WWUTT 309 To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice?

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To obey is better than sacrifice. What does this mean? Well, for us

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Christians, it means that we need to be obeying God from the first place, not thinking we can sin as long as we just ask forgiveness for it, because that's still living in sin, when we understand the text.

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You're listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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And don't forget our website, www .tt .com. Here's our host, Pastor Gaten.

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Thank you, Becky. We continue our study of 1 Samuel today, 1 Samuel chapters 13, 14, and 15.

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If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there. Last week, we saw Saul anointed the first king of Israel.

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Next week, we will see David anointed as the next king of Israel. The most famous section of 1 and 2

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Samuel is chapters 16, 17, and 18, which includes David's confrontation with Goliath.

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That will be next week. This week, we see Saul fall out of favor with God. And we'll begin today with something controversial.

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In 1 Samuel 13, verse 1, Saul lived for one year and then became king.

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And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3 ,000 men of Israel.

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Okay, let's stop there. That looks kind of funny. Saul lived for one year and then became king.

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Well, we know that's not true because Saul was a fully grown man when Samuel first encountered him and anointed him as king.

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He even had a fully grown son, Jonathan, who will show up prominently in the story that we'll be looking at today.

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So what does this mean exactly? Why is it that the English Standard Version says that Saul lived for one year and then became king?

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This is one of those verses that King James onlyists will use to say that their translation is correct and every other

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English translation is incorrect. Because of course, the King James Bible is the only divinely authorized

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English translation of the Bible. That's what they will claim. In the King James Bible, here's what we read in 1

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Samuel 13, verse 1. Saul reigned one year. And when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel.

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Well, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that doesn't really make sense either. Why would it be necessary to be told that Saul reigned one year and then when he had reigned two years over Israel, that doesn't make sense.

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It's because the King James translators were really just guessing as to what that verse said. We don't know what the original writing was on 1

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Samuel 13. And so what the English Standard Version translators have done is they have gone with the earliest manuscripts and just translated it accordingly, no matter how funny it might sound.

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And then we can study from there to figure out what it was that the original might have actually said.

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In the footnote of your English Standard Bible. So this is any ESV Bible, not just a study

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Bible or a reference Bible, because that's what I'm using. I don't I don't have I don't have a study

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Bible or a reference Bible in front of me. It's just your standard English Standard Version, hence why it's called the

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English Standard Version. Anyway, I'm getting punny now. Anonymous is rubbing off on me.

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In your footnotes of the Bible, it says in the Hebrew, Saul was one year old when he became king and he reigned two years over Israel.

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That's what it says in the original Hebrew, and that's what it indicates in the footnote. Some Greek manuscripts, so like the

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Septuagint, give Saul's age when he began to reign as 30 years. That's not the original

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Hebrew, but in the Greek, like in the Septuagint, it says that Saul was 30 years old. So this is why in the

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New American Standard Bible, 1 Samuel 13, one reads like this. Saul was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 42 years over Israel.

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That might be accurate. That's just not what we have from the original Hebrew. So the

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English Standard translators have decided to include the original Hebrew, and then we can continue to study from there what the original might have said.

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So anyway, again, we start with something controversial because of the

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King James only controversy that is made out of that particular verse. It doesn't affect the text in any way.

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It just very obviously reads funny when we are seeing here that Saul lived for one year before he became king.

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He was not a one -year -old king. He was a fully grown man. We just don't know what the original

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Hebrew said there. So instead, the English Standard translators went from the earliest

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Hebrew manuscripts that we have, and that's what we come up with, as funny as it sounds.

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Okay, so going on from there, Saul chose 3 ,000 men of Israel. 2 ,000 were with Saul in Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, and 1 ,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin.

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The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Jonathan defeated the garrison of the

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Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying,

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Let the Hebrews hear, and all Israel hear it said, that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the

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Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, 30 ,000 chariots and 6 ,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude.

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They came up and encamped at Michmash to the east of Beth -Avon. 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.

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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.

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He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him.

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So Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings.

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And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came.

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And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when

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I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the

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Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the

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Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. So Saul's sin here was not necessarily that he didn't wait for Samuel.

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His sin was that only the priests were supposed to offer the sacrifices to the Lord. And Saul was taking it upon himself to do that.

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This was according to the law of Moses. So in verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly.

