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.”
Saul grew tired of waiting for Samuel and offered the burnt offering himself. Samuel's reply at Gilgal is not a scolding but a sentence, and it raises two questions: what did Saul lose, and what is a man after God's own heart?
The charge
Samuel does not take up Saul's excuses. He names one thing only — a command not kept — and one commentator links that failure to the absence of faith.
H. L. RossierMan's wisdom, reasoning, plans, and decisions are foolishness to God, because they are disobedience. "You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you" (v. 13). Obedience is the first, the only characteristic of faith. Without it there is no faith. It is allied to dependence.
The failure was not a slip in one area of an otherwise fit reign. It exposed the man.
Samuel RidoutOne thing he has to say to the king: "You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God which He commanded you." That solemn charge blows away all his feeble excuses! What excuse can there be for disobedience? The consequences were not temporary, and they would not show up at once. But this act had shown him to be completely incapable of ruling, and certainly not the man after God's heart. If he had stood this test, his kingdom would have been established, because it would have shown him to be a man of genuine faith.
What was forfeited
The verse holds up what might have been beside what now will be. The loss was a dynasty, and it came early.
Leslie M. GrantIf Saul had simply obeyed, his kingdom would have been permanently established; but his disobedience to God settled the fact that his kingdom would not continue. So soon after the beginning of his reign Saul is forewarned that the Lord has sought a man after His own heart, to make him captain over His people.
A sentence that still leaves room
The sentence is severe. One writer points out what it does not yet say.
F. W. GrantAs yet this does not amount to rejecting Saul himself here and now. The announcement is only that his kingdom should not continue, and that God had sought Him a king after His own heart. Plainly that means one who would govern according to His will. That, in the main, was David's character. But Saul is yet left to recover, if it may be, the ground he had lost. Such is the mercy of the divine government... Yet this mercy of God allows, too, the development of evil in the unrepentant.
"A man after His own heart"
Objectors have long seized on this phrase. One writer answers them by asking who is speaking.
C KnappThe ungodly have always taken exception to the expression "a man after My own heart," and it sounds offensive to them. Still, it was God's own verdict on David. God describes him that way twice in Scripture. See Acts 13:22. This is what he was to God, as measured by Him alone, without reference or comparison to others.
The phrase is not a claim of a clean record. It describes a settled disposition, and it stands in contrast to Saul's outward zeal.
Samuel RidoutGod must have a man after His own heart. He is one who knows Him and His goodness and love. Despite many shortcomings, he still has a true spirit of obedience to God, and that obedience springs from confidence in Him. A little later we will see poor Saul with remarkable zeal and strict outward obedience. But notice it every time: wherever the will of God clashed with the wishes of man or the desires of his own heart, Saul fell short.
Two kinds of kingship
Saul's throne was real and God-given, yet it rested on human capacity. What replaces it rests on something else.
H. L. RossierKingship according to the flesh was responsible, even though God Himself set it up. It has just proven two things: it cannot keep itself standing, and man has no resource except grace. This is what God wanted to show. Then He establishes kingship according to grace, after His own heart.
Where the search ends
David answers the announcement, but one commentator reads the pattern as pointing beyond him.
Leslie M. GrantThis refers to David, as we see in Chapter 16. But it also pictures something larger: God must set aside all the kingdoms of men. In the end He will bring in the Man after His own heart, the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can be trusted with the responsibility of reigning for God in full.
Summary
- Cause. One unkept command undid a dynasty. Obedience is the first and only mark of faith, so disobedience here is unbelief.
- Cost. Saul's kingdom could have stood; the sentence names what he lost, yet leaves him room to recover.
- Heart. "After His own heart" is God's own verdict on David, measured by Him alone. It means a settled will to obey out of confidence in Him, not a flawless record.
- Contrast. Saul later shows strict outward zeal. Yet he gives way whenever God's will crosses his own. The difference is not effort but where the heart bends.
- Consummation. Kingship resting on man cannot hold itself up. God moves to kingship according to grace, and the search ends in Christ, the one Man fit to reign.