War against Amalekites
15
📚And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the message from the voice of the LORD. 2 📚Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he opposed him along the way when Israel came up from Egypt. 15:2 See Ex 17:8-16; Num 24:20; Deut 25:17-19. The time had come for God to punish this wicked people. Notes on such punishment at Gen 6:7; 15:16; Lev 18:24; Deut 13:12-18.⚜
3 📚Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and sucking child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”
15:3 Similar to instructions God gave about Jericho – Josh 6:17-21.⚜
4 📚And Saul gathered the people together and counted them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek and set an ambush in the valley. 6 📚And Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get away from among the Amalekites, or I will destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt”. So the Kenites went away from among the Amalekites.
15:6 The Kenites were a Midianite tribe living to the south of Israel in the desert. Moses’ father-in-law was a Kenite.⚜
7 📚And Saul struck down the Amalekites from Havilah until you come to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 📚And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
15:8 This refers to the chief town of the Amalekites (v 5). There were Amalekites living in other places whom Saul did not destroy (1 Sam 27:8; 1 Sam 30:1, 18; 2 Sam 1:1; 8:11-12).⚜
9 📚But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fat animals and the lambs and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them, but they utterly destroyed everything that was despised and worthless.
15:9 Once again we see that Saul was the kind of person who did what he pleased regardless of God’s commands (1 Sam 10:8; 1 Sam 13:8-9). Disobedience to God cost him a great deal, as it will anyone, any time.⚜
God’s message to Saul through Samuel, God rejects Saul as king
10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, 11 📚“I regret 📖 that I have appointed Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commandments”. And Samuel was troubled 📖 and cried out to the LORD all night.
12 📚And Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel 📖, and, look, he set up a monument for himself 📖, and has turned and proceeded to go down to Gilgal”.
13 📚And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “May you be blessed by the LORD. I have carried out the commandment of the LORD”.
15:13 A show of outward spirituality that covered deception.⚜
14 📚And Samuel said, “Then what is the meaning of this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
15:14 Fire can be hidden for a time, but what about the smoke? What good is a mask of piety when evidence of disobedience cries out all around?⚜
15 📚And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed”.
15:15 Saul, the leader who was responsible for everything, tries to put the blame on his men (vs 21,24). Compare Gen 3:12-13.⚜
16 📚Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Now I will tell you what the LORD said to me tonight”. And he said to him, “Speak on”.
17 📚And Samuel said, “When you were little 📖 in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? 18 📚And the LORD sent you on a journey and said, ‘Go and utterly destroy those sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are no more.’
15:18 Verse 3.⚜
19 📚Why then did you not obey 📖 the voice of the LORD, but fell on the plunder and did evil in the sight of the LORD?”
20 📚And Saul said to Samuel, “Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 📚But the people took some of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice 📖 to the LORD your God in Gilgal”.
15:20-21 Saul seemed to think that partial obedience would be acceptable to God. Actually partial obedience is disobedience. God did not send him to bring back Agag and those animals. His command was to destroy all and everything.⚜
22 📚And Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams.
15:22 These are words we should all write on our hearts and read daily. Outward ritual can never take the place of heart obedience – Ps 50:7-23; 51:16-17; Prov 21:3; Isa 1:11-17; Jer 7:22-23; Hos 6:6; Micah 6:6-8; Mark 12:33; Heb 10:6-9.⚜
23 📚For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft 📖, and stubbornness 📖 is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected 📖 you as king”.
24 📚And Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
15:24 Confession with repentance is a fine thing. Confession without repentance is worse than useless. See Ex 10:16-17. And true repentance does not include an excuse for sin as Saul makes here. Compare with this David’s simple, heartfelt statements in 2 Sam 12:13; Ps 51:3-4.⚜
25 📚Now therefore, please pardon 📖 my sin and return with me, so that I may worship 📖 the LORD”.
26 📚And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel”.
27 📚And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul clutched the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 📚And Samuel said to him, “Today the LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you and has given it to a neighbour of yours who is better 📖 than you. 29 📚And also the Strength of Israel will not lie or repent, for he is not a man that he should repent”.
30 📚Then he said, “I have sinned. Yet please honour 📖 me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God”. 31 📖So Samuel followed Saul back, and Saul worshipped the LORD.
32 📚Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag the king of the Amalekites”. And Agag came to him weakly. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past”.
15:32 Perhaps Samuel’s reason for going with Saul was not to honor him but to finish the work God gave Saul to do.⚜
33 📚And Samuel said, “Just as your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women”. And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
34 📚Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. 35 📚And Samuel did not come again to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel grieved for Saul, and the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
15:35 Though Samuel loved Saul he refused to have fellowship with him because Saul was disobedient and rejected by God. Compare 1 Cor 5:1-2, 9-11.⚜