
The Heart of the Matter
You see, Saul had a command from the Lord to wait. Wait for Samuel.
Saul is the king. He's in charge of the army. He's supposed to be defending Israel and leading them in faithfulness. That's the charge of the king—to be the lead worshiper who keeps them in faithfulness to their covenant to God. And he hears from God through his prophet, Samuel. That's how the king hears the voice of the Lord.
But Saul didn't wait for Samuel, and as a result, he didn't wait for the Lord. He took this into his own hands.
And there is a twofold problem here. He's disobeying God purely and simply—not waiting. But he's also presuming his knowledge and authority over the situation. "I understand this, so I just need to act."
He is king over Israel. He's in the situation. He has to fix it.
But Saul forgets that he's not the king of Israel. He's God's king over Israel. He belongs to the Lord because God is the true king of Israel. And He had a plan for that moment that wasn't Saul's decision to make.
This is breaking faith, guys, purely and simply. This is Saul breaking covenant.
Deflection, Not Repentance
And here's where we get to the real heart of the matter. And this is honestly what we're going to see play out over the rest of Saul's sad life.
Samuel confronts Saul with this rupture of covenant. And look how Saul responds:
"Samuel, this is your fault. You didn't show up. It's the soldiers' fault. They were running away. It's the Philistines' fault. Look how big and strong they are. I forced myself to do this. I didn't want to do it, but I had to because everyone else in my life was letting me down. And someone had to do something."
I have a certain child who shall remain nameless. This is the conversation we have every time they get in trouble. This is a conversation we have three or four times a day in our house.
"Why did you hit your sibling?" "Well, they started it."
"Why are you disobeying me?" "Well, you made me angry."
"How dare you talk to me like that?"
This child has a really, really, really, really, really, really, really hard time dealing with their own shame and with the exposure that comes from being in trouble. So they do everything they can to deflect. It has to be someone else's fault. Surely this trouble is someone else's fault.
And that makes sense when you're talking about a small child who got in trouble. But did any of us just relate to that purely and simply in our own lives and hearts?
Yeah, man, we all do this. At least sometimes. We don't want to be the screw-up. So we deflect. We put our sin off on other people.
The Gospel Standard
But here's the deal, beloved. This is true for my kid. This is true for Saul. This is true for us.
That's not how the Gospel works. Period. It's not how the Gospel works. That's not how God relates to us.
He is a God of never-ending grace and patience. But He will not lie and He will not accept excuses.
I said this last week, but most of the Old Testament can be understood through the lens of Deuteronomy 28 and 29. This is where Moses spells out the blessings and the curses for following covenant. And really this is what Israel is experiencing the rest of the Old Testament. They get blessings when they follow covenant, they get curses when they break covenant.
But what's so important about Deuteronomy 28 and 29 is the end of Deuteronomy 29, where God says, "If you ever get tired of those curses, if you're ever sitting there going, 'Man, being out of God's favor is terrible,' do you know what you do? You confess and you repent. And you turn to God with your whole heart and you know what He does? He forgives you. And He restores you to His covenant blessing forever and eternally. 100%. That's how it works."
Beloved, repentance is the standard. Period. Repentance is the standard.
You turn back to God, you confess, you repent, you own what you've done, you own your guilt, and you fall down on the love and mercy of God, and you will receive forgiveness and restoration.
But the standard is repentance.
As we see in our text, as we'll see with Saul over the next several chapters, over the course of the entire rest of his life, he responds to God's discipline with rebellion, notrepentance.
It is never his fault. It's never his fault. He doesn't own his sin and he doesn't repent.
Mark this, beloved: Repentance is the standard.
Which means when we deflect, when we refuse to confess, when we plant our heels in the idea that our sin is really someone else's fault, then we, like my child, cannot actually experience forgiveness.
Not that God is not offering forgiveness. But if you refuse to acknowledge your sin, if you plant your heels and say, "This is not my fault," you can never experience forgiveness. Because if it's not your fault, you haven't sinned. And if you haven't sinned, there's nothing to forgive.
You are putting yourself outside the beautiful gift of the Gospel.
And, beloved, hear this: It's completely and totally unnecessary.
What is found when we confess our guilt and come to our Lord for mercy in confession and repentance? What's found? Grace and forgiveness. Grace that abounds, forgiveness that never ends, love that literally makes the universe work. That's what's found in our confession and our repentance.
