Putting a macro into a variable?

I have a script that is based on time.

Something like this.

$time = INIREAD ("File", "Section", "Crap")

Do
Sleep (600000); 10mins
until $time

In this case the INI reads @HOUR = 10

so it should resolve to

Do
Sleep(600000)
Until @hour = 10

If I do a msgbox(0, "test", $time), I get a box that says @hour = 10

If I remove the variable, it works.  So my question is, can I not store a macro into a variable?