1 Samuel 15:1-35

Two weeks ago I began with a history quiz and this morning I want to start with a political quiz. I will show you the Iraq policy of four presidential candidates and then you will match the policy with the candidate.

We will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. We will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.

We would direct them to draw up a clear, viable plan to bring our troops home starting with the first 60 days of the Administration.

Accomplishing each of these goals will require more troops and is a crucial prerequisite for needed economic and political development in the country.

Attack the Iraqis and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.

Candidate #4 is not Mike Huckabee’s position, but it belongs to the Lord. This was the Lord’s message spoken to King Saul in 1 Samuel 15. Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. ²This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

Saul did not carry out this command as prescribed by the Lord, and for that, he received a harsh punishment—he was rejected as king. I confess to you that there is a part of me that would much rather skip over passages like this one because they raise very difficult questions. It would be easy to focus only on the well known part in verse 23. Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice. But this chapter is crucial to understanding King Saul and King David, and ultimately our own hearts, so we cannot merely pretend it does not exist. We cannot skip over the hard parts or rip it from its context. We must face it head on and learn from it.

We need some historical background to understand the Lord’s command to utterly destroy the Amalekites. Exodus 17 records a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites. You may remember this story because the success of the battle depended on Moses keeping his arms raised above his head. When Moses’ hands were lifted high, Joshua was winning the battle, but when his arms got tired and came down, Joshua would begin to lose. Aaron and Hur stood on either side of Moses and held his arms in the air and so Joshua defeated the Amalekites. But it turns out that this was no ordinary battle. The Amalekites had done something terribly wicked, because the next verse records a promise from the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” (Ex 17:14)

The battle was over, but because of something the Amalekites had done, God promised that one day he would wipe this enemy from the face of the earth. The reason for this pending wrath is told forty years later at the end of Deuteronomy.

Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget! (Dt 25:17-19)

To complete the picture of the Amalekites, we add verse two of this chapter. I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. The Lord had just delivered his people out of slavery in Egypt and just a few weeks into their journey, they were attacked the Amalekites. But this was not one army attacking another army. The Amalekites attacked the weakest members among the Israelites. The Israelites were tired weary, and low on supplies of food and water. When they were at their most vulnerable point, the Amalekites ambushed them. They attacked helpless women and children. They attacked the old and the weak. They were not just thieves and murderers, they were the most cowardly and wicked kind of thieves and murderers. Moses and Joshua won the immediate battle that day, but their actions were so evil that God promised his vengeance would fall upon them one day.

In about the middle of his forty year reign, King Saul was chosen as God’s instrument of vengeance. This was not a small, inconsequential favor that God was asking of Saul. The Lord was making good on a 450 year old promise to take care of the Amalekites and he commanded Saul to carry out his instructions. As I said before, I didn’t want to skip over the part about total annihilation of the Amalekites because it would be dishonest to do so, however, neither do I want to get caught up wit this part and miss out on a bigger picture. S then, what follows is my best explanation of this dilemma of God’s wrath and vengeance.

First of all, the judgment upon the Amalekites is part of God’s overall judgment on all sin. In the days of Noah, God did not wipe out a whole nation but rather an entire planet, save six people. The judgments of God are harsh and fierce, but if you carefully read your Bible, we also know that they are just and right. You should wrestle with this passage. The annihilation of an entire nation should bother you tremendously, but it need not cause you to doubt God. When Abraham was wrestling with God over the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham made this statement. “Will not the judge of all the earth do right?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Sin is so destructive and antithetical to God that it must be dealt with in judgment. Do you remember what Tim Chaffey said when he talked about his leukemia? He said, “I never asked the age old question, ‘Why me?’ Instead I asked, ‘Why not me?’” In the same way, instead of asking, “Why did the Amalekites have to be punished so severely?” we should be asking, “Why shouldn’t they have been punished?” We should also realize that we deserve to be on the receiving end of King Saul’s sword just as much as they did, and it is only the blood of Christ which spares us from a similar fate.

