The concise depiction of Saul’s reign ends with the last verse of chapter 14 (1 Sam. 14:52). The chapter we shall now speak of gives a sort of separate history because of its contents’ importance. Here we find the reason for Saul’s final rejection, a rejection making necessary the introduction of David—the king according to God.
We have seen that Saul represents the flesh professing to serve God, and, as such, engaged in His work. In order to prove its incapacity in these conditions, God has been putting it to the test in many ways ever since 1 Samuel 9. One final trial remains. What will the flesh, which pretends to act for God, do in the conflict with Amalek?
It was written: “Remember what Amalek did unto thee on the way, when ye came forth out of Egypt; how he met thee on the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, all the feeble that lagged behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary, and he feared not God. And it shall be, when Jehovah thy God shall have given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land that Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under the heavens; thou shalt not forget it” (Deut. 25:17-19).
Now God had seen to it, in spite of all Saul’s faults, that Israel had “rest... round about.” The hour had struck for Amalek, that cruel and cowardly enemy who had massacred those of Israel who straggled behind. The Lord had sworn that there would be war between Himself and Amalek from generation to generation (Ex. 17:16). Therefore whoever had God’s glory and that of His people Israel at heart must, when the time was come, completely destroy and not spare Amalek who had lain in wait for the people of Israel when they had come up from Egypt (1 Sam. 15:2-3). “His latter end,” according to the prophecy Balaam had been forced to utter, “shall be for destruction” (Num. 24:20). Doubtless God had been able to use him as a rod to chasten His disobedient people (Num. 14:39-45), but for all that, he remained the pre-eminent enemy, a type of Satan who from the beginning of the wilderness journey seeks to oppose the people of God. There is no truce in the Christian’s conflict against him: the Christian is called upon to stand fast against the wiles of the devil and to fight against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:11-12). In this conflict Israel had once been the victor, after they had drunk the water from the rock—that is, after in figure they had tasted the presence of the Holy Spirit following the death of Christ. Led by Joshua, who represents Christ in the power of the Spirit, they had then been called upon to face this great enemy. Would the flesh be able to fill this role now, or would it prove that it was incapable of so doing?
At the beginning, in appearance, the flesh displays its capacity to do so. At God’s command Saul rises up, places himself at the head of the people, separates the Kenites who had shown themselves to be friends of God’s people (Judg. 4:11), and smites Amalek and all his people. Only he does not thoroughly execute God’s command. This the flesh will never do. The flesh cannot remain inactive to the end when God bids it do so: we have the witness of this fact in the seven days at Gilgal (1 Sam. 13:8); nor can it be active to the end, as our chapter’s account witnesses. To fail to execute His commandment thoroughly for the Lord, is to fail to execute it at all. God declares: “It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned away from following Me, and hath not fulfilled My words” (1 Sam. 15:11).
What deep sorrow for Samuel! Though knowing this man to be rejected, he intercedes for him all night long. Samuel, as we have often noticed, is always praying and interceding — for the disobedient, for the wicked, and for everyone. He mourns, he prays, but he obeys; this is peculiar to faith — the most absolute contrast with Saul’s behavior. It says: Samuel “cried to Jehovah all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning.” The latter had in the meantime set up a monument, attributing his victory to himself, for the flesh, even when engaged in the work of God, cannot do this work for Him.
As Samuel comes to meet him, Saul says: “Blessed art thou of Jehovah: I have fulfilled the word of Jehovah.” How prompt he is to vaunt himself! In 1 Samuel 15:20 we shall see him excusing himself, and in 1 Samuel 15:24, accusing himself with the same quickness. This quickness is stamped on everything. But God is not to be bought off by words: “What means then,” says Samuel, “this bleating of sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of oxen which I hear?” (1 Sam. 15:14). Saul, who had just said, “1 have fulfilled the word of Jehovah,” now acquits himself of the fault and transfers it to the people although he and the people (1 Sam. 15:9) had acted in accord. “They have brought them from the Amalekites, because the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto Jehovah thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (1 Sam. 15:15). In these few words we see Saul vaunting himself, accusing his accomplices, and coloring his disobedience with the name of service to the Lord. What blindness! Samuel will convict him of this; but first he reminds Saul that at the beginning he had been modest, little in his own eyes; that was his natural character, and God had blessed it. Why had he now rebelled against Jehovah’s commandment? Saul answers: “I have indeed hearkened to the voice of Jehovah, and [I] have gone the way which Jehovah sent me, and [I] have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and [I] have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Jehovah thy God in Gilgal” (1 Sam. 15:20-21.)
For Saul, sacrifice is better than obedience; but, “Has Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, attention than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and selfwill is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Sam. 15:22-23). Sacrifice without obedience — solemn truth — is no better than idol worship. The first attribute of faith is obedience. Paul had received his apostleship “for obedience of faith among all the nations” (Rom. 1:5). Moreover, there are many things that God prefers to sacrifice. “I delight in loving-kindness,” He says, “and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). “Go and learn,” the Lord said to the Pharisees, “what that is — I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” (Matt. 9:13.)
Obedience is what characterizes all the men of faith, from Abraham onward, the father of the faithful, who “obeyed; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.”
Here are the results that Saul’s disobedience brought upon him: “Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, He hath also rejected thee from being king” (1 Sam. 15:23). In times past at Gilgal, the Lord had said to him through Samuel: “Thy kingdom shall not continue” (1 Sam. 13:14). Now the final blow has been struck: “God hath rejected thee.”
How does Saul receive this sentence? He confesses his sin, but without humiliation, without contrition, still hoping to he able to avoid the consequences. “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of Jehovah, and thy words, for I feared the people, and hearkened to their voice.” Always some excuse, but an astonishing quickness to confess the evil he had denied a few moments earlier. In all this there is no exercise of conscience. Saul prefers to plead his cowardice before the people as a mitigating circumstance than to take full responsibility for the sin. What a contrast to the exclamation: “I have sinned against Jehovah” out of David’s mouth after his fall! Saul hopes thus to obtain pardon and be restored. It is too late; the sentence is conclusive, for God is God, and “the Hope of Israel will not lie nor repent.” “I have sinned,” says the poor king a second time; “honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel” (1 Sam. 15:30). To the end he has himself and his own reputation in view. Samuel does, in fact, honor him, but then leaves him. As long as God has not executed His sentence on the powers established by Himself, we are to acknowledge them.
“Saul worshipped Jehovah” without benefit to God or to himself. From now on God’s sentence against Amalek is confided to Samuel’s hands; it is he who hews Agag in pieces at Gilgal. Then he goes to Ramah, his father’s house, but for him it is the place of weeping and mourning. Saul goes to his own house and from this point onward there is a complete separation between him and the prophet.