Samuel comes into the picture once more (v1-3). He came to speak to Saul and reminded him that he anointed him as king at The LORD’s command. He brought him further words from The LORD, “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” You can read about this in Exodus 17 where The LORD had told Moses that He would wipe out the Amalekites because of what they had done to Israel when they travelled from Egypt towards the Promised Land.
The Amalekites had taken advantage of the Israelites when they were weak, and God hates that sort of behaviour, the strong taking advantage of the weak. Because we are not told to take up weapons to fight like this, does not mean that God will not judge these things. The late F.B.Meyer wrote – ‘Throughout the history of the world the nations have been standing before Christ’s bar. Nineveh stood there, Babylon stood there, Greece and Rome stood there, Spain and France stood there, and Great Britain is standing there to-day. One after another has had the solemn word – depart, and they have passed into a destruction which has been absolute and terrible.’
Saul gathered a huge army (v4-6), two hundred-thousand-foot soldier and ten thousand men of Judah. They left Telaim and approached the city of Amalek. He waited in the valley and spared the Kenites, who had showed kindness to the children of Israel. Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He destroyed all the Amalekites except the king Agag. Saul spared Agag and the animals which were good (v7-9). This was contrary to God’s command in v3. Partial obedience is never good enough, it must be total. It was normal for an invading army to take the spoil but that was not allowed in this. God told them to destroy completely. It was God’s judgment upon Amalek. Saul was selective in his obedience and that was not good enough.
God reported this to Samuel (v10,11), saying that He regretted making Saul as king. This is hard to understand. It could be thought that God had made a mistake, but I don’t think we can entertain that thought. Commentators suggest that God was merely stating it in human terms so that we can understand how God felt about Saul’s behaviour, his disobedience and failure to come up to God’s standards. Samuel’s reaction showed his godliness. God’s expressed feelings made Samuel extremely distraught – it grieved him, and he cried out to the LORD all night.
Samuel wasted no time; he got up early to meet Saul, but he was told that Saul had gone to Carmel and had set up a monument to himself. This shows pride, later we’ll see that Absalom, the rebellious son of David, did the same. Saul was considering that he had done the will of God, but really, he had disobeyed. He even told Samuel that he had obeyed God (v12,13). The once shy, humble man had got ‘too big for his boots’. He seemed to be oblivious to the fact but he was deceiving himself.
The Bible says (Numbers 32:23) “Be sure your sin will find you out”. Sure enough, Saul’s sin did. Samuel came to him and asked what the noise of sheep and oxen was. Saul had been instructed to destroy them all, but he hadn’t, even to deceiving himself that he could offer them as a sacrifice to God and God would be pleased. The bleating of the sheep and lowing of oxen gave him away (v14-16).
Saul tried to make excuses. He put the blame on the people, then, said that they had only brought the best to offer to God. None of this satisfied God, nor Samuel. Saul had spared Agag, the king of the Amalekites and this would come back to haunt him. One must assume that some Amalekites escaped as later in the book we will see that David, his successor, had to fight the Amalekites, and Haman, an Amalekite, tried to destroy the Jews in Esther 3. Most pertinent of all, Saul himself was killed by an Amalekite (2 Samuel 1). No amount of excuses will cover for disobedience to God. The point was clear that he had disobeyed by publicly bringing Agag back and sparing him.
Samuel was having none of it, he told Saul to be quiet. Saul seemed to give Samuel permission to speak, but he didn’t need Saul’s permission, he was going to speak anyway, he was speaking God’s words. He reminded Saul that The LORD had anointed him as king even when he was nothing and had nothing to make him worthy of that honour, and as king, The LORD had commanded him to destroy the Amalekites. Samuel asked him as to why he had not done that. Saul protested that he had done that and had brought back Agag, and the people had brought the animals, the best of them to sacrifice to The LORD. He blamed the people, and yet he had disobeyed in sparing Agag, the king of the Amalekites. He tried to make it sound good by offering the best of the animals as a sacrifice to The LORD, but it was disobedience however much he tried to make it sound spiritual (v17-21). It just would not do!
Samuel’s answer started in the form of a question, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?” (v22) Samuel answered his own question that to obey was better than sacrifice. God is looking at our heart, He wants to see genuine repentance and full obedience rather than an offering or sacrifice. We cannot appear to be making a sacrifice to God when we are doing as we like. I often think that when people fast at certain times of the year and yet live as they like, as to its worth before God. There is nothing wrong with fasting, please don’t misunderstand me, but our lives should be a living sacrifice (See Romans 12:1,2), and it should be 24/7.
Samuel makes a profound statement that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry. That is serious, is it not? We might think that having our own way on occasions is not too bad, but this really is serious. It is rebellion against God, it is sin and even idolatry, which is making myself god. That’s breaking, at least, some of the Ten Commandments. Witchcraft is an abomination to God. (See Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Galatians 5:20); we shall see more of this in chapter 28.
Then comes the bombshell (v23) – “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.” Saul remained for another twenty-five years, but all that time living under God’s rejection would not be and wasn’t easy.
Saul was probably in shock, and he appeared to repent (v24,25), “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.”
Sounded genuine but that soon changed when he put the blame on the people. A genuine confession would have admitted he was totally to blame.
Samuel gives him short shrift and simply repeated The LORD’s words and as Samuel left, Saul grabbed his robe and tore part of it, which became an object lesson to Saul that The LORD had torn the kingdom from him. Samuel stressed that The LORD meant what He said and there was no way back. Saul shows his hypocrisy by asking Samuel to honour him before the people after saying that he had sinned. He was more concerned with himself and how he looked before the people and maintaining his reputation than honouring God in his worship (v26-31). Saul thought that he was Israel’s strength, but he was wrong. God was the strength of Israel. Samuel worshiped The LORD and Saul joined him, but it was not enough to change God’s mind.
Saul had sinned by saving Agag, and so, Samuel had to deal with that. He commanded Saul to bring Agag before him (v32,33). No doubt Agag thought he was in the clear, his words show that – “Surely the bitterness of death is past”. Being brought before the prophet seemed to be quite innocent and safe, and even an honour, but Samuel was not placated, and, before The LORD, he hacked him in pieces. Agag had been the king of a wicked, ruthless people and God had told Saul to wipe them out, but he had disobeyed. Samuel would have been used to killing animals for sacrifice, but I doubt that he had ever killed a man before. This would not have been easy, nor a pleasant sight, but it was necessary to fulfil God’s command, and complete what Saul had failed to do.
Samuel left Saul (v34) and went to Ramah. Saul went to his house in Gibeah. Samuel did not see Saul again until his death, but he mourned for him (v35). I understand that Ramah and Gibeah are less than ten miles apart, but no contact was made except in ch.19 Saul went to find Samuel at Naioth where he and David had gone to for safety. We shall look at that in more detail later. Samuel did not communicate with Saul because God had rejected him as king, however, he was deeply sad for Saul (mourned) that God had rejected him as king.
