1. "Rejection is easier to stomach when it seems fair. But what about when you're doing the rejecting? What have you rejected lately? Whatever it is you're rejecting, what you reject says something about who you are. It reveals what you value."

2. "Saul sinned in order to try to stay in control. What do you want so much that you're tempted to sin to get it? Whatever it is, that is especially where you have to practice the spiritual discipline of waiting on the Lord."

3. "It could be that obeying God consistently is starting to look like a bad career move. What then?"

4. "Saul has presumption without faith. Jonathan has faith without presumption. Jonathan trusts that the Lord can save. He can deliver. He can work salvation by few."

5. "On the cross, God saved by the fewest. He saved by a single man. And he's saved by a man who was condemned, arrested, mocked, scourged, beaten, stripped of his clothing and nailed to a horizontal wooden cross beam and then lifted up off the earth to hang there till he died. That is how God saves."

6. "Some victories are actually defeats, like an own goal in soccer. Or like a husband overwhelming his wife with flawless logic that takes no account whatsoever of what she's actually feeling or experiencing or concerned about. He thinks he's won an argument. She knows he has damaged her trust."

7. "You can succeed in all your strategic aims yet fail spiritually. And that will count far more on the last day."

8. "To revise God's Word is to reject God's Word. To edit God's commands is to delete God's commands."

9. "It is possible for sin to so blind you to yourself that you not only disobey God's commands, but convince yourself that in the process you are keeping them."

10. "God wants our obedience, not instead of our hearts, but because he wants our hearts. And whatever holds highest place in your heart is what you obey, whether you choose to use that word or not."

Observation Questions

1. In 1 Samuel 13:8-9, what did Saul do when Samuel did not arrive within the appointed time and the people were scattering from him?

2. According to 1 Samuel 13:13-14, what consequence did Samuel pronounce upon Saul for his disobedience, and what kind of person did the Lord say he had sought out to replace Saul?

3. In 1 Samuel 14:6, what does Jonathan say to his armor-bearer about the Lord's ability to save, and what does this reveal about Jonathan's understanding of God?

4. According to 1 Samuel 14:24, what oath did Saul lay upon the people during the battle, and what effect did this have on them as described in verses 28-31?

5. In 1 Samuel 15:22-23, how does Samuel contrast obedience with sacrifice, and to what sins does he compare rebellion and presumption?

6. What does 1 Samuel 15:29 say about God's character regarding regret and changing his mind, and how does this contrast with what is said about God in verses 11 and 35?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why was Saul's decision to offer the sacrifice himself (1 Samuel 13:9) such a serious offense in God's eyes, even though his reasoning seemed practical given the military circumstances?

2. How does Jonathan's statement "Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few" (1 Samuel 14:6) demonstrate a fundamentally different approach to faith than his father Saul displayed throughout these chapters?

3. What does Samuel's declaration that "to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22) teach us about what God truly values, and why might religious activity sometimes mask disobedience?

4. How do the three tests Saul failed—waiting, trusting, and listening—reveal a common underlying problem in his relationship with God?

5. How can we reconcile the statements that God "regrets" making Saul king (15:11, 35) with the statement that God "will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret" (15:29)?

Application Questions

1. In what specific area of your life are you currently tempted to "take matters into your own hands" rather than waiting on God's timing and provision? What would it look like to practice the discipline of waiting this week?

2. Jonathan risked his life based on the conviction that "nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few." What faith-fueled risk might God be calling you to take—whether in evangelism, generosity, or serving others—that you have been avoiding because the odds seem against you?

3. Saul feared losing the approval of his troops more than he feared disobeying God. In what relationships or settings are you most tempted to prioritize human approval over obedience to God, and how can you address this tendency?

4. The sermon noted that it is possible to convince yourself you are keeping God's commands while actually disobeying them. What practice could you adopt to help you honestly evaluate whether your obedience is genuine rather than self-deceived?

5. Saul's "repentance" in chapter 15 was superficial because he was more concerned with saving face than seeking God's mercy. How can you distinguish between genuine repentance and superficial regret in your own life, and what does true repentance look like for you right now?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 17:8-16 — This passage recounts the original battle between Israel and Amalek, providing the background for God's command to Saul in 1 Samuel 15.

2. Deuteronomy 25:17-19 — Here God commands Israel to remember and eventually execute judgment on the Amalekites, showing that Saul's assignment was rooted in longstanding divine justice.

3. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 — Paul explains how God saves through the apparent weakness and foolishness of the cross, reinforcing the sermon's point that God saves "by few" and through unexpected means.

