09/18/2008
1 Samuel 15:17 - 22 (HCSB) 17Samuel continued, “Although you once considered yourself unimportant, have you not become the leader of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel 18and then sent you on a mission and said: ‘Go and completely destroy the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have annihilated them.’ 19So why didn’t you obey the LORD? Why did you rush on the plunder and do what was evil in the LORD’s sight?”
20“But I did obey the LORD!” Saul answered. “I went on the mission the LORD gave me: I brought back Agag, king of Amalek, and I completely destroyed the Amalekites. 21The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder—the best of what was set apart for destruction—to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
22Then Samuel said:
Does the LORD take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the LORD?
Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,
to pay attention [is better] than the fat of rams.
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The people of Israel demanded a king, so Saul was anointed king over them. Saul was directed to attack and utterly destroy the Amelekites; however, Saul took the king prisoner, and allowed the troops to take plunder, only destroying the lesser flocks. Samuel confronted Saul on the issue. While Saul does not give a defense for not killing the Amelekite king, he claims that the plunder was taken under the auspices of presenting them as a sacrifice to God.
This is one of those passages where we sometimes wonder what Saul did wrong. He had intended to offer the plunder as sacrifice—which in the end, would have destroyed all the flocks of Amelek. But Samuel is clearly displeased.
The problem was that Saul was directed to destroy everything of the Amelekites at the battle site. It may be that God wanted the other nations to know that the attack on Amelek was retaliatory—not for the sake of plunder. That is, attacking another city for the sake of plunder is a selfish act. Any other city would then be concerned for its own security. But if the other cities knew that the attack was retaliatory, then they could be at peace knowing that Israel was not acting as greedy marauders.
This is just a guess on my part. The fact remains, however, that Saul did not do as he was directed to do. The best of intentions are no substitute for obedience.
God knows our situation better than we ever will. He may ask us to do something that doesn’t really make sense to us. It is easy for us to think: “Well, God must *really* have meant this, or that.” When what we *ought* to do is simply follow His direction as best we can.
I really don’t know why Saul was ordered to kill every human and animal. We can make guesses, but the fact remains that God knew and had given direction to Saul through Samuel. We must learn from Saul’s mistake and make sure that we don’t substituting good intentions for obedience.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
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