Forced to Sin?!

1 Samuel 13:8-23

⁸ He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him.

⁹ So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering.

¹⁰ As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him.

¹¹ Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash,

¹² I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.”

¹³ And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you. For then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.

¹⁴ But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.”

¹⁵ And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army; they went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

¹⁶ And Saul and Jonathan his son and the people who were present with them stayed in Geba of Benjamin, but the Philistines encamped in Michmash.

¹⁷ And raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned toward Ophrah, to the land of Shual;

¹⁸ another company turned toward Beth-horon; and another company turned toward the border that looks down on the Valley of Zeboim toward the wilderness.

¹⁹ Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, “Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.”

²⁰ But every one of the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen his plowshare, his mattock, his axe, or his sickle,

²¹ and the charge was two-thirds of a shekel for the plowshares and for the mattocks, and a third of a shekel for sharpening the axes and for setting the goads.

²² So on the day of the battle there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people with Saul and Jonathan, but Saul and Jonathan his son had them.

²³ And the garrison of the Philistines went out to the pass of Michmash.

Back in 1998, James Moore wrote a book entitled, Yes, Lord, I Have Sinned: But I Have Several Excellent Excuses. That phrase has flashed through my mind on numerous occasions when I know that I am doing something I’m not supposed to be doing. But the excuses often seem to flow like water from the hose in order to justify my bad behavior. While most of us have “pet sins” (those things we just keep returning to despite the fact that we know they are wrong) we also tend to have “pet excuses”. They slide off of the tongue so fast we don’t even know we’re engaging in yet another offense – self-justification.

 

Our friend Saul has exercised this self-justification tool with skill and panache this time. I underlined the offending phrase in the text this time. “So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” You’ve got to love that. “I didn’t want to sin, but I forced myself to do something I had previously been told not to do.” 1 Samuel 10:8 says, “Then go down before me to Gilgal. And behold, I am coming to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, until I come to you and show you what you shall do.” This was Samuel telling Saul exactly what to do. He was to wait until Samuel got there to offer the proper sacrifices because Samuel was the priest – not Saul. Saul had absolutely no right or privilege to offer such a sacrifice. But as his pride surfaces and grows, he takes on not only the role of king but also that of priest. He has grossly overstepped his authority. The crack in his character, the desire for power, has now taken over and his reign is destined for tragedy.

 

Whenever we find ourselves in the position of making excuses for our sinful behavior, we are in the wrong neighborhood. We are never forced to sin; no we choose to sin and quite frequently with intention and will. It was not Samuel’s fault that Saul sinned, just as we can never blame anyone or anything else for what we do that is sinful, much as that would be so very convenient. The neighbor didn’t make you do it, the kids didn’t make you do it, your spouse didn’t make you do it, and the dog didn’t make you do it – not even the devil made you do it. You sinned all by yourself and bear the responsibility for that sin.

 

As always we get to hear the truth of the Gospel. Jesus didn’t sin, but He did pay the price for yours! Even though He didn’t commit the sin, He died to save you from the consequences of that sin. No need for excuses anymore. They hold no water when the person is innocent!