4. Matthew 7:21-27 — Jesus warns that calling him "Lord" while failing to do the Father's will leads to rejection, paralleling Saul's self-deceived claim of obedience.

5. Hebrews 11:32-40 — This passage celebrates those who acted in faith despite impossible odds, connecting to Jonathan's courage and trust that nothing can hinder the Lord from saving.

Sermon Main Topics

I. What You Reject Reveals What You Value

II. Wait: Saul's First Test in Chapter 13

III. Trust: Saul's Second Test in Chapter 14

IV. Listen: Saul's Third Test in Chapter 15

V. God's Unchanging Promise of Mercy to Those Who Repent

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Detailed Sermon Outline

that rejection hurts. It might be the unwanted end of a relationship you hoped was going somewhere. Or the rejection might come in an email that begins, Dear sir or madam, we regret to inform you.

Rejection is easier to stomach when it seems fair. Maybe that mortgage really would have been too much money. Maybe you're interviewing for a job and you know the other finalists and they really do have more experience than you do.

Being rejected may or may not say something about you. It depends on the reason and it depends on whether that reason is reasonable. But what about when you're doing the rejecting? What have you rejected lately?

A date? A work opportunity? An argument from someone who is trying to convince you to see things their way? Whatever it is you're rejecting, what you reject says something about who you are. It reveals what you value.

It reveals what you're going to hold onto at the expense of saying no to something else.

This morning we continue our series in 1 Samuel with chapters 13 to 15. The passage starts on page 234. It is a long passage. I will read all of it as we go. This means that my comments on some parts of it will have to be very brief.

There are many riches in this passage that I'll have to leave to you all to uncover as you study and meditate and talk in small groups throughout the week. The whole passage pivots on two extremely serious rejections. Israel's new king, Saul, rejects the Lord's commands. And so the Lord rejects Saul as king. So here's the main idea of our text and sermon.

What you reject reveals what you value.

What God rejects reveals what God values. What you reject reveals what you value. What God rejects reveals what he values. We'll see these two rejections play out through three tests that Saul fails, one test per chapter. Three chapters, three tests, three failures.

Chapter 13, wait. Chapter 14, trust. Chapter 15, listen. Chapter 13, wait. Chapter 14, trust.

Chapter 15, listen. Begin with point one, wait. This is the test Saul fails in chapter 13. Before we jump into the text, you might notice something odd about chapter 13, verse one. It seems to be one of the very rare places where a couple of words might be missing from the oldest Hebrew manuscripts we have, which the ESV translation is based on.

Most modern translations here follow some ancient Greek versions, which list Saul's age as 30 when he began to reign and the length of his reign as 42 years. Any questions about that, I'd be glad to talk at the door afterward. For now, look at verses one to seven. Saul lived for one year and then became king. And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel.

2,000 were with Saul in Michmash in the hill country of Bethel, and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines.

And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel: thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. 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.

Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people followed him, trembling. Israel is in big trouble again. The Philistines are pressing in and overwhelming them as they have in the past. Saul's son, Jonathan, takes initiative and strikes a major blow against them, but the people are still hard-pressed, even though Saul has rallied more Israelites to join the fight. They're in trouble.

For fear of the Philistines, they are hiding in caves and anywhere else they can find. What happened to getting a king who who would fight their battles for them? Or more fundamentally, what happened to trusting in the Lord and fearing Him as the one who will fight your battles for you? Things are not looking good for Israel. This is a pretty dire situation.

So what does Saul do in response? Verses 8 to 14.

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, 'Bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings.' and he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him.

Samuel said, 'What have you done?' and Saul said, '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 mustard at Micmash, 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. 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.

The backstory here is that through the prophet Samuel, God had commanded Saul to wait. He had told him to not offer a sacrifice until Samuel came, and presumably Samuel would then be the one to offer. The sacrifice. The command was simple: Sit there. Do nothing.

Wait. But even though that's a simple command, it can be a hard command to obey, especially when the enemy is gathering and your troops are deserting. That reference to the people scattering in verse 8 is probably not just the people in general, but specifically the troops. That's what Saul is most concerned about. The threat is real, circumstances are dire, waiting looks like a losing move.

So Saul offered this unauthorized sacrifice because he wanted to win. Because he wanted to stay in command and he feared losing the confidence of his troops, Saul sinned in order to try to stay in control.

What do you want so much that you're tempted to to sin, to get it. Whatever it is, that is especially where you have to practice the spiritual discipline of waiting on the Lord.

