3.163 Just Wait a Minute

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose this day whom you will serve.

How many of you listening to this podcast episode right now are doing so on a speed faster than 1.0? I've got a message for you today. I'm not going to convince you to change the speed at which you're listening to this podcast.

It's just a message worth thinking into and a lesson we get from Saul. The Bible is a book of relationship as the Lord moves to someone after his own heart, which we will see. In 1 Samuel 13, we get kind of our first big blunder here with Saul.

Although it wasn't a mistake in terms of accidental. I think it was intentional, and I think that there are reasons that the Lord saw that Saul was intentionally choosing to do this. I think there's something behind that as we take a look here.

And I'm remembering those of you listening to me at a faster speed than 1.0. I'm getting to you too as well. Let's look at our verse for today.

It's 1 Samuel 13, verse 9. I would encourage you to read 8 and 9 together and actually kind of the verses around it. But in verse 9, we have this: "And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings.

And he offered the burnt offering." Now, if that's the only verse that we read out of context here, we see Saul performing the peace and the burnt offerings to the Lord. And we would go, "Well, that was something that ancient Israel would do as burnt offerings. So the Lord must be pleased with that." Until we understand the context of what's happening here, Saul has had generations of commandments from the Lord that specifically define who is allowed to perform burnt offerings to the Lord.

Saul would know that, and in his impatience in verse 8 of waiting for Samuel to come to perform those burnt offerings, he does them anyway. Now we see in verse 8 that Saul waited seven days for this burnt offering. Seven days he waited for Samuel to come, and he didn't see Samuel coming, so he says, "Let's just do it ourselves," and so he does.

My friends, patience is an interesting thing, especially in waiting for the Lord's timing. We are so attuned to wanting things quickly and fast. How fast can we get done with this task?

How fast can we get done with that task? How quickly can we do this? How quickly can we do that?

It took me down a line of thinking to one of my favorite books outside of scripture. It certainly is one of my favorite self-help books for sure. Comes from "The Majesty of Calmness" written by William George Jordan.

I've referenced this before in Savory Salt, but not necessarily in this context. This is written over a hundred years ago, late 1800s, by William George Jordan, a thinker in his day. It's a very short book.

I call these types of books a Sunday afternoon read and a lifetime study. The Bible is a divine lesson of perfect law, perfect plan. The following is a story about the life of successive days or of ages comprising millions of years, matters little if we but learn the lesson.

What is that lesson? It's hurry. My friends, Saul lost his kingship because he wasn't willing to hold on a second.

Just wait a minute. Wait for Samuel to get there. It's a lesson that I've got to chew on myself.

I've got to stick in. I've got to wrestle with myself. But I hope that you and I will just take.

To work within us at his speed. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be Savory Salt. We will be here tomorrow and we hope you are too.