And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the commandment of Jehovah thy God which he commanded thee; for now would Jehovah have established thy kingdom over Israel for ever.
Samuel's verdict falls on Saul at Gilgal. The king had just offered the burnt offering himself instead of waiting for the prophet. One line names the act as folly. One names the broken command. One shows the cost: a throne that could have stood forever.
Samuel's charge points back to one instruction. It had a place, a number of days, and a purpose.
Samuel had told Saul to wait for him at Gilgal for seven days — "I am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings" (ch. 10:8). Saul waited just the seven days, then, instead of depending on the word of Samuel, took matters into his own hands and offered a burnt offering. Samuel arrived just as he had finished sacrificing.
Samuel calls the act folly. The reason lies in how God views man's own reasoning.
And Samuel tells Saul: "You have done foolishly." Man's wisdom, reasonings, counsels and decisions are foolishness to God, because they are disobedience. "You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which He commanded you" (v. 13). Obedience is the first and only mark of faith. Without it there is no faith. It goes hand in hand with dependence.
Saul had not skipped the sacrifice; he had offered one. His own defence gives him away: he had to force himself to do it.
Saul offers, as man has always done, an empty excuse: "the people were scattering from me," he says. Then he wickedly tries to load the blame for his sin onto Samuel: "you did not come within the days appointed." This was false, and all the worse for sounding like the truth. Samuel did appear before the seventh day had closed. Saul would not wait for that. During the day, perhaps towards its close, he took his case out of God's hands and acted for himself. He is also a hypocrite. He tries to give his bold act of disobedience a look of piety, saying he feared the Philistines would come down on him before he had sought the favour of the LORD. Under this cover he says, "I forced myself." But faith never has to force itself. It can always trust God's word and rest on His promise. It can wait patiently, because God will surely keep it.
Saul had three reasons ready. They show what filled his eyes while he waited.
The poor king saw the desertion of the people, the power of the enemy, and the absence of the man he leaned on — but he did not see God.
Verse 13 holds out what might have been: an established kingdom. The tragedy is the timing — the hour of confirmation became the hour of loss.
How often the hour that could have settled the offered blessing is lost through carelessness! It becomes instead the moment of forfeiture and defeat, and of Satan's power. Saul breaks down at the very point where burnt offerings and peace offerings were about to confirm the kingdom and the king for ever. The first man Adam gave place to the last Adam. In the same way, the first king must be set aside to make room for the second, or true, David.
One writer sets the two outcomes side by side, then follows the replacement king past David.
If Saul had simply obeyed, his kingdom would have been permanently established. His disobedience settled it: his kingdom would not continue. So soon after his reign began, Saul is warned that the Lord has sought a man after His own heart, to make him captain over His people. This refers to David, as we see in chapter 16. But it also pictures something wider. God must set aside all the kingdoms of men. In the end He will bring in the Man after His own heart, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can be trusted with the responsibility of reigning fully for God.
The words at Gilgal were not the end of Saul's reign. A second and heavier word came later.
These are the results Saul's disobedience brought on him: "Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you from being king" (1 Sam. 15:23). Earlier, at Gilgal, the Lord had said to him through Samuel: "Your kingdom shall not continue" (1 Sam. 13:14). Now the final blow has fallen: "God has rejected you."
- Command. Samuel names one broken command: the seven days at Gilgal. Saul stopped waiting before the seventh day had closed.
- Folly. What Samuel calls foolishness is disobedience. Obedience is the first and only mark of faith, and it goes with dependence.
- Cover. The sacrifice looked pious, and Saul's "I forced myself" gives it away. Faith never has to force itself. It can wait for God's promise.
- Sight. Scattering people, gathering Philistines, an absent prophet: Saul saw all three, and did not see God.
- Forfeiture. The hour meant to confirm his kingdom forever became the hour he lost it. The first king gave place to the true David — the Man after God's own heart.
