Text: I Samuel 15
Theme: God will not bless a disobedient nation that refuses to repent.
Intro:
- Following the victory over the Philistines at Michmash, Saul continued to establish the army of Israel. The end of chapter 14 tells us that, whenever he saw a strong or valiant man, he recruited him to the army.
- In chapter 15, we see God send Samuel to command Saul that he is to gather the army and go and slay Amalek. In this chapter we will see:
- Saul obeyed in attacking Amalek. (Vs 1-7)
- Saul disobeyed in sparing Agag and the best cattle. (Vs 8-15)
- Saul was rebuked by Samuel (Vs 16-23)
- Saul pleased men rather than God (Vs 24-35)
We will only cover the first two of these headings this evening.
I. Saul Obeyed in Attacking Amalek (Vs 1-7)
- Saul was commanded by God to attack Amalek (Vs 1-3)
a. In the Old Testament, specific people were anointed with the Holy Spirit to empower them for a special work for God.
– When Saul was anointed king, the Holy Spirit came upon his and he prophesied with the prophets. Following this, Saul was led by the Spirit of God to liberate the men of Jabesh-Gilead from the attacking Ammonites.
– Now Samuel reminded Saul that he had been anointed with the Spirit of God to carry out the work of God. It was on this basis that Saul bore the responsibility for going out against the Amalekites.
b. This is a reminder to us that we have been given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do the work of God.
– To fail to do any work for God is to squander the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. - God commissioned Saul to Battle Amalek (Vs 2-3)
a. The oppression by Amalek (Vs 2)
– When Israel came out of Egypt, as they went through the wilderness, the people thirsted and complained against God. God told Moses to strike the rock and water come out to satisfy the needs of all the people.
– Immediately after this, Amalek came up behind Israel and attacked them.
Exodus 17:8-9 “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.”
b. God remembered how Amalek had laid in wait to attack the Israelites as they came out of Egypt and He commissioned Saul to go and punish them for their attacks on God’s people.
– Great victories are often followed by spiritual testing. Israel had just experienced the great blessing of the water coming out of the rock, and immediately afterward we have the phrase, “Then came Amalek.”
– Secondly, God remembers those who mistreat His people and, while they may seem to get away with it for now, they will eventually receive justice for their wrong doings.
c. The fate of Amalek (Vs 3)
– Because of their attacks on God’s people, God ordered the destruction of the Amalekites.
– I Samuel 15:3 “Utterly Destroy” comes from the Hebrew word charam (kayram) which is the root of the word Cherem (kayrem) used in Joshua 6:18 when Joshua commanded Israel to keep themselves “from the accursed thing.” This signified that, as God had designated Jericho to be an accursed thing, so God was now designating the city of Amalek to accursed unto God.
– Commenting on this phrase, Alber Barnes notes that it means to, “devote to destruction” (Levit. 27:28 note). He says, “When a city or people were thus made cherem, everything living was to be destroyed, and no part of the spoil fall to the conquerors (cp. v. 21). The valuables were put into the sacred treasury.[1]”Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: I Samuel to Esther, ed. F. C. Cook, J. M. Fuller (London: John Murray, 1879), 37.
d. The principle of the accursed thing was established in Leviticus 27:28-29.
– Leviticus 27:28-29 “Notwithstanding no devoted thing (cherem), that a man shall devote (charam) unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing is most holy unto the LORD. None devoted (cherem), which shall be devoted (charam) of men, shall be redeemed; but shall surely be put to death.”
– Leviticus 27 is outlining God’s perspective on the things consecrated and things tithed unto God. The Hebrew word cherem / charam was used to describe things that were dedicated to the LORD. Anything that was devoted to God, belonged to God and was to be destroyed without any possibility of redemption. - The original delay in judgement (Genesis 15:13-16)
a. God had promised this land to Abraham more than 400 years earlier. (Gen 15:13)
– Although God had promised the land to Abraham, God would not allow Abraham’s descendants to conquer the land until the nations living there had exhausted the measure of God’s mercy upon them.
– Genesis 15:15-16 “And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.”
b. In other words, God’s patience with the Amorites would eventually run out and the opportunity for redemption would expire, at which point God would use Israel to destroy these unrepentant people.
