And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering.
Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. Saul, though patriotic enough in his own way, was more ambitious of gaining the glory of a triumph to himself than ascribing it to God. He did not understand his proper position as king of Israel; and although aware of the restrictions under which he held the sovereignty, wished to rule as an autocrat who possessed absolute power both in civil and sacred things. This occasion was his first trial. Samuel waited until the last day of the seven, in order to put the constitutional character of the king to the test; and as Saul, in his impatient and passionate haste, knowingly transgressed (1 Samuel 13:12) by want of faith, and thus showing his unfitness for his special office of theocratic ruler, as he showed nothing of the faith of Gideon and other Hebrew generals, he incurred a threat of the rejection which his subsequent waywardness confirmed. 'When Saul ordered animals to be brought to him for burst and peace offerings, it is to be remarked that he is said only to have offered the former (1 Samuel 13:9; 1 Samuel 13:12). And I cannot forbear alluding to the gratuitous supposition that Saul invaded the priest's office in this transaction, and that it was for this he was reprehended by Samuel. I call it gratuitous, because Samuel never speaks of such a thing to Saul. The king's fault was want of a full and confiding faith. In the burnt offering no priest was at that time required (cf. Judges 6:26; Judges 13:15-23; 1 Samuel 7:9; 1 Samuel 10:8; 1 Samuel 20:6; 1 Samuel 20:29; 2 Samuel 24:24); and even if there were, Samuel was not a priest' ('Israel according to the Flesh,' p. 147).