Saul’s son, Jonathan, has just attacked the Philistines’ garrison—a group of soldiers stationed at an outpost—at Geba. Situated in Gilgal—about half a day’s walk in ancient times from the hill country of Benjamin—is Saul, Israel’s first-ever king. As soon as the word gets to Saul, he sounds the trumpet, stands tall as the epitome of secure kingship and fatherhood (not!) and takes credit for his son’s surprise attack.

An attack that was never going to be left unanswered. All too soon, the Philistines are mustering together a mighty army of 3000 chariots, 6000 charioteers and countless soldiers to fight against Saul and the Israelites.

Atop a mountain, Saul sat anxiously scouring his left and right after news of the impending retaliation arrived. Seeking any sign that Samuel, the man who anointed him to be king, is somewhere in the distance en route to him. While simultaneously attempting to ignore the sight of men slipping away in an endeavour to spare their lives.

As the days clock up, Saul finds himself more and more caught up with chariots, charioteers and champion fighters each excruciating second. He needs to decide what’s going to happen next, entirely unaware that he’s deciding on more than a strategy which either will lead to defeating or being defeated by the Philistines. Saul is set to lose much more than a battle against mere mortals. He is about to lose the entire kingdom as his choice—to wait or to not—exposes Saul’s certainty and conviction.

While it surely felt like there was only one option—to go—after waiting 7 days, Saul had another option. He could wait a little while longer. But that’s not what Saul does…

Israel’s king in his hurry does something he’s not meant to. Saul sacrifices burnt offerings—an animal laid on an altar and consumed by fire in an act of worship—to the Lord Himself. Outside of disobeying Samuel and much more significantly, God in the process, Saul’s actions break religious rights too.

Although many things to Israel, Saul was not their priest nor a Levite. A descendant of the Benjamites and son of Kish, Saul came from an affluent and wealthy family but not a priestly one. His lack of priesthood—anointed or ancestral—meant Saul couldn’t legally offer any burnt or peace offerings.

Samuel, however, could as Israel’s priest. And the righteous man was well on his way to Gilgal to do exactly that with Saul. Once Samuel was at Gilgal and God’s chosen people were done offering sacrifices unto Him, Israel would be spiritually ready to go head to head with the angered Philistines.

Israel’s priest, prophet and judge specified he would arrive in Gilgal after seven days. Saul withheld the week yet couldn’t sustain the wait because his trust was surface level in both Samuel and way more importantly, God.

Samuel’s delay lets Saul down which will always be the outcome, even if it takes a while to eventuate, when we place our trust in man and not God. Cause no man was meant to carry that weight except for the One who humbled Himself, came down from Heaven and conquered sin and death to reverse the separation we deserve.

Saul’s trust in the Everlasting is even less than that of Samuel. And that’s all the more saddening because He is the only One worth any trust in this situation. Samuel could go above and beyond offering sacrifices and that would be of no significance if the Lord determined the Israelites to lose to the people of Philistia. God had miraculously freed the Israelites from the Egyptians, repeatedly delivered them from their enemies throughout the Era of Judges and continued to prove His commitment to them as an all-powerful, all-loving King.

Saul doesn’t show impatience in this situation; he shows himself as faithless and of little trust in the Lord. Are we willing to wait a while longer, dive in a little deeper and press on past the pressure? Our ability to wait in any situation is weighed on and worked out by our trust in the Lord.

Just as Saul finishes the sacrifice, Samuel turns up. As I meditated on this and stopped being amused at the irony of it all, the Spirit spoke an encouragement. God is the Lord of the suddenly but only when, and if we’ve left space for Him to move at all.

We are often much closer to an arrival and breakthrough than we can comprehend or have the faith to take a moment and consider. Sometimes in our lives, Samuel is about to arrive but we have already sacrificed an inappropriate offering—something God doesn’t recognise as righteous—at Gilgal. God can’t show up as He liked because we’ve birthed a solution out of our orphan-self over trusting in Him.

What was going through Saul’s head on that seventh day? Is there a moment where he thinks to himself — it’s been 7 days already, surely Samuel is closer than I think? Scripture doesn’t say but based on his actions, it suggests otherwise which is even more saddening.

Something else I ponder is Saul’s awareness amidst this situation. Is he aware of how significant this moment is? Arguably, not as Saul is said to have sought a friendly welcome—one translation says he attempts to bless Samuel—while the priest arrives demanding an answer. Samuel knows Saul has done something. Perhaps, there’s still smoke in the air, or the smell of the sacrifice circles their camp or more likely, there’s a heaviness in Samuel’s heart indicating the displeasure of the Lord has descended upon the handsome Benjaminite who stood heads above everyone else.

When asked of him what’s happened, Saul has an answer (which isn’t surprising at all). Someone who is like Saul—aware of the Lord but without meaningful trust in Him because they’re still an orphan in heart—will always be able to easily excuse anything. Anything to anyone can be justified to someone seized with insecurity and pride because those lacks elevate external things and minimise self-accountability. (And I can confidently say this, having gone and continuing to grow beyond those very things.)

Saul cites all that’s wrong in his world. All of the surrounding situations are big issues for Saul because he put weight in the wrong place. His perspective is distorted because his revelation of the Lord is dimmed. Saul is worried about his men scattering, anxious about Samuel’s arrival and worried about the Philistines at Micmash who are ready for battle. If our whole trust is not in the Lord, our worries will be in everything else.

Saul’s right about one thing here. He and the Israelites needed the Lord’s help. Yet, this cited compulsion only further illuminates his trust issues. Of all the ways he could seek the Lord’s support, why did Saul believe he should do so through sacrificing? He could have fallen to his knees and cried out to the Father, gathered with those at Gilgal in prayer or called for a nationwide fast. Saul could have done a lot of things before doing the one thing he was specifically told not to do.

Yet, in doing so, Saul shows an overall lack of reverence and understanding for all things spiritual. How was this so? If Saul could be summarised in a few sentences, I would say he was someone who knew about the Lord but he did not know of the Lord in a way that he needed to as a son and Israel’s leader. Something I’m reminded of as I meditate upon Saul’s situation is that trust is the foundation for both relationship and revelation. It’s impossible to have a meaningful relationship or revelation without trust.

Some commentaries suggest the adjective—foolish—is much stronger than what modern English conveys. Foolish here carries a weight well beyond Saul being unintelligent. It infers that Saul lacks maturity and substance which perfectly summarises both what happened and how.

Saul’s lack of maturity in the Lord meant he selected his own kingdom over the true King’s. Saul concluded his hand was more powerful than God’s; his earthly strategy to attack now would be more successful than a Heaven-back solution; his wait was too much for God to work through; his way was greater than the Lord’s.

As a consequence of his choices, crafted by his lack of trust in the Lord, Saul doesn’t keep the clear commandment given by God. So consequently, God makes a choice Himself. He couldn’t continue gifting Saul the kingdom…

On average, we make over 30,000 choices each day. While we’ll never find ourselves in Gilgal facing an attack from the Philistines, we continually face the same choice Saul did on that fateful day. What choice will you and I make? Will we wait a little while longer for the Lord? Is our trust in Him deep enough to allow us to…?