The Lord Rejects Saul

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(1 Samuel 15:1) Samuel also said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, hearken to the voice of the words of the Lord."

At the end of the last chapter, we were told how Saul re-established his kingdom over Israel after Jonathan's victory.  Saul fought his enemies on all sides, including the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, and the Philistines, defending Israel against them.  He assembled an army and struck the Amalekites, delivering Israel out of the hands of all who plundered them. It may be that Samuel spoke to Saul sometime before he struck the Amalekites, judging by what comes next.  Samuel told Saul that the Lord had sent him to anoint him as king over His people, therefore Saul had an obligation to listen to and obey the commands of the Lord.

(2) "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him on the way, when he came up from Egypt. (3) Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"

Samuel told Saul the words of the Lord of all hosts, the heavenly host of angels, Israel's army, and all the armies of the world.  He remembered what the Amalekites had done to Israel when they were coming out of Egypt when they were faint and weary (Exodus 17:8).  In Deuteronomy 25:17-19, God retold about the event, about how the Amalekites killed the most feeble of the Israelites who lagged behind the others.  God said then that when Israel had been given rest in their promised land, He would blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.  It seems the time was now, some four hundred years later!  He told Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites, not sparing any of them, not man, woman, child, or any of their animals.  All were to be totally wiped out.

(4) And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.

Saul gathered the people together in a place called Telaim, which may be Telem in Judah (Joshua 15:24).  He assembled two hundred thousand footmen and another ten thousand men from Judah.  As has been discussed before, Samuel probably wrote these accounts later in his life and after a time when Israel and Judah were two separate kingdoms.

(5) And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley. (6) And Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

Saul and his army went to a city in Amalek and laid wait in the valley.  The Kenites were not Israelites but were on friendly terms with the Israelites.  They were apparently living among the Amalekites, and Saul sent word to them to get away from the Amalekites so they would not be destroyed with the Amalekites, and that was because they had shown kindness to Israel when they came out of Egypt.  Jethro, Moses's father-in-law had been a Kenite, and these people were likely his posterity.  The Kenites heeded Saul's warning and departed from the Amalekites.

(7) And Saul struck the Amalekites from Havilah to when you come to Shur that is across from Egypt. (8) And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

Saul struck the Amalekites from one end of their country to the other, from Havilah in the northeast to Shur in the southwest.  He utterly destroyed all the people, at least the ones he came across in the land; it seems some escaped as we will hear about the Amalekites again.  However, Saul did spare the king of the Amalekites, Agag.

(9) But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. But everything vile and wasted, that they destroyed utterly.

The Lord had said to destroy absolutely every living thing, but Saul saved all the best of the animals, and I suppose you could say the best of the people, the king.  Anything that was good, and I imagine useful to Saul, he would not destroy, but anything defective and not good, he did destroy.

(10) Then came the word of the Lord to Samuel, saying, (11) "It repents Me that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commandments." And it grieved Samuel, and he cried to the Lord all night.

The Lord spoke to Samuel.  Repent means to change, reverse course.  When people repent of their wrongdoing, they have a change of heart, they are sorrowful for what they have done, they confess their wrongdoing, and they change their ways.  The Lord's nature does not change; He does no wrong, and His heart never changes.  What does change is how He deals with matters.  He showed kindness and mercy to Saul as he was once a fine and good man (1 Samuel 9:2), and he must have followed the Lord initially for the Lord said that he had now turned away from following Him.  The Lord would now change His purpose for Saul and how He would deal with him because he had turned from the Lord and did not obey His commandments.  It's the way the Lord blessed His people when they did good and chastised them when they sinned.  His love for them never changed, but how He dealt with them did.

The Lord knew all along what Saul would do; nothing takes Him by surprise so that He must change course.  The change is written the way it is for our benefit, for our instruction.  God knew all along that Saul was just a placeholder for David, the king He wanted for Israel, a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22).  Actually, the Lord had already changed the course for Saul in 1 Samuel 13:14 when He through Samuel told Saul his kingdom would not continue because he had not kept God's commandment.  So He actually never changed, but He was letting Samuel know how he dealt with Saul was about to change.  It grieved Samuel very much, and he cried to the Lord all night.

(12) And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place and is gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.