Wait for him to act. Don't go an inch beyond his commands or an inch beyond his clear provision. So often we grow impatient, we get tired of waiting on the Lord for a ton of different reasons. It could be because you fear some harm or losing something that you desire. Or it could be that obedience seems to be sending you backward rather than forward.

It looks like obeying God is taking you farther away from the thing you want instead of drawing you to it. Or you might be jealous. You might be envious of other people who seem to be getting ahead. They're getting what you want and you aren't. If those other people are believers, it looks like God is answering their prayers and not yours.

Or it could be that waiting on the Lord, obeying him, and refusing to budge an inch from his commands is diminishing your professional capital. It might be that other people are getting ahead in your workplace because they're cutting corners and you are not. It could be that obeying God consistently is starting to look like a bad career move. What then?

We so easily get impatient waiting for anything. For a red light to change, for a drink at a drive-through Starbucks, you sit there going, Something must be wrong. Something must be broken. This light must not be working. The person making the drink must not know what they're doing.

Is there something wrong here? Do they even know what's happening?

But what about when it's God you're waiting for? Is there something wrong with him? Does he not know what's going on?

Saul's refusal to wait had disastrous consequences. In verse 10, Samuel shows up just after Saul makes his disastrous decision to disobey. And then Saul lamely justifies his actions to Samuel. Saul's rationale sounds plausible, but it's fatally flawed. God did not want Saul to come up with his own military strategy, but to submit to God's.

What is God's strategy? Early in his massive book on the history of strategy, the British military historian Sir Lawrence David Friedman looks at strategy in the Bible. He surveys Exodus, judges, Saul and David's reigns, and Sir Friedman concludes, the best, indeed the only strategy, was to obey God and then do as he told you. It's pretty good. Good summary.

Good strategy. You want a strategy? Do what God says. That's biblical strategy. So in verse 13, Samuel cuts right through Saul's excuses.

He says, you,'ve done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God. And so what was the consequence? Like Adam in the garden, if Saul had obeyed, the Lord would have established him in blessing and prosperity. He would have given him a lasting dynasty.

His sons would have reigned in succession after him. But instead, verse 14, 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. Samuel uses the past tense because it's so certain, it's as if it's already happened. We're going to find out how it happens in the next few chapters.

But Samuel's telling Saul, your reign is over before it even got started. You are going to be a one-king dynasty. It's like a president finding out they're only going to reign for one term on their first day of office. Welcome to office. Sorry, you're done.

Where does all this leave the people? Look at verses 15 to 23. Here's some of the consequences for them.

And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army. They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him.

About 600 men. And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in Gibeah of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual, another company turned toward Beth-horon, and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the valley of Zebulun toward the wilderness. Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, 'Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.' But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his ax, or his sickle.

And the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the so on the day of battle there was neither a sword nor a spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Micmash.

Verses 16 to 18 tell us that the Philistines sent out raiding parties to harass the Israelites. Verses 19 to 21 tell us that the Israelites were in such a poor economic and military position that they had almost no weapons. They weren't even allowed to have blacksmiths. And on top of that, they had to pay the Philistines steep prices just to sharpen their farming tools. So to all appearances, the Israelites are helpless.

They're up against an army that is way more numerous than them. They don't have any weapons to fight them.

This is a helpless situation. But whenever Yahweh is in the picture, to be helpless is not to be hopeless. We've seen this movie before. This is just about the time for the Lord to show up, and He will. And the way in which the Lord shows up and acts for His people is going to be another test for Saul.

Point two, trust. Point two, trust. This is the test that Saul fails but his son Jonathan passes in chapter 14. Look first at verses 1 to 5.

One day Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor, Come, Let us go over to the Philistine garrison on the other side. But he did not tell his father. Saul was staying in the outskirts of Gibeah in the pomegranate cave at Migron. The people who were with him were about six hundred men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitub, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the Lord, and Shiloh wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on the one side and a rocky crag on the other side. The name of the one was Bozeh and the name of the other Seneh. The one crag rose on the north in front of Micmash and the other on the south in front of Geba.

Saul is Sitting, Jonathan is acting. Saul is hiding in a cave. Jonathan is about to descend one rocky crag and climb up another in order to carry out a daring commando raid on the Philistines. Where does Jonathan's courage come from? Look at verses 6 to 15.

Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, 'Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.' and his armor-bearer said to him, 'Do all that is in your heart. Do as you wish. Behold, I am with you heart and soul. ' Then Jonathan said, Behold, we will cross over to the men, and we will show ourselves to them.

