By Allen White
Saul remained at Gilgal, and all the troops with him were
quaking with fear. 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. Just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived, and
Saul went out to greet him.
"What have you
done?" asked Samuel.
Saul replied,
"When I saw that the men were scattering, and that you did not come at the
set time, and that the Philistines were assembling at Micmash, I thought, 'Now
the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the
LORD's favor.' So I felt compelled to offer the burnt offering."
"You acted
foolishly," 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 leader of his people, because you have
not kept the LORD's command." 1 Samuel 13:7-14 (NIV)
As a boy, I enjoyed building model cars. I even had a model
of the lunar module with the lunar rover. (Readers born after about 1979 have
no idea what that is. It’s not the space shuttle). I enjoyed working on the
models, but I wasn’t very good at it.
Assembling models required more patience than was available
to me at the time. I always wanted to finish the work in one sitting. As I
charged through the steps, I soon found that pieces basically “melted” due to
the over application of model glue. I ended up with a headache by the end of
it. The car was a mess, and the model glue didn’t have a warning label back
then.
Now, I could be spiritual and say that I was “compelled” to
finish the entire model car right then and there. I would sound dignified and justified
like Saul did in this passage. Saul ended up with a headache all his own.
Saul’s compulsion was driven by fear. Morale among his
troops was at an all time low. The enemy was preparing for battle. Samuel was,
well, tardy. Saul was compelled to break the rules and approach God on his own
terms.
Samuel congratulates Saul’s efforts with a harsh word:
foolish. It was foolish to presume that God wouldn’t act in due time. It was
foolish to take matters into his own hands. It was foolish to assume that the
offering of incense was more significant than his obedience. The whole thing
just melted into a big mess.
When are we tempted to approach God on our own terms?
Whether we feel that we’ve performed well as a Christian and deserve for God to
act or whether we’ve entered into bargaining with God, these approaches fall
into the same category as Saul and his incense.
Now, don’t get me wrong. You and I should never feel
inhibited to boldly approach God. We live in a much different time than Saul.
But, how are we approaching God? Are we coming with demands or asking for
directions? Much of our frustration is over our unmet expectations. The closer
that we can align our expectations with God’s will, the less frustrated we will
become.
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