1 Samuel 13

1 Samuel 13 has Saul coming into a rough situation.  He was 30 years old when he took over as king of the land, and he reigned for 42 years.  But during that time the Philistines came calling and were threatening the Israelites.  Saul’s son Jonathan defeated them and Saul is sending the message across the land that they are victorious.  But the Philistines aren’t happy with that loss, and they put together “thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.

That is quite an army to amass.  The people of Israel see they are in trouble, and cry out to God.  Saul is waiting for Samuel to show up and seek the Lord about the situation.  When he doesn’t come as quickly as Saul expects, Saul takes things into his own hands and offers a burnt offering to the Lord on his own.  Just about then, Samuel comes and sees what has happened.  “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”.

Saul made a huge mistake in judgment taking things into his own hand and trying to do the job of a priest.  God is not amused either.  “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”.  Saul screwed up and violated God’s laws.  And it’s going to cost him dearly.  The Philistines set up three companies to attack the Israelites from.  And they took over the land.

Then they removed all the blacksmiths from the land so there was no way to create swords or spears in the land.  The Israelites had to go to the Philistines for anything related to metal work, so while they could get their plowshares and axes sharpened for a fee, the Philistines had control of things so that there was no way for the Israelites to prepare for war.  The sin of the leader has created a big change now that they are captive in their own land.  Sin always carries a big price!