The Robe That Tore

Three Robes, One Kingdom

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The kingdom of Israel changes hands in the books of Samuel, and three times somebody’s robe is part of the story. The way each man treats that robe shows how he treats the kingdom God gives.

The first robe tears. That is our chapter. Samuel had told Saul he was finished as king and turned to walk away. Saul grabbed at his robe to stop him, and it ripped in his hand. Samuel looked at the piece of cloth and said, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you” (15:28). Saul did not mean to tear anything. He was grabbing at something he was already losing, and it came apart in his hand.

The second robe is handed over. Three chapters later, David has just defeated Goliath. Jonathan is Saul’s son, the heir who should be king next. He takes off his own robe and gives it to David, along with his armor, his sword, his bow and his belt (1 Samuel 18:4). Nobody made him do it. The prince takes off what marks him as prince and puts it on the shepherd. That is the kingdom being handed over on purpose.

The third robe loses a corner. Years later David is hiding in a cave, and Saul walks in alone. David “secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe” (24:4). Then “David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe” (24:5). Even that felt like reaching for something that was not his to take yet. He could have taken the whole kingdom that day. He took a scrap of cloth instead, and he felt bad about the scrap.

Three men, three robes. One grabbed and tore it. One took his off and handed it over. One cut a corner and was sorry for it.

The King who did not grab. Jesus is the greatest King of all. He was equal with God, but He did not cling to His rights. He became a servant, and “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). Then God raised Him up and gave Him the name above every name.

What we learn. God’s kingdom is not something we grab. It is something we receive from His hand, in His time. When you want something badly, ask God for it and trust Him with the timing. Do not grab.

Robes appear three times in 1 Samuel, and each time they show how the kingdom passes from one man to another. What each man does with his hands shows what is in his heart.

15:27-28, the robe torn. Samuel turns to leave, and Saul seizes the kanaf (say: kah-NAHF), the edge or corner, of Samuel’s me’il (say: meh-EEL), his outer robe, and it tears. Samuel turns the accident into a sign: “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.” He uses the same verb, qara (say: kah-RAH), to tear, for the cloth and for the kingdom. Saul was trying to cling to a prophet who was leaving, and he was left holding a piece.

18:4, the robe given. Right after Jonathan makes a covenant with David, he takes off his own me’il and gives it to David, together with his armor, sword, bow and belt. The me’il was the robe of a man of rank, and Jonathan was heir to the throne. He gave it up freely and completely, handing the signs of the throne to David even though he had the strongest claim to it himself. What Saul grasped at and tore, his son took off and handed over.

24:4-5, the robe cut. In the cave at En Gedi, David cuts the kanaf, the same word as 15:27, from Saul’s robe, and “David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe.” David is holding the same kind of corner that once stood for the kingdom being torn away, and his conscience tells him he has gone too far. He will not take by force what God has promised him. The scrap of cloth becomes his proof that he meant Saul no harm (24:11).

How God gives a kingdom. Together the three robes show it. The kingdom is torn from the man who grabbed, handed to the man who received, and kept from the hand that could have seized it early. Saul’s grab in 15:27 is a picture of his whole reign: he tried to hold his position by grasping, and he was left holding a piece of something already gone.

The opposite of Saul. Jesus did the opposite. Philippians 2:6-7 says He did not treat equality with God as something to grasp, but emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8), and God exalted Him. The kingdom Saul grabbed and lost, Jesus received from the Father by obeying.

What God Keeps Saying He Wants

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“To obey is better than sacrifice” is not said only once in the Bible. God keeps saying it, because His people keep needing to hear it. Once you know it, you will find it in many places.

The prophets said it. Hosea told Israel that God wants mercy more than sacrifices, and knowing Him more than burnt offerings (Hosea 6:6). Micah listed bigger and bigger offerings, rams and rivers of oil, and then gave the answer: do what is right, love mercy and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:6-8).

David said it. David knew what it was to fail badly. He wrote, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Contrite means truly sorry.

God set up the sacrifices. God is not against sacrifices. He is the one who set the whole system up. But an offering was always supposed to be a sign of a heart that belonged to God. When we bring the sign instead of the heart, we are not worshiping anymore. We are trying to pay God off. God wants us, not just our things.

Jesus said it. Jesus used Hosea’s words twice, both times with religious people who were using their religion to get out of being kind (Matthew 9:13; 12:7). He told them to go and learn what it meant. A scribe once told Jesus that loving God and neighbor “is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices,” and Jesus said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:33-34).

Tear your heart. In Bible times people tore their clothes to show they were sorry. God said through the prophet Joel, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful” (Joel 2:13). Rend means tear. God wants a sorry heart, not just torn cloth.

Jesus did it. Hebrews takes a psalm of David and shows that it describes Jesus coming into the world to do God’s will. No one had ever obeyed God completely. Then Jesus came and obeyed all the way. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).

A curtain that tore. When Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). Saul’s torn robe meant a kingdom was closed to him. The torn veil means the way to God is open to everyone who trusts Jesus.

1 Samuel 15:22 begins a message the prophets repeat for centuries. It is much more than a lesson about one disobedient king. It runs from Samuel through the prophets all the way to Jesus.

The prophets. Hosea 6:6 says God desires mercy and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Isaiah 1:11-17 opens with God asking what use the many sacrifices are to Him and closes with a call to learn to do good and seek justice. Amos 5:21-24 rejects feasts and offerings and calls for justice to roll down like water. Micah 6:6-8 lists bigger and bigger offerings, burnt offerings, thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, even a firstborn child, before answering with justice, mercy and humility.

Not this, but that. In Hebrew, saying not this but that often means that far more than this. The prophets are not throwing out the sacrifices Leviticus established. They are refusing to let them replace faithfulness to God. A sacrifice offered from a surrendered life is worship. The same sacrifice offered in place of a surrendered life is only a payment, and God will not be bought. Jesus Himself sent a healed man to offer the gift Moses commanded (Matthew 8:4).

Jesus and Hosea. Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 twice in Matthew, both times to people who used religious rules to avoid showing mercy: at the table with tax collectors (9:13) and over the disciples picking grain on the Sabbath (12:7). He told them to go and learn what it meant, because the answer was already in their own Scriptures.

Rend your heart. Joel 2:13 says, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful.” Tearing clothes was a sign of grief and repentance. God wanted the heart the sign stood for.

Christ’s obedience. Hebrews 10:5-9 quotes Psalm 40:6-8 as the words of Christ coming into the world to do God’s will, and verse 10 tells what follows: “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The old sacrifices pointed forward to Christ, and His obedience fulfilled them. Romans 5:19 says it in one sentence: “so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

The torn veil. At His death “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). Hebrews 10:19-20 explains that we now have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” Saul’s torn robe closed a kingdom to him. Christ’s torn body opened God’s presence to us.

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Read each section and answer the questions correctly.