If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still in our place, and we will not go up to them. But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up, for the Lord has given them into our hand, and this shall be the sign to us.' so both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines. And the Philistines said, 'Look, Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.' and the men of the garrison hailed Jonathan and his armor-bearer and said, 'Come up to us, and we will show you a thing.' and Jonathan said to his armor-bearer, 'Come up after me, for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.' Then Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet and his armor-bearer after him, and they fell before Jonathan and his armor-bearer killed them after him. And that first strike which Jonathan and his armor bearer made killed about 20 men within, as it were, half a furrow's length in an acre of land. And there was a panic in the camp, in the field, and among all the people.

The garrison and even the raiders trembled. The earth quaked, and it became a very great panic.

The key is back in verse 6. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. Saul has presumption without faith. Jonathan has faith without presumption. Jonathan trusts that the Lord can save.

He can deliver. He can work salvation by few. And Jonathan is willing to risk his life to see if in this instance the Lord will. In saying, Nothing can hinder the Lord, Jonathan confesses faith in God's sovereignty. In saying it may be, Jonathan confesses faith in the Lord's freedom.

He doesn't think he can force God's hand. Instead, he's willing to make himself into an instrument in the Lord's hand and let the Lord do with him as he pleases.

In verses 8 to 10, when Jonathan anticipates these two possible reactions by the Philistines, I don't think he's necessarily laying out a Gideon style fleece. I think it might be a little more pragmatic than that. Basically, if the Philistines come down to us, we're toast. But if they stay put and give us an opening, we can take that as a sign that the Lord is fighting on our side. Verses 11 and 12 show us that the Philistines were trusting in their superior military strength and viewing the Hebrews as helpless rodents.

Look, keepers are coming out of the holes where they have hidden themselves. But Jonathan and his armor bearer kill many of them. They open up a crucial breach in the Philistine defenses. And then God follows up with his own direct intervention, causing an earthquake. And throwing the whole army into confusion.

In verse 16, word of all this reaches Saul. The noise travels across the canyon. He starts to hear that something's going on. Look at verses 16 to 23.

And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there. Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Count and see who has gone from us. And when they had counted, behold, Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. So Saul said to Ahijah, 'Bring the ark of God here, for the ark of God went at that time with the people of Israel.' Now while Saul was talking to the priest, the tumult in the camp of the Philistines increased more and more. So Saul said to the priest, 'Withdraw your hand.' Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle.

And behold, every Philistine's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion. Now the Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that time and who had gone up with them into the camp, even they also turned to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise, when all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were fleeing, They too followed hard after them in the battle. So the Lord saved Israel that day, and the battle passed beyond Beth Aven.

In verse 17, Saul discovers that his son Jonathan is missing. And in verse 18, he turns to the priest to see if they can get a word from the Lord. I think the footnote based on the Greek translation is probably right here that the priest was consulting an ephod, the priestly garment rather than the ark since we learned earlier in 1 Samuel that the ark was stationed long term in Kiriath Jearim. What does it mean to consult the ephod? The ephod contained the Urim and Thummim, which were two stones that were likely black and white and they're going to come in again later.

These were a kind of binary code that the Lord would use to communicate with his people, basically answering yes or no questions. So the priest begins to consult them but Saul stops him. He won't even wait for the Lord to answer, he just rushes on into battle. The Lord had already tipped the balance in Israel's favor through Jonathan's raid, through the earthquake, through throwing the troops into confusion. So now Saul is like a bandwagon fan.

Now that the team is actually winning, he's going to rush out into battle with them. While Jonathan was out fighting by faith, Saul was cowering in fear. Jonathan passed the test of faith. Saul failed it. Nevertheless, despite Saul's failure, verse 23 tells us, so the Lord saved Israel that day.

Look back again at verse 6. It's really the key to the whole chapter. It's on the front of the bulletin for a reason. How did the Lord save Israel that day? He did it by few.

He essentially did it through one man's faith and a second man's commitment to that one man. Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by few. And on the cross, God saved by the fewest. He saved by a single man. And he's saved by a man who was condemned, arrested, mocked, scourged, beaten, stripped of his clothing and nailed to a horizontal wooden cross beam and then lifted up off the earth to hang there till he died.

That's how the Lord saved. The Lord saved us through what looked utterly incapable of saving. That is how God saves. He's our creator and king. And we've all rebelled against him and rejected him.

We've all rejected his claims on us. We've rejected who he is and what he wants for us. And so what we deserve is for God in turn to reject us. And because he's good and righteous and holy, he does promise to reject forever all those who persist in rejecting him. The form that rejection will take is eternal condemnation in hell.

That is ultimate rejection by God, from which there is no appeal. But God is also rich in mercy. He sent his son into the world to rescue those who had rejected him. He sent his son into the world to rescue those who only deserved rejection. And Jesus accomplished that rescue by dying on the cross and paying for the sins of all those who had turned from sin and trust in him.

