God was to bring luck, and the people were to abide by their oaths. And if they broke their oath, then God wouldn't bless them. That's how he's looking at this. And he is the cause, of course. The single character.
Always, always, always accusing everyone else but himself when it is he who is the problem. As you know, I'm no fan of psychology, but they have a word for people like this. You know, we call them sinners, irresponsible, incompetent, insensitive. paranoid, they narcissistic psychopath. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his continuing study called The Gallant Prince in 1 Samuel 14. This curse anybody who eats food is animals.
Shut up And here's Jonathan just doing God's work, and he's oblivious of the fact that his own father is going to try to kill him for this and insist upon killing him for this. And wasn't there enough Philistines to kill? You had to go seek your own child? Verse 28. Yeah.
Then one of the people said, Your father strictly charged the people with an oath, saying, Cursed is the man who eats food this day. And the people were faint. I don't know if this is, look, if I can't eat, you can't have it. I don't care if you're other prince. Nobody's, I don't know if it's that or if it's fear that, hey, if I don't speak up, later on it's going to come out that I didn't say anything and then I get in trouble.
Because Saul created this environment of fear. Everybody's afraid to be who they are. Take him out of this picture. And you have a glorious victory for God. I don't want to be that person in life.
Where God says, You know, you're the one that spoiled it. If I just took you out, everybody would have been blessed. But you're the troublemaker. You're the one that gossips. You're the one that says this about that one.
You're the one that steals. You're the one that brings guilt to everybody. I don't want to be him. Guilt may come when you're right and it's your place to administer the truth, and the guilty are guilty. There's no other way the guilty are offended because they're guilty.
The message in that is: don't be guilty. Work to not be that way. And if you're busted, Repent. Verse twenty nine But Jonathan said My father has troubled the land. Look now how my countenance has brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.
She says, look at the facts. This is what we need. We're dying out here. And it's going to get worse for these men. They're not yet.
At the end, they will get there pretty soon, but it's a simple solution. Canceled by the leader. Verse 30: How much better if the people had eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? For now. Would there not have been a much greater slaughter of the Philistines?
Yep. How much better, he says. How much better? A whole lot better. Verse thirty one.
Okay, pause there.
Now, don't answer out loud, but am I the only one that can't stand this guy? I just got it to reality check for myself. It's like, I don't see what the fuss is, Pastor. Saul's a good boy. I mean the words are right there.
They'll be g angering up on me if any of you like, Hmm, you're being harsh on Saul. You're saying that because you weren't in his army that day. Verse 31.
Now they had driven back the Philistines that day from Mi'kmash to Ajalon.
So the people were very faint. About 15 miles of fighting, not just was bad enough to walk 15 miles. But the fight 15 miles. You know, run, chase, look, seek, you know, all of that goes with war. This is the same as Joshua's great victory with the sun stopped working.
Verse 32.
Well the sun stopped. doing pulling the earth so much. And the people rushed to the spoil, and took sheep, oxen, calves, and slaughtered them on the ground, and the people ate them with the blood. Saul's fault, nobody else. Nobody else's fault, his.
He created this mess. They're too famished to properly bleed the animals according to Levitical law because they're starving. And they've become almost savage. They know this is wrong, they don't want to do this. But this is a desperate situation.
I don't know. I remember once in the service, we were out of water. It was very hot, and there was no and when the water finally showed up, men weren't so nice to each they weren't they didn't completely lose it, but you could see it in their eyes. They weren't going, you better hurry up and get off the line. It was a very intense moment.
and quite an education for 18 year old to see you know men like that. This is how it was this day. In verse 32, now verse 33. Then they told Saul, saying, Look, the people are sinning against Yahweh by eating with the blood.
So he said, You have dealt treacherously. Roll a large stone to me this day.
Well, I would like to say that Saul is saying you've done treacherously to me. That is some of it. But it is really, it seems, treacherous, you're breaking the law of God. And of course, Saul connected that with good luck. You know, you reduced God to a servant.
God was to bring luck, and the people were to abide by their oaths. And if they broke their oath, then God wouldn't bless them. That's how he's looking at this. And he is the cause, of course. The single character.
