After a successful campaign at Beth-aven (v1-23), Saul was tactically motivated to upkeep the momentum of attacking the Philistines from Michmash all the way to Ajialon (v31). To make sure that his own soldiers kept the momentum and not stop for meals, Saul made an unthinkably rash decision. He laid a curse on any man who eats food that day before the mission is completed. Out of obedience to the commander in chief and fear of the fulfilment of the curse, the soldiers pursued their enemies from morning to evening.

It was unwise because while they gained speed in the pursuit, they lost strength. While it was right to prevent the soldiers from celebrating their victories through celebrative feasts, but to stop them from any consumption of food was to muzzle the mouth of the ox while he threads out the grain (Deut 25:4). This was not the way to treat your own men. As a result of such hasty and harsh decision, the passage highlighted two times that the people were faint (v28, 31).

Furthermore, the rash decision had also resulted in the curse of his own son, Jonathan, who was at the frontline。 He was unaware of his father’s instruction and ate honey in the forest. Jonathan acknowledged his “mistake” and was ready face the result of the curse, but thankfully to be ransomed by the people who spoke up for him. Tragedy almost happened that day when Saul had to put away his own son.

The worst effect of all was that when evening came and the curse was lifted, the soldiers were so hungry that they ate the sheep, oxen and calves with blood. It was against the law of Moses to eat blood, but yet, out of sheer hunger, they could not wait for the food to be properly prepared before they ate. They had sinned against the Lord because of one’s decision.

There is a saying, “haste makes waste”. A decision by a rash man or a man who cannot stop to wait upon the Lord can often, in the best case, have wasteful result. In the worst case, the results can be regretful.

Dear brothers, in our decision making, are we waiting upon the Lord and working based on biblical principles or are we taking things just too impatiently. A six years old girl once made an innocent prayer to ask God to give her patience. The prayer went like this. “Dear Lord, please grant me patience and please give it to me NOW!”

We lived in an extremely fast-paced world, where we pride ourselves in speed and efficiency. We have no patience to wait upon the Lord, and as a result we lost the spiritual muscles to be still before God. How do I know? There was once when we went for a two days one night silent retreat, and one of the spiritual formation exercises during the retreat was to practice silence. However, there were some of us who simply could not practice stillness because there were simply too many things in our hearts and minds. The minutes practising silence before God and listening to Him was simply not possible because we are so preoccupied.

Waiting upon the Lord cannot be rushed, it requires us to wait on Him at His feet, to listen to His still small voice, to read his Word and all these requires us to build up our spiritual muscle one little bit at a time. Would you be still and know that He is God?

Prayer: Dear God, help me to wait on you rather than to have things my way and my time. In Jesus’ name we prayer, amen.