Tom Schreiner focuses on King Saul’s disobedience to God’s command and his subsequent rejection as king. Schreiner emphasizes that God prioritizes obedience over ritual sacrifices, stressing the need for genuine devotion and submission to God’s will. He highlights that true obedience comes from a faithful relationship with God rather than mere religious formalities.
The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.
If you have a Bible, turn to 1 Samuel 15, in the pew rack in front of you. I believe it’s on page 237, 1 Samuel 15, page 237. I met a dear friend in 1983 while I was at Fuller Seminary. Started a Bible study there. He came to faith in the Lord as a result of the explosion of Mount St. Helens in 1980. He was camping. He feared going to hell and gave himself to the Lord. It was great. This was a small Bible study.
There were six of us, I believe, three couples. He was passionate for the things of God. He was saved out of a sort of a hippie background. He studied the Bible constantly. He called me often to talk about God’s Word. I could see him growing in the Lord. He would talk to others about the Word of God. He was a zealous witness for Christ. He talked to his co-workers about Jesus all the time. Everybody around him knew where he stood. He grew in the things of God. He taught classes over the years.
Taught people about the things of the Lord. He was married with several children, but after twenty-plus years of marriage, he abandoned his wife and he ran off with another woman and left his family. He was defiant, wasn’t he, and rebellious, and he refused to do God’s will, something that was very clear to him. And that’s what we see in this passage today, don’t we, with Saul.
Well, let’s begin reading in 1 Samuel 15. I’ll read the first eight verses.
1 And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord . 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'” 4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. (1 Samuel 15:1-8, ESV)
Well, the first question I want to ask of this text, I think it’s a burning question today, is this punishment of the Amalekites just? When we come across a passage like this in the Old Testament, that’s a crucial question, isn’t it? Is this a just punishment? Some have doubted the truth of Scripture because of passages like this, where they are commanded to wipe out the Amalekites.
They argue that Israel made sinful excuses for what they wanted to do, wipe out opposing people. They see it as parallel to the conflicts we have today. I mean, we can think of, although there’s relative peace now, we can think of that longstanding conflict in Northern Ireland. We can think of conflicts between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and of course many other conflicts historically, where there’s a desire to wipe out one another. So what do we say about this? Is this just? Is this right?
The first thing I want to say is our belief that the innocent should be preserved is, our intuition there is right. Our belief that the innocent should not be punished is a correct belief. But secondly, God clearly commands this attack, doesn’t He? We look back at verse 1, Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord.” And then verse 2, “Thus says the Lord of hosts,” this is clearly the word of God, and the particulars are from God.
Look at verse 3: “and strike Amalek, and devote to destruction all that they have.” What does that word destruction mean? Put under the ban, devote to destruction all that they have. What does he mean by that? The rest of the verse tells us, do not spare them, but kill; this is the word of God, right? Both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
So we have to face clearly what this word says. Yes, child and infant, all, all are to be destroyed. This is clearly a word from God.
But thirdly, the innocent are spared. Yes, we’re all sinners, but not all cultures deserve to be wiped out. The innocent are spared. Did you see that in verse 6? Saul goes to the Kenites and says, “leave, leave.” Because you showed kindness to Israel when we left Egypt. You are not to be destroyed.
So fourthly, Amalek is destroyed, because they tried to destroy the people of God. There’s some other passages here, Deuteronomy 25:17. So, Israel’s departing from Egypt in the wilderness, Amalek’s coming up, he says, “Remember what Amalek did. How he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary. When you were exhausted, how Amalek attacked you. And he cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you. And he did not fear God.”
So presumably, I think it’s fair to infer from this, they cut off the weary and the weak who were in the back, children and women, and those who weren’t strong. They attacked them and killed them. That’s what Amalek did when Israel was coming out of Egypt.
17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget. (Deuteronomy 25:17-19, ESV)
Exodus 17:8, we see the same thing. I’m only going to read verses 14 through 16.
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner, 16 saying, “A hand upon the throne of the Lord ! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:14-16, ESV)
So what do we conclude from that?
We conclude from that, my fifth point here, don’t have to number the points, it doesn’t really matter, but it is, Amalek isn’t innocent, is it? They’re guilty. They deserve this punishment. That’s God’s evaluation. They’re not innocent. They deserve it. Because of how they treated Israel, God’s people, when they were in the wilderness.
What about the children? I mean, that’s a hard thing, isn’t it? Strikes all of us. What about the children? What about infants? Until a culture can become so corrupt that it deserves total annihilation. I mean, we’ve seen it before in the Bible.