Always, always, always accusing everyone else but himself when it is he who is the problem. As you know, I'm no fan of psychology, but they have a word for people like this. You know, we call them sinners, irresponsible, incompetent, insensitive, paranoid. They narcissistic psychopath. Narcissistic check.
Sociopath. Check. Psychopath. Look on the way. He's not fully there, he's getting there.
He knows how to pretend. He knows how to give you what you're looking for without meaning it. He has no intention. of following God. but he has every intention of using God to get what he wants.
And this is a common practice, well, not common to everybody, but it's. There are people that are like this to this very day. And there always have been. Imagine Machiavelli, those of you who know Machiavelli, imagine if he was king. He'd probably be like this.
Anyway, he says, Bring over a stone. A stone to slaughter. That's the whole idea here where he says, You have done treacherously. roll a large stone to me this day.
So there probably was something that he could point at and say, roll that over here. And this would give them the tilt when they slaughtered the animal to bleed. The blood would would flow out properly. And just gravity doing its thing. Before they're probably just cutting them on the ground and not even waiting as they just butchered for the meat.
Verse 34, then Saul said, Disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, Bring me here every man's ox and every man's sheep, slaughter them here and eat, and do not sin against Yahweh by eating with the blood.
So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and slaughtered it there. Yet sounds like he's careful about Yahweh. In a minute he's going to be trying, he's insisting to kill his son for dipping his spear in honey.
So let's not for one moment think this man is sane. That there's something right about him or righteous about him. To Saul, again, it was a matter of spoiling his luck by offending his God. That's how the pagans viewed their God. He's not upholding God's word.
The only time he upholds God's word is if he can manipulate somebody through doing it. And again, don't write this story off as something that only happened there, then. There are still wolves in sheep's clothing. Verse 35. Then Saul built an altar to Yahweh.
This was the first altar that he built to Yahweh. Yeah, well, he's kind of forced to do it. He's not doing it. If these folks. did not violate the code, he never would have put this altar up.
See, it's a reaction, I can use the opportunity here. He's an opportunist. And so he Used the law to his advantage, but he's not going to listen to God. And that's why the next chapter, Samuel is going to say, God strips the kingdom from you, as he already announced. We won't read of another altar built by Saul, though this, the wording here, points that this was the first altar, which of course assumes there were others, but.
Did any of them count? It's just the whole of Isaiah chapter 1. I've had enough of your burnt offerings. I don't want to know about your feast, your new moons, your Sabbath. Keep it.
In vain you worship me.
So this altar doesn't even count. And this rest of the story is going to tell you that he disqualifies himself. From being taken seriously by God, because he told God. Enough. I don't want to hear it.
Withdraw the priest. I'll take it from here. Imagine, imagine Christians praying for something, and someone steps in and says, Die, don't worry about God. Let's go do something that's going to get the job done. Verse 36.
Now Saul said, Let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them. And they said, Do whatever seems good to you. Then the priest said, Let us draw near to God here.
So the priests. Still singed by his rude interference, they're disturbed by this. And so they let's get God back into this, Saul. Verse 37.
So Saul asked counsel of God. Saul asked counsel of God, which he would not have done had the priest not spoke up. And then it says, Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand, to the hand of Israel? but he did not answer him that day.
God just didn't answer. You cannot say That Well, because what Saul did really wasn't that important. When you have this response, the next time he goes to God, God's Got the phone off the hook, not taking calls from him. How we treat God matters. That is the point for every human being.
How you treat God counts. This will not be the last time the Lord refuses. to answer Saul. Verse 38, chapter 14. And Saul said, Come over here, all you chiefs of the people.
and know and see what this sin was to day. Huh. God's silence. Was taken by Saul as evidence that somebody else sinned. Not him, he's not even on the list.
In fact, he's going to put himself on the list. with rotten reasons. He concluded from this That sin had been committed. which caused God to not want to hear from him. But he never thought of his rash oath He never thought of shutting the priests down.
He never thought of that he caused the pressure unnecessarily on the people. His lack of empathy. for another person's plight, difficulty. He just has no compassion for anybody else. But he has it for himself.
And What about his own merciless, murderous heart? We'll get to that in verse 44.
So we read here in verse 38. Come over here, all you chiefs of the people, and know and see what this sin is. This is sickening. He's ready to shed innocent and gallant blood over nothing. While the Philistines are getting away.
