Joel M Bradshaw

8[Saul] waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, 12I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering.” 

13And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. 14But 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.”–1 Samuel 13

How serious was this?

1. Saul didn’t obey God when he should have.
2. Saul was a major public figure and displayed the impatience and disobedience before all the nation.
3. Saul didn’t trust God and his timing when he should have. It would seem that Samuel’s seven days were designed to grow trust or reveal distrust.

And there we have what I think is the point of this text–the waiting. It was in the waiting where the frustration would grow. It was in the waiting where Saul worked himself up. It was in the waiting where Saul could have maintained good self-talk to trust God instead of whatever he told himself to lead him to where he landed. It was in the waiting where Saul’s inside was on full display before God. And that inside affected Saul’s hasty decision. What do your times of waiting reveal?

Later David would be anointed the future king, but would have to wait. David would be on the run as a fugitive while Saul hunted him down and tried to kill him. David waited differently than Saul, for David maintained priorities that he would never break. David’s years of waiting led to trust, where Saul’s DAYS of waiting led to disobedience. Saul was rejected by God. David was a man after God’s own heart. All illustrated by times of waiting.

It is in the waiting where we are revealed before God.–JMB