There is no reason to hide, to deflect, to live in shame.
But this is what Saul is doing. And if we're honest, this is what a lot of us do. This is what a lot of us do all the time.
Some of us are in this room today to be challenged by that truth. You need to live with an honest confession so that you can actually experience real repentance and the real freedom that comes with Christ's forgiveness.
Why God Chooses a New King
This, beloved, is why it's a grace that God is taking the kingdom away from Saul to a different king.
Israel's faithfulness to covenant is bound up in their king. The king's role is to lead them to covenant faithfulness. They need a king who will lead them toward confession and repentance, not away from it.
And Saul is simply not that man.
So God is picking someone new, someone who is a man after God's own heart, someone who will listen, who will obey, who will engage covenant.
And if you had the littlest bit of Sunday school knowledge, you know that's David. That's where the book is going. David is the man after God's own heart, and he's awesome. In fact, in pretty much every way that Saul fails, you're going to see David's strengths over the course of these next two books.
But Even David Falls Short
But here's what's interesting. David might be the best example in the entire Scripture of an earthly king, but he is still a dreadful, sinful, broken human being.
In fact, I would say the worst things that we see David do are significantly worse than the worst things we see Saul do. Significantly worse.
The difference between David and Saul is not that Saul's a bad dude and David's a good dude.
The difference between David and Saul is that Saul refused to acknowledge his sin and refused to engage the grace of God and restoration to covenant. And David is a man who lived in confession and repentance—a sinful, broken man who, when confronted with his sin, bore it all before the Lord and fell at the feet of Christ seeking forgiveness.
That's the difference.
Because the reality is, beloved, the best earthly kings will still fall short.
And that's a tough pill to swallow, because I know some of you guys have some amazing people in your life. Parents, friends, spouses, siblings, pastors, mentors. But I know something that ties every single one of those people together: They're all sinners who have failed and who will continue to fail.
The best people you know—the best—are sinners who have failed, who will continue to fail.
All your pastors here at Emmanuel, we love you guys. We are doing our absolute best to serve you and to point you to Christ. I pray for you guys by name, all the time. I love you guys. And I am a sinful, broken man. And I will fail you and hurt you.
Because at the end of the day, we need more than a man after God's own heart. We need God.
That's what we actually need.
And praise be to God that He sent Jesus. That God Himself came to earth as a better David, as a man who wasn't just after God's own heart, but who was God in the flesh.
Jesus is hope embodied, beloved.
He is the hero in the nick of time who enters into our broken and sinful world, lives a perfect, sacrificial life for us, dies on the cross and wins us salvation and eternity with Him. That's the Gospel that our hearts are actually longing for.
Because Jesus is hope, beloved. Real hope. Real hope.
Even when the chips are down, even when the Philistines are beyond counting, even when the soldiers are running away at night, even when life feels stacked against you—our hope is found in turning in humble repentance to Jesus, not in our own strength, not in our own idols, and not in any earthly kings.
But Saul misses this. He digs his heels in. He refuses confession. He refuses repentance. He misses the grace of God. He misses the restoration of covenant.
Samuel leaves him in his doomed battlefield and he is worse off than when he started.
The Situation Gets Worse: 1 Samuel 13:15b-23
Verse 15 ends by saying he counts the troops he has left. Did you see this? He has 600 troops left.
Can we just sit with that for a moment? Out of his whole army—he had raised up 3,000 trained men, he called his banners from all the tribes to send their best—he's failed to trust the Lord and seek Him. And now he's been abandoned by his prophet and he's leading 600 troops against tens of thousands.
What can possibly be done in this situation?
Read with me. Let's land this text. Verse 16:
Saul, his son Jonathan, and the troops who were with them were staying at Geba in Benjamin, and the Philistines were camped at Michmash. Raiding parties went out from the Philistine camp in three divisions. One division headed toward the Ophrah road leading to the land of Shual, the next division headed toward the Beth-horon road, and the last division headed down the border road that looks over the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.
No blacksmith could be found in all the land of Israel because the Philistines had said, "Otherwise, the Hebrews will make swords and spears." So all the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to sharpen their plows, mattocks, axes, and sickles. The price was two-thirds of a shekel for plows and mattocks, and one-third of a shekel for pitchforks and axes, and for putting a point on a cattle prod. So on the day of battle, not a sword or spear could be found in the hand of any of the troops who were with Saul and Jonathan. Only Saul and his son Jonathan had weapons.
