Waiting

July 3, 2009

Imagine yourself in this scene. 

You have just been anointed the first King of Israel, I would guess that comes with a decent amount of pressure to succeed!  You have already attacked the Philistines once and have really irritated them.  They have now come out in force.  You are way out numbered.  Much of your army has gone into hiding.  Those who remain are quaking with fear. You are way outnumbered!   All eyes are on you as the newly anointed King.  You want to attack, you want to prove yourself, you want to serve your God and your people well.  And here is the rub.  When you were selected by God, through Samuel to be king, you were instructed, “God down ahead of me to Gilgal.  I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do (1 Samuel 10:8).

You are now caught between waiting as you were instructed and the military needs of your people.  You can not fulfill both.  What would you do?  Would you have the discipline to wait or would you lazily give in to the pressure (and pride) to act now?

If you are like Saul, you “get creative” and refuse to succumb to the tyranny of “either/or”.  You do not want to fight without having offered sacrifices, but at the same time you see your “quaking” men are deserting after a full week of inactivity. (Can you imagine waiting a full 7 days under that king of pressure?)  Saul, tired of waiting, takes it upon himself to make the sacrifices Samuel had promised to offer (after all, Samuel had given Saul “priestly honor” 9:23, 24;10::4).

Samuel arrives to discover the “foolish thing” Saul has done and says, “You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had , he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.  But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’S command.”

Ultimately, Saul’s action undoes him as he is rebuked by Samuel, abandoned by his people and rejected by God.

(Reflections on 1 Samuel 13: 5-15, see also Psalm 131)

Posted by jamie roach | Filed Under Prayer, Solitude, Spiritual Formation 

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