It is deeply solemn to notice that Samuel uses language concerning the rejection of Saul similar to that which Balaam used concerning the blessing of Israel. Balaam said, “God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent” (Num. 23:19). The blessing of Israel was therefore assured, whatever the enemy might do or say, or whatever unfaithfulness might manifest itself in the people themselves. Samuel said, “The Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for He is not a man, that He should repent” (1 Sam. 15:29). The divine rejection of Saul was thus as irrevocable as the blessing of the nation, for when once God has pledged His word, He never goes back upon it. This blessed fact is the true resting place of faith in all ages.
The execution of the Amalekite king concludes this solemn chapter. Let none doubt the righteousness of this. It is God's great governmental principle that “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7), and Agag's cruel sword had filled many a mother's heart with grief. His own turn had now come in the justice of God. So lightly did he feel his position, so utterly unrepentant of his enormities was he, that he approached Samuel quite jovially. “Gaily” is the word employed by Darby; “cheerfully” is used by the Revisers in their margin. But “Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal,” for God is light as well as love. Another pagan king acknowledged the equity of that which befell him when his captors cut off his thumbs and great toes. To no fewer than seventy kings had he been similarly distressful (Judges 1:6-7).
“Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.”