1 Samuel 13:8-10 And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal… When a worm gets to the root of a delicate and sensitive plant, the first effect may only be a vague sense of general sickliness, a loss of brightness, an unhealthy drooping of the leaves. But if it remain it will by and by be the utter death of it. So when some secret sin is cherished in the soul, the idolatry of gold, some awful lust, or a bitter spirit of detraction or revenge, then there creeps over the religious life a general sickliness; the brightness of Divine gladness departs; spiritual interests begin to droop, and the whole soul becomes languid and weary. But if the evil be not removed, by and by there comes open apostasy and blank denial and despair. Secret faults lead to presumptuous sins. May grace arrest the former, that we fall not into the latter. (H. O. Mackey.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he tarried seven days, according to the set time that Samuel had appointed: but Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. |
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