1 Samuel 15
“When God Himself speaks, all the reasonings and imaginations of men must be silent. Everything may deceive—who can venture to deny it? But the word of God never deceives.” Important truth, and needed, for most certainly “God will be justified in His sayings and overcome when He is judged.” Will man implead his Maker and think to carry his cause? In view of the destruction of Sodom by fire, Abraham said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And Paul, when writing, not of temporal visitations, but of the final judgment when heaven and earth shall flee away and the award be eternal, added, “We are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth.” Men reason from human feelings, but (quoting again) we ask, “Has God ever suffered Himself to be hindered in executing His righteous threats by what men call love?” Was not Saul rejected because of his rejection of the word of the Lord, the righteous sentence pronounced by Him on the Amalekites, and sparing, when he was commanded to spare not? And are we to judge these ways of the Lord by our feelings, thoughts, and standards? Let us consider the facts. “Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment.” This was certainly true of the Amalekites.
The Lord had delivered Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, and had brought them to Himself. Never were they nearer to Him. The pillar of cloud and of fire, the manna from heaven, and the water from the rock were visible proofs of it; yet it was at that time that the Amalekites sought their injury, and this from real hatred to them as the people of the Lord, for they could reap but little advantage from their attack. It was made in the presence of “the glory,” a wicked insult to God, a lifting up of their hand against His throne (Ex. 17:1616For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. (Exodus 17:16), marg.). It was both cowardly and cruel, for they fell upon all that were feeble and hindmost and when they were faint and weary. The righteous sentence went forth at once against them, and was subsequently written, the people they had wronged being appointed as ministers of judgment (Deut. 25:1919Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it. (Deuteronomy 25:19)). Thus the Lord made His people's cause His own. To touch them was to touch the apple of His eye.
Dean Milman may be right in saying that the Amalekites were the most harassing of Israel's foes; but he was scarcely so in adding, “It was a cruel but inevitable policy to carry a war of extermination into their country.” Saul last his kingdom and was rejected of the Lord, not because of a mistaken policy in sparing Agag and the best of the spoil from destruction, but for disobedience to an express command. “Now go,” said the Lord of hosts, “and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
No truth is more clearly revealed in scripture than that the Lord put the sword of judgment into the hands of Israel and commanded them to use it with unrelenting severity in certain cases (Deut. 20:10-1810When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. 11And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. 12And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: 13And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: 14But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. 15Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: 17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee: 18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 20:10‑18)). It was an honor conferred on them to execute the judgment written, and this will yet be true of them again, strange as it may sound in our ears (Zech. 9; 10; Psa. 149:6-96Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; 7To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; 8To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; 9To execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalm 149:6‑9), and col. freq.). How different now! Those who have been led to discover in Jesus a Savior, to know the ransom of their souls by His blood, and to receive in Him risen and glorified the free gifts of righteousness and eternal life, are made God's ministers of love, of mercy, and of grace to a rebellious world. The same Divine Lawgiver who, in perfect harmony with the dispensation of the law, said to Saul, “Utterly destroy, and spare them not,” now, in the day of salvation, says to His redeemed, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you” (Matt. 5: see also Romans 12:17-2017Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. (Romans 12:17‑20),
1 Thess. 5:1515See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. (1 Thessalonians 5:15), 1 Peter 3:99Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. (1 Peter 3:9)). This is the superlative honor put upon those that are Christ's, and to hear these sayings of the Lord and not to do them is to be like unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. Rejection of any of the words of the Lord will assuredly entail loss. The path of obedience in every dispensation is not only the safe path, but the path of present blessing and future glory. The believer is saved, for he has received the word of the truth of the gospel; but let him not stop there. Having life, he is to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He may lose his crown, though not his soul. To receive Christ is everything now; and as Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord, so the Holy Spirit by the word deals unsparingly with all that is of the flesh in Christians (Gal. 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)).
In this final test of Saul it is important to observe that there were no difficulties in the path of obedience. The resources at his command were abundant, and the victory was an easy one. The temptation to disobey came wholly from within.
The commandment tested his heart, and it is the heart that the word of God lays bare. As for actions, how many in Saul wore a fair appearance! At first he was modest and humble, little in his own sight, and he ascribed his victory over the Ammonites to the Lord. When “the sons of Belial” insultingly opposed his elevation to the throne, he controlled his feelings and “held his peace “; and afterward, when he was urged to use his power and put them to death, he refused, “For,” said he, “to-day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel.”
Indeed most of his expressions savored of piety and his doings of religion. On his introduction to David, when he was refreshed and relieved by the music of his harp, he loved him greatly, and desired of Jesse that he might remain with him; and these memories seem never to have left him. How well, to almost the last, he knew David's voice; and how deep was his remorse in the cave of Engedi when with tears he confessed to him, “Thou art more righteous than I... The Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done to me this day.” And so we read that immediately after his anointing, when he left Samuel to return home, he “was turned into another man,” not only gifted to rule and made valiant in war as became a king, but his whole character got a religious tone. In this latter respect it is one of the most solemn examples, in the most solemn examples in the Old Testament, of what is described in 2 Peter 2:20-2220For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. 21For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. 22But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (2 Peter 2:20‑22), as true of some in Christendom; and as Saul, more than most, brought ruin on Israel, so have these caused the most mischief in the church. Mere change of character, even when accompanied with forms of piety, is of no account with God so long as the gospel of his grace is not received by faith in the heart. In is a totally different thing when it is.
When that gospel is an implanted word (logos emphutos), not received naturally, but implanted by the Spirit, is believed as the word of God, and is rooted in the heart, then the reformation is radical, permanent, and saving (James 1:2121Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. (James 1:21), 1 Peter 1:2323Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23), Matt. 13:2323But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matthew 13:23)). The mind is renewed, the truth is in the inward parts, Christ is received, the soul is saved.
Saul's extreme deadness of conscience is one among many proofs that he was never really converted to God. He never received with meekness the implanted word, but was to the last a rejecter of it, turning at last to witchcraft and necromancy. When Samuel was grieving over him, and spending the whole night crying to the Lord because of his sin, he was setting up “a place” —that is some memorial of his victory—but like Absalom's pillar, a monument to himself (15:12; 2 Sam. 18:1818Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place. (2 Samuel 18:18), R.V.). So, when the prophet came to announce to him the judgment of God on his rebelliousness, he boldly met him with a blessing and said, “I have performed the commandment of the Lord” — “a benediction and a falsehood in a breath.”
So callous had he become that he seemed surprised to hear that rejecting the word of the Lord was sin, that “rebellion was as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry;” and when this was pressed, he, although the king, pleaded his fear of the people! and thought to cover his robbery of the spoil by saying that they took of it to sacrifice unto the Lord.
It was but too evident that, with all his show of religion, the word of God had no place in his heart, and nothing remained for Samuel but to pronounce the sentence passed on him; and never did a judge set before a convicted criminal his guilt in clearer terms. And with what effect on Saul? When everything was at stake with him for time and eternity, when there was no hope save in taking his true place as guilty, self-ruined, and helpless, and seeking mercy of the Lord, he thought only of his position in the world. “I have sinned” he said, “yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel.” Oh! this fatal lust of the praise of men. How many are the souls that have been eternally ruined by it! (John 5:4444How can ye believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God only? (John 5:44).)