These chapters are loaded! This may get lengthy. Let’s jump right in…
SAUL AND THE AMELIKITEES
We’ve been bumping into the Amalekites since Genesis 14! They were on the list of nations attacked by Chedorlaomer on his campaign of giant-slaying. With Amalek on a hit-list with a bunch of other ferocious giant-clans, it may tell us something of their sketchy, post-flood origins.
We should note that Amalek was the name of a grandson of Easu (Gen. 36:15-16), but there are 2 clues that lead me to believe that the Amalekites that Saul is commanded to destroy are not descendants of Esau to their east; but the older, giant-connected tribe living in the south.
CLUE 1: God tells Samuel that His beef with the Amelekites is because they fought with Israel when they came out of Egypt.
CLUE 2: The Kenites were settled among them and the Kenites settled in the south of Israel, not in the mountains east of the Jordan where the descendants of Esau lived. See also Numbers 13:29.
“This is what the Lord of armies says: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, in that he obstructed him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.”
1 Samuel 15:2 NASB2020
Y’all… that happened 400 years before. It’s been 4 long centuries since the Amalekites attacked Israel. Remember that battle? It’s the one where Moses sat on a rock and Aaron and Hur held up his hands with the rod of God in his hands all day as Joshua led the army of Israel.
God does not let injustice off the hook. There is no “statute of limitations” when it comes to the Almighty. Don’t think for a moment that the evil-doers of this world get away with anything. The LORD is a God of Justice. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne (Ps. 89:14).
Incidentally, 400 years is a time period that we see elsewhere. Israel was in Egypt for 400 years. The Lord was silent for 400 years from the last prophecy of the OT to the opening of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness. I have no idea what to make of that other than it seems to be a period of “we-thought-God-forgot-about-us.”
Remember Balaam? Well, among his other prophecies he says, “Amalek was the first of the nations, But his end shall be destruction.” Numbers 24:20 NASB2020
One of the last things Moses said to Israel was:
“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, how he confronted you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. So it shall come about, when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall wipe out the mention of the name Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.”
Deuteronomy 25:17-19 NASB2020
Amalek has been on death row for 400 years. And their date with execution has arrived. ☠️
Now, when I see a narrative that calls for entire destruction, it makes me think of the wrath of God in Revelation and where the returning Jesus slays all of His enemies and wipes them off the face of the earth.
If there is any connection to that, then Saul is supposed to be in the role of Christ – wiping out the wicked. Only he doesn’t. Saul is more like the “First Adam” than the “Last Adam.” Just like the First Adam, Saul casts the blame for his disobedience on someone else. Also like the First Adam, Saul fears other people more than he fears the Lord, and sides with the “other” and his own desires rather than with the clear command of God.
The First Adam was told to “dress and keep” the Garden. The Garden was God-space. Sacred territory. The First Adam was to “keep” it. That means guard and protect and not allow anything wicked within it. He was commanded not to eat of one tree. The First Adam failed to do this.
David will be a faithful picture of the Second Adam (Jesus) who will succeed in driving the wicked out of Yahweh’s land where Saul failed to “dress and keep (protect/guard) the Garden,” (Yahweh’s sacred space).
Does that make sense? I hope so. This story is like an extreme Bible layer-cake. We’ve got layers from Genesis to Revelation here.
Then there’s THIS confection…
There’s gotta be a way to make this low carb.
Ok, now that we are all craving dessert… wait, I need a cup of coffee peach & orange green tea from my very proper, gilt tea service. 🫖
Wow… How I have wandered! Back to Saul.
So Saul attacks the Amalekites and they mostly did what God told them. And as Miracle Max knows, there’s a a big difference between “mostly” and “all.”
“However, Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle and the second best of the young fatlings and all that was valuable; they were not willing to utterly destroy them. But all the possessions that were despised or worthless, they utterly destroyed.” 1 Samuel 15:9 LEB
Now, before we start railing on Saul, how often have we utterly destroyed some sinful things in our lives that were despised or worthless but kept a few of the nicest sins for ourselves – with plenty of justification that they actually made life better? Some deep self-examination might be in order before we get on a righteous high-horse.
GOD REJECTS SAUL AS KING
The LORD of course knows what Saul has done and why. And He comes to Samuel to tell him the bad news. Samuel responds by spending the entire night in prayer. (Perhaps he thinks of how Moses interceded for the people and God changed His mind.) But to no avail. Saul is done.
Think for a moment how devastating this must be for Samuel. His own sons became crooked. The people didn’t want them to be judges. Perhaps in Saul he thought he had another chance to mentor and advise and see the glory days return to Israel. Samuel was the one who crowned Saul and publicly affirmed him. This second rejection had to have stung. Nevertheless, Samuel is faithful to obey the Lord and confronts Saul.
“And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, ‘Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.’ And Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?’ ”
1 Samuel 15:13-14 ESV
Allow me to meddle a bit and put this in a 21st Century context.
“God, I’m doing what You asked. I’m a Christian. I take my family to Church and we give and serve and my kids are in youth group and we even support missions”
“What then is this profanity on your tv in my ears and the sound of fleshly music that I hear? What then is this sexually explicit material and this violence that you look at?”
