The Cost of Disobedience

By Danny Saavedra

“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 Mikmash, 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 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.'"—1 Samuel 13:9–14 (NIV)

We’ve all been there: waiting for someone who’s running late, and eventually, frustration sets in. You paid a contractor a hefty sum of money to redo your bathroom, but months later it’s still not done. You become impatient and take matters into your own hands. And that’s where you run into a real problem . . . like trying to do it yourself (DIY) and messing up the plumbing and flooding your house and ruining your flooring. By the way, this didn’t actually happen to me, but there have been moments where I’ve gotten impatient and tried to do things on my own that I don’t have the skillset for and it always ends up making things worse and usually leads to extra expenses and a lot more work.

In today’s passage, we see that Saul’s decision to offer the burnt offering himself, despite knowing it wasn’t his role, for all intents and purposes . . . floods the house. In this moment, Saul’s impatience led to disobedience. He didn’t wait for Samuel. He said, “‘Bring me the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings.’ And Saul offered up the burnt offering.”

The instructions were clear that Samuel would perform the offering when he arrived. But because things around Saul weren’t going how he envisioned, he took matters into his own non-priest hands. The sad thing is that “just as he finished making the offering, Samuel arrived.”

David Guzik wrote, “Despite all the excuses, all the reasons, all the blaming of someone else, the bottom line was still the bottom line. Samuel put it plainly: You have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God. God commanded him to do something, and he did the opposite.” Saul’s failure to wait on God’s timing cost him. His “kingdom will not endure.” The Saul dynasty would end with him, because while Saul was a man after man’s heart, “the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him ruler of his people, because [Saul didn’t keep] the Lord’s command.”

As a believer, there will undoubtedly come a season where you’ll desire to see something happen and maybe even feel God leading you in that direction, but the timing isn’t yet His timing, and you’ll try to force it anyway. I know I’ve been there. In fact, when I was in my early twenties, I felt a call to ministry and pushed my way into a youth and young adult ministry lead role. But the truth is I wasn’t ready for it. I wasn’t mature enough. I didn’t have enough seasoning or training in preaching, teaching, counseling, or leading. I didn’t have the right perspective on ministry and was focused on external things as opposed to being a true shepherd . . . and I crashed and burned.

In the almost 16 years since that time, I’ve learned so much about ministry, leadership, and shepherding, and yet I still have a lot to learn. And even after all of that, I still sometimes find myself trying to force God’s hand on His timing . . .and it never works out the way I want it to. I’m slowly trying to learn to not be a Saul, to wait on God’s timing, and to allow Him to prepare, season, equip, and then open the right doors in His timing.

The Bible—and life as a believer—makes it very evident that God’s ways are higher and better than ours. He may not work on our clock, but He works on His perfect timing. And if there are delays on the timeline, I promise you there’s a good reason for it—and it’s always for your good and for the good of the people around you.

Just as in cooking, rushing ahead of instructions will often lead to disaster. But when we wait for God’s guidance and obey His commands, He blesses us abundantly.

Pause: Can you think of a time when you tried to take control when God asked you to wait?

Practice: Consider areas in your life where you might be rushing ahead or taking matters into your own hands. What would it look like to trust God’s timing instead?

Pray: Father, I don’t want to be a Saul . . . I don’t want to be a person after man’s heart or after my own heart, but after Your heart. Help me to trust Your timing and remain faithful to Your commands even when I don’t understand the wait. Thank You for the grace to trust You fully. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.