“Bide your time!
Watch patiently with meek eyes the prideful and criminal,
Sit at the gate and endure the mockery of the heathen,
Smiling and self-possessed,
Oh, you who are promised a victor’s reign,
Wait for the day of victory.”

N.H.J.

This chapter tells the story of a great tragedy, as it contains the incident that revealed Saul’s unfitness to be the founder of a line of kings. Had he passed this test, there is no doubt he would have been not only the first monarch of Israel but also the father of a royal dynasty, and the entire future of the chosen people might have been different. But, as we shall see — though at first his kingdom promised prosperity for his nation — it evidently lacked the elements of permanence and continuity, and of becoming Israel’s lasting defense against external invasions and internal corruption.

Let us consider this story not only because it significantly impacts the history of God’s people but also because it is full of lessons for us. Turning from Saul to David, Samuel said, “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). It is clear that, in some way, Saul had ceased to be “a man after God’s own heart,” and we must carefully examine the reason so that we can avoid the pitfalls that caused his downfall.

You will note that the chapter recounting this tragedy — the overcasting of a bright morning and the spoiling of a fair and beautiful promise — also describes the unutterable distress to which the chosen people were reduced by another invasion of the Philistines. For instance, we are told in verse 6 that the people of Israel were in dire straits, distressed, and hid themselves in caves, thickets, rocks, and pits; indeed, some even crossed the Jordan and abandoned their homeland in its hour of extremity. Those who remained with Saul and Jonathan, as the nucleus of the royal army, followed them trembling (1 Samuel 13:6-7). A spirit of fear had settled upon the entire nation; the old national spirit had decayed; it seemed as though they could never again stand against the Philistines, no more than a flock of sheep against a pack of wolves.

We are also informed of the vast number of Philistines, who had gathered from all parts to crush the movement toward national existence symbolized by Saul’s coronation and Jonathan’s exploits (1 Samuel 13:3). We can overhear the news brought to Saul by a panic-stricken messenger, who, with the exaggeration of abject fear, described the Philistines as numerous as the sand on the seashore (1 Samuel 13:5).

A further proof of the hapless misery of the people is found in verse 19: “There was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, because the Philistines had said, ‘Otherwise the Hebrews will make swords or spears.'” So the Israelites had to go down to the Philistines to sharpen their plowshares, mattocks, axes, and sickles (1 Samuel 13:19-20). Never in the history of the chosen people were there more dire calamities, more absolute hopelessness and despair, than those surrounding Saul and the entire country at this time. At this juncture, Saul seems to have withdrawn his troops, such as they were, from Michmash, and taken up his position at the ancient site of Gilgal, where the act of circumcision was performed after Israel crossed the Jordan under Joshua. There, on the level land and therefore exposed to the assault of the Philistine hosts at any moment, Saul pitched his camps while his heroic son, Jonathan, maintained a post of observation near the Philistine hosts.

While Saul with his soldiers remained at Gilgal, every day saw the reduction of his forces. Men deserted, either fleeing across the Jordan or hiding in some hole or corner of the hills.

It may be asked why, at such a time, Saul did not make a desperate effort against the Philistines. Why did he wait there day after day, as his army evaporated before his eyes? Ah! Therein lies a story — to understand which, we must turn back a few pages in the inspired record. In 1 Samuel 10:8, during that early morning interview when Samuel designated Saul for the crown, he told him that the crisis of his life would overtake him at Gilgal — a prophecy whose fulfillment had now arrived. “You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. You shall wait seven days until I come to you and show you what you should do” (1 Samuel 10:8).

I. SAUL’S MISTAKE

This command, given three years earlier to Saul as he stood on the threshold of his vast opportunities, involved two things, each constituting a supreme test.

First, whether he was prepared to act as God’s vicegerent; not as an absolute monarch determining his own policy and acting on his own initiative, but as God’s servant, receiving the marching orders of his life through the prophet’s lips; not acting as an autocrat, but as one to whom there had been a delegation of Divine authority.

Second, whether he could control his impetuous nature, curb his impulses, and hold himself well in hand.

It was this embargo that Samuel had laid upon him that made him wait day after day. Can you not imagine how his chosen advisers and warriors would come around him and urge him to do something? Might they not have pointed to the Philistine hosts encamped at Michmash, gathering like a storm cloud? Might they not have told him how, unless he acted quickly, his paternal estate would be wiped out before the invasion? Might they not have pointed to the dwindling hosts and said, “Rise up and do something; it is better to die beneath the Philistines’ hand than allow them to pounce on you like a bird of prey on a trembling dove!”