Complete Hopelessness
Because our text ends on such a hopeless note, next week we'll get in and we'll actually see how God shows up for Israel in spite of Saul's leadership. It's really powerful. I'm excited to get into that text. But today we just get bad news again.
We can miss this because of the geography. But when Saul does his recount and realizes his 3,000 are down to 600, he retreats again. He abandons even the position he was at, and he goes down to stay out of the Philistines' sight. He doesn't want them to come and get them.
And when Israel's army is away, rather than chasing after them, the Philistines just start ransacking Israel. They set up three raiding parties and spread out over the land, just destroying cities and villages and stealing whatever they want.
And now Saul is completely derelict in his duty as king. Not only has he failed to bring together Israel's soldiers, he's off hiding with their bravest warriors while the Philistines just take whatever they want.
The Technology Gap
And then our text just ends with this note about technology that proves the point.
The Philistines have better technology. They're strictly controlling this. And because of this, Israel is left under the Philistines' thumb and unable to defend themselves. Their whole army is stuck with farming utensils and stones repurposed into weapons.
This is wild to think: # When Hope Feels Lost: Finding Faith in Desperate Times (continued)
This is wild to think: 600 dudes with rocks and sickles versus thousands of chariots and horsemen and armed soldiers.
How can anything good come out of this?
But our text ends today, I think, in this perfect cinematic moment of hopelessness. You're looking at it going, "Surely they'll be crushed. Surely they'll be crushed. What can possibly happen here?"
The Real Choice Before Israel
And I'm struck by the reality that Israel here has a real choice.
Will they follow in the fearful, rebellious footsteps of their earthly king Saul, or will they trust in the salvation of their real king, Yahweh?
Saul has shown his mettle. Are they going to follow his lead? Are they going to see past him and trust their king for true provision?
Beloved, I believe the same question is here for us today.
Application: Where Is Your Hope?
I already said this, but we have a diverse stack of different circumstances in this space today. Some of us are in an amazing place. A lot of our lives seem to be on track. Some of us are here today and we're holding on by a thread and everything in between.
But there is a universal truth among all of that. In big and small ways, all of us have been affected by the curse. All of us need help, all of us need rescue. And in big and small things, we need it on a daily basis.
We lose hope from time to time.
And beloved, there is one, and I mean only one, solution when you've lost hope.
His name is Jesus.
Jesus is our rescue. He is our hope.
Landing in Romans 5:1-5
I want to land today by looking at a text from Romans 5. If you could turn there in your Bibles with me. Romans 5. We're going to read just five verses to land this out. I'm going to read one and stop and say, and read and stop and say. And I want you to read this with me. Pray through this text with me.
Romans 5. Paul tells us this:
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Beloved, your faith in Jesus and His accomplished work is what gives you peace with God. Nothing else in this world gives you the peace your heart longs for. It is only faith in Jesus and His accomplished work.
We have also obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand.
That faith doesn't just give us peace, it gives us access to the grace of God. So what I was talking about earlier—it's only when we come to Christ in our real confession and our real repentance and real faith that we actually access and experience the grace of God, the forgiveness that is life in the Gospel.
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Beloved, there is something about this access we have to the grace of God that makes it so that we can boast. We can be confident in our hope in God.
And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions.
Not just our hope, but our afflictions. Wait a minute, did you catch that?
Paul says you can boast in your suffering, in the afflictions in life that we want rescue from—our suffering, our trial, our sorrow. Because of Jesus, we can boast in them, we can have confidence in them. We don't have to run away and hide like Israel.
Why?
Because we know that affliction produces endurance, and endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.
This is so key, church. Don't miss this.
Paul says that because of our access to Jesus, because of what He has done for us, we can boast when our circumstances seem hopeless. When you lose the job, when you can't pay the bills, when the doctor calls back with bad news, when the person cuts you off and ends all relationship—with all trials and afflictions of life in this broken world, we can boast and have confidence, not fear, because they will give us endurance.
Because of Christ, we will endure in the face of suffering.
And this endurance in Christ will build up godly character.
And this godly character will give us hope.
Beloved, it comes back to hope. Even in the face of our afflictions, even when it seems like there's no way forward, Paul says, in Christ we have hope.
