Final Confrontation: 1 Samuel 14:33-52
Leadership based on rash decisions is always doomed to fail. Sometimes a decision needs to be made in the moment and there isn’t time to think and plan. Those decisions, however, are not the pillars upon which a leader should stand. The thrust of good leadership is one where planning, mentoring, and conversation produces a righteous path forward.
When Saul finds out that his people are eating raw meat because of their ravenous hunger, Saul commands a stone to be brought for slaughtering and cooking the meat. By cooking the meat upon the altar, it became a fellowship offering to the Lord. At first glance, this looks like a reasonable solution. It feels like Saul takes a bad situation and turns it back to the Lord.
While such an assessment may explain Saul’s mindset, it isn’t quite correct. Fellowship offerings were allowed to be shared by God, priests, and the common person. However, the requirement for ritual cleanliness (or purity) needed to be observed. Those who had touched a dead body were not ritually pure and therefore could not partake in a fellowship offering.
This is the problem. Saul made a rash threat and tried to correct his rash behavior by using a sacrifice to make it feel like it celebrates God. When the soldiers – who certainly encountered a dead body or two on the battlefield – ate of the sacrifice, all they did was change one offense to a different offense. Saul’s decision to make a sacrifice is not evidence of righteous godly thinking but more rash behavior. Saul continues his thoughtless decisions.
No wonder God doesn’t answer Saul’s request. Instead, God turns Saul’s request into a revelation. When Saul casts lots and the lots fall to Jonathan, Jonathan righteously admits his action and accepts punishment. He would rather die standing up for his beliefs than live a lie under an unrighteous leader, even his father. Rashly, Saul accepts Jonathan’s admission and plans to execute Jonathan. Saul continues the negative spiral his decisions produce.
Fortunately, Saul’s men stand up for Jonathan. They saw Jonathan’s willingness to speak out against his father’s threat. In Jonathan, they see a leader who walks with God, relies upon God’s strength, and who stands up for righteousness. The soldiers realize they would rather have Jonathan than Saul, so they remind Saul how God worked through Jonathan.
Saul can no longer fix the situation through rash decisions. Saul’s warriors rescue the situation, oppose Saul, and force him to keep Jonathan alive. Saul’s soldiers force Saul to acknowledge his ways are not God’s ways.
Saul will continue to fight against the Philistines. Saul will continue to fight against his own family. Saul will continue to be threatened by powerful men, which is why he brings them under his authority structure. Saul’s inability to act upon logic and righteousness will continue to haunt him throughout his reign. Leadership based on rash decisions is always doomed to fail.