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You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the

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Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue.

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The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be a prince over his people, because you have not kept what the

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Lord commanded you. And of course, this is foreshadowing to David, who is a man after God's own heart.

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And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal, and the rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army.

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They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about 600 men.

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And Saul and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them, stayed in Geba of Benjamin.

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But the Philistines encamped and mickmashed. And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies.

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One company turned toward Aphra, to the land of Shual. Another company turned toward Beth Horan, and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the valley of Zeboiim, toward the wilderness.

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Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel. For the Philistines said, lest the

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Hebrews make themselves swords or spears. But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle.

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And the charge was two -thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for the sharpening of the axes and for setting the goads.

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So on the day of the battle, there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan.

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But Saul and Jonathan, his son, had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Micmash.

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Now when it comes to illustrating the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines in the valley of Elah, where David and Goliath would come up against one another,

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I have seen a particular painting that is actually a very accurate depiction of what the

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Israelites would have looked like in this painting. It has them standing up on a ridge as they're looking down on David and Goliath meeting one another.

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And it shows them dressed in standard farmer's clothes, and they're holding farming tools, farming implements, like sickles and pitchforks and axes and that sort of a thing.

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And that's what they've got. Because between these two armies, the Philistines were the powerhouse.

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They were the blacksmiths. They were the metallurgists. They had all of the tools and the weapons fashioned according to their trade.

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The Israelites did not have such a thing. And the Philistines had control over those industries and would not let the

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Israelites fashion such tools. Apparently, except for Saul and Jonathan, they let the king have them, maybe so they could identify exactly who the king was.

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I don't know why the king was the only one that had them. May have also acquired them from Philistines that had been defeated.

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And remember that Saul was seven feet tall. So when David tried on Saul's armor before going out to meet

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Goliath, why didn't it fit? Because Saul was a huge guy and there wasn't armor anywhere else for David to try on.

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There was only Saul's. Anyway, we'll talk more about that when we get to the story of David and Goliath next week. Let's continue here to Chapter 14.

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One day, Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armor,

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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.

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The people who were with him were about 600 men, including Ahijah, the son of Ahitab, Ichabod's brother, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of the

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Lord in Shiloh, wearing an ephod. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.

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Within the passes by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistine garrison, there was a rocky crag on one side and a rocky crag on the other side.

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The name of the one was Boazes 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 Gibeah.

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Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised.

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It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few.

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And this uncircumcised, this term uncircumcised that Jonathan used, it was a disparaging term, a derogatory term that was used for those who were basically not

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Jews. Verse 8. Then Jonathan said, Behold, we will cross over to the men and we will show ourselves to them.

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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.

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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.

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Now, why was that relevant? Well, because if they say, Come up to us, they're actually giving Jonathan and his armor bearer entrance into the camp by a narrow way that that kind of would have been sort of a sneak attack into the camp.

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So that's why it was relevant that that they would be invited in rather than having somebody come to them.

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So verse 11. So both of them showed themselves to the garrison of the Philistines and the Philistines said, Look, Hebrews are coming up out of the holes where they have hidden themselves.

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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.

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So they think there are actually more Hebrews than there actually are. But they only see the two men there.

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And Jonathan said to his armor bearer, Come up after me for the Lord has given them into the hand of Israel.

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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.

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And that first strike, which Jonathan and his armor bearer made, killed about 20 men within, as it were, half a furrow's length and an acre of land.

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And there was a panic in the camp, in the field and among all the people. The garrison and even the raiders trembled.

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The earth quaked and it became a very great panic. Or as it says in my footnotes that could also be translated, it became a panic from God.

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It was God who instilled the fear of the Israelites in them, the fear of Jonathan and his armor bearer.

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Verse 16. And the watchman of Saul at Gibeah of Benjamin looked and behold, the multitude was dispersing here and there.

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Then Saul said to the people who were with him, Count and see who has gone from us. And when they had counted, behold,

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Jonathan and his armor bearer were not there. So Saul said to Ahijah, Bring the ark of God here.

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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

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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.

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And behold, every Philistine sword was against his fellow. And there was a very great confusion. Now the

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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

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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

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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 -Avon.

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Verse 24. And the men of Israel had been hard pressed that day. So Saul had laid an oath on the people saying,

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Cursed be the man who eats food until it is evening and I am avenged on my enemies.

