What does strain reveal about us? (1 Sam 13:15-23)

Experiencing culture shock in a foreign country can put a strain on relationships. My Mum once told me that when we were living in India as a family, she observed several marriages of other Hungarians there that disintegrated under stress, while the challenges made Mum and Dad’s love for each other grow stronger. Adversity can be the making or breaking of relationships not only in marriage but also with God. If anything, challenges simply reveal the deeper dynamics at work, and this is what has happened to Saul. The verdict on his kingship has been given; he is not a man after God’s own heart and his rule will not endure. There will be no dynasty, no ongoing impact of Saul’s family on the life of Israel. More staggering than this statement is the lack of any response from Saul. Is he regretful, resigned, rebellious? Does he accept or reject the prophet’s pronouncement? Saul’s silence, more than anything else perhaps, confirms Samuel’s verdict. Something is lacking in the first king’s heart.

What follows in our reading is a purely human perspective as if the narrator wanted us to see what life without taking God into account looks like. Samuel, the spiritual presence in Saul’s life, goes on his way and Saul is left with a fraction of the troops he formerly had (1 Sam 13:15). Under these circumstances, he is taking stock: 600 men instead of the earlier 3,000 pitted against 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen (1 Sam 13:2, 5). The enemy, meanwhile, divide their forces into three and surround the Israelite troops from the north, west and south (1 Sam 13:17-18). If this were not enough, we discover that the Philistines had a monopoly on the blacksmith business so that Israel had no proper weapons, except for the king and his son (1 Sam 13:19-22).

The heat is on, the pressure is mounting, but Saul’s stocktaking does not go past the assessment of the human capacity expressed in numbers, weapons and the enemy’s manoeuvres. The result may be depressing but his horizon cannot rise beyond it to God. Of course, the issue is complicated by God’s judgment on Saul’s kingship, but anyone familiar with Scripture and with the living God knows that the Lord is infinitely merciful to those who seek Him with a repentant heart. We have seen with the institution of kingship that even when consequences do not go away, an admission of sin can be the gateway to a new start with the Lord (read my post here). In the next chapter, we shall also see the difference that trusting God can make to the human odds, which will turn certain defeat to victory.

When we are under strain, what is revealed in our lives? Is there a chasm, an emptiness, where the relationship with God should be? Is there a sense of guilt that keeps us away from the Lord because we have drifted from Him? I am reminded of Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24). When the pressure became unbearable and it revealed the emptiness of the son’s life, ‘he came to his senses’ (Luke 15:17). He recognised his sin and that he had no longer any right to claim sonship, yet he did not let guilt or his sense of humiliation keep him away from going home. This could have been Saul’s option, if he had thrown himself on God’s mercy. Whether his restoration would have included the kingship is uncertain (though compare David’s sin and repentance in 1 Samuel 12:7-15), but he would have known God’s presence with him. When pressures reveal the cracks in our relationship with the Lord, may we seek Him to mend our hearts and renew the right spirit in us.

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