Jesus passed every test that God the Father set for him. Jesus perfectly cherished God's will amid every excruciating hardship and temptation he faced. And Jesus on the cross paid the penalty for all of us who will believe in him. Not only that, but on the third day he rose from the dead, descending and ascending in order to rescue and redeem all those who will believe in him. How does the gospel advance?

It advances through people repenting and trusting and believing in him. How does it go forward? Through preaching, through sharing your faith with somebody else, through seemingly weak methods and means, through means that seem hopeless and helpless against the hardness of unbelief, against how entrenched false values are. The way God saves us looks like no salvation at all. The way he advances the gospel is through the weakness and seeming folly of we who share the good news with others.

The gospel also advances through faith-fueled courage like Jonathan's. It may be that the Lord will work for us for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. It may be that the Lord will save people and raise up pastors and establish churches that will thrive for generations through small handfuls of people uprooting their lives and moving to take the gospel to places on the other side of the planet. Places where languages like Bedini Kurdish and Uzbek and Uyghur are spoken. Places where hardly anybody knows Jesus and yet nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by few.

Faith fuels courage. Courage welcomes risk. And there are some battles the Lord sovereignly chooses to win through his servants being to risk everything on his willingness to save by few. But giving up everything isn't the only form of faith-fueled courage and risk that helps the gospel to advance.

It also looks like generous giving, persevering prayer, bold evangelism, using your time and skills and resources to push the frontier of the gospel into your neighbors' lives in ways that might cost you. Through his trust in God's power to save, Jonathan passed the test of faith and God worked powerfully. He delivered his people through that faithful courage. But Saul failed this test. And the second half of chapter 14 shows us how Saul's failure cast a foul shadow over what should have been a joyful victory.

Look at verses 24 to 46, the rest of chapter 14, except for the little bit at the end.

And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day. So Saul laid an oath on the people, saying, 'Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.' so none of the people had tasted food. Now when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground. And when the people entered the forest, behold, the honey was dropping, but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan had not heard his father charge the people with the oath, so he put out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes became bright.

Then one of the people said, 'Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed be the man who eats food this day! And the people were faint. Then Jonathan said, My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey. How much better if the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies that they found.

For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great.

They struck down the Philistines that day from Micmash to Aijalon. And the people were very faint. The people pounced on the spoil, and took sheep and oxen and calves, and slaughtered them on the ground. And the people ate them with the blood. Then they told Saul, 'Behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.' and he said, 'You have dealt treacherously.

Roll a stone to me here.' and Saul said, 'Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, 'Let every man bring his ox or his sheep and slaughter them here and eat. And do not sin against the Lord by eating with the blood. So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night, and they slaughtered them there. And Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he built to the Lord.

Then Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light. Let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatever seems good to you.

But the priest said, 'Let us draw near to God here.' and Saul inquired of God, 'Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?' But he did not answer him that day. And Saul said, 'Come here all you leaders of the people, and know and see how this sin has arisen today.' For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.

But there was not a man among all the people who answered him. Then he said to all Israel, 'You shall be on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.' and the people said to Saul, 'Do what seems good to you.' Therefore Saul said, 'O Lord God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day? If this guilt is in me or in Jonathan my son, O Lord God of Israel, give Urim. But if this guilt is in your people Israel, give thummin. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped.

Then Saul said, Cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan. And Jonathan was taken. Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done. And Jonathan told him, I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am, I will die.

And Saul said, God do so to me and more also, you shall surely die, Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it, as the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day. So the people ransomed Jonathan, so that he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.

Back in verse 24, Saul lays on the people a self-centered oath in an effort to control the battle's outcome. They have to abstain from all food until it's over. That's a good recipe for needlessly weakening your soldiers and endangering their lives. And look at the pronouns in verse 24: Until I am avenged on my enemies. What about until the Lord delivers his people from their enemies?

I think the idea here, the sort of logical order, is that the people were hard-pressed because Saul had laid this oath on them. He made the battle harder than it needed to be. And the idea behind the oath seems to be something like, if we go above and beyond in our self-denial and self-discipline, then God will have to recognize that and fight the battle for us. But instead of guaranteeing victory, Saul nearly guaranteed disaster. Saul tried to grab hold of the wheel of providence.

It's such a stark contrast with Jonathan's maybe. Jonathan hadn't heard his father's vow. For one thing, that means he shouldn't have been held accountable to it. But in any case, Jonathan finds some wild honey, he eats it, and his strength is instantly revived. When Jonathan learns about his father's oath, he says in verse 29, My father has troubled the land.