And God will use this moment to expose Saul in front of the people. As a homicidal king to be, Verse thirty-nine, for as Yahweh lives who saves Israel. Though it be on Jonathan my son, he shall surely die. but not a man among the people answered him.
So Saul the Dud king makes yet another oath. Even if my son is guilty, why we God is not answering me, the king? If my son Jonathan is the cause of God not talking to me, we're going to kill him.
Now let's Let's go around and raise hands. Who likes Saul? What is there to like about this fellow? There's not enough love in Saul to make a speck. Yeah.
I think Mark Twain said him one of his books, Not Enough Brains to Bait a Fish Hook.
Well, he says Yet, his self-love, his love for himself, is immense. He says, but not a man among all the people answered him. Are they thinking? What an obnoxious fool of a king we have. Are they thinking that?
What are what I mean, what are they thinking? They knew Jonathan took the honey, and they also knew he never heard the oath.
So maybe they're thinking to themselves, well, there's no way he's going to kill Jonathan. He didn't hear the oath. How can you do that? That's unjust. It's not fair.
It's not rational. Even in the Military code of justice. If you don't hear the order, you're not responsible for it. Maybe they maybe they came up with that because of salt. I doubt it, but verse 40.
Then he said to all Israel, You be on one side, and my son Jonathan and I will be on the other side. And the people said to Saul, Do what seems good to you.
So Jonathan, the crown prince and Saul are on one side, the people are on the other side, and they're going to have God say, Okay, pick this. Pick this one. And again, Saul knew that Jonathan tasted the honey because people are going to come tell Saul. Because that's what they, some of them are obsequious, some of them just cover in their own tail. I'm not going to be the guy.
that someone points out I knew it and didn't say anything. God is going to overrule in this process here to expose Saul, just like he did with the witch at Endor, where God overruled also. In the presence of witnesses.
So the drama king. exploits Jonathan's supposed disobedience In order to appear what? What is he trying to do? Does he want to eliminate A competitor for glory because Jonathan was out making things happen.
Well, I mean, that wouldn't be far-fetched. David's going to suffer that. I don't know that that was it. But it's sure you can make a short list very quickly of what his motives were for grandstanding here. Why can't you just shrug it off, Saul, or just do something else but this intense?
Even if it's my son, he's going to die. And the people said to Saul, Do what seems good to you.
Again, they've got to be saying, He's going to pardon the boy, the man. He's going to pardon the man because he never heard the order. Verse 41. Therefore Saul said to Yahweh, God of Israel, Give a perfect lot So Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people escaped.
So The Lord has no problem answering now. Because he's going to expose him.
So God says the people are innocent. They're not to be held accountable for slaughtering the meat with the blood in it and eating it. And of course it's all totally doesn't care less about what he did to make that happen. But Jonathan, on the other hand, he's going to be held accountable for violating Saul's oath. The people are freed from violating God's commandment, but Jonathan cannot be freed from violating Saul's silly oath.
How does it become an oath if you don't agree to it, if you're not given the chance to object? I think when Samuel hears about all of this, by the time we get to chapter 15, he's ready for God to say, I'm getting another king. Samuel is ready. Emotionally, he really never was ready because he loved Saul and he wanted it to work. It was Israel's first king.
What a letdown. Verse 42, and Saul said, Cast lots between my son Jonathan and me.
So Jonathan was taken. And, you know, Saul again, in the egotistical, impenitent sociopath that he is, he's got to be in the limelight because he knows he didn't break the oath.
So Jonathan's going down. You treat your own child this way. I mean, to treat a stranger like this it would be difficult. But your own Son. Verse forty one Then Saul said to Jonathan, Tell me what you have done.
Now, this is in gentle Joshua saying to Achan, tell me, son, what did you do? You're still going to die. I mean, he had to execute justice, but at least he was just gentle. I don't think there's anything like this. Here's why.
Tell me what you have done. And Jonathan told him, and said, I only taste a little honey with the end of the rod. That was in my hand.
So I must die. That was not a confession of guilt, that was an admission of fact. And they're not always the same thing. I think Jonathan is amazed at the pettiness That is Going to take his life. He survives on the battlefield fighting the Philistines.
His own daddy comes home. I'm going to kill you for winning the war for us, getting it going. Honorable Jonathan. He's prepared still to submit to his father and his injustice. What else could he do?