But now thy kingdom shall not continue Jehovah has sought him a man after his own heart, and Jehovah has appointed him ruler over his people; for thou hast not kept what Jehovah commanded thee.
Saul grew tired of waiting for Samuel and offered the burnt offering himself. Samuel's reply at Gilgal is not a scolding but a sentence, and it raises two questions: what did Saul lose, and what is a man after God's own heart?
Samuel does not take up Saul's excuses. He names one thing only — a command not kept — and one commentator links that failure to the absence of faith.
Man's wisdom, reasoning, plans, and decisions are foolishness to God, because they are disobedience. "You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you" (v. 13). Obedience is the first, the only characteristic of faith. Without it there is no faith. It is allied to dependence.
The failure was not a slip in one area of an otherwise fit reign. It exposed the man.
One thing he has to say to the king: "You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God which He commanded you." That solemn charge blows away all his feeble excuses! What excuse can there be for disobedience? The consequences were not temporary, and they would not show up at once. But this act had shown him to be completely incapable of ruling, and certainly not the man after God's heart. If he had stood this test, his kingdom would have been established, because it would have shown him to be a man of genuine faith.
The verse holds up what might have been beside what now will be. The loss was a dynasty, and it came early.
If Saul had simply obeyed, his kingdom would have been permanently established; but his disobedience to God settled the fact that his kingdom would not continue. So soon after the beginning of his reign Saul is forewarned that the Lord has sought a man after His own heart, to make him captain over His people.
The sentence is severe. One writer points out what it does not yet say.
As yet this does not amount to rejecting Saul himself here and now. The announcement is only that his kingdom should not continue, and that God had sought Him a king after His own heart. Plainly that means one who would govern according to His will. That, in the main, was David's character. But Saul is yet left to recover, if it may be, the ground he had lost. Such is the mercy of the divine government... Yet this mercy of God allows, too, the development of evil in the unrepentant.
Objectors have long seized on this phrase. One writer answers them by asking who is speaking.
The ungodly have always taken exception to the expression "a man after My own heart," and it sounds offensive to them. Still, it was God's own verdict on David. God describes him that way twice in Scripture. See Acts 13:22. This is what he was to God, as measured by Him alone, without reference or comparison to others.
The phrase is not a claim of a clean record. It describes a settled disposition, and it stands in contrast to Saul's outward zeal.
God must have a man after His own heart. He is one who knows Him and His goodness and love. Despite many shortcomings, he still has a true spirit of obedience to God, and that obedience springs from confidence in Him. A little later we will see poor Saul with remarkable zeal and strict outward obedience. But notice it every time: wherever the will of God clashed with the wishes of man or the desires of his own heart, Saul fell short.
Saul's throne was real and God-given, yet it rested on human capacity. What replaces it rests on something else.
Kingship according to the flesh was responsible, even though God Himself set it up. It has just proven two things: it cannot keep itself standing, and man has no resource except grace. This is what God wanted to show. Then He establishes kingship according to grace, after His own heart.
David answers the announcement, but one commentator reads the pattern as pointing beyond him.
This refers to David, as we see in Chapter 16. But it also pictures something larger: God must set aside all the kingdoms of men. In the end He will bring in the Man after His own heart, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can be trusted with the responsibility of reigning for God in full.
- Cause. One unkept command undid a dynasty. Obedience is the first and only mark of faith, so disobedience here is unbelief.
- Cost. Saul's kingdom could have stood; the sentence names what he lost, yet leaves him room to recover.
- Heart. "After His own heart" is God's own verdict on David, measured by Him alone. It means a settled will to obey out of confidence in Him, not a flawless record.
- Contrast. Saul later shows strict outward zeal. Yet he gives way whenever God's will crosses his own. The difference is not effort but where the heart bends.
- Consummation. Kingship resting on man cannot hold itself up. God moves to kingship according to grace, and the search ends in Christ, the one Man fit to reign.