But he waited day after day. “He waited seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed; but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him” (1 Samuel 13:8). Then, within a brief space of the allotted time expiring, he could wait no longer. He thought that Samuel must have forgotten the appointment or had been intercepted in making his way from Ramah through the Philistine lines. He had waited until within half an hour (because offering a burnt offering and a peace offering could not take much longer), and then spoiled everything by his inability to delay further. He said to the priest, who still lingered by the ancient site where God had been worshipped and the Tabernacle posted, “Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings.” “And it came to pass that as soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came” (1 Samuel 13:9-10).

Ah, if only some sentry standing on a pinnacle of rock could have looked over into the adjacent valley and seen the form of the old man drawing nearer to the camp, he might have warned the king, crying, “Samuel is coming!” But there was no one to stop him — nothing but the warning and remonstrance of his own heart. It was shown that he could not wait for God in absolute faith, trusting that God would not fail or deceive him. He was careful to maintain an outward rite, but the spirit of devotion and faith was altogether lacking. As he was, his successors would become, to the undoing of Israel; therefore, his kingdom could not continue.

The one lesson that comes back to us with almost overwhelming force is that the man who is after God’s heart is the man who will obey God to the letter, who will wait for God to the last moment, who will dare to stand amid a diminishing and dwindling army, and even see disaster imminent, but, because he has not received God’s marching orders, will stand still until God sets him free.

How many religious people there are who, as they review their past life, can recall moments when they did not know what to do. An inner voice — still, sweet, but commanding — bade them wait and trust; but many other voices, loud and strident, summoned them to act; so that the still, small voice of faith, of resignation, of absolute obedience, was silenced. The one rash word was spoken, the one irrevocable act performed, betraying the weakness of the heart, the ineffectiveness of the resolve. When all was over, Samuel came, and we reproached ourselves, saying, “Oh, if I had only thought that God was so near, I would not have acted as I did: woe is me; why could I not wait?” Samuel always comes just at the last moment; but it is so hard to wait until he does come. “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He arose, and rebuked the storm, and said, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:25-26). God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, self-discipline, and self-restraint.

Man becomes so weary of waiting, and it seems as though God were so slow. God’s mighty processes sweep around such a wide orbit. One day is as a thousand years, but He is coming as the morning, as the spring, as the millennium. “His going forth is as sure as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).

II. SAUL’S DISINGENUOUS PLEA

Notice Saul’s explanation to Samuel. He said, “I said to myself, the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the Lord. So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering” (1 Samuel 13:12). That was insincere. He laid the blame on circumstances, essentially saying, “The circumstances of my situation forced my hand; I did not want to do it, I was most reluctant, but I could not help myself; the Philistines were coming. The scepter was wrested from my grasp, and I had to obey the imperious voice of the misfortunes that fell thick and fast upon me.” His speech reminds us of Aaron’s, who stripped the people naked before God and their enemies, and sought to excuse himself by saying, “They gave me their earrings; I cast them into the fire, and out came this calf” (Exodus 32:24).

We are all prone to speak in the same tone. When the rash word has been uttered and the proud act done; when we have refused to obey and have seen the house of our life toppling down upon us, or consumed in the flames of our folly, we have said, “Circumstances compelled me; I had to do it, and I did it: I forced myself; my hand was forced.”

O soul of man, you are greater than circumstances; greater than things; greater than the mob of evil counselors. You are meant to be God’s crowned and enthroned king; to rule and not to be ruled: to obey God only, and to resist all other attempts to bring you under the yoke. Rouse yourself, lest it be said of you also, that your kingdom shall not continue.

III. THE BETTER PATH

In response to all this, Samuel, speaking in the name of God, said, “I have chosen a man after My own heart, who shall perform all My will” (1 Samuel 13:14). In Jesse’s home, the lad was being prepared who could believe and not make haste. Listen to the way this man after God’s own heart spoke in later years: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock and made my steps secure” (Psalm 40:1-2).

Wait, wait for your Lord’s timing. Let your heart stop its feverish beating, and your pulse no longer register tumultuous waves of emotion! To act now would only disappoint the highest hopes, mar the Divine purposes, and set stones rolling that shall never be stopped. Wait for God; stand still, and see His salvation. His servant is coming up the pass; his steps may not be as speedy as we would wish, but he will arrive at the perfect moment — not a moment too soon, but not a moment too late. God’s messenger is timed to come when the heart has almost failed, the steps almost gone, and hope almost vanished. “The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Oh wait, my soul, wait, wait upon God; for God cannot be behind, as He will not be before, the allotted and appointed moment.

And when He comes, there will be laughter for tears, harvest for sowing, blue skies for clouds, and long days of rapturous bliss that will make you forget the shame and reproach of the past!

This is Chapter 15 from F.B. Meyer’s book “Samuel the Prophet,” which is in the public domain. We have also made slight revisions to this chapter.