And he observed the effect it's had in verse 30, For now the defeat among the Philistines has not been great. They would have won more decisively if they had been able to eat and have more strength. Some victories are actually defeats, like, say, an own goal in soccer. Or like a husband overwhelming his wife with flawless logic.

That takes no account whatsoever of what she's actually feeling or experiencing or concerned about.

Ask me how I know.

He thinks he's won an argument. She knows he has damaged her trust.

Here, Saul turns victory into something much more like defeat. By his selfishness, his folly, and his lack of faith. And his ban on eating leads the people into sin. Because they're so starved, once the battle ends, they seize on the animals that were taken as plunder and they kill and eat them without draining off the blood and disobedience to God's command in Leviticus 17. Then in verse 36, Saul tries to consolidate his victory by going on a nighttime raid to see if he can further wipe out the Philistines.

But the priest says, Let's ask God first. So in verse 37, Saul submits his request to God to see what he'll say, but the end of verse 37 says, But he did not answer him that day. Saul asks, God refuses to answer. That pattern is going to become a haunting theme in the rest of Saul's life.

Saul silenced the Lord by disobeying his command. So here in response, the Lord goes silent.

Then Saul tries to find out the cause of the problem and he discovers that Jonathan disobeyed his oath not to eat. So Saul takes another oath swearing that he'll, if necessary, put even his own son to death. This is such a steep fall. From the Saul of just three chapters ago. In chapter 11, Saul was opposed by revilers but he refused to put them to death.

Now here, Saul is ready to put his own son to death even though he's the very opposite of a reviler. Saul was becoming a king just like those of all the nations, ready to cross anyone who opposed his whims. And just get rid of them. Saul was becoming as blind as Eli. So the people have to intervene to save their savior.

Verse 45, Then the people said to Saul, Shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel? Far from it. As the Lord lives, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day. So the people ransomed Jonathan. So that he did not die.

The people rescued their rescuer. So far from delivering the people, Saul almost destroyed the one who did.

Saul's failure to lead the people came from his failure to trust the Lord. Now, the last few verses of the chapter sort of back out, zoom out, and give us a summary report of the rest of Saul's reign. Look at verses 47 to 52.

When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side. Against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them. And he did valiantly, and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua, and the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn was Merab, and the name of the younger Michal.

And the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel. There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, He attached him to himself.

The verdict here is that Saul did in fact secure Israel's standing in the land. From a zoomed out, time-lapse perspective, his reign is a military and political success. That's one perspective on his reign. But the author only gives that like five verses. Compared to the whole rest of the chapter, which shows us that from a far more important perspective, Saul's lack of faith made him a failure.

You can succeed in all your strategic aims yet fail spiritually.

And that will count far more on the last day. Point three, listen. Saul's third and final failure was a failure to listen. We see this throughout chapter 15.

In verses 1 through 3, Samuel gives Saul an assignment. And the heading over the whole assignment is, Listen, meaning, here, and obey.

Start with verses 1 to 3.

And Samuel said to Saul, 'The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now, therefore, listen to the words of the Lord.' Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.' you' may well find these verses troubling. Is this an act of ethnic cleansing? Is this an absurdly harsh punishment for a seemingly trifling sin.

Two points of background can help us rightly understand the situation. The first is that the Amalekites were one of the peoples dwelling in the land of Canaan whom God sent the Israelites to drive out. And that original act of disinheriting was intended as a punishment for their sin and idolatry.

Genesis 15:16 tells us that the timing of Israel's conquest of the land was carefully calibrated as a punishment for the people's sin. The second point of background, more specifically, comes from Exodus 17 and Deuteronomy 25 where we learn that the Amalekites fought against Israel in the wilderness and mercilessly harassed those who straggled at the rear of their company when they were moving through the wilderness.

So, back in Deuteronomy 25:17-19, the Lord commands Israel to execute his vengeance against the Amalekites. This is not an act of ethnic cleansing, but ethical cleansing, purging idolatry from the land God is giving to his people. That's confirmed in how in verses 6 and 7, as we'll see, Saul is careful to spare the Kenites. There were another group of people living in the general area. They weren't subject to the same judgment.

They hadn't deserved the same thing. So Saul gave them a chance to flee.

And again, this is not an act of human vengeance but divine justice. This is God in unique circumstances.

Carrying out his divine judgment through human means. And it's a picture of what we all deserve before God. Not only that, but lest you think this is some kind of, you know, grand miscarriage of justice and bizarro favoritism, this is also a picture of what God says should happen to his own people. If they forsake him. Deuteronomy 13:12-18 addresses that scenario.

