1 Samuel 15:24-3324And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 25Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. 26And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. 27And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. 28And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou. 29And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. 30Then he said, I have sinned: yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God. 31So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the Lord. 32Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. 33And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. (1 Samuel 15:24‑33)
The confession of sin which Saul made here was not a true one at all. God wants reality. He will never accept a confession that is only made to gain back the prestige or position we have lost before others by our sin. Such a confession is not repentance toward God at all, but only for self-exaltation. Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Loan, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.” Saul acknowledged that he had sinned, but not to the Lord, only to Samuel. He said he had disobeyed the Lord and Samuel, not the Lord only. He blamed the people for his sin, not himself. He asked Samuel to pardon his sin, instead of asking the Lord to pardon it. He wanted to worship the Lord with Samuel, instead of offering the sacrifice of “a broken and a contrite heart,” Psalm 51:1717The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:17), which is what the Lord wants. All this stands out in marked contrast with David, whose confession of his sin we read in this psalm. David realized that his sin was against the Lord, and that he ought to confess it before Him. This he did, frankly and fully. The result was that he was completely restored while Saul lost everything.
Samuel told Saul here that it was too late now to regain what he had lost, for the Lord had rejected him as king. Oh how empty is a profession without reality, and such people soon show, in spite of all their pretensions, where their hearts really are. They never feel sin as it is before God, but only think of how it appears before others. Indeed even a true Christian, if away from the Lord, may only be taken up with what others say or think of hint, Now the Lord never gives up one who is really His own, but He did give up Saul, for he was never a true man of faith. When the Lord is dealing with His own, He continues until He has brought such into His presence in true confession. How gracious He is with us over and over again in all our failures.
Saul acknowledged his sin again, but only to Samuel, asking at the same time that he might be honored in the presence of his people. Samuel then turned with him to worship the Lord. Later events showed the utter breakdown of poor Saul, a man after the flesh, but in the meantime Samuel acknowledged Saul’s position as the Lord’s anointed until he was removed by the Lord Himself. Faith could see another in view, even David, “a man after God’s own heart,” the figure of the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If Saul would not carry out the judgment of the Lord on Amalek, then Samuel must do it, and so Agag, king of the Amalekites, whom Saul had kept alive, was brought to Samuel. No matter how delicately he came, the mind of God had not changed, and Samuel hewed him in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. If any of us have an “Agag,” no matter how nice it may seem, or how delicate, let us bring it to the Lord in Gilgal. We cannot walk in the enjoyment of our portion in Christ, or in the power of the Spirit of God, as long as we allow some fleshly thing in our lives, “for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:1717For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17), It is not enough to just put it aside, but let us “hew it in pieces before the Lord.” He wants a full whole-hearted obedience.
ML 09/05/1954