Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20020210.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part XV: STARTING With Leaning Upon God To Avoid Unnecessary Spiritual Defeat
(1 Samuel 13:1-15)
  1. Introduction
    1. There is a distinct temptation to avoid starting with GOD for a solution to trials we face as we might assume we can handle situations on our own due to our own past victories or proven abilities.
    2. However, that is a big mistake, for it produces added unnecessary trials as is seen in 1 Samuel 13:1-15:
  2. STARTING With Leaning Upon God To Avoid Unnecessary Spiritual Defeat, 1 Samuel 13:1-15.
    1. First, God Himself had previously, wonderfully rescued Israel from defeat before the Philistines ALL the days of Samuel's judgship when Samuel had leaned upon GOD to counter the Philistines, 1 Sam. 7:7-14:
      1. When the Philistines threatened Israel with destruction at the start of Samuel's judgship over Israel, he had immediately looked to God in prayer with a sacrifice for His deliverance, 1 Samuel 7:7-9a,b.
      2. God heard Samuel's plea and sent a thunderstorm that turned the tables on the Philistines, 7:9c-11.
      3. The Lord went much further to subdue the Philistines throughout Samuel's leadership tenure: the Philistines no longer invaded, and Israel even took back cities the Philistines had possessed, 7:13-14.
      4. Indeed, so desirous was Samuel for Israel to recall God's wonderful help in the event that he set up a memorial stone, calling it Eben-ezer, or "stone of help," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn. to 1 Sam. 7:12.
    2. Then, when Saul was king, he witnessed God using him to lead Israel to defeat the Ammonites, 11:1-15.
    3. However, Saul's omitting recalling his success had originated with GOD and God's spiritual equipping led to his handling the Philistines on his OWN, but that led him into deeper trouble, 13:1-9a:
      1. Instead of depending on God's Spirit to lead him to motivate and organize Israel for deliverance from the Philistines as he had the Ammonites or pray for deliverance unto God as had Samuel, Saul tried solving the problem independent of God by choosing a small national guard for Israel, 1 Sam. 13:1-2.
      2. However, his self-help effort led Saul to face a great temptation to sin under pressure, 1 Sam. 13:3-9a:
        1. First, Saul's son, Jonathan and his 1,000 Hebrew national guard inevitably got into an unavoidable conflict with the local Philistine garrison, so he attacked and defeated them at Gibeah, 1 Sam. 13:3a.
        2. This got the attention of the Philistine nation, so Saul blew a trumpet for Israel to arm, 13:3b,c, 4.
        3. Well, the Philistines reacted to Saul's blowing of the trumpet with the defeat of their garrison as sign of an all-out war, so they mustered an immense army to fight Israel, 1 Samuel 13:5.
        4. This Philistine reaction was not expected by Israel and had not factored into Saul's personal plans, so Israel's men began to hide from the Philistines who were then in the land, 1 Samuel 13:6.
        5. In fact, some of the Hebrews crossed the Jordan to escape what they thought was a coming defeat of Israel before the Philistines, so the relative few who still followed Saul trembled, 1 Samuel 13:7.
        6. Well, Saul finally contacted Samuel to ask if he would pray unto God for help through use of a sacrifice as had occurred with good results back in 1 Samuel 7:7-14, cf. 1 Samuel 13:8a.
        7. However, Samuel had told Saul he was coming in seven days, seven days Saul felt he could not afford as the Philistine threat was draining morale and numbers in his army, 1 Sam. 7:8b. That in turn led him to be tempted as a non-levite to sin by offering up the burnt offering, 1 Samuel 7:9a.
    4. Under such stress, Saul failed God in unbelief, leading to the end of God's blessing in his ministry:
      1. Saul sinned under this pressure by proceeding with the sacrifice in Samuel's absence, 1 Sam. 13:9b.
      2. Right afterwards, Samuel arrived and confronted Saul with his disobedience, 1 Samuel 13:10-11a.
      3. Instead of repenting, Saul tried to rationalize away his deed using human viewpoint, arguing that time was of the essence in view of the Philistine threat and its political impact on his army, 13:11b-12.
      4. Because of this sin, Samuel revealed Saul's kingdom would cease, being replaced by anothe, 13:13-15.
Lesson: Since (1) Saul neglected to BEGIN facing his TRIALS by (a) trusting GOD and (b) God's GIFTING him to address them, he (2) resorted to carnal effort that only ADVANCED his TROUBLES, and (3) THAT led to his temptation under PRESSURE (4) to sin to where God's blessing was removed.

Application: It is not an OPTION, but a NEED that we START with GOD and God's GIFTING to handle ALL our troubles we face in our lives and service respectively! (2 Timothy 1:6-7, 8, 13-14)