The Word of God comes to us this morning from 1 Samuel chapter 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13. 1 Samuel chapter 13, we'll begin at verse 1. This is the Word of God. Saul lived for one year and then became king. And when he had reigned for two years over Israel, Saul chose 3,000 men of Israel. 2,000 were with Saul in Michmash in the hill country of Bethel, and 1,000 were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. the rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. Now Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land saying, let the Hebrews hear. And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. When the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops, like the sand on the seashore in multitude, they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-Aved. 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. 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. He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, bring the burnt offering here to me and the peace offerings, and he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, what have you done? And Saul said, when I saw that the people were scattering from me and that you did not come within the days appointed and that the 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 Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, 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. 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. And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army. They went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about 600 men. And Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash. And the raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shul. Another company turned toward Beth-horon, and another company turned toward the border that looks down in the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness. Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout the whole land of Israel, for the Philistines said, lest the Hebrews make themselves swords and spears. But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle. And the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads. 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. But Saul and Jonathan, his son, had them. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. Thanks be to God for his word. Why do we need a king? Why do we need a king? I'm not talking about Charles. I'm talking about kings in general, throughout history. Kings in the cosmic sense, even. Why do we need kings? Why does this question, though, even really matter? We live in a democracy, don't we? Or at least a constitutional monarchy. We get to decide who our rulers are. What we often forget, though, is that democracy is itself a small and passing thing. It's not going to outlast the world it lives in. Christ's kingdom is not a democracy. No, Christ is our King. He reigns supreme. Votes are not counted, if you will, in heaven. So, the question actually matters quite a bit to us. Why do we need a King? Well, systematic theologians will tell us that we need a king for two reasons, and the catechism will tell us the same thing. We need a king to govern us, and we need a king to defend and preserve us. To govern us, to defend and preserve us. So a king needs to be two things. He needs to be wise, that he might govern us well, and he needs to be strong. that He might defend us from our enemies and preserve us against all the attacks that we undergo. Now, the question comes, while Israel requested a king, what kind of king did Israel need? Well, they needed a king who would govern them well and defend and preserve them well. They needed a king who was wise and who was strong. in that order, in that order. See, the standard for Israel's kings was not strength. It was not how many soldiers they had, how many chariots they had, how many horses they had in the stable, how many swords and spears they had in the armory. The standard for Israel's kings for success or failure was how well their hearts reflected God's heart. How well their hearts reflected God's law, because you see, God's law tells us what His heart looks like. It tells us what matters to Him. And there are high stakes, because as goes the king, so go the people. And you see this played out throughout Israel's history. If Israel has a good king, the nation is led to God, and the nation is successful. That is the measure of success, whether they're led to God or not. If Israel has a bad king, doesn't matter how big his army is, doesn't matter how successful he is in war, if the king's heart is not God's heart, the king is a failure. And so the question for kings that Samuel laid out in 1 Samuel 12, we saw this last week, is will their kings, will Israel's kings choose life or death? Will they choose blessing or will they choose curse? And here we have repeated for us a theme that we've seen throughout history leading up to this point, 1 Samuel chapter 13. In fact, we see it at the very beginning of history, the very dawn of history. We look at the first king in human history, not Saul, but Adam. You see, Adam was placed in Eden as a king in God's place. He was told to take dominion, to rule in God's stead. And the standard that governed Adam, just like the standard that governs Saul and all the other kings of Israel, was God's Word. Would his heart be like God's heart? Would his mind be like God's mind? Would he conform his will to the Word, to the law of God? And