Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Your Bible may have had a gap in the spot for Saul's age and how long he served. No one is

entirely sure, but it's probably in the range of either 20 or 40 years.

And some of today's events might possibly be out of chronological order, but we'll try to make

sense of them as much as possible. Today we meet Saul's son Jonathan for the first time, and he's

already winning battles against the Philistines. But when the Philistines come back to retaliate,

they bring a lot of warriors and chariots.

The Israelites start to hide and even flee to the Transjordan.

Remember yesterday's reading when we read about Samuel telling Saul to wait for him at Gilgall for

seven days? And I told you, remember this? It's important. It's possible that corresponds

directly to what's happening in 13.8 today, but it's also possible

this is an entirely different time when Samuel gave the same instructions. So Saul is at Gilgall,

a lot of his army has fled or is hiding, and the Philistines are breathing down his neck. I can't

imagine how stressful this must be for him and how urgent things must feel. But this is Israel,

a nation state made up of God's people, and the way their leaders are supposed to make decisions

is to consult with God. Specifically, Saul is supposed to wait to hear from Israel's prophet, Samuel.

But Samuel still isn't there after seven days, and Saul is losing control of the people,

so in his panic, Saul does something only the priest is allowed to do. He offers a burnt offering to

God. And as soon as he finishes, bam, Samuel appears. Saul's impatience cost him dearly. He took matters

into his own hands, disobeying not only the prophet of God,

but also the law of God. And he doesn't repent of his actions, he tries to justify them.

We're continuing to see that God holds Israel's leaders to a very high standard. They're supposed to be

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