Day 29: Failure to Act at the Right Time

Click here for today's reading: 1 Sam 13–16 | Prov 13:13–25 | Acts 4

Excerpt from Leadership Lessons: Avoiding the Pitfalls of King Saul:

From one point of view, these chapters describe a very successful start to Saul’s reign, in which he constantly delivered the Israelites from their enemies (1 Sam. 14:47). And yet, these chapters end on a grim and unhappy note: “The LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel” (1 Sam. 15:35).

The events recorded in chapters 13–15 were occasions not only of warfare against foreign enemies but also of personal conflicts between Saul and other Israelites. In chapter 14, Saul might have killed his own son, and he ended up quarreling with his own troops. Even more seriously, in both chapters 13 and 15, we find Saul caused great offense to Samuel, the prophet of God. So, despite all the good signs up to this point, Saul quickly proved that though he could win battles, he was not the right man to lead Israel. The basic reason given is that Saul refused to submit to God’s instructions mediated through Samuel the prophet. The message is clear: God would not bless a king of Israel who set himself above the prophets whom God established. And so we can see the events in chapters 13–15 as a power struggle, God siding with the prophet against the king.¹ 

 Hawkins, Ralph K., and Richard Leslie Parrott. Leadership Lessons: Avoiding the Pitfalls of King Saul. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2013. Print.