This is Saul’s chance! This is Saul’s chance right here, “Okay, I’m faking it! I wasn’t really sorry. But now I want to be. I see what sin does! You’ve slaughtered this animal and given to the flames, you’ve slaughtered this unrepentant Gentile, whose God’s judgment been over, how can I escape judgment, Samuel?”

Saul here is essentially dying for forgiveness. He needs to seek forgiveness, he needs to be forgiven. However, to use the language of NT author James, he’s been lured and enticed by his own desire. That desire is giving birth to sin, and it’s growing. Sadly the rest of 1 Samuel is going to give us a picture of that sin fully growing to eventually get to death. What can WE learn?

What kind of kingdom are you building? What kind of kingdom are you contributing to? Is your faith in an ideology? Is it faith in a political group that they see the threat we see and we trust them? Maybe it’s hope placed in a cause. maybe it’s hope placed in people who profess to be Christian, and they say they have the answers, and you haven’t noted the red flag that they’re proposing Jesus plus something else is the answer. Maybe your kingdom, your outlook is, “Just leave me my farm, my neighborhood, and my personal freedoms, God, and You take care of everything else.” Jesus didn’t come to Israel and say to His Father, “just give me my carpentry business, and a family, and I’ll live and die quietly, and you take care of the rest Father.”

A lot of us do a lot of things in the Christian life out of guilt. “Gotta read my Bible. Gotta pray. Gotta go to church. Gotta perform, because then God will love me.” Good luck. God doesn’t save us or doesn’t love us because of who we are, He loves us because of who He is. What God wants with to do with Saul and what He wants to do with you is have it out about this sin problem. No charades. No trying to impress with bad religion. Come clean.

Things look grim. The King who would fight the wars for Israel is sitting, staring down defeat. The pagan enemies are numerous. The spiritual leadership of their nation is at odds with the King, and the King who once had a changed-heart and once prophesied, was corrupted. The Kingdom is corrupt. The so called holy-leaders that Saul is trying to rely on are corrupt. But from this corrupt King of a corrupt Kingdom is a righteous son. A son named Jonathan...

Saul was caught in disobedience, and it set the stage for his being denied the kingship over Israel. Instead of repenting, he chose to continue rebelling. This differs from many others who have been caught in their sin throughout the Scriptures, and in choosing repentance, they chose life abundantly.

This whole passage has upped the ante for the couple. Earlier in the book we’ve had scenes that take place in the bedroom. Now we see kind of an erotic love dance and then an invitation from her to go out into the countryside and… well you know. Within these scenes have been plot resolutions The path this couple took in dealing with changes is seeing them as opportunities - maybe even to have fun...

The CSB uses, "awe-inspiring as an army with banners." The actual word here for "awe-inspiring," in the Hebrew is more literally, “dreadful,” “terrible,” or “frightful.” I get it, the CSB and many translations want to choose a word that doesn’t have negative overtones. What’s lost though is the power of love here that the Bride has over the Groom. She is like a victorious army invading, conquering, over-running his heart. He’s helpless when it comes to her. He can’t be mad at her. He can’t lord it over her. Some men would say, “Oh man, she’s got you wrapped around her finger,” and real men would say, “He’s a one-woman man.” That’s how it should be. He’s doing the manly thing, and he’s throwing the white flag.

They’re selfish. He wants it when he wants it. She wants it when she’s finally been drawn out and thought about it. She denied him, so he’s going to deny her… Selfish. And in light of the whole story of the Book, this is just par for the course for what she’s been worried about! He’s the King. He’s getting home at some ungodly hour, “Oh nice of you to finally come home,” and this is what he wants? It’s kind of coming to a boiling point.

Jesus set up the perfect formula, if you want to use it that way, for us to follow on how to operate in marriage. He does it not based on performance. This is the Gospel. God is sacrificially forgiving. He forgives so much it hurts. Quite literally, to forgive us, His Son had to pay the price. That’s our standard in our marriages. Forgive so much it hurts. And truly forgive. Truly love. Truly say, “You hurt me. I forgive you. And I want to remain open to you. I want to be just as vulnerable and loving to you as before.”