Episode Details

Better Than Sacrifice

1 Samuel 13-15; Remsen Bible Fellowship;

Introduction

We often think about the Bible as a book of dos and don’ts, a collection of rules for moral living, and perhaps somewhere to look for examples on how to live. What I tried to argue in my sermons for the last two plus years, first in our bible study and now as a church, is that what we actually have in the Bible is one comprehensive story, from beginning to end, with one main theme: God bringing glory to himself in the salvation of sinners through his Son. The story begins in eternity past, moves immediately into the creation of a beautiful paradise, and falls shortly thereafter into tragedy as the creatures made most like God -human beings- rebel against him. And the rest of the book unfolds his plan of choosing a people to be his people in this world, not because of what they’ve done, but simply because of his kind Mercy and Grace. This story, which winds its way through centuries and millennia, finds its culmination in the entrance of the eternal Son, God himself, into this world, taking on flesh, and becoming a man, our Lord Jesus Christ. In his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus becomes, as it were, the focal point of history, he is the one of whom Moses and the prophets spoke, both explicitly in terms of predictive prophecies, but also in forms, patterns, and types that find their full expression in him. The rest of the Bible is the story of God continuing to create a people for himself, but unlike the Old Testament people of Israel, we have the added advantage of God dwelling with us personally in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And one day the story will come to completion as Christ returns, the old earth-and the old heaven!-will be washed away and replaced by a renewed, restored, New Heavens and New Earth. This is the big story.

Having said all of that, the fact remains that God is doing a lot with this book. And part of what he wants us to know, as his people formed around Jesus, held together by his written word and by his Holy Spirit, is how we ought to live this earthly life. How can we be a people who live holy lives pleasing to our Lord? This is where examples in Scripture are extremely helpful. Not as a way to be right with God-you’ll never be that good. But if you come to him acknowledging that your only standing with him is on the basis of Christ’s work on the cross, then we can look at examples, both positive and negative, and see what there is to learn. What sort of life pleases the Father?

I would submit to you that in chapters 13-15 of 1 Samuel, the writer sets king Saul before us as a supremely negative example. Of course, he wants us to understand the history of Israel. And we are going to see some key shifts, beginning with God rejecting Saul’s line, and the rejecting Saul himself, all of which sets the table for David from whom, some thousand years later, would come the eternal King of Kings. The historical developments are important. But we also have a tragic story of someone who could have seen his reign prosper, and instead becomes, at best, a very mixed character. At times a villain. 

Summary

Because we are looking at such an extensive section of Scripture, I want to begin by summarizing the basic components of the text, the flow of the narrative. 

Chapter 13 begins with an introduction to Saul’s position. We aren’t totally sure how long he had reigned when this all takes place, as the various Hebrew manuscripts and Greek translations are in conflict. He is obviously old enough by this point that his son Jonathan is capable of commanding troops, though, because Saul is at Michmash with one group of 2,000 soldiers, while Jonathan is at Gibeah, the homestown, with 1,000 (13:2). The next thing we know, Jonathan is taking his thousand men and attacking the Philistines at Geba,