1 Samuel 13
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13–14 So Saul’s mistake—his sin—was that he had disobeyed the Lord. Even though the sin seemed “small,” it signified a wrong attitude on Saul’s part. He had not treated God’s word and God’s prophet with proper respect. He had forgotten that he was a king under God, not equal to God.
Because of this, said Samuel, Saul would lose his kingdom—that is, his sons would not inherit his throne. God would choose another king—David—a man after his own heart (verse 14), a man who would submit to God’s will and obey His prophets’ instructions.
We see from these verses that God rejected Saul very early in his reign. We might be tempted to think that God had condemned Saul to failure because of His displeasure over the Israelites’ request for a king. But that is not true; God had given Saul all that he needed to succeed: appearance, strength, the Holy Spirit, a new heart, the affirmation of the people. God Himself had chosen Saul to be king, and God never chooses people for a task without also enabling them to accomplish that task. No, God did not condemn Saul to failure; Saul condemned himself—through his disobedience.
15 In this verse, we are given a sad picture: God’s prophet and God’s favor have departed and Saul is left with only six hundred men—out of the original three thousand and however many other thousands had joined him at Gilgal in response to his trumpet summons (verses 3–4).
Israel Without Weapons (13:16–23)
16–23 Not only had Saul lost most of his men, but those six hundred who remained had no weapons to match the Philistines’ swords and spears; Saul’s men had only bows and slingshots. Apparently the Israelites had not yet learned how to produce iron; either that, or the Philistines had forced every Israelite blacksmith to leave home and work for them. Either way, Israel did not have the ability to make iron weapons.
The situation must have seemed hopeless to Saul. However, he should have remembered Gideon, who defeated the Midianites with three hundred men wielding only trumpets, jars and torches! (Judges 7:15–21).