Furthermore, we must see this judgment in light of the sacrifice of the sinless Savior on the cross. Instead of asking, “Why did God send the Amalekites to their death?” we should be asking “Why did God send his sinless Son to his death?” This is the greatest injustice. If you hold up the massacre of the Amalekites in one hand and the massacre of Jesus Christ in the other, which hand holds the greatest injustice? If you cannot immediately see that the massacre of Christ is infinitely greater than the massacre of a nation, you do not understand the gospel. Whenever we see these difficult passages in Scripture we must hold them next to the cross to put things in their proper perspective. In his perfect sinlessness and justice, Jesus took on those sins so we would not have to. It is justice that Men would die from their sin but unjust that God would die for men’s sin—but this is what he did. So whenever we learn that 55 people died in one night from tornadoes, we must hold this tragedy next to the cross. When we learn that five people were gunned down in Kirkwood, Missouri by a crazed gunman, we must hold this tragedy next to the cross. And we must do this with our own personal trials as well—hold your trial in one hand and the cross of Christ in the other.

Now that we understand Saul’s assignment, let’s move on to his response to the Lord’s command. Saul went to war and shed much blood, but he failed miserable in obeying God. Let me read three verses from this chapter and see if you can find the problem.

They spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God. (v. 15)

The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder…in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal. (v. 21)

I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God. (v. 31)

Did you see it? Each time Saul was speaking with Samuel, he always referred to the Lord as “the Lord your God.” Twenty some years before this Saul had been anointed king over God’s chosen people, but by this point he had already disowned the Lord. The Lord was not his God, he was Samuel’s God. Saul was an atheist and he didn’t even try to hide this fact. We know that modern day politicians throw around God’s name to be politically correct and win points with the people, but Saul was not even trying to do this much. I don’t think Saul believed in anyone but Saul.

1. Saul obeyed the letter of the law, but disobeyed from his heart. This is what Saul heard from Samuel. “Go destroy the Amalekites.” That was all he understood. Saul was a man of war with a long string of military victories, so he was more than glad shed blood in battle, especially since he thought it would earn his him some points with Samuel’s God, the local deity of the Israelites. Even though he was essentially an atheist, he seized the chance to win brownie points from Yahweh. He did not grieve over the taking of lives. He did not understand the righteous judgment of God. He saw the opportunity for a good fight and a chance to promote himself. The best evidence of this comes at v. 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.” Can you imagine such audacity? Saul was mighty pleased with himself.

2. Saul proclaimed his innocence and self-righteousness. When he was confronted by Samuel, in verse 20 Saul replied, “But I did obey the Lord. I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king.” Here is the frightening thing about Saul: he really did believe he obeyed the Lord. He saw himself as righteous and blameless. This is an important reminder for us against the very real threat of legalism. I don’t necessarily mean the type of legalism that says don’t go to movies or don’t play cards, but the type of legalism that is a works righteousness. Sometimes we feel that since we go to church, attend Bible study and help with the building project, that we are doing well spiritually. Theologically, we know that we can’t actually earn our salvation but we mistakenly think that we can maintain our salvation by these good works. Samuel nailed Saul to the wall when he said, Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.

In essence, God was saying to Saul, “I don’t need you.” I don’t need you to fight my battles. I am perfectly capable of doing that myself. There is a doctrinal term that is not used very often, which is called the doctrine of aseity. Aseity means just what I said—God doesn’t need anyone or anything else. The doctrine of aseity is spelled out in Psalm 50.

God didn’t need Saul to bring his judgment upon the Amalekites. God doesn’t need us to tell others about him. He doesn’t need us to come to church and praise him. He doesn’t need us to work in the nursery or serve as elders or preach sermons or lead worship. God is completely sufficient in himself. He does not need us to do any of these things—but he wants us. He wants us to walk in obedience from the heart because he knows it is best for us. God can manage his kingdom by himself just fine, but if we are not active in that kingdom, he does not lose out—we lose out. We lose the blessing. We lose the joy. God doesn’t need us, but he wants us. God surely doesn’t want your strict adherence to the law, but he wants your heart of obedience.

I had the experience one time of talking with someone who was trying to take a big step of obedience. As we were talking through this difficult step, I stopped for a moment to tell him that in helping him, I was being a little selfish. If he was to take this step of obedience, I know for certain that there would be an outpouring of blessing and joy, and I wanted to be around when the flood let go. You see, the flood of blessing and joy would be so great that I would get splashed in the face just by being close to the situation.

God is not asking you to destroy a nation, but he is asking you to obey his word from the heart. Some of you are facing a difficult step of obedience right now. Will you walk in the way of obedience or will you e a Saul, and be chiefly concerned about yourself?

[i] Barack Obama

[ii] Hillary Clinton

[iii] John McCain

[iv] “The LORD”, 1 Samuel 15:3