Dr. Manny Arango (0:00)

Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. We used church candy for our new church plant the Garden, and the response blew me and my team away. At our new church Plant the Garden, we ran simple invite ads through none other than church candy and hundreds of people responded. Seriously. People who had never even heard of us, who had never met me or heard me preach. They saw an ad on Facebook or Instagram. They showed up to a launch party or launch team training. Some of them have joined our team. Here's the best part. A good amount of them have started giving and tithing, which means the ads have paid for themselves. Our church plant is growing and it's because we chose the right partner. We didn't have to figure out marketing strategies or spend hours tinkering with ad settings. Church candy handled it all and it worked. You might not be planting a church, but if you're a pastor who wants to see more new faces on Sunday, and by the way, I've never met a pastor who doesn't want to see more new faces on Sunday. It's time to check them out. How about you go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a discovery call, Let their team show you what's possible when the right people hear about your church family. Welcome to day 152. We are in First Samuel chapters 13 to 16. Man, this is a power packed, like, chunk of the narrative. Okay, so if you've already done the reading, then you're probably like, oh, my gosh, there's so many moments here that you're probably already aware of if you've read the Bible or heard a lot of sermons. This is a, this is just like an action packed, you know, couple of chapters. Lots of important stuff for the narrative happening in chapters 13, 14, 15 and 16. I'm going to try to give you as much as I can in the shortest amount of time possible. If you have not done the reading, you're really missing out. Okay. This is like, you know, Saul is gonna get rejected as king. He's gonna sin against the Lord two times. The kingdom is gonna get ripped from him. And iconic moment. David is going to get anointed as king. So tomorrow we'll see the showdown between David and Goliath. That'll happen in chapter 17. But today we're gonna get context for tomorrow. So we got 13. And you know me, my favorite word is context. And the first thing I got for us are context clues. Okay, so let's start at chapter 13. I just kind of flipped there in my Bible. Obviously, I can't go verse by verse, but I'll give you as much as I can. Let's start with context clues. Okay, first of all, minimum, at least 15 years, if not 20 years have passed by from the end of chapter 12 to the beginning of chapter 13. Okay. I love to kind of let y' all know stuff like that, because there's no place in the scriptures that will tell you that. So if you're just, you know, if you're just an average Christian and you're just reading the Bible, it's going to be really hard to know that. Here's the big clue. Here's why we know that that's true. I don't just want you to take my word for it. I want want you to know why you should believe this. So when we were in chapter 12, there's a word that keeps getting used for Saul, for King Saul. It's almost like the word lad. He's being referred to, like, as a younger man. And what we see even in him and Samuel's first interactions, that he's living with his dad, living with his uncles, he's a donkey herder. He's not someone who's married with children. And then when we get to chapter 30, 13, we have a whole son by the name of Jonathan. Okay? We've not seen Jonathan before, but Jonathan is now here. And Jonathan's old enough to be a commander in the army. So chapter 12, Saul has no son. You know, Saul's son is not mentioned. Jonathan is not a relevant part of the story. And it seems as though Saul really living with his father and uncle, still living with his family, doesn't seem like he's married. Okay. He seems to be a young unmarried man. And now, now when chapter 13 rolls around, he's got a son that's old enough to be a commander in the army. Jonathan's probably somewhere around at least 15, if not 20 years old. Okay, so somewhere in that age bracket. And so here we go. Big piece of context. Once you leave chapter 12 and you enter into chapter 13, a good chunk of time has gone by. Now, here's the next thing that's really, really relevant is that all that time going by means that Saul has failed to obey something that Samuel said to him 15 to 20 years ago. And here's what I want you to see when you get to chapter 12, okay, I just. You just go to verse three. Sorry, chapter 13. When you get to chapter 13, you can just go to verse three. Jonathan attacked the philistine outpost at Geba. Now that's fascinating. Okay? And if you're just. If you're an attentive reader, you may have even missed this. Even if you're an attentive reader, because Gibeah and Geba share a philistine outpost. That's something you probably don't know. Okay, Gibeah and Geba, you can look them up on a map. They are right next to each other, and they're so close to each other that they don't have individual philistine outposts. They share philistine outposts. Now I want you to back up to chapter 10, and you can go to verse 5. Chapter 10, verse 5. Okay? This is Samuel giving Saul some instructions. And he says, you're to go to the philistine outpost. Where? At Gibeah. When you go there at Gibeah, you're gonna meet some prophets. And then verse eight, after you're done at the philistine outpost in Gibeah, which is right next to Geba, they are actually the same philistine outpost. Where are you supposed to go? To Gilgal. Now I want us to go to chapter 13. What happens as soon as Jonathan attacks the philistine outpost at Geba? What happens? Saul blew the trumpet. Let the Hebrews hear. Okay? Saul is going to take credit for something that his son does. And then what is Saul going to do? He is going to head down to Gilgal. Okay, and what is he going to do? People were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. Okay? Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people following him, and he waited seven days. The time appointed by Samuel. The time appointed By Samuel When? 20 years ago. Dude, Samuel told you to do this 20 years ago. Here you are obeying Samuel 20 years later. You're like, I waited for you seven days, bruh. You were supposed to wait for me for seven days 20 years ago. So this is the context that I think sometimes we miss. Okay? So that's our big context clue is that obviously Saul is now going to offer sacrifice, and he's not supposed to offer sacrifice. And here's the excuse that he gives Samuel. In verse 1113, verse 11, Samuel says, said, what have you done? Saul replied, when I saw that the people were slipping away from me and that you did not come within the days appointed. In the days appointed, bro, you were supposed to do this 15 to 20 years ago. Don't try to put this on me, okay? When you didn't come in the days appointed in the Philistines were mustering at Micmash. I said, now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal. And I have not entreated the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. So Saul offers a burnt offering, okay? He offers a sacrifice. And this is completely unlawful. Okay? Why? Why is this unlawful? Because Saul is not a priest. He is not a priest. And so here's what Samuel the prophet is gonna say to Saul. Samuel said to Saul, verse 13. You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you. The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom will not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. So preparations for David are already being made. Okay? God has sought out a man after his own heart. And here's the big, big climactic verse, okay? That obedience is better than sacrifice. Hey, Saul. You cannot sacrifice to the Lord, but live a disobedient life. Sacrificing to God is not a magic wand that's going to remove the fact that you've been disobedient. God doesn't want your songs, your worship, your sacrifice. If you're gonna walk in willful disobedience, I told you to do something 20 years ago. You didn't do it. Then your son finally did it because he's got faith. And once your son did it, you took the credit for it. Now you've gone to Gilgal like I told you to do 20 years ago, and you're saying you waited for me seven days and there is a pattern of disobedience. And now you're trying to, you know, you're trying to almost over, like, supersede that disobedience with sacrifice. And God's like, nah, the best sacrifice you could give me is obedience. Let's start with that. Obey me. Don't sacrifice burnt offerings. Obey me. A sacrifice is not a substitute for the sacrifice of your life. You cannot sacrifice money or time or burnt offering or an animal and think that that's going to replace the sacrifice of obedience. Guess what? The New Testament is gonna say that your body is a living sacrifice. How about you obey me with your mind, with your will, with your body, with your emotions. Obedience is the Best sacrifice you could give me. Family. The wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode, chapter 14. We're going to continue to see Jonathan highlighted now. We are going to now see a juxtaposition between Jonathan and Saul that really, Jonathan is amazing, full of faith. And the consequence. In chapter 13. Let's talk about this consequence really quick. We can get into our nerdy nuggets. Here's a consequence. The consequence is not that Saul is going to get removed as king. The consequence is that his dynasty won't be set up. So that means Jonathan will not become king. Which in an Eastern world that sees themselves as part of a group as opposed to an individual, this is the same as saying, you're not gonna be king. To say your lineage will not last is the same as saying you're not gonna last. Okay. Also, Saul has disobeyed the Lord. Shouldn't he die? Shouldn't the consequence for sacrificing to God when you're not a priest be death? Well, no. And here's why. Because Saul is the punishment for the people of Israel wanting a king like the other nations. So God is going to have grace for Saul. Not because anything that Saul's doing, God is going to have grace for Saul because God is using Saul as a punishment, as a vehicle for punishment for the people of Israel. The people of Israel have to learn that there's a consequence to wanting a king like the other nations. And that consequence is Saul. Okay? And so God is going to prolong his mercy towards Saul, really? So that the people of Israel can be punished. All right, chapter 14. Nerdy Nuggets. Also, there's. There's Nerdy Nuggets. Already. 