Impatient Saul

TODAY’S SPECIAL: 1 Samuel 13:7-14

TO CHEW ON: "He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and Saul’s men began to scatter. So he said, 'Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.' And Saul offered up the burnt offering." 1 Samuel 13:8,9

One day after Saul had been king for a while, Saul’s son Jonathan attacked a Philistine outpost. This was like poking a stick into a wasp’s nest. Immediately the Philistines gathered their army and came against the Israelites to fight.

Saul’s army was only two thousand men. In a panic he sent trumpeters through the land to call back the rest of the army and anyone else able to fight. Then he and his men waited. They waited for more soldiers to come. They also waited for Samuel, the prophet and priest, to offer a sacrifice and ask for God’s help. Saul knew that it would be useless to go to war without that.

Meanwhile every day the Philistine army grew larger. It swelled to three thousand chariots, six thousand charioteers and thousands upon thousands of soldiers.

The men in Saul’s army watched and grew more terrified by the hour. Soon they lost all courage and began to run away and hide in caves, among trees, behind rocks and in cisterns.

Saul too felt afraid and desperate. Where was Samuel? He said he’d come in a week. The week was over and he still hadn’t arrived. If they didn’t get going soon, his army would be down to nothing. Even though he wasn’t a priest, Saul decided to make the offering himself.

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Tags: Saul Samuel memory verse impatience God’s timing disobedience consequences 1 Samuel