Saul's foolish oath

“Now the men of Israel were in distress that day, because Saul had bound the people under an oath, saying, ‘Cursed be any man who eats food before evening comes, before I have avenged myself on my enemies!’ So none of the troops tasted food.” 1 Samuel 14:24
Earlier we read of Jephthah, who made a foolish vow that if the Lord gave him victory, he would offer to the Lord whatever came out of his house to greet him. In that case, it was only himself that suffered, but here, it was Saul’s whole army. They were pursuing the Philistines and the battle was not going as well as Saul wanted. Notice his own selfish ambition coming out in the curse he pronounced: ‘before I have avenged myself on my enemies’. The Philistines were enemies of all Israel, not just Saul, but pride had blinded his heart to how the situation was affecting other people.
Saul’s curse was foolish. As Jonathan his son pointed out, if the men had eaten, they would have been strengthened for the battle. To eat food during war time was not sin. Rather, it was a sensible thing to do. However, imposing this fast on the men by pronouncing a curse on anyone who ate, led to the people sinning by eating meat with the blood still in it (1 Sam. 14:32-33). This was expressly forbidden (Lev. 3:17, 7:26, 17:12-14, 19:26, Deut. 12:23-24, 15:23).
This episode is just one example of how Saul, originally a humble man (see 1 Sam. 9:21), changed for the worse. It is also an example to us of how we shouldn’t make foolish oaths and vows. Let us not be guilty of causing others to sin by what we impose upon them.