INTRODUCTION: Saul falls away from his position of favor with the Lord in a series of three falls. In chapter 13, he did not wait for Samuel to sacrifice, as he had been instructed to. In chapter 14, he makes a rash vow concerning the battle, and doubles down with a self-maledictory oath. And here, …
Bramble and Bright
INTRODUCTION:We have seen how Saul stumbled by trying to sacrifice before Samuel’s arrival. In this chapter, we see his second great sin, this time involving his son—a very noble son—Jonathan. The tragedy here is that Jonathan, who would have made a wonderful king, is excluded from that throne by the sin of his father. THE …
Saul’s Slide Begins
INTRODUCTION:God is the Lord of all things—and this means that He is Lord of both the inside and the outside of a man. Sin loves to divide them in two, and yet God does not permit it. True faith begins on the inside, but does not rest content until the outside is brought under. If …
Not Where They Should Have Been
INTRODUCTION:God is sovereign and God is gracious, and this means that God takes you from where you are, and not from where you should have been. If we were standing around where we should have been, we wouldn’t need salvation. If we need salvation, we are not where we should have been. A godly response …
Saul and the Serpent
INTRODUCTION:Saul functions in this story as the last of Israel’s judges. He has been anointed as a king, and acclaimed as one, but he has not yet been made a king. This fact alone means that at the beginning of his reign, there is faithfulness to the theocratic ideal. And, at the very beginning of …
Another Heart, A New Heart
INTRODUCTION:Saul is given favor by God, even though the circumstances are unfavorable indeed. Saul is given favor by Samuel, even though Samuel knows that trouble lies ahead. This chapter contains a number of references that will help us understand the rest of the story rightly. THE TEXT:“Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured …
Samuel and Saul
INTRODUCTION:We are now introduced to the first king over all Israel, a man who began well and ended poorly. There are signs of trouble from the very beginning, but there is also grace from God that is clearly present. The fact that we know there will be a fall does not prevent the goodness bestowed …
Like All the Nations
INTRODUCTION:The Lord provided a great deliverance at the second battle of Ebenezer, and Israel was greatly blessed by it. But blessings are like manna—they must be replenished daily. They go bad over time; they don’t keep well. Yesterday’s grace stinks by the time today’s troubles set in. Grace must be replenished constantly. Now Samuel was …
The Second Ebenezer
INTRODUCTION:The reformation we see here in this passage was slow in coming, and did not last very long. But at the same time, it was real. Reformations are messy, and cannot be understood by the tidy-minded. As we live in a time that is desperate for real reformation, there are many things for us to …
The Ark of the Gentiles
INTRODUCTION:We now can see the shape of an interesting storyline taking place. We see Israelites acting like faithless Gentiles, and Gentiles acting like faithful Israelites. In the pages to come, we are going to see quite a bit of this. THE TEXT:“And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven …