When God seems absent (1 Sam 13:1-7)

We have all experienced times in our lives when we struggled to hear from God, our prayers seemed to bounce back from the ceiling and there was no particular sign that the Lord was working on our behalf. We may have searched our hearts and could not find specific reasons or sins why He should have withdrawn from us. When God seems absent, what do we do? Israel has a comparable experience as Saul’s reign officially begins (1 Sam 13:1).[1] There is an oppressive absence of God in our reading without any mention of his name by the biblical narrator or the characters and despite the victory over the Philistine garrison, the dominant feeling in the passage is fear.

This is a far cry from the encounter with the Ammonites when God’s Spirit ‘rushed’ on Saul powerfully and the Lord affected the troops, so that they all came out to fight as one (1 Sam 11:6-7). There was great confidence of deliverance and a recognition at the end that the Lord has accomplished the victory, followed by worship before Him (1 Sam 11:9, 13, 15). Israel has also recently repented, and the kingship was renewed on God’s terms (1 Sam 12:19-20), so it does not look like sin is causing God to withdraw. Why then? Is God setting up Saul for failure? Has He abandoned His people when they most need Him?

I believe the answer is neither. There are indeed times when the enemy looks overwhelming, and our sense of God’s presence fades into nothing. God allows such circumstances, so that we may learn to exercise faith. It is then that we are driven to our knees and acknowledge our weakness but also His power to work in our situation, as well as in and through us. All we can do is persevere in faithfulness and trust Him with the outcome. In Israel’s case, the people have asked for a human king, which in effect was a form of idolatry. They wanted a tangible, visible guarantee of strength and success. In the previous chapter, kingship was given a new foundation of ultimately trusting in God (1 Sam 12:20-21) and the events in our reading provide a test of Israel’s attitude.

Will they trust the Lord and seek Him in their need? Sadly, both Israel and their king show a lack of faith. At sight of the formidable Philistine troops, Israel’s response is fear (they hide in caves and thickets and some even escape to the other side of the Jordan (1 Sam 13:5-7).  Those who remain with Saul in Gilgal are likewise trembling (probably with fear). The description that the enemy is like sand on the seashore (1 Sam 13:5) evokes hopelessness in the face of daunting odds. Saul’s attitude is also questionable. He has larger troops than his son, Jonathan, yet it is the latter who initiates and achieves victory over the garrison, not Saul (1 Sam 13:2). Strikingly, Jonathan is not identified here as Saul’s son, even though this is the first time we hear of him. It is as if the narrator wanted to dissociate him from his father. Thus, the attribution of Jonathan’s victory to Saul (1 Sam 13:4) seems to carry the shadow of censure.

In the previous chapter, Israel acknowledged that they did wrong in demanding a king but their underlying attitude of looking to human strength rather than to God has not changed. They are still impressed and terrified by the Philistine forces and have quickly forgotten that God will not abandon them. The challenge for us is the same. When it seems that God is nowhere to be found, do we still trust Him? Do we believe that He will not abandon us? Let us keep going, serving Him faithfully knowing that He always responds to our trust and will come through for us (Isa 50:10).

---

[1] There is an obvious issue with the numbers here. The Hebrew reads that Saul was one year old when he started to reign (did a number drop out?) and ruled for two years. The numbers inserted in italics in the NASB are based on speculation. Some ancient Greek manuscripts have Saul’s age at the commencement of his kingship as thirty and Paul refers to the duration of Saul’s rule as forty years (Acts 13:21). Josephus likewise goes with a forty-year span (The Antiquities of the Jews 6.14.9), though later specifies it as twenty years (Antiquities 10.8.4). It is possible that the two years in 1 Sam 13:1 refers to Saul’s reign before God rejected him as king (1 Sam 15:26).

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others.