Wait for the Lord

Introduction:

Waiting is one of the most difficult things that you and I can be called to do as believers. We want to know things right away. We want to have answers to our questions. We don’t want to have our faith stretched.

However, God often calls us to patient obedience. Patient obedience is where we wait for the Lord and we do what God commands us. I love what Henry Blackaby says in his study Experiencing God. He says that when we don’t know what God has called us to do, we should keep doing the last thing that God told us to do.

Well, tonight we are going to look at a king who didn’t get that memo. We are going to be in 1 Samuel 13 tonight looking at King Saul and what happened when he had to wait on God and failed to do so.

Read 1 Samuel 13:1-15

1 Samuel 13:1–15 ESV

1 Saul lived for one year and then became king, and when he had reigned for two years over Israel, 2 Saul chose three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent home, every man to his tent. 3 Jonathan defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was at Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. And Saul blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, “Let the Hebrews hear.” 4 And all Israel heard it said that Saul had defeated the garrison of the Philistines, and also that Israel had become a stench to the Philistines. And the people were called out to join Saul at Gilgal. 5 And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth-aven. 6 When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns, 7 and some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. 8 He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. 9 So Saul said, “Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings.” And he offered the burnt offering. 10 As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. 11 Samuel 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, 12 I 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.” 13 And 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. 14 But 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.” 15 And Samuel arose and went up from Gilgal. The rest of the people went up after Saul to meet the army; they went up from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul numbered the people who were present with him, about six hundred men.

The Details

Saul is called to be king but he is terrified of people. He’s afraid of being selected. He seems to waver in what God calls him to do.

Saul gathered 3,000 men to himself and 2,000 were with Jonathan and Saul is called to deliver the Israelites out of Philistine hands.

Jonathan is the one who actually seems to have the faith and he attacks a Philistine garrison at Geba. This attack gets Saul on the radar and Saul freaks out!

The Philistines assemble an army that dwarfs Sauls.

30,000 chariots - these are the equivalent to modern tanks

6,000 horseman

Troops like sand on the shore

Saul’s army

people were deserting Saul and he was down to 600 men left (v.15b)

Not only did Saul not have an army large enough, they had no chariots, no horsemen, and no weapons (see 13:1922)

Saul’s Instructions

Wait 7 days for Samuel to show up for the offering

Saul’s Fear

Men were deserting (v.8)

Saul takes it upon himself to offer the sacrifice, violating the boundaries on him as king and the office of priest (vv.9-10)

Saul’s Judgment

Samuel shows up right after Saul offers the offering

Was Samuel late? No, he was right on time. Saul jumped the gun.

Saul lost the kingdom because he failed to do all that God had commanded him. This is confirmed a little later when Saul fails to destroy all of the Amalekites.

God would seek out a man after His own heart that would obey.

1. Learn to Wait Upon the Lord (vv.8-9)

2. Learn to Have Faith in the Lord (vv. 10-12)

3. Learn to Completely Obey the Lord (v.14)