600 Fighting Men is supposed to link you back to Judges, remember when the Benjamin almost get wiped out, they have to restart the population with 600 fighting men and they won't go. And they take wives anyway. That's a callback to Judges. That's a little nerdy detail that you may have seen. Is that verse 15, 13, 15, yeah. Saul counted the people who are present with him, about 600 men. So. Okay, now let's move on to 14. Big thing with 14 is that a couple of things. Ahijah. This is 14, verse three, along with Ahijah, son of Ahetub. Okay, first of all, he's not supposed to be a priest. So let's just. So that's that. Okay? The reason he's not supposed to be a priest is because in 1 Samuel 2, 30, 36, Eli's line gets cut off. Remember, that's the prophetic word given to Eli, that none of his descendants are supposed to be priests, so they're already in sin. The fact that Ahijah is even a priest. Okay, next. Okay, Jonathan eats honey. He's now at risk of losing his life, and it is because his father has made a dumb vow. Okay, this is a callback to Jephthah. Remember back in the Book of Judges, Jephthah makes a vow. Anything that comes out of my house, I'll sacrifice to the Lord. And well, it was his daughter. And so now he's gotta kill his daughter. And it's very, very clear in the text, this is stupid. This is silly. Like, God does not want you to kill your daughter. But here you are. People with a religious spirit always think sacrifice is the answer. They think burnt offerings are the answer. When really God wants your heart. He doesn't want you to kill people. Burn stuff, burn up offerings. That's not God's heart. What he's actually after is your heart. But people with a religious spirit, they don't want to give God their heart. They think that their heart is found in fundamentalism or religion, religious obedience and fervor. It's really. It's sad because these people think they love the Lord, but really they don't love God. They love the. They love being right. They love being right more than they actually love the Lord. And it's found in clearly it's wrong to kill your daughter. But Jephthah kills his daughter anyway because it's a vow he's made to God and he has to obey his vow to God. And I have met people just like this in the evangelical world whose kids are homosexual or whatever. Like, put insert any issue and they'd rather lose the relationship than selflessly be Christ in that relationship and love their kids anyway. The Amish communities are like this when it comes to shunning people, family members who are disobedient. Okay? The reality is that Saul is making a ill advised, short sighted vow in the same way that Jephthah made a vow. So this is unwise. So Jonathan is now seen as full of faith, super brave, really bold, an incredible leader, and his father is just on the decline. So next we're gonna get to chapter 15. And Saul is supposed to wholly devote King Agag in the Amalekites, but he keeps Agag alive, which is just political maneuvering. And finally Samuel comes and puts him to death. And this is when the kingdom gets torn from. Saul says this as Samuel. This is chapter 15, verse 27. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this very day and is giving it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. So now David's been alluded to two times and the double downfall, okay. Of Saul. And then we get the next chapter and the Lord says to Samuel, how long will you grieve over Saul? I've rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your home with oil and set out. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I provided for myself a king amongst his sons. This is obviously incredibly dangerous. Saul could hear about this and kill Samuel. This doesn't feel radical to us, but this is insanely radical. So now we're going to get the rise of David. We're already getting the decline of Saul, and we're gonna get the rise of David. Saul's kingship is short lived. And we're going to get this line, I want to point this out to you. We're going to get this summary line, chapter 14, verse 52. There were hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong or valiant warrior, he took him into his service. And the reason we're going to get a summary of Saul's kingship is because basically by the time Chapter 14 is over, the kingship is over. Okay? Saul does not accomplish anything really significant or great in his kingship. Now, I gave you a bunch of nerdy nuggets, I gave you context clues, and I will. Now, in chapter 15 and 16, David is most likely 12, 12, 13 years old. He's pretty young. And so now God has used Saul to help turn the people from donkeys into sheep. And so now they get a leader by the name of David who is going to shepherd them. And that is gonna be the ideal icon image that we get of Christian leadership throughout the Bible, is that good leaders know how to shepherd people. And here's our timeless truth is that worship will not negate disobedience, okay? The core thing that God desires is obedience. And I cannot worship my way out of disobedience. Real worship is obedience. Okay? God says to Saul flat out through the prophet Samuel, I would have rather have gotten obedience in you than sacrifice. Obedience is better than sacrifice. All right. I hope the context clues, the nerdy nuggets, and the timeless truth is helpful. I will see you tomorrow. And tomorrow is just an iconic day. I mean, we've got the battle between David and Goliath. I'll give you tons of context. I'll give you nerdy nuggets. I'll give you timeless truths. Hey, get on a streak. If you're already on a streak, don't break it if you're not on a streak. All you gotta get is two days in a row and then just keep going. So I'll see you right here tomorrow. Love you guys. So proud of you. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible Department and on Instagram Hebible Department. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.