the stakes are high. For Israel, just as the king goes, so go the people. For Adam, that is so much more true. See, in Adam, all of humanity will either live or die. So the question posed in Genesis 2-3, the same question that's posed here in 1 Samuel 12-13, will the king choose life or will he choose death? Will he choose blessing or will he choose curse? And of course, we know how things ended in Eden. And Eden, the episode in Eden, teaches us that we need a better king than Adam, a king that will choose blessing, a king that will choose life. And this brings us to Saul. Will he be that better king? You see, that is the question. Yes, we know the end of the story. We know who the better king is. Of course, we do. But that's where 1 Samuel 12 leaves us. Samuel says, fear the Lord, serve Him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things He has done for you. Remember your history, Israel, but if you still do wickedly, if you persist in your rebellion, if you persist in saying, no, God shall not be our king, we shall appoint our own kings, this is a democracy after all, if you still do wickedly, You shall be swept away, both you and your King. He lays before them life and death, blessing and cursing." Now we get to see what Saul and Israel with him will choose. Because Israel, like Eden, is referred to often in the prophets as God's garden, His planting, The Philistines, the enemies of God's people, they are a threat to the safety and the security of God's place. They're similar to this serpent winding his way into the Garden of Eden. So, what will God's anointed and appointed protector, what will God's king do? Well, he begins by doing some rather practical things. He lived for one year, not to say he was anointed at one year old, but that he was a certain age when he became king. He reigned, really, the Hebrew says, he reigned for two years over Israel. And what this likely is, is the author of 1 Samuel giving his judgment of Saul's reign. He served as God's king for two years, and then he was rejected. But he reigned for two years over Israel, and then he chose 3,000 men of Israel, and this was a very sensible thing to do. Remember, all of Israel had gathered to fight against Nahash, king of the Ammonites. All of Israel had gathered to crown Saul king in Gilgal in chapter 12. They had all gathered to hear the words of Samuel, as Samuel said goodbye as a judge, as he stepped down in place of Saul. But Israel is sent home. They've got crops to take care of. They've got cities to rule over. They've got work to do. All of Israel can't stay in the field forever. They've got to go back to their fields. And so, what Saul does is he sends the troops of Israel home, except for what we might call his standing army. The regulars, they stay ready. They stay equipped and organize the irregulars, the reserves. They're sent home, ready to be called up again when the king deems it necessary. And this is rather standard practice. David does the same sort of thing when he fights the Ammonites. This way the standing army can take care of fending off any raiders that come suddenly, and most of the population can stay home and keep farming or doing their industry or whatever they may have to do. So, Saul is preparing for war. He's organizing the troops. It's all very responsible stuff. It's all very wise stuff. But the question we should be asking is, why is he doing it? Why is he doing it? And when push comes to shove, what is Saul going to see as his salvation and Israel's salvation? Two weeks ago, we saw him trying to establish his rule through threats. If you don't come out and fight with me, I'm going to cut up your oxen. What's he doing here, though? What is the rest of his reign going to be characterized by? Why are the thousands of Israel being gathered together? Well, Saul prepares his armies, he organizes them, he sits them in strategic places, in natural fortresses, high places that are both easily defensible and close to the natural choke points in the terrain of Israel's hill country. He's preparing to defend the country against the Philistines. But when it comes time for action, Saul sits back as his son Jonathan is sent out to kick the hornet's nest. You remember Saul is the one that Israel wanted to fight their battles. Big, strong, handsome Saul, unlike any other man in Israel. Big, impressive Saul, but when it's time for action, it's Jonathan, not Saul. And perhaps this should concern us, perhaps it shouldn't, but our ears are certainly perking up now. This is a rather inauspicious start to the campaign, isn't it? So Jonathan kicks the hornet's nest either by killing the regional governor, as some of your translations will have, or by defeating a whole garrison. The language is a little unclear at this point. And then like Ehud did after he had killed King Eglon, the trumpet is sounded and the news travels all across Israel. But you'll note, again, something that might make you a little bit uneasy. The press report goes out, Saul has defeated the garrison of the Philistines. Saul takes credit for what Jonathan has done. But again, all Israel is called out as a trumpet is sounded. And you'll remember from several weeks ago that the sounding of the silver trumpets in Israel was the way that they were supposed to be called out for war. Numbers 10, verses eight and nine. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, they shall blow the trumpets The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations." Right? This is how God's people went to war. And when you go to war against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. See, the trumpets aren't just sounded to call Israel together. The trumpets are sounded like a kind of musical prayer. Arise, O Lord, let your enemies be scattered. Let those who hate you flee before you. For the Israelites, even warfare, this bloody business, has a sacred component to it. They're a holy people. They are holy warriors fighting God's enemies in God's strength, or at least that's how it's supposed to be. And so it only made sense that God be called upon at the beginning of any military campaign, whether they had a king or not. And so the trumpet is sounded, and all Israel is called out to join Saul at Gilgal. The preemptive attack has been launched, we might say, from the front lines, and then the trumpets are sounded, and Saul retreats before the Philistines have a chance to respond. He retreats to the River Jordan, to this place where he had been crowned, Gilgal. And there, he gathers Israel together, and he sits, and he waits for the prophet Samuel. But the Israelites aren't the only ones who've heard the trumpet. No, the Philistines also gather, and boy, do they gather. Chariots and horsemen and foot soldiers by the thousand gather like the sand of the sea in multitude. And when they gather, they actually take over the position that Saul had been in at the beginning of the chapter. They gather at Michmash, in the heart of Israelite territory. They are entirely unafraid of Israelite attack. And it seems they've got good reason, because Israel hears the trumpet, they hear the trumpet But they see the Philistines, and hard-pressed by the might of men, they forget about the power of God. They cower, they retreat, they hide themselves wherever they can find refuge, even in tombs. And some of them abandon them promisely and altogether. They go to Gilgal, sure, but they pass right on through and cross the Jordan, and they desert God and His King and His nation to save their own skins. And Saul, we see him just about standing alone, standing his ground there in Gilgal, standing behind the battle lines, yes, but at least he's still in the land. But all the people who are still following him, they're trembling, they're terrified. The strength of Philistia has been gathered, it's come up, chariots and horsemen with swords and spears, and the strength of Israel seems like nothing by comparison. And Saul, their king, is doing nothing but delegating and taking credit for what he hasn't done. And Israel's might and Israel's glory, it seems, is fleeing into the land of death. It's hopeless. It's hopeless. Or is it? I mean, what can Israel's king do? And here the question that we have at the end of chapter 12 is really sharpened for us. It's really pointed for us. The question here is, how is Saul going to respond to Israel's weakness? Is he going to accept that they are indeed a weak people and rely on God's strength, or will he forget all about the promises of God? Will he forget all about the great things that God has done for Israel, and will he boldly forge his own path forward? Will he be a man's man, or will he be God's man? The question really is, what kind of Psalm 1 man will he be? Will he be the blessed man who meditates on God's law day and night, a tree evergreen bearing fruit in season, prospering in whatever he does, forgetting about the strength of man, relying on the strength of God, or will he be the wicked man? Forgetting about God's law, throwing off God's shackles, relying on human strength and ingenuity, but in the end fruitless, brown, blowing in the wind. See, these two choices, they lay before all of us all the time, don't they? Whenever we're faced with any kind of crisis, like Saul is here, two choices lay before us. Either we're going to follow God's Word, believe what God says, follow God's commands, rely on Him to keep His promises, rely on Him to do what He has done in the past, or else we're going to look at the circumstances around us. see how mighty our enemies are, forget about God's presence, forget about God's promises, which should matter really more to us than anything else that's going on around us, and just rely on whatever we can cook up for ourselves. Saul stands like a new Adam, pressed hard by his adversaries. And the question being whispered in his ear is really what it's always been, has God really said? In this case, has God really said that you shouldn't offer this sacrifice yourself? Has God really said that He will be Israel's defender? Has God really said that He will fight for His people? Does God really expect you to stand still here while God's forces disintegrate all around you? Surely, God does not expect you to be so impractical, does He? No, no, God wants you to take matters into your own hands. Be a man, Saul, be a man. When the seven days specified by Samuel, they're almost up, and Samuel is not showing up, and the armies of Israel are scattering, and the camp is emptying, and the tombs are filling before the battle even starts. And so Saul, pressed on all sides, he does not trust in the Lord with all his heart, but instead he leans on his own understanding. Like the men of Israel, all around him, he works based on what his eyes can see. Not based on what he knows to be true of God, but what he knows God has said in His Word. Saul is no leader here. He doesn't say to Israel, yes, I know your hearts are shaking, but God has spoken. God has spoken. No, no, Saul is a follower. Israel is panicking, so Saul panics too. He doesn't pray, as we should, open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. No, he says, well, hey, I've looked at God's ideas, I've measured them, and they just really don't look all that wonderful. In fact, they seem rather silly. He replaces God's commands with pagan practicality, because really, he has too small a view of God. He's forgotten who the sovereign is and what the creation is in God's sight. God is always on the side of big battalions. Any military man knows this, but Saul has forgotten the words of Hannah's song. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength." What does God care if the Philistines have thousands upon thousands of chariots and horsemen and legions of infantry? When have men ever been able to stand up against God when He decides to act? Saul could have looked back in Israel's history, as Samuel had urged him to do, consider what great things He has done for you. He could have looked back to Gideon. This story's got a lot of callbacks to Gideon. Saul should have looked back to that story of Gideon. Did God need Gideon's thousands? No! No, God was pleased to work. In fact, he had decided to work with his mere 300, and Saul's got twice that. When Israel was in the banks of the Red Sea, did God say, now stand still and be the salvation of your God? No! He said, stand still and see the salvation of your God, and he wiped the floor with Pharaoh's chariots. But Saul is blind to spiritual realities. He's like so many practical pagans today who say, well, okay, that spiritual stuff, that religion, that's fine on Sunday, but Monday to Saturday, let's be practical, shall we? Let's be practical. And so true devotion to God is pushed under the rug or put on a shelf until we deem it convenient to take it back down. And waiting for Samuel has become very inconvenient, in fact, an impossible task, he thinks, for King Saul. He sees Israel's armies around him, dwindling down, wasting away to a few hundred men. He'll be doomed if he doesn't act fast. And you see that, you see now. Yeah, Saul blew the trumpet. He called on God to save his people, but it was all a show. Now, maybe he meant it at the time, but we all know how it is. Faith in the pew is one thing, but when you're in the trenches of everyday life, those things that seem so plausible and so true on Sunday morning somehow become so impractical and so impossible and implausible come Monday and Tuesday. Saul sees himself between a rock and a hard place, and his flinty heart knows that it's got to do something, and so he takes the reins. He steps up. He steps in. He's a man's man. If Samuel won't step in, Saul's going to step up. And so he orders the men to bring him the offerings, and then he offers them himself, in clear violation to so many of God's laws. He forgets what we sang in Psalm 40 in sacrifice and offering. God does not delight. he delights in a heart that keeps his law. The king breaks covenant. But Samuel wasn't far off, as Saul thought. He comes in, just as a fire is licking the sacrifices on the altar, what is this you have done? He cries, oh Saul, how could you? What have you done? And you've heard these words before. You know them well. third chapter of the Bible. When the first human king, Adam, eats the fruit, God comes down in the cool of the day, and when He's found Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, what does He ask? What is this that you have done? Same words. Why have you betrayed Me? Why have you ignored my words and gone your own way?" And now it's God's new king, Saul, in the place of Adam, leading Israel into rebellion, leading Israel into betraying God. What have you done? And Saul, like Adam, like Eve, he's got excuse after excuse after excuse, while Samuel, you see, the people, these people you gave me, they were running away. And you know, Samuel, Samuel, you, you were nowhere to be found. And the Philistines, Samuel, the Philistines, they're at Michmash now, but who knows how long it'll be before they come down and attack us. And they got chariots, Samuel, they got chariots. And the Lord, Samuel, I haven't enlisted His help yet. If I don't pay my dues, He'll be angry with me and won't go out with Israel's armies. And so I had to take charge. I'm Israel's king, after all, am I not? So I forced myself, yes, against my better judgment, against the law of God, but I forced myself, Samuel, and I offered the burnt offering I had to. There was no other way. This blind decisiveness of willful sin, there was no other way. Yes, God's law says this, but there's no other way. It's like he's saying, well, you know, it wasn't easy for me, but these people who gave me, these people you gave me, they made me do it. Saul, it seems, Saul saw this as the most decisive thing. Yes, the tough thing to do, but the right thing to do. It was the wisest course of action given the circumstances. And you know, it's so easy to fault him. And yes, it's right to fault Him. He's at fault here. He has ignored the law of God. He has ignored the words of God. He's been given specific instructions and He has ignored them. How could He? Oh, what has He done? But you know it would be foolish for us. It'd be dangerous for us not to put ourselves in His situation, with His temptation, and not to realize that, yes, is Saul being foolish here, stupid even? Yes. But we do the same stupid thing. We fall for the same lousy arguments every single day. All we like sheep have gone astray. This is the default mode of our heart and of our eyes, to value human might over the promises and the word of God. And so we make all the excuses that Saul made. Saul says, well, you know, the people, the people were running away. And we say, well, other Christians. I see other Christians doing this exact same thing. Surely it's fine. The other young people in my friend group, they ignore God's will. They drink, they swear, they smoke, calm down. It's acceptable. Besides, if I don't drink like them and talk like them and smoke like them, I'll be a pariah. They won't want to hang out with me anymore. These people you've given me. Saul says, Samuel, you didn't come. And we say, well, God's servants, God's servants are at fault. I haven't heard any sermons on this particular sin in a long time. Must not be that important. Must be okay. The elders haven't caught up with me yet. They haven't stopped me yet. I can just, I can blame them for lapsing in their calling if I get caught. And Saul points to the Philistines, this imminent danger. The world, we say, the world, times have changed. And you know, the church needs to keep up. These dusty old doctrines, they need to be updated. Don't you see the pressure we're under? Come on, keep up, keep up. And Saul blames God, last of all. I haven't enlisted God's help yet. If I don't pay my dues, He'll be angry with me. God hasn't changed my desires, we say. He's left me in my sin. He has not saved me. If I sin, it's His fault. And we come up with these excuses again and again and again and again. And instead of repenting, we excuse ourselves. We excuse ourselves. And all this does for us is it reveals how unlike God's heart, our own hearts, This is faithless foolishness. And Samuel knows this. Saul is not about to pull the wool over his eyes. You have done foolishly. God's wisdom, it's right here. But you've ignored it, Saul. You've ignored it. If you disobey God and follow the wisdom of your own heart, you are a fool. If you call evil good and you call good evil, you are a fool. Why? Because you are dethroning God. You are like the fool who says in his heart there is no God, or at least no God whose opinions really matter all that much. Samuel lays out for Saul exactly what he has done. You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God with which he commanded you. If you had kept this command, Saul, you stood at a fork in the road here. If you had kept this command, the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. Faithfulness would have led to fruitfulness, a lasting throne. Your sons would have reigned after you for generation after generation, but your faithlessness means that someone else is going to take your throne. It'll be ripped from your descendants and given to a man of the Lord's choosing." You see? Like Adam. Saul was hard-pressed by temptation when somebody invaded God's paradise. Like Adam, Saul capitulates. He believes the lies instead of believing God's truth. Like Adam, Saul is cursed, and all his family is cursed along with him. But at the same time, remember, when God cursed Adam, He promised a blessing nonetheless. Yes, you are cursed, your descendants are cursed, the ground is cursed, your wife is cursed, the serpent is cursed, but But someone will come, the seed of the woman, who will do what you left undone, who will crush what you have left uncrushed. Someone's going to come, Adam, God says, will follow all of God's commands because his heart is the same shape as God's own heart." He loves what God loves. He does what God wants done. The Lord, Saul is told, has sought a man after his own heart. And, of course, we've read 1 Samuel. We know that it's David. It's David, this man whose heart overflowed with a love for God and a love for God's Word. You read the Psalms, David is passionate about that. He's passionate. And you know, the poetry of the Psalms might trick some of us into thinking that David's not a man's man. But what does that matter if he's God's man? Exactly what Saul should have been. The Lord has sought a man after His own heart. Despite the curse that you have brought on your own line, on your own throne, God insists that He's going to bless His people. He will bless them with a prince of His own appointment. But you, Saul, you're finished. You will rule, and that'll be it. Your sons, your grandsons will not follow after you. And so, verse 15, Samuel leaves him, and Saul is left in his dust. All his plans have come to nothing. He's left in the ruins of his own sin. He's tried to rally Israel's forces to him. He's tried to rally Israel's God to him to get God on his side, but all for nothing. Saul followed the wisdom of his own heart instead of following the wisdom of God. And now these last verses, 15 through 23, these last verses of 1 Samuel 13, they really paint a dismal picture, a dark picture. Saul has chosen to rely on the strength and the wisdom of men, and so now it is with the strength of men that he will have to contend. Saul counts the faithful Israelites who are left to him as scant 600 men. Yes, twice Gideon's force, but that's not an army. It's not even a battalion. It started out with 3,000, the most professional army he could muster. I'm sure he had trained them as best as he could. He put them through their drills. He had exercised them. He had trained them to march, to run, to fight as best as they could with whatever weapons they had. Saul had mustered an army thinking that it was Israel's army that would defend Israel. But now his army