Haven’t we? We saw it with the flood. A culture so corrupt that total annihilation is warranted. Ultimately, we trust God, don’t we? Ultimately, we leave the destiny of people in His hands instead of trusting our own wisdom about what is right and just. Our God is good, and our God is just, and He does everything well and right and in accord with His character. He never punishes those who ought not to be punished. It is arrogant to think that we know more than God.
It is arrogant for us to think that our standard of justice is more righteous than His. Although, many people fall into that error when they read these accounts. For us, whose minds are corrupted by sin, to judge Almighty God, whose lives are stained by sin, to judge Almighty God and to become the standard of justice, that is not right. That is not holy. That is not good. The total destruction of Amalek, by the way, is a foreshadowing of what? Of judgment in hell, isn’t it?
It’s a foreshadowing of the ban forever from God’s presence of the final judgment to come. A reminder for all of us in here to be right with God when we enter His presence. And that word is for all of us today. We have God’s command, and we saw already, in part, how Saul responded. But verse 9 of 1 Samuel 15, the people spared Agag. Remember what verse 3 said: “Do not spare them, but kill them all.”
But verse 9, “But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.” Saul did not obey what God said. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. Now, we’ll kill all these things. We’ll kill all the bad animals. They kept the good.
Verse 10, “The Word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret, I repent.” That’s the word. “I regret, I repent, that I have made Saul king.”
For he has turned back from following me and has not performed by commandments. I’ll say more. Let’s hold this verse in our mind. I’ll say more about God regretting and repenting. But we just want to say here, our God is in a real relationship with human beings, isn’t He? It isn’t that God changed. There’s no idea here of God repenting, of God changing. His character remains the same. Who changed here? Saul. I mean, that’s what the text says. He turned back from following me. He has not performed my commandments. God didn’t change.
Saul changed, but the relationship changed, therefore, didn’t it? Because our God loves and grieves and hates sin. And Samuel was angry or troubled. And he cried to the Lord all night. I think that’s an amazing verse. Samuel was full of grief and anger. He was deeply troubled. I mean, I felt that way about my friend I started the sermon with. He was a dear friend of mine, and I’ve often thought about him, and I still pray for him because he hasn’t come back.
When something like that comes, we’re troubled and we’re grieved and sometimes we can’t sleep when that happens. Maybe it’s a family member, maybe it’s a co-worker, a relative, a friend. They’re not following the Lord.
It brings anguish to our hearts. It brings a tremendous sadness, doesn’t it? And grief. We’re not always happy, are we, as Christians. I mean, the Lord sustains us but there’s hard times that come into our lives and sometimes those hard times are other people we love who aren’t following the Lord and that brings us grief and sleepless nights.
This is a sign, isn’t it, that Samuel lives for the glory of God. He cares about the things of God, and his heart aches over what’s happened to Saul because he cares about his people, and it is a tragedy. Verse 12, Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, and it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” He set up a monument for himself. He’s self-absorbed, isn’t he? I mean, what’s his life about? Saul has turned.
It’s self-focused, isn’t it? It’s preserving his memory. It’s focusing on himself. I mean, we’re all tempted to do that, aren’t we? But let’s fight against it. Let’s fight against the temptation to set up monuments for ourselves as Saul did. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed be you to the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord. He’s self-deceived. He’s repressing the truth. We can read the Bible and yell at our children, can’t we? We can do spiritual things and not be following the Lord. We can be deceived about where we are. And Samuel said, “What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” Samuel said, “Where’s the evidence? Or, where’s the beef? Or, why the beef, right? Why? I shouldn’t be hearing that. I thought there weren’t supposed to be any animals left. What’s the sound I hear?” Saul’s full of excuses. Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared – there’s that word again. you’re not supposed to spare.”
The people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction. So we’ve done it for religious reasons. We’ve done it because we’re devoted to God.
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop. Shut it. Don’t tell me anymore. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.” And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel.”
And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, “Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. Why, then, did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” That word, “pounce,” is the same word that’s used in 1 Samuel 14:32, when they pounced – if you were here last Sunday night, you can look that verse up – when they pounced on the food in the battle and ate unclean food.
There’s a suggestion here, at least a hint here, that they ate also of this food. That it wasn’t only to sacrifice to the Lord, the way they pounced on these things. But Saul doesn’t get it, does he? He doesn’t understand. Or he does understand, and he’s repressing it. Samuel speaks these very hard words. And Saul says in verse 20 to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have done what’s right.” I mean, here’s a man who’s seriously self-deceived. Well, he has obeyed it in part, hasn’t he? Here he goes.