And read this last verse with me:
This hope will not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Beloved, the hope of Jesus will not disappoint.
The hope of the Gospel is not foolish. The hope of the Gospel is not empty or in vain, because God has poured out His love on us and sent His Spirit to dwell with us.
Because God is actually that good.
No matter what your circumstances are, in Christ you have hope.
And hear me when I say this, church: You have Jesus.
The Gospel is hope. The hope of the Gospel does not disappoint because the Gospel gives you Christ, and Christ is what you actually need.
Communion: Proclaiming the Gospel
We're going to end today by taking communion like we always do. For those of us who are in Christ, I'd encourage you to come take the elements, because the Scripture says when we take the elements, we're proclaiming His death until His return.
It's the Bible's way of saying that we're proclaiming the sufficiency of Christ's accomplished work on our behalf. When we take the body broken, represented in the cracker, the blood poured out, represented in the juice, we're not just proclaiming the Gospel to ourselves, but to our brothers and sisters in the room.
Jesus' work is enough.
What I want you to do for those of you in the room who are in Christ before you take communion is this:
I want you to take just a minute, just a quick minute by yourself in prayer. Find a way to get alone with God for just a second. Close your eyes and connect with Him.
And I want you to take a moment and put language to your affliction right now.
What is the thing standing in front of you? By God's grace, we don't have Philistines camped out over at Michmash. But there are big things in our life, things that seem insurmountable, things that feel like there's just no way I can fix this. I don't see a way forward on this.
I want you to bring that to the Lord. Bring that affliction to Him.
Consider what it would mean to have faith in Him. Consider His sufficiency to be your hope.
And when you've sat in that for a minute, for those of you who are ready, I'd invite you to come forward and together with us proclaim the Gospel through communion.
Beloved, take the minute. Do the work you need to do with Christ.
Reflection Questions
Re-read 1 Samuel 13:1-22. What thoughts and questions come to mind as you read?
Pastor Sam talked briefly about the cliche of the hero who swoops in in the nick of time.What's your favorite movie or book scene where the hero arrives just in time? Why do you suppose this storytelling device resonate so deeply with people? When have you hoped for this in your own life?
Put yourself in Saul's position for a moment. You’re outnumbered, watching your army desert, waiting for a prophet who hasn’t shown up. How would you have felt? What would you have been tempted to do? Can you think of a time when you’ve felt out of options and out of control in your life? How did you respond then?
Pastor Sam emphasized that "repentance is the standard" and that we cannot experience forgiveness if we refuse to acknowledge our sin. Why is genuine confession so difficult? Saul blamed Samuel, the soldiers, and the Philistines for his disobedience. When you're confronted with your own sin, what are your go-to deflections or excuses?
Romans 5:5 promises that "this hope will not disappoint us." How is hope in Jesus fundamentally different from hope in earthly solutions or earthly kings?
What was God telling you in this sermon? What are you going to do about it?
For Further Study
If you want to dig deeper into the themes of this sermon, here are some passages to study this week:
1 Samuel 15 - Saul's continued rebellion and refusal to repent
Psalm 51 - David's prayer of confession and repentance after his sin with Bathsheba
2 Samuel 7 - God's covenant with David and the promise of an eternal king
Hebrews 4:14-16 - Our great high priest who gives us access to the throne of grace
Romans 8:31-39 - Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
Philippians 3:7-11 - Counting everything as loss compared to knowing Christ
Connect With Us
We'd love to hear how God is speaking to you through this message. If you have questions, need prayer, or want to talk more about what it means to put your faith in Jesus, please reach out:
If you're not yet part of a local church community, we'd love to have you join us. Church isn't just about just engaging teaching, it's about doing life together, encouraging one another, confessing our sins to one another, and pointing each other to Jesus week after week. We do our best to do just that at Immanuel Fellowship Church.
This sermon was preached at Immanuel Fellowship Church in Ellisville Missouri as part of our "Earthly Kings" series within 1 Samuel, exploring Israel's first king Saul and how his reign shows the unavoidable shortcomings of trusting in earthly solutions for our deepest longings and needs. For more resources on faith and Christian living, visit our website or connect with our community. You can email us at hello@ifcstl.com or call/text us at 636-431-4708
All Scripture quotations are from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB) unless otherwise noted.