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Now this was a very rash vow that Saul was making that almost resulted in the death of his own son, which we're going to see in just a moment.

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It's not too unlike the vow that Jephthah made in the book of Judges, which was a very rash vow and he ended up losing his daughter.

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So we come up here as we continue on. So none of the people tasted food.

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Verse 25. Now, when all the people came to the forest, behold, there was honey on the ground.

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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.

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His father charged the people with the oath. So he put out the tip of his staff that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes became bright.

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In other words, it gave him vitality. He kind of gained energy from eating the sugary sweetness.

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That was the honeycomb. Verse 28. Then one of the people said, your father strictly charged the people with an oath saying, curse be the man who eats food this day.

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And the people were faint. Then Jonathan said, my father has troubled the land. See how my eyes become bright because I tasted a little of this honey.

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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

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Philistines has not been great. So Jonathan saying would have been better if we would have been allowed to eat.

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Now we're all weak from the battle because my father has made this oath that has made us all weak.

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Verse 31. They struck down the Philistines that day from Micmash to Ajalon and the people were very faint.

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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.

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Very much against the law of Moses, which said that you cannot eat food with blood still in it.

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Verse 33. Then they told Saul, behold, the people are sinning against the Lord by eating with the blood.

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And he said, you have dealt treacherously, roll a great stone to be here. So that was where the animals would be slaughtered was on the stone and their blood would drain out that way.

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And Saul said, disperse yourselves among the people and say to them, let every man bring his ox and his sheep and slaughter them here and eat and do not sin against the

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Lord by eating with the blood. So every one of the people brought his ox with him that night and they slaughtered them there.

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And Saul built an altar to the Lord. It was the first altar that he had built to the Lord after he had already fallen out of favor with the

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Lord. Note that. Verse 36. Then Saul said, let us go down after the Philistines by night and plunder them until the morning light.

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Let us not leave a man of them. And they said, do whatever seems good to you.

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But the priest said, let us draw near to God here. And Saul inquired of God, shall

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I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel? But he did not answer them that day.

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And Saul said, come here, all you leaders of the people and know and see how this sin has arisen today.

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For as the Lord lives who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan, my son, he shall surely die.

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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.

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The people said to Saul, do what seems good to you. Therefore, Saul said, O God of Israel, why have you not answered your servant this day?

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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,

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Israel, give Thummim. And Jonathan and Saul were taken, but the people escaped, meaning that the lot or the stone that was cast fell on Jonathan and Saul.

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Verse 42, then Saul said, cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan, and Jonathan was taken.

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So whenever there were multiple options that needed to be decided between in Israel, whether that was multiple clans or multiple people or however that would be, then they would use lots.

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They would use the sacred lots. So each lot would be marked for each one of the options.

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But when there were only two options, when it was either this one or this one, only two stones were used and it was

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Yomim and Thummim. And it was they were two stones that were in the breastplate of the ephod.

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We don't exactly know what colors they were. They were probably one stone was really light and the other stone was really dark.

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They could easily be told apart from one another. I heard one person suggest, yeah, it's like the pills in the matrix, the red pill and the blue pill.

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Not quite, but anyway. And by the way, when Joseph Smith wrote the

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Book of Mormon, he claimed to translate the Book of Mormon from the gold plates, which were written in reformed

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Egyptian. They weren't. Gold plates didn't even exist. And and he used the stones

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Yomim and Thummim that he looked through to translate what it was that he was reading in the in the gold plates.

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Anyway, that's where he got that from, was from the scriptures. These two stones that were used to help decide something in Israel.

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So then. But yeah, like that, like I said, whole thing is totally false. It's a complete fabrication.

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Mormonism is a false religion through and through. Verse 43. Then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what you have done.

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And Jonathan told him, I tasted a little honey with the tip of the staff that was in my hand. Here I am.

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I will die. And Saul said, God, do so to me and more also.

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You shall surely die, Jonathan. Then the people said to Saul, shall Jonathan die who has worked this great salvation in Israel?

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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.

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So the people ransomed Jonathan so that he did not die. Then Saul went up from pursuing the Philistines and the

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Philistines went to their own place. So again, rash vow that was made on the part of Saul that really had no bearing on Israel or on Jonathan.

