“You have done a foolish thing,” Samuel said. “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.”
I Samuel 13:13-14 NIV
The end comes nearly as quickly as the beginning.
In I Samuel 10:8, Samuel told Saul to go to Gilgal and wait for him. Samuel said, ‘I will certainly come down to you there and give burnt sacrifices and friendship offerings. You must wait for 7 days. Then I will come and tell you what to do’.
Before a battle the priest would give sacrifices to God and pray. He would listen to God and tell the people what God said. God will would them how to fight and how to win the battle. The Israelites trusted God to help them.
Saul waited for 7 days, but Samuel did not arrive. Perhaps Samuel was testing Saul to see if Saul would trust God. Saul became frightened. So he went against Samuel’s instruction. Saul did what he thought was right, but not what was according to God's law. This is sin would be one of many that Saul would commit while he was king.
The old hymn says "Trust and obey for there's no other way." Saul should have known that - WE should know that.
How often we believe we know better - Oh, we trust God, but we just aren't very good at obeying God.
Perhaps we need a little more obedience in our life and a little less trust?
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