And in verses 14 and 15 of Deuteronomy 13, the Lord says that if his own people commit idolatry, they must be devoted to destruction. That's a shorthand phrase in Scripture for this kind of being totally wiped out, nothing preserved, nothing kept alive. Being devoted to destruction. Here's what the Lord says in those verses. Behold, if it be true and certain that such an abomination has been done among you, you shall surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword, devoting it to destruction, all who are in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword.

God shows no partiality.

So Saul's orders are to completely wipe out the Amalekites and leave no one and nothing alive.

Very clear assignment. What does he do? Verses 4 to 9. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.

Then Saul said to the Kenites, Go, depart, go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them.

For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.' so the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

So Saul defeats the Amalekites, but he keeps their king alive and he and the people preserve all the best spoil. All the stuff that wasn't any good, well, that's if they devoted to destruction. But the best of the animals they kept alive. Instead of carrying out Yahweh's orders, Saul modifies them. To revise God's Word is to reject God's Word.

To edit God's commands. Is to delete God's commands. Verse 8 says that Saul kept Agag alive. Verse 9 says that Saul and the people kept the animals. So God sends Samuel to rebuke Saul.

Look at verses 10 to 16. The word of the Lord came to Samuel, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned and passed on, and went down to Gilgal.

And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, 'What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?' Saul said, 'They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.' Then Samuel said to Saul, 'Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, Speak.

Saul rejected God's commands. So God rejected Saul as king. We'll talk about what it means for God to regret something in a minute. But look again at verse 13. Samuel comes to deliver this rebuke to Saul and Saul blesses him in the name of the Lord and says, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.

Saul is apparently sincere and certainly self-deceived. It is possible for sin to so blind you to yourself that you not only disobey God's commands, but convince yourself that in the process you are keeping them.

In Matthew 7:21-23, which we read earlier, those who don't truly know Jesus think they've done what Jesus wanted them to. The test both there and here is the same. Have you done God's will? Not, Do you think you've done it? Not, Have you done the parts you like and then edited God's word to suit your desires?

But the crucial test of whether you love and trust the Lord is this: Have you done and do you love to do exactly what he says?

Saul didn't listen to God's command, so now Samuel listens to all these animal noises all over the place. And now he wants Saul to listen to what God told him last night. Look at verses 17 to 21.

And Samuel said, Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel, and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, 'Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do it was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me.

I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. Even in the face of a rebuke straight from the Lord, Saul maintains his self-deceived innocence and he blame shifts. He says, the people did it in verse 21. And he offers a rationalization saying, if they only kept the things alive in order to offer them as sacrifices.

But even then, in offering those animals as sacrifices, they would have received a selfish benefit. That's why Samuel uses the language of pouncing on spoil. Because you get to keep something for yourself. How so? If you simply kill an animal, there's no benefit to you.

But if you keep it and offer it as a sacrifice, then you get to eat all that tasty, freshly roasted meat.

So Samuel here zeroes in next on Saul's defense, his blame shifting and his rationalization. To which Samuel delivers a poetic, prophetic zinger, which is the heart of the whole passage. Verses 22 and 23: Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Here's the heart of the matter. God cares more about your hearing and doing his word than about any outward show of religion. To obey is better than sacrifice because obedience springs from a heart devoted to the Lord, for his sacrifice can still spring from a heart devoted to self. In verse 23, Samuel says that rebellion is like divination and presumption is like idolatry.

Divination is basically consulting occult means, magical means, idolatrous means of trying to discern the future. Why is Saul's rebellion equal to that? And why is his presumption equal to idolatry? Because the sins in both columns equally disregard the sole and supreme authority of Yahweh. Saul's keeping Agag and some sheep alive is a sin every bit as serious as bowing down to a false god.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, you might think that the Bible's focus on obedience is all about outward conformity. Like the moral equivalent to, as long as everybody keeps the dress code, everything's going to be fine. But that's not it at all. That's the opposite of the case. Obedience reveals what you value.

It reveals what has worth in your heart. It reveals your priorities. Like I said at the beginning, what you reject reveals what you value. If you reject God's commands, it shows what value you place on him. If you reject everything else in order to keep God's commands, it shows you value him more than any of those things you're rejecting.

Whatever you reject shows that you're embracing something else. And that something that you're embracing has a higher place in your heart than the thing you're rejecting. Rejecting. God wants our obedience, not instead of our hearts, but because he wants our hearts. And whatever holds highest place in your heart is what you obey, whether you choose to use that word or not.