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It was almost like Saul was just making the oath to show the authority that he had. I'm saying this. So therefore, you must do it.

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And if you don't do it, God's going to kill us all. But that it was completely out of place because God's favor was not with Saul anymore anyway.

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Verse 47, when Saul had taken the kingship over Israel, he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the

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Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them.

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And he did valiantly and struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hands of those who plundered them.

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Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malkishua. And the names of his two daughters were these.

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The name of the firstborn was Merab, the name of the younger Mikal, and the name of Saul's wife was

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Ahinom, the daughter of Ahimaz. And the name of the commander of his army was

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Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abel.

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Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abel. Did I say that right? I had to say it several times to get it right.

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Verse 52, there was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when

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Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.

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Chapter 15, 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

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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.

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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.

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So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Tel -Aim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah.

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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

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Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.

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So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Avila as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

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And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.

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But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them, all that was despised and worthless, that they devoted to destruction.

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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.

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Now there's something significant to this that we have to keep in mind. The regret that God feels is not the kind of regret that man feels.

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And in the same chapter, we're going to read Samuel say to Saul that God does not feel regret.

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So we have to understand regret as it's given here is a divine regret. It is

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God in his sorrow, mourning over a king over his people that has turned away from him and is doing what is in his own heart rather than what is in the heart of the

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Lord. And so it grieves the Lord in this way. This is the kind of regret that we are talking about.

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So let's continue on from there. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night, verse 12.

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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.

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And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the

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Lord. And Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?

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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

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Lord your God and the rest we have devoted to destruction. So Saul's trying to say, hey, we have good intentions here of keeping the spoil.

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Verse 16. And Samuel said to Saul, stop, I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.

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And he said to him, speak. And Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

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The Lord anointed you king over Israel and the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go devote to destruction the sinners, the

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Amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the

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Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?

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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.

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I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

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But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the

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Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the

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Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams.

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For rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

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Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.

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So presuming in this way and Saul doing what he thought was right in his own eyes is just as bad as if he was consulting false gods and worshiping false gods.

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Verse 24, Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the

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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

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Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the Lord and the

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Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. Because note again, this is not just one instance, this is over and over again.

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Saul has continued to reject the command of God. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore.

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And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

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Once again, foreshadowing to David. And also the glory of Israel, talking about God, that's in capital letters there, will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regret.

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So once again, this is not man's regret that we're talking about God experiencing. It is a divine regret.

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Verse 30, then he said, Saul 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

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Lord, your God. So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord to preserve his dignity as a king over Israel.

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Verse 32, then Samuel said, bring me here, bring to me here a gag, the king of the Amalekites and a gag came to him cheerfully, a gag said, surely the bitterness of death is past.

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And Samuel said, as your sword has made women child childless, so your mother be childless among women.

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And Samuel hacked a gag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.

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And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul and the

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Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. We have that statement made there again.

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In Mark chapter 12, a scribe came up to Jesus and said, which commandment is the most important of all?

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And Jesus answered, the most important is here, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

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You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

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The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

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And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one and there is no other besides him and to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

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And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

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And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. This comes right back to something that Samuel said to Saul.

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Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the

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Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat than in the fat of rams.

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Obedience is what is pleasing to the Lord, not that we sin and then come and ask forgiveness from God, though it is said to us in the scriptures.

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First John one nine. If we are faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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But what God would rather have us do is be obedient from the start.

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And we need to get rid of this mindset. We need to be out of the mindset that we can sin and just do whatever we want and then ask

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God's forgiveness for it later. In Romans chapter six, it is explicitly said to us that if that's our attitude, we are still a slave to our sin and are not really slaves to righteousness.

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We are not being obedient to Christ, but still obedient to the passions of our flesh, which we are supposed to have put off when we came to Christ Jesus.

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Not that we will do that perfectly, but we can no longer live in the passions of the flesh and we can no longer think that we can live in this mindset of sinning and then asking forgiveness for it later.

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To obey is better than sacrifice. It's better than asking for forgiveness if we obeyed

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God in the first place. This is what is pleasing and delightful to the

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Lord. As Charles Hodge once said, we need to love the things that God loves, hate the things that God hates, and delight in the things that delight him.

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So let that be our pursuit as believers in God, the delight of God, in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.