Samuel rose up early the next morning to meet Saul, but he was told that Saul was not there.  He was told that Saul had come to Carmel in Judah which would have been on his way back from Amalek.  He had set up a "place" for himself there.  The original word "yad" literally means "hand."  Maybe "hand" didn't make sense to the KJV translators, so they used a generic "place."  But this probably was some sort of hand as a monument to himself; "he set him up a hand."  The hand represented power, strength, dominion, or even direction, so it could have pointed to the place where Saul had gained his victory.  From Carmel, it sounds as if he did not make a straight trek back, but went here and there, probably in some sort of celebratory manner, and then went to Gilgal where he probably expected to meet Samuel there.

(13) And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed you of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord."

Samuel came to Saul, and Saul greeted him, calling him blessed of the Lord because he had sent him on a great mission and he had succeeded.  It's remarkable that he thought he had performed the commandment of the Lord.  Either he really did think that doing 90% of the Lord's commandment was performing well, or he knew he had not completely obeyed God's commandment, and he was lying to Samuel to save himself from Samuel's reproof.

(14) And Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (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."

If Saul had performed the commandment of the Lord, which was to utterly destroy every living thing (verse 3), then why did Samuel hear the bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen?  Notice Saul said "they" had brought them back from the Amalekites.  He seems to always shift the blame to someone else.  "The people" had spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord, something He had not asked for and had strictly commanded against.  But they all utterly destroyed the rest of the livestock.  Also I have noticed that Saul always seems to say, "the Lord your God."  He doesn't say "the Lord our God" or "the Lord my God."  I can't help but think it was his way of trying to manipulate Samuel's feelings by saying all he did was for his Lord.  "You wouldn't want to take from your Lord, would you?"

(16) Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stay, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night." And he said to him, "Say 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 the Lord anointed you king over Israel?"

Samuel told Saul he wanted to tell him what the Lord had spoken to him that night before.  He reminded Saul that when he was little in his own sight, as he had said in 1 Samuel 9:21, that he was of the smallest tribe and of the least of the families in his tribe, God had made him king over Israel.

(18) "And the Lord sent you on a journey, and said, 'Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' (19) Why then, did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but did fly upon the spoil and did evil in the sight of the Lord?"

Samuel continued relaying how the Lord had then sent Saul on a mission to utterly destroy the Amalekites until every living thing was consumed.  He asked Saul why he did not obey the command of the Lord, but seized upon the spoil of the Amalekites and therefore had done evil in the sight of the Lord by disobeying Him.

(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 of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal."

Incredibly, Saul told Samuel that he had obeyed the Lord, but it was those people who took the spoil that he knew should have been destroyed, but it was to sacrifice to Samuel's Lord, a good thing, right?  Even though he said he had obeyed the Lord, he admitted that he had spared the king of the Amalekites and brought him back.  Saul may have thought he had done what was most important to the Lord, and that was what should be important to Samuel, but at the very least, Saul showed a careless respect for the Lord and His commands.

(22) And Samuel said, "Has the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the fat of rams. (23) For rebellion is the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from king."

Samuel asked Saul if he thought the Lord had more delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, or rather in obedience to Him.  Then he said rebellion was witchcraft, or divination, which is how the original word "qesem" was usually translated.  Either word refers to seeking knowledge by occult means and from a spirit other than God.  Samuel said that stubbornness was a sin and idolatry.  It's the idolatry of oneself, judging himself to be more knowledgeable than God at a given moment.  I can't help but think of the current times when everything seems acceptable.  Surely God didn't know how the times would change, and divorce, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc., would demand different rules--man elevating himself over God.  Samuel told Saul that because he had rejected the word of the Lord, God had rejected him 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."

Saul told Samuel he recognized that he had sinned against the commandment of the Lord, but it was because he feared the people.  Once again he blamed the people.  He admitted that he feared the people more than he did the Lord.  Actually, I don't believe that was really true; he just wanted to lay the blame elsewhere.  "I have sinned, but..."  Anytime there is a "but," it negates what came before it.

(25) "Now therefore, I pray you, pardon my sin and turn again with me, 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 from being king over Israel."