It's too noble. to do something that's shameful or to beg for his life. Saul created this condition. Whose fault is this that a righteous man has got to stand there and endure this? Where's David to come running out the woods with a club in his hand?
Yeah. Queen Phineas. Why do people like this exist? They do. And When you get to heaven You really won't care about the answer as long as they're not here.
I don't need to know why they were doing what they were doing. I just want to know where's the salad bar. Verse 44.
So Saul answered. God do so and more also. For you shall surely die, Jonathan, oh man. Good j what I mean, Jonathan's brothers are probably there too. For Saul Obeying God was a hindrance.
but for others to disobey him was a capital crime. The episode that further confirms that he is evil. Not a jot or a tittle of mercy. Not even in and just not anywhere. I have here from chapter 13.
I'm not going to read it because of time, but there in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 13, Samuel, there's the one that says, You've done foolishly.
Now God's going to pick a man after his own heart, because you don't have God's heart, because God's heart has mercy. It has justice also. And if you say, well, I just want the mercy, but I don't want the justice, then the mercy is probably going to be canceled out. They have to go together. And it it's a Wonderful system to the recipient of mercy who would submit to the Lord a contrite heart.
So this man's loss of contact with reason And Therefore, reality, I mean, when you just can't reason, your reality is you become delusional. And it it gave rise This is important. It gave rise to deadly violence. This is the first time he gets deadly now. with those of his own kind.
God's people.
So it's been taking steps there and now it's it's Essentially here. It's going to get worse, not in this chapter. But later on he will go ahead and shed blood of innocent people because his image was stained. and he has become so self-absorbed that he will kill his own son to protect his image. Just like Satan.
Satan's image. Any threat to Saul's self, his self-esteem, would be you'd face deadly retaliation. And therefore, everything he touched turned to misery. Verse 45. But the people said to Saul, Jonathan shall Jonathan die?
Who has accomplished this great deliverance in Israel? Certainly not. As Yahweh lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.
So the people rescued Jonathan and he did not die. Can you believe it? The people have to rise up and interfere. They have to order the king to not kill his own son. That's what it takes.
Two corral a a a fool like this. blinded and bound by self-esteem. He esteemed himself. Arrogantly so. Has nothing to show for any of this.
He cannot step in front of the people and say, Well, I brought the victory today. I protected you from the enemies. We're going to get a little history of him, and I'm sure it's just a lot of it is just left out.
Well, it is, but I'd love to know the details. Verse 46: Then Saul returned from. Pursuing the Philistines.
Well we should read from delaying the pursuit of the Philistines. Because all the time it took to do this whole thing. To rally everybody together, to get them to pass by, to pick this one, to argue it out. And the Philistines went to their own place.
Well, that's the end of the campaign that started with Saul attacking the garrison. There at um Giba. Verse 47.
So Saul established his sovereignty over Israel, and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the people of Ammon, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah. And the Philist against the Philistines, wherever he turned, he harassed them.
So this is a summary of Saul's military career as king, and a brief genealogy is coming. None of this includes David, not yet.
So he was doing what God said the king would be assigned to do as a divinely appointed mission. Verse 48. And he gathered an army and attacked the Amalekites and delivered Israel from the hands of those who plundered them. And so He does that. Is it difficult for me to even applaud these victories?
Yep, because a guy like him. Will abuse it. Verse 29: The sons of Saul were Jonathan. Jesushuai. Mao Kishua and the names of his two daughters The names of the firstborn Mirab, and the name of the other is we would say Michele.
It's pronounced differently in that vernacular. Verse 50: The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoem, and the daughter of. A Hineaz. Why do I do it? And the name of the commander of his army was Abner, the son of Nur, Saul's uncle.
Now, Abner will meet a nasty death at the hands of Joab. many years from now. Verse fifty one. Kish was the father of Saul. Nur, the father of Abner, was the son of Abael.
And verse 52, now there was Fierce war with the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or valiant man, he took him for himself.
Well, that recalls Samuel's warning in chapter 8 that an earthly king would do just that.
So, the difference between Saul and his choice men. And David's choice men is is this. David's men For the most part, they loved him. Saul's men were terrorized by him. I would wish a soul on no one.
Yeah. No. Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel.
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