I Sam 11-13

1 Sam 11

A month later, the Ammonites attack Jabesh in Gilead (east of the Jordan river). The city plans to surrender but the Ammonites king wants to gouge out everyone's right eye. They ask for 7 days to send out messengers to the rest of Israel.

The word reach Saul's hometown of Gibeah and everyone in the town mourns and cries. Saul is plowing the fields and returns to the city to find everyone in tears. He hears about Gilead, so he cuts up two cows into pieces and sends them throughout Israel. Anyone who doesn't come to hope will be treated like the cows.

Through this action, they raise a huge army. They relieve Gilead and defeat the Ammonites. Some of the Israelites ask for the people who doubted Saul and did not want him as king. But Saul says that no one will be put to death for that.

So, Saul's first official action as king is overall positive. He does overreact with the cows and we get a sense of his impetuous wrath.

1 Sam 12

After the victory over the Ammonites, the Israelites have the coronation party that they failed to have a month earlier. Saul was not in the mood for it at the time anyway (hiding among the baggage).

Samuel uses the occasion to complain about being replaced. "whose ox did I steal? Whose money bribed me?" are some of the questions he asked. The Israelites respond that Samuel was fair. Samuel warns them about staying close to God and not straying away. What is interesting is that Samuel tells them that they sinned by even asking for a king, but not worry unless they start worshipping other gods.

1 Sam 13

Saul is 30 years old when he became king.

He keeps 3000 of the soldiers and dismisses the rest of the army. His son, Jonathan, leads an attack at Geba. The Philistines get mad at this and Saul blows his horn around Israel to revolt against the Philistines. My guess is these events span a wide range of time and were not in Saul's first year as king. The reason is because 30 seems too young to have a son that could lead an army. It is possible, but seems young.

Meanwhile, the Philistines return in a huge horde. Seeing this, the Israelite army disperses into caves. Samuel had told Saul to wait for 7 days at Gilgal until Samuel arrived. On the 7th day of waiting, Saul saw his army dispersing, so he did the burnt offerings himself. Samuel arrives and rebukes him. He says that because of this, Saul's family will be cut off as a dynasty.

Unfortunately, we dont get enough details of what exactly Samuel told Saul to do. So, the consequence of the rebuke does not match up with what exactly Saul did wrong. People besides Samuel did burnt offerings all the time, so that cannot be the wrong that Saul did. From Samuel's words, it sounds like God through Samuel intended to do a burnt offering as a blessing for the Israelite army and Saul tried to usurp Samuel's role as representative of God.

This would make the rebuke make sense and justify the consequence. Howeve, I think we need to extrapolate that from the context because Saul's actions otherwise seem fine.

Saul is left with a band of 600 men. The Philistines have set up camp. Saul and Jonathan are the only Israelites with metal weapons because the Philistines do not allow the Israelites to have blacksmiths.

It really sounds like the Israelites are a pathetic little conquered country. If the Philistines did not want them to have blacksmiths, I wonder what was the Philistine reaction to them making Saul their king.