Worldlings have no idea how destitute they are without Christ. But with Him, we have all we need.
Saul has just heard the horrible news that “your kingdom shall not continue” (1 Sam 13:14). The Lord was transferring His endorsement from the line of Saul to “a man after His own heart.” Having delivered this earth-shaking message, “Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal to Gibeah” (v 15), Saul’s hometown, as if he were saying, It’s over, Saul. Why don’t you just go home. Instead, Saul decided to assess what he had left. “And Saul numbered the people present with him, about six hundred men.” Was that it? Yes, the rest were hiding “in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits” (v 6). They had lost confidence in Saul’s leadership, and rightly so. He was like a compass without a needle, a ship without a captain. Like today’s politicians, he was one of those “blind leaders of the blind” (Mt 15:14) that the Lord Jesus warned about, whose destination is the ditch. Better to ditch them before they lead you into one! That’s what the people thought. But Saul’s situation was worse than that. “Then raiders came out of the camp of the Philistines in three companies. One company turned onto the road to Ophrah…another company turned to the road to Beth Horon, and another company turned to the road of the border that overlooks the Valley of Zeboim” (1 Sam 13:17-18). His 600 were surrounded! And when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, we read, “on the day of battle,…there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan” (v 22)! The Philistines maintained a monopoly on the blacksmith market for this very reason. Things looked hopeless; they always do when we forget God. But one man still had faith in the Lord. Could he help turn the tide of battle? Watch this!