has melted away. His army has piled up in the graves even before they have died, consigned to the grave like all of Adam's descendants. But the Philistines, the Philistines are just going from mortal strength to mortal strength. First, they took over Saul's former camp at Michmash, and now they're spreading all over the land, to the north, to the east, to the west. Their domination of Israel has never been so guaranteed. Jonathan kicked the hornet's nest, and the hornets come spilling out with a vengeance. And to make matters worse, the 600 men, this pitiful force with Saul and Jonathan, they're not even properly armed. They're a pitifully small force against the thousands of Philistines, but in the Israelite camp there was a conspicuous absence of spears and swords and battle axes and bows. See, in their decades of domination, it seems the Philistines had completely controlled the flow of weapons into and out of Israel. If you want to imagine what kind of pickle Israel was in, just think, what if Ukraine was totally dependent on Russia for weapons to fight their current war? It's an absolute disaster. And even those tools that might be held in Israelite hands as weapons, they are held at a dear cost. The Philistines have been charging through the nose to sharpen their axes and their goads, those spiky sticks you poke oxen with, and the hoes and the sickles. The day of battle has come, and it looks like Israel's gone to Home Depot to shop for their weapons. They look more like a bunch of landscapers than warriors. And so by the sounds of things, the only real weapons in Israel's camp are a spear in the hand of Saul and a sword in the hand of Jonathan. And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass at Michmash. And those who have been following along very carefully will know this is the third time this has been said. Verse 5, the Philistines came up and encamped in Michmash. Verse 16, the Philistines encamped in Michmash. Verse 23, the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash. It's like the entire time Saul and Israel are worrying about this and worrying about that and trying to gather human strength together, hiding in their graves and caves and cisterns, trying to cobble together an armory from Home Depot castoffs. The Philistines have been waiting and watching and biding their time. They're like vultures sitting in a tree, waiting to swoop down and destroy what's left of Israel. And Israel, it seems, is without hope. No army, no prophet, no weapons. Yeah, a king who looks great in his press reports, but a king who loses his head when God and Samuel won't cooperate with him. And that's where we leave him until this afternoon. We must ask the question again, why is Israel's situation so hopeless? Well, we'll answer quite readily, well, it's because her king, her king was not all that he needed to be. Saul, like a new Adam, he's abdicated his responsibility to lead Israel in righteousness. Sure, he's willing enough to lead from the back if he'll still get credit for the victories. He's willing enough to be brave with an army around him. But when the chips are down, his faith sinks, and it is shown to be no faith at all, at least no faith in God. the critical question remains that we must ask of every king. Is he going to choose life or death? Is he going to choose blessing or curse? We began by looking at the first king in human history, Adam. The standards? Well, God's command, keep Guard, do not eat." The stakes? In you, Adam, we will all live or die. And the question was, will he choose life or death? Will he choose blessing or curse? And we know he chose death. And in Adam, all died. But in the midst of his curse on the house of Saul, Samuel has this glimmer of hope. Yes, you're being pushed aside. But God has chosen a man after His own heart. 1 Samuel 13 is not the end of the story. Neither is Genesis 3. Yes, in Adam all die. The standard for Adam, obey God in everything. Even when things by human standards become hopeless, though, obey God in everything. Adam failed, and in him all of us die. But the Lord Jesus, the true King, the true King after God's own heart, even more than David, the true King after God's own heart, when He was tempted in the wilderness by the devil himself, He refused to live on bread alone, but submitted Himself to every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. And this was the case for His entire life, a record of perfect obedience. And the bottom line is this, Christ the King is perfect. And all who have Him as their Savior and King receive this very same perfection, as though they had lived that same perfect life. In Adam all die, yes, but in Christ all shall be made alive. And if you believe in Him, if He is your King, then that righteousness belongs to you." Because when Christ was faced with these questions that plagued Saul, when he was faced with the question of life or death, blessing or curse, Christ said, He took death on Himself and He took curse on Himself so that life could be yours, so that blessing could be yours. Hear these words. Believe and consider. Consider what Saul did not. Consider what great things the Lord has done for you. But the threat remains as well. If you will not hear, if you still do wickedly, if you will not repent and believe, you shall be swept away with whatever human strength, with whatever human righteousness you can come up with. If Jesus is not your Savior, you are like Saul and Jonathan in Gilgal, helpless. and hopeless. Let's pray.