Patience

odds, Samuel has charged Saul to look to God for protection and victory and not trust his own power or lack thereof!

As an expression of that trust, Samuel has told Saul clearly… to wait for him for 7 days and he would come and offer the sacrifice and officially invoke God’s blessing on them and victory would be assured. But he’d have to wait, with the Philistine army breathing down his neck, with deserters fleeing left and right and the remaining army shaking in their boots.

Every day that passes, every hour, another deserter, and the chances of victory are growing slimmer and slimmer. Saul waited impatiently for 7 days and finally he took charge and said,
“that’s it, Samuel’s not coming, bring me the burnt offerings and let’s get on with it already! If we need a priest, here I’ll play Samuel, let’s, offer up the sacrifices, sing a few songs, pass an offering plate, sing 5 verses of “Just As I Am,” close in prayer – then can we go already?! I’m losing men by the second, come on, come on! Let’s go! Time’s a wasting here, folks, if we need holy water sprinkled on us before we go to battle, here, give me the Evian bottle… let’s GO!!!!!

See a problem right here? A little impatience perhaps? Yes, but the most important thing is what the impatience is pointing to in Saul’s heart. That’s made clear in the next part of the story.

Just as Saul was finishing the burnt offerings, Samuel shows up. He smells cooked lamb and he’s a little suspicious. Saul comes trotting out to meet him and bless him and Samuel says,
What on earth are you doing?

And you can just imagine this look on Saul’s face: I am so busted! And so Saul stammers out his excuses:
When I saw I was losing my army from under me, and that you hadn’t come when you said you would (he came on the 7th day like he said), and with the Philistines were poised to come down on me here, and I haven’t yet come before God asking for his help… well, I just took matters into my own hands, I guess.”

Many things are revealed in these excuses that relate to our own justifications for impatience:
- first we justify impatience for the sake of prudence. “I was losing my army after all, I just did what any sane person would do.” When you think about our own impatience, friends, how many times is it not justified under the same grounds: I was just being prudent. God’s timing isn’t very reasonable. So…
o I get that ill-advised loan because we have all these “needs” that just HAVE to be purchased.
o I quit my job and hamstring my family’s finances because it’s not reasonable to endure my boss for any length of time.
o I rush into marriage with this person I don’t know really well because I’m lonely and waiting isn’t reasonable.

- then, there’s a second set of excuses for impatience that sound even better than prudence, and that’s piety. Saul says, “I can’t go to war before I’ve said my prayers! That would be wrong!” Just like that, some of our impatience is excused on spiritual grounds:
o I know God wants to bless me with this or that, so I’m just going to go out and get it… I know that’s what God would want
o I need guidance from God in this area, and so I’m just going to lean on my horoscope or consult this mystic, because I need an answer right now, and I know that’s what God would want.
o I have a vision from God to do great things, and God’s not