Saul disobeyed God, and instead of doing as the Lord commanded him (1 Samuel 15:3 “Now go 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.”), Saul spared Agag, as well as the finest of the cattle and sheep from being destroyed.
Before admitting that he indeed disobeyed the Lord (which he finally does after some prodding by God’s prophet, Samuel), Saul tried to reason out his motive for his disobedience, saying that “they…the people” spared some of the sheep and cattle so as to offer them in sacrifice to the Lord.
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Saul tried to justify himself by pushing the blame of disobedience onto the people he was put in charge of as the anointed king.
He also tries to justify his decision, in the name of sacrifice to God.
Saul even tries to double down even more forcefully on his assertion that he did everything God asked, and that it was the people who disobeyed.
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
* We can come up with all kinds of reasonings for our disobedience to God, even seemingly sacrificial ones, but our Father desires our obedience over our sacrifice!
22 So 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 heed than the fat of rams.
* As a result of Saul’s disobedience and his subsequent misguided self-justification for his actions, God took his anointing from Saul and gave it to David.
David:
In 2 Samuel chapter 11 we see that David also sinned against God by committing adultery with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and impregnating her, and then killing her husband and taking her as his own wife.
However, in the following chapter 12 when David is confronted by God’s prophet, Nathan, regarding his sin, David’s response was simply that he sinned against the Lord.
David deserved death for his transgression (killing an innocent man).
But I believe, that because David owned up to his sin and did not try to make excuses for it when he was confronted by God, the Lord spared his life.
(2 Samuel 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die).
God kept his covenant with David, and His anointing remained on his family, eventually bringing Jesus to earth through David’s “house”.
What an incredible display of God’s mercy on those who repent!
* I wonder if Adam and Eve owned up to their sin instead of making excuses for their disobedience to God, if things might have gone a little differently for them.
* God desires for us to be like Jesus…sinless…. However, when we do miss that mark (and He knows we will), and our sin is exposed to us, He desires for us to be like David when his sin was exposed to him. He wants us to admit our wrongs without giving phony reasons as to our motives (especially not “holy” ones), confess them, and lay them at Jesus’ feet, and accept whatever consequences may come, trusting always in God’s infinite mercy towards His children.