– This is a sobering warning to our nation that, while God may extend his mercy to us for a time, if we continue to rebel against God, God will eventually destroy the nation.
– God is not obligated to continue extending his mercy to us, and we know that the Lord will eventually judge the world in righteousness, because of its sinfulness.
c. Saul gathered Israel and attacked Amalek (Vs 4-7)
– This city was roughly 70km south of Jerusalem, and Amalek was another 50km south-west of Telaim. Amalek was on the extreme southern end of the Promised Land.
– When Israel came out of the Wilderness of Zin, they could have passed directly north through the land of Amalek and entered straight into the Promised Land, but the Amalekites were hostile toward Israel, and Israel was forced to go east into modern-day Jordan, and cross over the Jordan River to enter the land.
– Saul spared the Kenites but smote Amalek
II. Saul Disobeyed in Sparing Agag (Vs 8-15)
- Saul spared the self-pleasing things (Vs 8-9)
a. These things were dedicated by God unto destruction, but Saul coveted them and spared them from destruction.
– Saul’s actions here picture the back-slidden, defeated Christian. God sees sin in their life as abhorrent and demands the death of the self-life, but the Christian has pet sins that they have coveted, that they see value in, and so they spare the sins of the self-life.
b. Saul destroyed the things that were obviously vile.
– Many Christians are like this too. They get rid of the obvious sins in their life, the things that are obviously wicked, but they are hanging onto their private sins, the things that they can cover up, or polish up.
– This is the sin of partial obedience. We clean up only those things that make us look bad in the eyes of others but are less concerned when God shows us a sin in our lives that is an offence to Him. - Saul sought to please God and men (Vs 10-15)
a. God repented of making Saul king over Israel.
– God had not sinned or done anything wrong. To repent means to have a change of heart and mind toward a particular person or thing.
– When Saul was humble and had no desire to be king, God chose him to lead the nation of Israel. But now, Saul had begun to rebel against God and turned his back on God, so God changed his heart and mind toward Saul being the king of Israel.
b. Many people think of God as being fickle because there are times when God intended to destroy a people but then repented of that.
– God is not fickle, but man certainly is, and God acts towards man on the basis of man’s heart toward God.
– This means, for example, that when Nineveh was living in wicked rebellion against God, God intended to destroy the city, but when the Ninevites repented in sack-cloth and ashes, God saw the change in the hearts of the people toward God, and God changed his mind regarding the destruction of the city.
– God acts toward man on the basis of man’s heart toward God. - When Samuel came to Saul at Gilgal, Saul tried to pretend as though he had fulfilled God’s commandments.
a. As Samuel approached, Saul tried to start out on a good note saying, “Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.”
– Once again, Samuel cut right to the chase saying, “What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
– Saul, if you have done what God commanded you then there shouldn’t be anything left from that wicked city. It should have been utterly destroyed.
b. Saul could not pretend that he had been fully obedient to God.
– We cannot pretend to be fully consecrated to God because the evidence in our own lives will betray us. I wonder if, as you sit here today, you know that there is an area of partial obedience in your life that God want you to deal with.
– Perhaps God would say to you, “what meaneth the noise of worldliness on your living room TV?
– What is this noise of worldly philosophy that dominates your thought life.
– What are these sights of immorality and sensuality that are entering your eye gates?
c. Lastly, Saul tried to pretend it was the fault of the people.
– Saul was supposed to be the spiritual leader in Israel, but he put the blame for the nation’s disobedience on the people.
– I mentioned last week that Saul didn’t seem to have a self-reflective muscle in his body. Here, Saul tried to put the blame on the people while ignoring the fact that he himself had spared Agag as his own prize from the battle.
– Next week we will look at the second half of the chapter as we consider the following points:- Saul was rebuked by Samuel (Vs 16-23)
- Saul pleased men rather than God (Vs 24-35)
Conclusion:
- God is not satisfied with our partial obedience. If you speed through a school zone and a police officer pulls you over, will he be satisfied to know that you followed the law elsewhere? No! You need to follow the law every step of the way.
- You cannot please God and men. You will exhaust yourself trying and never achieve the goal.