11 SAMUEL'S SOBERING MESSAGE TO SAUL

Saul is, in this teaching, called to account by Samuel regarding his failure to execute God’s commission of him against the Amalekites. We will learn here of the strictness of the justice of God and the treachery and deceitfulness of the heart of man.

God spoke to Samuel in the night in secret. God rejects Saul and tells Samuel about it. Verse 11 says, “I regret that I have made Saul king,” Regret, for God is not, as it is in us, a change of His mind, but a change of His method as He deals with the realities before Him. He does not alter His will, but wills an alteration. The change was in Saul, “. . . he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Saul himself made God his enemy. God repented that He had given Saul the kingdom and the honor and power that belonged to it, but He never repents that He gives any man wisdom and grace. These gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

Verse 11 also combines two things which we do not often see placed together—anger and prayer. “Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night.” It grieved Samuel that Saul had forfeited God’s favor, and that God had resolved to cast him off; and he cried out to the Lord all night. Samuel spent a whole night interceding for Saul, probably that this decree might not be carried out against Saul. When others were in their beds sleeping, Samuel was on his knees praying and wrestling with God. He did not complain that he himself was removed from leadership, nor was he secretly pleased that his successor had failed as some might be prone to do. Samuel was sad at this sad event. The rejection, condemnation and downfall of sinners is the grief of good people. God is not happy to reject sinners, nor should we.

With sad news in his heart Samuel makes his way to confront Saul. Evidently they had made an agreement as to where to meet, but when Samuel arrived, he learned that Saul had gone to Carmel. Verse 2 says, “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.’” Samuel was told Saul had set up a triumphal arch, or some such monument of his victory, at Carmel, a city in the mountains of Judah, seeking his own honor more than giving glory of God. Saul had a greater need to repent of his sin and making his peace with God than boasting of his victory. So Samuel went to meet and confront him.

Saul boasts to Samuel of his obedience as verse 13 says Saul said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” Why did Saul feel it necessary to begin the exchange with a claim to obedience? Was his conscience already bothering him with the fact that he had not obeyed? It is very likely that his conscience was involved some way. Sinners think, by justifying themselves, to escape being judged of the Lord. But the only way to do that is by sincerely  judging ourselves. So Samuel convicts him in verse 14 by a plain demonstration of his disobedience. “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul would have Samuel believe God would bless Saul for his accomplishment, but Samuel shows him that God was far from that. Rather Saul gets charged by the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the cattle. These are no trophies of obedience, but rather evidence of disobedience. It is no new thing for the bragging of hypocrites to be contradicted by the most plain and undeniable evidence to the contrary. Many, like Saul, want to and try to boast of their obedience to the command of God. But with the animals there, what could Saul say? He tries to blame others. He wants to side-step his own guilt. Verse 15 says, “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.” Saul insists on his own justification against Samuel’s charge. He cannot deny; the sheep and oxen were brought from the Amalekites, but it was not his fault, for the people spared them; as if they would have done it without the express orders of Saul, when they knew it was against the express orders of Samuel.

Those that are willing to justify themselves are usually happy to condemn others, and to lay the blame on anyone rather than take it on themselves. Saul even makes the noble-sounding claim that it was with a good intention, it was “to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” This was a false claim because both Saul and the people sought their own profit in sparing the cattle. Even if they had wanted to sacrifice the animals, it would still have been disobedience. God appointed these cattle and sheep to be sacrificed to Him in the field, and therefore will give those no thanks for their bringing them to His altar. These animals were not Saul’s to sacrifice. Will Saul offer a sacrifice of something which costs him nothing? What kind of sacrifice is that? If we offer something to God it must first be ours. It is no offering to offer something that belongs to someone else.

Samuel stops Saul with these charges recorded in versus 16-19, “‘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?’” Samuel spoke with authority. What he was about to say was what the Lord had said to him or he would have been far from passing so severe a censure on Saul. Those of us who aspire to speak in the name of the Lord must be very certain that what we say is truly for Him and from Him. Samuel delivers his message faithfully. He reminds Saul of the honor God had done him in making him king when he was little in his own sight. God regarded the lowness of his state and rewarded the lowliness of his spirit.

Those who are advanced to honor and wealth really need to remember their common beginnings, that they may never think highly of themselves, but always strive to do great things for the God who advanced them. Samuel lays before Saul the plainness of the orders he was to execute, the Lord sent you on a mission. So certain was the success, that it was called a mission more than an act of war. The work was honorable, to destroy the sworn enemies of God and Israel. Had Saul not thought about his own profit and destroyed all that belonged to Amalek, he would have been no loser by it. These were not Saul’s sheep. The blessing of God on the obedient are worth far more than whatever we might gain by taking possession of something that is not ours, whether it is sheep of the Amalekites or the glory of God for having performed His miracles. So Samuel shows Saul how inexcusable he is in trying to make a profit of this expedition, and to enrich himself. But for all of what Saul tried to say to excuse himself, Samuel drove straight to the heart of the evil in speaking about obedience. The cattle of the Midianites can be taken in Moses’ time, but if God says destroy everything of the Amalekites, then that is what Saul should have done.

