1 Samuel 13 | The Illegitimate Offering
The people of Israel were about to go into battle against an army much larger. They were waiting for Samual to arrive and make the offering, they wouldn’t go into battle without it. Saul wanted the battle to begin, Samuel was late. Saul decided to make the offering himself, so the men would fight. Saul knew the order God established. Samuel’s job was to make the sacrifices, the people’s responsibility was to wait, and the King was to trust. So why did Sual do Samuel job? why did he use his authority to act when God said, wait. Saul was afraid.
Fear can make us disobey God. Fear can control and enslave us. Saul, by nature, was a fearful man, and he carried that fear into his leadership. In this moment he was terrified of an enemy that vastly outnumbered Israel. The people were afraid too. With every passing hour they scattered, abandoned their posts, and hid in caves and among rocks to escape the Philistine army of thirty thousand chariots and thousands of soldiers. Saul watched his manpower disappear and his army’s courage fail.
In that moment, Saul’s fear revealed where his trust truly rested. He trusted in the men who were running away rather than in God Himself. Jonathan, in contrast, later declared, “The Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” That is the kind of trust Saul should have possessed — the kind of trust that conquers kingdoms and overcomes impossible odds. Saul’s fear and cowardice ultimately cost him the kingdom.
In many modern situations, Saul’s actions would likely be praised. Taking initiative, acting decisively under pressure, “doing what has to be done” — these are often celebrated qualities in leadership. Yet Saul’s decision to offer the sacrifice without Samuel, and without God’s approval, provoked both Samuel and God. Samuel called Saul foolish, and God rejected him as king. Three times Samuel emphasized that Saul had not kept the commandment of the Lord. This was not merely a mistake in judgment; it was disobedience born from unbelief.
It can seem difficult to understand why Saul’s unlawful sacrifice cost him the kingdom while David’s adultery, murder, and deception did not. Saul’s sin can appear small in comparison. It reminds me of Adam taking the forbidden fruit, Esau selling his birthright, or Cain bringing an offering he had worked hard to produce. These acts can appear insignificant beside David’s great sins.
But Scripture shows that God looks deeper than outward actions alone. God looks at the heart behind the action.
Back at the battle, Saul had only six hundred men — barely enough for a small military company, much less an army capable of facing overwhelming odds. Yet Gideon won with only three hundred men because God intentionally reduced his numbers so Israel would know the victory belonged to Him. God has no difficulty working through weakness. He does not need large armies, weapons, or human courage. What He desired from Saul was trust.
Perhaps Saul’s greatest battle was not against the Philistines but against the fear that kept him from waiting on God.
David, by contrast, ran toward Goliath while Saul trembled. Again and again, God demonstrates His strength through human weakness. He asks His people to trust Him precisely in the places where they feel most afraid.
In essence, Saul was asking for God’s blessing while insisting on doing things his own way. He relied more on systems, numbers, and visible security than on God Himself. Ironically, in trying to preserve the kingdom through human effort, he lost the kingdom entirely.
In the previous chapter, Samuel tells the people:
“Fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully… do not rebel against His commands.”
Saul’s actions revealed that neither he nor the people were truly doing this. They feared the enemy more than they feared God. They listened more to panic than to God’s voice. In many ways, Saul was not leading the people; he was being ruled by their fear and expectations.
Saul also seemed to misunderstand the nature of God’s favor. He treated sacrifice almost as a mechanism to secure blessing, rather than understanding that God desired obedience, relationship, and trust. Like Cain, Saul focused on the offering itself while missing God’s heart behind it. God desires dependence — the trust of a child toward a father — not merely ritual or outward performance.
When God later declared that He would seek “a man after His own heart,” the contrast between Saul and David becomes clearer. Saul clung to power, position, and reputation. David repeatedly surrendered them. Saul feared battle because he lacked men and weapons. David faced Goliath without armor because he trusted God to win. When Saul was confronted with sin, he asked Samuel to honor him before the people. When David was confronted, he repented.
At the heart of all of this is the question of honoring God.
God places each of us in situations where we must choose whether to trust Him or preserve ourselves. These moments often appear impossible or frightening. Yet what honors God is not always what appears outwardly impressive. God is not impressed by power, success, or control. He desires trust and love.
Sometimes the things we consider small are deeply significant to God because they reveal whether we trust Him. The Sabbath. Reverence for His name. The handling of holy things. Uzzah touching the ark. Ham dishonoring his father. Again and again, Scripture shows people being given opportunities to honor God by trusting Him — and failing when fear, pride, or self-reliance takes over.
That is what Saul failed to do in battle. His task was simple, though painfully difficult: wait and trust God.
And that leads me to ask myself a personal question: where is God asking me to trust Him?
It is easy to analyze the failures and victories of biblical figures. It is much harder to identify the place in our own lives where trust is being tested. Often it is the place where we wrestle most deeply.
For me, right now, that place is my ongoing battle with bleeding and my health. It has felt like a form of bondage. I have wanted to approach it my own way. In many ways I built a system — perhaps even a kind of legalism — around choosing only natural solutions and resisting surgery, medication, hormone therapy, or medical intervention. I assumed trusting God meant avoiding those things and waiting for Him alone to heal me naturally.
But perhaps part of that has also been fear — fear of the medical world, fear of surrender, fear of what might happen if I let go of control.
Maybe trusting God does not always mean avoiding the thing we fear. Sometimes it means walking directly into it while trusting that He remains with us there.
Medicine can harm at times because we live in a fallen world, but refusing what God has made available can also bring harm. The deeper issue is where trust ultimately rests. If I place more faith in “natural” methods than in God Himself, then even good things can become idols. Saul trusted more in the sacrifice than in the God the sacrifice pointed toward.
And perhaps that is the deeper meaning of sacrifice altogether. God was never ultimately after burnt offerings, rituals, or systems. He wanted the heart of the person bringing them. Scripture says we are to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. The true offering God desires is not merely something we place on an altar, but the surrender of our own will, fear, control, and self-reliance.
Saul offered an animal while withholding his trust.
What God wanted from Saul was Saul himself.
And perhaps that is what God is asking of me too. Not simply whether I choose natural healing or medical intervention, but whether I will place my whole life into His hands and trust Him completely. I do not want surgery. I do not want synthetic hormones. I do not want the possibility of losing my uterus. I fear all of those things deeply. But I want to trust God more than I trust my fears.
David showed this kind of trust when he released the throne to Absalom, rather than fight against God’s will. He trusted God more than he feared losing the kingdom.
“If you seek to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for God’s sake, you will find it.”
I can offer my bleeding womb to God because I trust Him with it, or I can withhold it because I fear the medical world. Which is more pleasing to God? Perhaps the deeper question is not whether healing comes naturally or medically, but whether I am surrendering the thing I fear most into His hands.
At the end of the day, the most legitimate offering Saul could have made was not the animal on the altar, but his fear. Instead, Saul clung to control. He offered the ritual while withholding the very thing God desired most: his dependence.
Maybe that is the offering all of us are called to make.
Not merely offerings of money, effort, religion, or outward obedience, but the surrender of the places where fear rules us. The places where we grasp for control because we cannot bear uncertainty. The places where we want guarantees before we trust God.
Perhaps the true sacrifice God desires is the laying down of fear itself.
A living sacrifice.
Not just an animal on an altar, but the trembling heart of a person finally willing to trust God more than what they fear.
Written by Kim Blenkhorn , edited with help of ChatGPT
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