So the question is, will you give God your heart? Will you submit to him? Will you recognize him as the rightful king and Lord that he is and then reject everything? That he says to reject and embrace everything he says to embrace.

What effect did Samuel's prophetic rebuke have? Look at verses 24 to 31.

Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned. For I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore.

And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me. That I may bow before the Lord your God.

So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord.

Before we look at Saul's response, we have to consider what it means that God says he will not regret in verse 29, but also that he does regret in verse 11. And he's going to say that again in verse 35. We are late in the sermon on a huge text, so I will keep this very brief. Here in verse 29, the Lord denies that he regrets in keeping with the creator-creature distinction. Human beings regret, God doesn't.

Why do we regret? Well, there's a couple of different reasons. One is that we're morally flawed and we do the wrong things. Then our conscience convicts us and we come to know better and we regret the thing we did. But not God.

But sometimes with us, even where there's no moral flaw motivating our actions, sometimes we just don't know enough or we act on bad information. It's just our limits that lead us to make a certain decision that in retrospect looks like a bad one. But that also doesn't apply to God. He knows all things, he ordains all things, he works all things according to the counsel of his will. He never has to get better information so as to act on it.

So God is never morally or factually in the wrong. God is the sovereign creator, therefore he doesn't regret. He doesn't change his mind. But then why does verse 11 say that he does? Why does verse 35 say that he does?

I think the deliberate juxtaposition here is on purpose. We're meant to have to put the two together, like two proverbs side by side saying opposite things, right? Don't answer fool according to his folly. Answer fool according to his folly. The author knows what he's doing here in setting these things side by side.

In one sense, the Lord does not regret, and that's fundamental, that's part of the creator-creature distinction. But okay, in another sense, he does. Why does scripture speak this way?

To bring out a couple of big theological words, it's an anthropomorphism, describing God in human terms. More specifically, to use the classic theological term, it's an anthropopathism, meaning it's describing God in terms of a weakness or suffering of humanity that does not, strictly speaking, apply to him. But then why does Scripture speak this way? Here's the key. It's to describe God's actions in ways we can easily understand and relate to.

When Scripture says God regretted making Saul king, it's not talking about what God feels, but what God does. It says regret because God is about to act like a human being does when we regret something. What do we do when we regret something? We make a change. And God is about to make a change to the kingship of Israel.

He's going to remove Saul and replace him with another king. So when you see seemingly emotional language like that or language that would seem to imply some fault or some change of plans or, you know, change of understanding on God's part, Look to action, not emotion. What is God doing? That's what he's making more plain and more transparent to us by using human-like language of himself. Now, what about Saul?

He says, I have sinned in verse 24, but his repentance is clearly superficial. Just a side note here, way too late in the sermon to go off on a big tangent, but there are times when someone professes repentance and we have to judge it to be insincere. We have to judge it to be out of keeping with the weight of evidence in their life. Saul says I have sinned, but this is superficial. This is not heart deep.

Here's a couple of reasons why. He reveals another layer of motivation in verse 24 when he says that he did what he did because he feared the people. And he shows that he still fears the people, which is why he's more concerned to keep Samuel on his side than to actually repent of his sin. That's what he keeps saying over and over again, begging Samuel to kind of stay with him on his team and show up in public with him. He begs Samuel to stay with him so that he can save face rather than begging God for mercy so that he can be forgiven.

That's Saul's fundamental problem. He's caring more about how he looks to other people than how he looks to God. Verses 32 to 35 bring the story to a sad and and sobering ending. Then Samuel said, 'Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.' and Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, 'Surely the bitterness of death is past.' and Samuel said, 'As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.' and Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Saul has failed fundamentally and finally. He is described here as if he's already dead, with Samuel grieving him, and the Lord moving on to pick another king. This is a sobering warning about the consequences of persisting in unbelief, rebellion, and disobedience to the Lord's commands.

But, but God isn't done with his people and he isn't done with you or me. Because God is not a man that he should have regret or change his mind, we can trust his promise of forgiveness.

With absolute confidence. The same Lord who judged Saul severely for his sin is the one who holds out mercy to everyone who repents. No matter what tests of faith or obedience you've failed, you can turn from your sin and trust in Christ. No matter in what ways you've rejected God, if you repent and trust in Christ, God will never reject you. Our sins, they are many.

His mercy is more. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you because you do not regret or change your mind. We praise you because you hold fast and prove true to all your promises. So we pray that you would be merciful to us according to your word and for the sake of your name. We pray that in whatever ways we fail, you would prove faithful, that you would forgive and assure and transform us for your glory. In Jesus' name, Amen.