1 Samuel 15 - Good Enough
- Chad Werkhoven
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Redefining what is good is never a good idea.
SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... The Israelites have rejected God as their king and demanded one like the nations, So the LORD commanded Samuel to anoint Saul as king. Saul began with promise but quickly revealed a pattern of self-reliance and disobedience, showing that Israel’s nation-like king could not replace their need for the LORD.
The LORD commanded Saul to completely destroy the wicked Amalekites - including ALL of their men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys - and so Saul does... mostly.
1 Samuel 15 (NIV)
9 But Saul and the army spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.
12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal.”
13 When Samuel reached him, Saul said, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD's instructions.”
14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
15 Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
16 “Enough!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
“Tell me,” Saul replied.
17 Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ 19 Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?”
20 “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
22 But Samuel replied:
“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the LORD?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has rejected you as king.”
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD.”
26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!”
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 91
Q. What do we do that is good?
A. Only that which
arises out of true faith,
conforms to God’s law,
and is done for his glory;
and not that which is based
on what we think is right
or on established human tradition.
Summary
The LORD is easy to love and worship when He accommodates Himself to our preferences. We want a God with a little of this and a bit of that - a God that's rich in compassion and graciousness (Exodus 34) - but whose sweetness is paired with just a pinch of wrath and vengeance (Rom. 12:19). We want a God who gives the wicked king Agag what he's got coming, but who spares the women, children and infants (!!).
So when God's commands seem out of touch with what we consider to be right, we feel pretty good about doing most of what God has said, but doing it our own way. King Saul sure did! The moment he sees Samuel heading his way, Saul sprung up and eagerly said, The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions!
Saul's logic almost seems to make sense. When Samuel, who'd given Saul God's command of total destruction, heard the bleating of Amalekite sheep and the lowing of their cattle, Saul has a great answer. We spared the best to sacrifice to the LORD your God, he explains.
But Saul wasn't motivated by compassion or a desire to delight the LORD with sacrifices. He didn't have any issues totally destroying everything that was despised and weak - including the women, children and infants - but he was unwilling to destroy completely everything that was good. Good in his own eyes, at least.
Saul's true motivation becomes clear when Samuel can't find him, because he'd gone to Carmel to set up a monument in his own honor. When we define goodness on our own rather than that which arises out of true faith, conforms to God’s law, and is done for His glory, it always results in idolatry of the worst sort: honoring ourselves above the LORD.
Dig Deeper
So many of God's commands seem harsh and severe - not the least of which His demands for genocide. Our sense of fairness and justice recoils at the idea of women, children and infants being slaughtered, no matter how wicked their king and fighting men were. And why kill the calves and the lambs?
But the LORD was not being unfair at all. These Amalekites were sinners, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God gave them exactly what they deserved. The holy and righteous Creator and Sustainer of all things was completely just in ordering their slaughter.
If anything isn't fair, it's that God has spared you from this same fate. Your wickedness manifests itself in a more civilized way than the Amalekites' did, but you were born into the same dreadfully sinful condition they were, and you deserve exactly what they got.
This is what the amazing grace of God made possible for you because He poured out His perfectly justified wrath upon His Son in your place. This is why we don't just celebrate Resurrection Day once a year, but every moment of every day.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who values obedience as better than sacrifice;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will submit to God's definitions of goodness, rather than trying to redefine it on your own;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