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 godliness, that God may delight in what we do—obedience. If God is well pleased with us and our services, we are happy, we have gained our point, but otherwise what is the value of what we may only seem to sacrifice to or for Him? Samuel’s words recorded in verses 22, 23 are famous. “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.’”

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. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” May the Holy Spirit deeply impress every man and woman of God with this basic, fundamental and foundational principle. No matter what effort we can think of regarding something we want to do for God; no matter how great the effort or large the sacrifice or cost to us, obedience is better than whatever else we can think or imagine to do for or give to God. Micah understood this and gave us these valuable words in Micah 6:6-8, “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” And Hosea 6:6 says, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Man of God, woman of God, the plain truth and godly wisdom Samuel expressed to Saul, fell on Saul’s deaf ears and stubborn soul. Saul apparently did not understand the importance of Samuel’s message to him, but through this story you and I can learn. We can profit. We can benefit. We can be improved and find favor in God’s sight by learning obedience. This is far more valuable than to be able to boast of some sacrifice that we may have made for God. God is more glorified and self more denied by obedience than by sacrifice.

Nothing is so provoking to God as disobedience; setting up our wills in competition with His. To do that is called rebellion and stubbornness and is said to be as bad as witchcraft and idolatry. It is as bad to live in disobedience to the true God as it is to set up other gods. Saul was a king, but if he disobeys the command of God, his royal dignity and power will not excuse him from the guilt of rebellion and stubbornness. This teaching is not about the rebellion of the people against their king, but about the rebellion of a king against his God. Anyone who is not willing for God to rule over him or her is unfit and unworthy to rule over others.

Saul confesses his sin, but let us notice that he does not say anything even close to what David later would say in acknowledging that his sin was against God. Saul says in verse 24, “I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them.” And in verse 30 he says, “I have sinned. But please honor me . . .” Contrast that shallow and  reluctant confession with what David said in Psalm 51:2-4, “Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” David, though convinced by the ministry of Nathan, yet, in his confession, has his eye to God alone, not to Nathan. Anyone foolishly deceives only his or her self who, when he or she has fallen into sin, thinks it enough to make his or her peace with the church and their ministers by the show and believable profession of repentance without taking care to sincerely make his or her peace with God Himself. How often do we meet with people who display this same kind of pretension of confession. Persons who are convicted of sin may want to be honored before people as Saul was. But, the honest person who has lost the honor of innocence and knows it cannot pretend to be anything other than guilty. It is the honor of the guilty to admit and openly confess guilt.

Saul did not gain much by his shows of repentance. What point did he gain by them? Samuel merely repeated Saul’s guilt. Proverbs 28:13 has a lesson for Saul and others like him. “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Samuel refused to turn back with Saul as he turned to go away. He eventually did return with Saul but probably not so much to honor Saul as to complete justice against Agag. When Samuel was turning from him, Saul tore Samuel’s garment, as though he could by physical strength lightly obtain what was only possible through a deep spiritual transformation. Samuel used the incident to illustrate that the kingdom had been torn from the unrepentant Saul.

Samuel then destroys king Agag whose vain hopes were frustrated at last. This Agag who was delicate and luxurious himself, had been cruel and barbarous to others. He came somewhat humbly, according to verse 32 saying, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” Having escaped the sword of Saul, the man of war, he thought he was in no danger from Samuel, an old prophet and man of peace, but he was wrong. Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not so. They put that evil day which is very near far from their minds. True believers, by contrast may, through grace, say on good grounds, though death be not past, the bitterness of it is. O death! where is your sting? But not the wicked. Samuel says, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” Agag’s former wicked practices were punished. Samuel calls him to account, not only for the sins of his ancestors, but for his own sins. He had walked in the steps of his ancestors’ cruelty and God wanted that whole sinful culture and nation destroyed.

We finish this teaching as Samuel leaves king Saul. According to verse 35 Samuel, “did not go to see Saul again, though Samuel mourned for him. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.” Saul did not want Samuel’s company or advice. Samuel had to look on Saul as rejected of God and therefore he forsook him. He mourned for the bad state of the country, to which Saul could have been a great blessing, but now would prove to be a curse and plague. He mourned for Saul’s everlasting condition, having no hopes of bringing him to repentance.

We too must mourn for the rejection of sinners. Jeremiah did as Jeremiah 9:1 says, “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.” Though the unrepentant do not mourn for themselves, yet we mourn for them. We must allow our hearts to be broken by the things that break God’s heart. Saul seems unconcerned about God’s displeasure and yet Samuel mourns day and night for him.

Jerusalem too was content and felt secure when Christ wept over it. Little wonder that Jesus taught, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

Lord, give us, your servants, humble, broken, submissive and contrite hearts.