I’ve gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. Yes, he did, didn’t he? He went on the mission. He did go there. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I’ve devoted the Amalekites to destruction. Well, yeah, he did, didn’t he? Mainly. Mostly. He did a lot of what was commanded, but he didn’t do all. And we see what Samuel is saying here. Partial obedience is disobedience. It’s not enough. It’s not enough to say that he did some. I’m a sinner. We’re all sinners.
When I sin, my temptation is to rationalize it and make excuses. And that’s your temptation too. That’s the temptation of all of us. But let’s fear. Let’s fear that we don’t fall into the trap Saul fell into here. Because he became blind to his own sins. And he ceased to understand himself. That’s a fearful state to be in, brothers and sisters, isn’t it? He ceased to understand who he was anymore.
If you have problems in your life, sin problems, and others are giving you counsel, and you’re disagreeing with them, and you’re resisting, you ought to listen to them. You ought to be humble and listen to others. Because you’re blind. you’re blind.
And we could all end up there. you’re blind to your own sin. You fail to see straight. So you need to listen, like Saul didn’t, and do what others say. Because, like Saul, your own opinion shouldn’t be trusted anymore. Because you’ve lost your way. you’re not seeing things straight.
That can happen to a person, can’t it? Yet, David sinned too, didn’t he? Grievously sinned. But David admitted it, didn’t he? And was truly repentant.
Well, we go on with Saul, verse 21, “But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, and here it is again, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. We did it to sacrifice it for religious reasons.” But notice that word “took.” The people took. That reminds us of something in the Bible. Remember? Achan. Achan.
Because the city of Jericho and everything in it was under the ban, too. Don’t take anything from the city. And Achan took something. But there it is. They took. They took something under the ban. But Saul rationalizes it, doesn’t he? And he says we did it for spiritual reasons. And Samuel, in some of the most famous verses of the Bible, says, “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.”
I grew up thinking, probably a lot of us thought this way, that God wanted me to fulfill religious duties. Go to church at the appointed times. Say prayers. Say those. Confess sins. That’s what God wants me to do. But when the Lord graciously illumined my eyes to the gospel, I understood, no, what it means to be a believer is to give our entire lives to the Lord. To hand our lives over to Him. Now, don’t misunderstand me. When we do that, we’re still sinners, aren’t we?
We still depend on the righteousness of Christ for our salvation. We still fall short in many ways as believers. We rest on Jesus’ death and resurrection for our righteousness. But let’s not take away from what this verse is saying. There is an obedience that comes into our lives that’s different when we’re believers. There is a change. It doesn’t help, does it, if we have a lot of seminary students here, it doesn’t help ultimately if you’re a great student and studying God’s Word and your family’s falling apart.
I mean that because it looks like the religious thing to do well in seminary, doesn’t it? That looks religious, but it doesn’t help. It’s not pleasing to God if our families are being dissolved from within. That’s not pleasing to the Lord, is it? It can look outwardly impressive, but inside there’s a cancer eating away. Better. Better. You know, priorities. We have to be disciplined. You know, there’s a lot of other things I’d want to say, but better to get a poor grade and keep your family going, right? How much better?
Verse 23, For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Why is rebellion like divination? Because in both we’re trusting in something other than God, right? We’re trusting in ourselves ultimately. It’s presumption. Verse 24, Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now that might be real forgiveness. I mean, real repentance.
But I don’t think it is, as we keep reading the story. There’s a way of saying you’re sorry where you’re not really sorry. And how can you tell? By what happens next. And that’s the problem with Saul. It’s more to the story. Is that a real sorry? No, it’s not a real sorry. There’s a story Kevin Layman tells about a child who got mad at his mother and said, “I hate you.” Came down a little while later and said, “Hey, mom, it’s time to go to the activity.” And mom said, “We’re not going.”
And he said, I’m sorry. And mom said, thank you. We’re not going. Well, you know, it was a sorry to get what he wanted, right? That’s not a real I’m sorry. That’s the problem with Saul. There are insincere apologies. And we can tell by what happens next. And what happens next? Saul says, verse 25, now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. I want you with me. I want your status. I want your approval. I want other people to see us together. That’s what Saul wants here.
And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. your reign is effectively over.”
Remember in 1 Samuel 13, his dynasty has ended. Now Samuel’s saying, “your kingship has effectively ended.” Yeah, he has a few more years, but it’s basically over for him. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 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. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord , he has also rejected you from being king.” 28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. (1 Samuel 15:21-28, ESV)
And that’s chapter 16. Samuel will go anoint David as king. There’s a new king coming. And also, verse 29, “The glory of Israel will not lie or have regret or repent, for he is not a man that he should have regret or that he should repent.” So, I want to stop and say something about this, because this is really important.
