1S13-10: Why Most Scholars Don’t Understand Which Command Saul Broke

“I said, ‘Now the P’lishtim will fall on me at Gilgal, and I haven’t asked the favor of Adonai,’ so I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.  Sh’mu’el said to Sha’ul, ‘You did a foolish thing. You didn’t observe the mitzvah of Adonai, which he gave you. If you had, Adonai would have set up your kingship over Israel forever.'”-1 Samuel 13:12-13

Scholars don’t agree on exactly which command Saul foolishly broke.

Some experts will say he simply ticked Samuel off by overriding his authority when he offered the sacrifice before the holy war.

Other critics will say Saul was in the wrong for not waiting seven days as he was instructed.

A few folks believe Saul didn’t properly respect Samuel’s divine role as a prophet sent from God.

Honestly, all of these ideas are just scholars letting their imaginations get hog wild outta control.

This is precisely what happens when you combine Torah ignorance with overlooking the obvious.

Just take a look at verse 12 man.

It clearly says Saul offered up the OLAH (Burnt Offering) sacrifice.

And then look at Samuel’s response in the verse that follows immediately after:

“You did a foolish thing.
You didn’t observe the
mitzvah of Adonai,
which he gave you.”

As I said yesterday, Saul’s sin was offering up the most important sacrifice to the Lord, even though he wasn’t a priest.

Are you feeling me here?

It’s a clear rule in the Torah that only priests are permitted to offer sacrifices…

And only the High Priest (apparently Samuel had that authority as well) could offer the highest sacrifice, the OLAH.

Also, later on, we’ll see David, Solomon, and other kings talk about the sacrifices they offered.

Well, here’s what you’ve gotta understand homies.

When David, Solomon, and the other kings talk about the many sacrifices they offered, it only means they provided the animals for sacrifice or were present during the ceremonies.

Of course, the priests were also present and were the ones who physically offered up the sacrifices as was their divine duty to do.

So what Saul did was a complete breach of divine protocol.

And when I say “divine protocol”, I’m referring to only one thing.

He broke the Torah.

He was a lawbreaker.

Something Yeshua definitely was not.

And now Saul was going to pay the price for his unlawful behavior.

Samuel tells him “Your kingship will not be established”.

This didn’t mean Saul’s throne was suddenly ended.

It simply meant none of his sons would succeed him.

This would have been heartbreaking because it’s always a king’s deepest desire to keep his family line in power for generations to come.

Well, Saul’s Torah-breaking behavior just ensured that wasn’t gonna happen.

And that’s your takeaway for today.

Actually, I don’t think I can sum up today’s lesson better than simply sharing the following verses written by the law-abiding king who would succeed Saul:

“How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.”
-Psalms 1:1-3