Saul’s Tragic Failure

GOLDEN TEXT: “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” —I Samuel 15:22

I SAMUEL 15:17-26

THE experience of Saul is similar to that of many servants of God in all ages. To begin with he was humble, but prominence and authority led to pride, self-sufficiency, and disobedience. When he was first made king, Saul was “little” in his own sight. This, doubtless, is one reason the Lord chose him. And God must have seen that Saul was capable of remaining humble and faithful.

The Lord never interferes with man’s free moral agency. The choice to go contrary to the Lord’s instructions originated with Saul, and the Lord did not hinder him from making this choice. It is so with all the Lord’s people. We are free to choose the course we will take, and if that choice is to be faithful in the doing of God’s will regardless of the cost, he will help us by giving of his strength in our every time of need.

One of the prerequisites to remaining faithful to God is the recognition that his ways are best, even though we may not always understand them. This was part of Saul’s difficulty in the experience related in today’s lesson. He was sent by God to destroy all the Amalekites, including their king. Their herds were also to be destroyed. Even now we may not understand fully why God required this. The Amalekites were a menace to the Israelites, and possibly they were a diseased people, which would pose a threat to God’s people if they were merely taken prisoners.

With our limited knowledge of all the circumstances involved, we must trust the wisdom and love of God, for he is too wise to err and too loving to be unkind. We know that God intends to raise the Amalekites from the dead and give them an opportunity to turn to him and live. So, like the surgeon who puts his patient to sleep while he removes a malignant growth to save his life, God asked Saul to put the Amalekites to sleep in death until his due time to give them the opportunity to gain health and everlasting life.

It is doubtful if Saul was much concerned with the humanitarian aspect of what he had been commanded to do as king of Israel, for he willingly enough slew the vast majority of the Amalekites, saving only the king and the best of the sheep and oxen. What Saul’s real intention was in making these exceptions we may not know.

His explanation to Samuel was that the people had saved the best of the sheep and oxen with the thought of offering them in sacrifice to the Lord, and he feared the people. (vss. 21,24) Those who do wrong often attempt to lay the blame on others. But the Lord could read the heart, and he held Saul responsible for the failure to obey his instructions.

Samuel said to Saul, “Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” (vs. 23) All of God’s appointments are conditioned upon obedience to the stipulations attached to them. For example, during the present Gospel age those who are called by God to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, to suffer and die with him in order that they might live and reign with him, are urged by Peter to make their “calling and election sure.” (II Pet. 1:10,11) They do this by faithfulness to the terms and conditions of the call. The same class is described in Revelation 17:14 as “called, and chosen, and faithful.”

The statement of the Golden Text that “to obey is better than sacrifice” must be understood in the light of the context. It is not a condemnation of sacrifice in the service of the Lord, nor does it imply that the typical sacrifices of bulls and goats as offered by Israel’s priesthood were displeasing to him. Indeed, those sacrifices were offered in keeping with God’s own instructions, so we could say of Israel’s priests that in order to obey they had to offer sacrifice.

In the case of Saul, he was not instructed to offer sheep and oxen in sacrifice. His instructions were to destroy all these, together with the Amalekites and their king. To him, therefore, offering I sacrifice was an act of disobedience, and it led to the loss of the divine right to be king of Israel.

QUESTIONS

What conditions are attached to God’s appointments?

Was it unjust for God to order the destruction of all the Amalekites?

Under what circumstances is obedience better than sacrifice?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |