#425 King Who?

Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy[a] all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves[b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.

12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”

13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.”

14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”

15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”

16 “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”

“Tell me,” Saul replied.

17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

22 But Samuel replied:


“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.”

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

27 As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. 29 He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

30 Saul replied, “I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.”

Agag came to him in chains.[c] And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

33 But Samuel said,


“As your sword has made women childless,
so will your mother be childless among women.”

And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal.

34 Then Samuel left for Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. 35 Until the day Samuel died, he did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. 1 Samuel 15 NIV

Please, listen carefully, oh that men knew that the Scripture is not the reader speaking, it is God breathed. Oh that I understood that the times my mom read to me as a child, my God mother cried, a man of God corrected me, that they were pleading with me. I could not comprehend the time they spent upon their knees, standing in the gap for my rebellious and ungrateful heart. Saul, please listen to me, this is not from me, nor open to interpretation later, this is from the Lord. 

“Though seeing, they do not see;
    though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them. Matthew 13: 13-15

If God said it, it's important, religion is not important if it isn't obedience, and their is no substitution for obedience in religion. What Saul was asked was not only direct, but Samuel was repeating what God had said, and Saul has no reason other than rebellion for personal interest not to follow through. For those that enjoy this dispensation of grace, take care, because if this is a stumbling block for you, that it somehow reinforces your atheism or you are even worse, one of those Christians who does not believe in sin as such, God's just wrath, then I would contend that you do not believe in the God of the Bible. Again, look at the flood, at Sodom and Gomorrah, at Gibeah, look at the Son of God upon the cross. Here, God has chosen, at this time, this king, Saul, to be the instrument of His wrath against that which He hates. Why now? I don't know anymore than to His time, purpose, Holy and Just nature. Not a person or animal to be left standing, it is all being taken back by God; it belongs to him, it is broken and He is in not only in the right as Creator, but it is the logical demand of righteousness, Light will chase away the darkness. Love will provide such means of grace that clearly state, "I did not come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me." Saul chose to let the king live, probably because he was a king and this he respected, the position. He kept the choicest animals, he said for sacrifice, and as an act of politics for he feared his men. There was no physical fear for his life, but if anything the fear of not being adored. A great leader, always put the blame off on someone else, never own the situation. He was willing to kill his own son over the honor of his own misguided decree, but here, he shrinks from responsibility and quickly tries to justify his own clear disobedience. He would punish his son for what Jonathan did not know, did not hear, but what he himself heard directly and disobeyed directly, he down plays. Being confronted now by Samuel does not send Saul prostrate before the Lord, for every sin is against Him and no other. This is an excerpt from Matthew henry's commentary on this passage, and I could not put it so well:

That nothing is so pleasing to God as obedience, no, not sacrifice and offering, and the fat of rams. See here what we should seek and aim at in all the exercises of religion, even acceptance with God, that he may delight in what we do. If God be well pleased with us and our services, we are happy, we have gained our point, but otherwise to what purpose is it? Isa. 1:11 . Now here we are plainly told that humble, sincere, and conscientious obedience to the will of God, is more pleasing and acceptable to him than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices. A careful conformity to moral precepts recommends us to God more than all ceremonial observances, Mic. 6:6-8 ; Hos. 6:6 . Obedience is enjoyed by the eternal law of nature, but sacrifice only by a positive law. Obedience was the law of innocency, but sacrifice supposes sin come into the world, and is but a feeble attempt to take that away which obedience would have prevented. God is more glorified and self more denied by obedience than by sacrifice. It is much easier to bring a bullock or lamb to be burnt upon the altar than to bring every high thought into obedience to God and the will subject to his will. Obedience is the glory of angels (Ps. 103:20 ), and it will be ours. (2.) That nothing is so provoking to God as disobedience, setting up our wills in competition with his. This is here called rebellion and stubbornness, and is said to be as bad as witchcraft and idolatry, v. 23. It is as bad to set up other gods as to live in disobedience to the true God. Those that are governed by their own corrupt inclinations, in opposition to the command of God, do, in effect, consult the teraphim (as the word here is for idolatry) or the diviners. It was disobedience that made us all sinners (Rom. 5:19 ), and this is the malignity of sin, that it is the transgression of the law, and consequently it is enmity to God, Rom. 8:7 . Saul was a king, but if he disobey the command of God, his royal dignity and power will not excuse him from the guilt of rebellion and stubbornness. It is not the rebellion of the people against their prince, but of a prince against God, that this text speaks of.7. He reads his doom: in short, "Because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, hast despised it (so the Chaldee), hast made nothing of it (so the Septuagint), hast cast off the government of it, therefore he has rejected thee, despised and made nothing of thee, but cast thee off from being king. He that made thee king has determined to unmake thee again.’’ Those are unfit and unworthy to rule over men who are not willing that God should rule over them.

There is no preacher that can pray to the excuse of your disobedience as a king, no televangelist that can lower the bar of holiness for you. This is not even in the realm of kings and so they kick against the goads who would think their position allows their arrogance. Saul still cares more for his own honor and begs Samuel return with him, to which Samuel is ready to take leave of him for he knows what Saul wants. He wants to look good before men, not for it to be known that his actions have brought God's judgement upon his rule. Samuel was going to leave, but Saul grabs his cloak and tears a section, and remember this because a young shepherd will take the corner of Saul's garment as he sleeps. Samuel would have left but there is some unfinished business, that of a king with soft feet, the kind of king that Saul was going to become. If Saul will not do what God ask, then Samuel will. The king that Saul has spared is brought out before the one who is in earnest to the honor and glory of God, proud of His God, obedient and true. Samuel tells king Agag what God has convicted him of, and then executes him before the Lord. He does not return to Saul in person, for what place does light have with darkness, what good are the words of God to those who won't listen? Nevertheless he mourns for Saul, he prays for Saul, it is in the Lord's hands. 

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church[b] whom you are to judge? 13 God judges[c] those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13