Because, did you notice this in the text? First, it says God repented. God repented that Saul was king. And we see this again in verse 35. The very end. The Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. But here, it says the Lord doesn’t have regret. He doesn’t repent. The Bible says God repents, and the Bible says God doesn’t repent. So, how do we handle that? We could handle that by saying, well, the Bible’s confused. The Bible’s contradictory.
Well, one of the problems with that is, it says it in the same chapter, doesn’t it? Just a few verses apart. The writer knew what he was doing, and this is an artistically and beautifully crafted book. And, of course, I haven’t sent the Bible as God’s Word. That’s the most fundamental answer of all. But we have good reason here. Not to think that this writer was dumb. We’re invited here to think hard. There’s a sense, isn’t there, in which God repents. And there’s a sense in which he doesn’t. That’s what this is telling us.
We have to keep both in our mind. It can’t be that God repents that Saul was king, or appointed as king by him, because he didn’t know that he’d fall away. It can’t be that, can it? I don’t have time to defend that, but there are oodles of verses that tell us that God knows everything that will happen. It can’t be that. Now I’m just going to say, read Bruce Ware’s book, God’s Lesser Glory, for more. I don’t have time to say that, but I think that’s really obvious. God knows what’s going to happen.
It signifies, though, that God is in a real relationship with human beings, doesn’t it? He’s not a robot. He’s personal. He does grieve, he does love, he does regret in that sense. There are analogies in human experience. Maybe as a parent, you can see in advance that one of your children is going to fail and suffer remarkably. You know that in advance, but when it happens, you still grieve, right? you’re filled with sorrow over what has happened. God is in a real relationship with us as human beings. He’s a personal God.
But verse 29 also tells us God is unchanging in His character. God has ordained the end from the beginning, and He does not change His plan ultimately. His plan is determined from the beginning, and He will not change it. This verse cannot mean that God, see now here’s another answer, God will not repent of removing Saul as king.
And it’s just that situation. You see what I’m saying? Some people say, no, He repents, He only repents, He only does not repent of Saul being king. But it can’t be that because it says here, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for He is not a man that He should have regret.
29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (1 Samuel 15:29, ESV)
It cannot be that sometimes God lies, can it? He always tells the truth and He never repents of His plan. Those two belong together. He never repents of His plan that He’s ordained, and He always tells the truth. It stands found.
So, it isn’t that God, in this specific instance, does not repent. It’s that God never repents of His everlasting plan. He is to be trusted.
He has ordained that Saul will not be king. And yet, he regrets. Well, let’s come to the end of the passage now. We see again in verse 30, Saul says, “I have sinned, but it’s a false apology. Yet honor me.” Here’s why it’s false, I think. “Yet honor me now before the elders of my people.” Remember, we saw earlier that Saul did this because he wanted to please people. “Honor me. I’ve sinned, but honor me.” And before Israel. “And return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God.”
It’s all mixed in with religious language. So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord. Amazingly, Samuel did end up going back. But Samuel obeys, doesn’t he, in contrast to Saul? He does the hard thing. Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully, or trembling. We’re not quite sure what that word means there, but the main point’s clear. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. (1 Samuel 15:32-33, ESV)
And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. It’s what he deserved. “As you did this, so the Lord is doing to you. He’s executing the judgment of God. He’s obeying God.” And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel.
It’s a poignant word, isn’t it? And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. And I just close with this. For me and for all of us, you want your life to count, don’t you?
I mean, by faith, we don’t want to end up where Saul did. We don’t want, ultimately, there to be written over our life, grief. We don’t want to be like Judas. It would have been better if he were not born. We don’t want the Lord to write over our life, I regret that you were born. It would be better if you weren’t alive.
So I plead with you as we close, give yourself afresh this week to do the will of God. Because trust manifests itself in obedience, doesn’t it? Not perfect obedience. We plead the blood as we sang today, but it is obedience, isn’t it? It is a change of life by the grace of God.
Let’s pray. Father, we do confess our sins before you. We do acknowledge we have rebellious hearts, but we pray, Lord, that you’d soften them by your grace and that you’d turn us, keep us, keep us, we beg you, O Lord, from the sin of Saul. Keep us from defiance and rebellion and blindness and foolishness. Lord, we are foolish, I am foolish, but Lord, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior. And we pray this in His name, Amen.
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