Saul tries to justify his disobedience with the argument that the animals that were spared are for the Lord. THAT is not what God asked for.
I’m gonna say something shocking and controversial: Jesus didn’t ask you to attend church or give to missions or volunteer. He asked you to crucify the flesh and be alive in Christ and walk with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is very possible to avoid the will of God by doing something “godly.”
“For this is the will of God: your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 ESV
And so we come the famous Sunday School memory verse: “To obey is better than sacrifice.”
But look at the first line…
“And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
1 Samuel 15:22 ESV
This part reminds me of the widow giving her 2 mites at the temple while the wealthy Pharisees put in impressive offerings. Jesus said that she put in more than the big givers because she put in all she had to live on. The widow had to have been trusting the LORD to provide for her needs. And it is obedient faith that pleases God.
It doesn’t matter if you give millions to missions and volunteer 40 hours a week and go to church every time the doors are open. God’s WILL for us is our sanctification. (That’s a $10 word that just means to be made holy.) God would rather have 2 pennies from obedient faith than all the churchy things a person can do while harboring impurity and failing to submit fully to His will.
Ok. Sermonette over.
So Samuel turns to go and Saul gets violent. You don’t tear away the edge of someone’s robe by tugging gently on it. And so the kingdom will be torn from Saul and given to a “better man.”
The Septuagint in verse 29 includes a prophecy of Israel’s future. It reads, “And Israel will be divided in two and God shall not turn back nor repent…”
“Then he (Saul) said, ‘I have sinned! Now please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me so that I can worship Yahweh your God.’”
1 Samuel 15:30 LEB
Every translation I checked agrees on this. Not “Yahweh my God.” “Yahweh your God.” This is not a good sign.
One thought about Agag then we’ll move on to chapter 16.
When we get nearly to the end of the OT, about 11 months from now, we’re going to read about a character called “Haman the Agagite” in the book of Esther. Agagite means “son of Agag.” The only Agag in scripture is this King of the Amalekites (that tough old Samuel “hacks into pieces.”) 😳
It could be that King Agag had an offspring somewhere that “got away” and that his line continued. If that is the case, then Saul’s failure to wipe out the Amalekites will lead to what would’ve been the complete genocide of Israel if God had not intervened.
Because of Saul’s disobedience we have not heard the last of the Amalekites yet.
DAVID CHOSEN AS KING
After this event, Saul and Samuel will not see each other again. (Sort of. But we’ll get to that in a couple weeks. 😏)
In the meantime, Samuel is down in a funk about Saul but the Lord tells him to snap out of it and go find Jesse in Bethlehem.
Did you notice that Samuel tells the Lord that if Saul gets wind of him anointing someone else, he’ll kill him?
Samuel isn’t using that phrase like we do today. He means it literally. It’s a hint at how far Saul has fallen- that he would seek to kill his own mentor and the man who brought him into his current position.
It’s rather Darth Vader-esque actually.
Remember the baby that Boaz and Ruth had? Obed? Well, Obed inherited everything that had belonged to Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion. And Obed married and had a son named Jesse who seems to have inherited the family farms.
Those fields that Ruth gleaned in? Probably a stone’s throw away from the fields where David grew up tending sheep. And those same shepherd’s fields will one day be the location where a regiment of angels announce to some shepherds that Messiah has been born in Bethlehem.
We’re all familiar with David being overlooked and left out in the pasture with the sheep when Samuel comes. Jesse parades the handsome older sons before the esteemed prophet and Samuel learns that, “The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7 NLT
David is brought from the fields and anointed “in the midst of his brothers” which makes me think of both Joseph and Jesus who became a man and was anointed in the midst of the brotherhood of mankind.
So the Spirit of the LORD leaves Saul to rest upon David from that moment. And Saul? Well, he starts to come apart at the seams.
If nothing else, verse 14 should help overthrow any simplistic ideas about how things work in the spiritual realm. “An evil spirit from Yahweh tormented Saul.” We aren’t given any details on this spirit – but whatever it was, the nature of the “torment” was fear. The Hebrew word here is usually translated “afraid” or “terrified.” Saul is eaten up with phobias.
And it just so happens that one of his servants has heard David play the harp.
I find it interesting that David is described as “a brave man, a warrior, prudent in speech, and handsome. And Yahweh is with him.”
1 Samuel 16:18 LEB
But to his father, David was just “the youngest.” Like, his father doesn’t quite acknowledge him as an adult while others have noted all these very grown-up things about him. My guess is that David has already killed the lion and the bear and the stories have gotten around.
That phrase “prudent in speech” can also mean “wise in business.” David is capable. He can handle things. Yet his father doesn’t seem to recognize this in him.
It kind of reminds me of how Jesus’ relatives in Nazareth didn’t recognize and honor him like others did.
So David moves to the palace to become not only Saul’s court musician but also his armor-bearer, a position of tremendous trust.
And it’s just in time too. Because Israel is about to have a giant problem.
To The Reader 