Saul asked Samuel to pardon his sin and continue with him to Gilgal to worship the Lord, possibly in offering sacrifice to Him to atone for his sin.  However, Samuel told him he would not go with him because he had rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord had therefore rejected him as king over Israel.  Samuel had not seen any true repentance of Saul, and he left him for the Lord to deal with, as we sometimes have to do.  Ephesians 5:11 says to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but reprove them.  There comes a point when a person's fruits or actions show what is really in his heart, and we can no longer have fellowship with that person, but it doesn't mean we can't still love and pray for him.  However, several places in the Bible tell us how keeping company with sinners will eventually corrupt and harm us:

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals. (1 Corinthians 15:33)

...Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4)

A violent man entices his neighbor and leads him in a way that is not good. (Proverbs 16:29)

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2)

And many more, but once again, this does not mean we have nothing to do with sinners.  We are all sinners, and Jesus associated with sinners, fortunately for us!  But He didn't live with the sinners; they weren't His closest disciples.  That is the point.  He loved and helped sinners; He encouraged us to love and help them.  But He would tell them to go and sin no more.  And He also said whoever would not receive you or hear your words, shake the dust off your feet of that place and leave.  And that doesn't mean you won't come back to see or talk to that person again, especially if it is someone close, but the danger comes when you commune with that person continually, and you begin to accept his sin as okay which shows approval of it, and before you know it, you find yourself slipping into his ways.  With that, one last verse:

The highway of the upright is to depart from evil; he who keeps his way preserves his soul. (Proverbs 16:17)

Sometimes you just have to remove yourself from bad company and friends and not associate with them anymore in order to save your own soul.

(27) And as Samuel turned around to go away, he laid hold on the skirt of his robe, and it tore. (28) And Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, 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."

As Samuel turned around to leave, Saul grabbed hold of his robe to detain him.  Since it only says "he" and "his," we can't be positive that it wasn't Samuel who tore his own robe or that he might have torn Saul's robe.  Any way that it happened had the same meaning.  Samuel told Saul it was a sign that the Lord had torn the kingdom of Israel away from him and had given it to a better man than he was, a neighbor of his.  The Lord was the Strength of Israel.  Undoubtedly, little Israel could never in history have made it this far without God's mighty hand.  Samuel told Saul that the Lord did not lie when He said He was taking the kingdom away from Saul, and He would not change His mind the way a mere man might.

(30) Then he said, "I have sinned; honor me now, I pray you, before the elders of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord your God." (31) So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.

Saul acknowledged he had sinned, and there was no "but" this time or blaming of others.  He acknowledged that he himself had sinned, and he asked that Samuel stay with him to worship the Lord.  However, note that it was to not embarrass him among the people of Israel.  Once again, it was all about Saul.  However, there was probably some wisdom in that, that the people not totally reject Saul until the Lord raised up David who may not have even been born yet.  That seems a plausible reason for why Samuel turned back to Saul, after all.  Besides, Saul was begging, and Samuel was a good and Godly man.  Samuel stayed with Saul while he worshipped the Lord.  Note that scripture didn't say that Samuel worshipped the Lord with Saul.  I'm sure he didn't agree with the things Saul did and said in his worship, so he allowed those things to be between Saul and his Lord.

(32) Then Samuel said, "Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past." (33) And Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

Then Samuel told Saul to bring Agag, the king of the Amalekites whom Saul had spared, to him.  Agag came forward to Samuel cautiously and seemed to suggest that all the death and violence could be put behind them, and perhaps his life could be spared.  However, Samuel told him that just as his sword had made women childless, he was going to make Agag's mother childless, and he proceeded to chop Agag to pieces.  He did this before the Lord; he finished the job that God had commanded Saul do.

(34) Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. (35) And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.

Then Samuel left and went back to his residence in Ramah, and Saul went to his place in Gibeah.  Samuel never again went to see Saul, but he still mourned for him and probably prayed for him.  Just as discussed above, one can still love and care and pray for someone without being his constant companion.  Once again, we have that word "repent."  Samuel just said that the Lord did not repent (verse 29).  However, I believe the context is that the Lord does not repent the way man repents.  Our dictionary definition of "repent" is "to feel sorry, self-reproachful, or contrite for past conduct; regret or be conscience-stricken about a past action, attitude, etc."  Obviously, the Lord does not do that.  The Biblical meaning does mean that for people who have a change of heart and repent for their sins.  But another meaning is to merely change direction.  That's what the Lord did.  He changed direction from having Saul as king to making David king.