To Obey Is Better

1 Samuel 15:1-23

THE COMMAND

MAIN IDEA: PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE

1-3: God gives Saul the command to completely wipe out the Amalekites. God is fulfilling is promise to “completely blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven” (Exodus 17:14-16, Numbers 24:20). God must always deal with sin because He is a righteous & just God. Sin can have a devasting impact on everyone.

THE COMMAND DISOBEYED

4-8: Saul spared King Agag of Amalek. The first disobedience of Saul.

9: Saul spares all of the things he deemed useful to himself. (sheep, goats, cattle, etc...) Saul’s motives were not to serve God, but to serve himself.

MAIN IDEA: WE CAN’T HIDE OUR SIN FROM GOD

10-11: God “regrets” that He made Saul king.

Regret = hebrew word nakham

“For God to say, "I feel sorrow that I made Saul king," is not the same as saying, "I would not make him king if I had it to do over." God is able to feel sorrow for an act in view of foreknown evil and pain, and yet go ahead and will to do it for wise reasons. And so later, when he looks back on the act, he can feel the sorrow for the act that was leading to the sad conditions, such as Saul's disobedience.” - John Piper

12-13: Saul worships himself instead of God. Saul sets us a monument of himself and self-righteously believes He is living in obedience to God.

SAMUEL COOKS SAUL

14: Samuel points out Saul’s disobedience to God’s command to completely wipe out the Amalekites.

15: Saul’s excuse is that his disobedience was actually to worship God. Saul thought he could worship God on his own terms. If God wanted sheep He would have asked for them. God wanted obedience. Obedience is true worship to God. We cannot live a life of constant disobedience to God and claim to follow Him. Disobedience is putting your yourself and your will above Gods.

16-20: Samuel restates God’s command and Saul’s disobedience

THE CONSEQUENCE

22-23: KEY VERSE: God rejects Saul as king due to his disobedience

1 Samuel 15:22–23 “22 Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Notes:

The Amalekites, Esau’s nomadic descendants, made a lot of trouble for God’s people. After the exodus, they raided Israel in the wilderness when the nation was vulnerable and defenseless. The Amalekites continued to provoke Israel with ruthless, evil methods. God promised Moses He would “blot out the memory of Amalek” (Deut. 25:19), but He didn’t do this immediately. Instead, His wrath was postponed, as it so often is, giving the Amalekites opportunity to repent.

ḥērem (research this casey)

New Testament passages such as John 3 and Hebrews 10 make it clear that because of Jesus’ death and resurrection holiness can be attained not through the destruction of those who offend against God but through trust in Jesus

Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 97.

The call for destruction is an expression of his holiness. Our inability to cope with this fact maybe indicates that we have not grasped the awesomeness of the sovereign God who will call people to account for their actions. We must resist the temptation of our generation to ignore the serious consequences of offending God

Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 98.

This was not simply an act of disobedience, although of course it was that; it was a direct affront to God, a refusal to take seriously the concept of his holiness and the complete dedication of the Amalekite people and goods to him. Saul and his army kept for themselves what was God’s. Achan committed a similar offence which was seen as deserving of the death penalty.

Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 98.

From this point on, Saul’s concern for his own reputation and status takes priority. The building of the monument points the people to Saul rather than to God as the one who has rescued them from their enemies

Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 99–100.

Sacrifice can never be an alternative to obedience and without obedience is an irrelevant abomination. In modern terms, attendance at services or dedication to other forms of religious observance can never be used as a way of offsetting behaviour or attitudes in the rest of life which are offensive to God

Mary J. Evans, The Message of Samuel: Personalities, Potential, Politics and Power, ed. Alec Motyer and Derek Tidball, The Bible Speaks Today (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2004), 100–101.

The Destruction of the Amalekites

This is not first interaction between Israel and the Amalekites. There have been others—all violent, and all instigated by the Amalekites. The first is right at Israel’s birth as a free nation in Exodus 17—it’s the famous story of the Amalekites attacking Israel and Moses holding up his hands to give Israel victory.

The whole creation was affected – and is affected – by the sin of human beings. That is the danger of dominion. When righteous human beings exercise dominion everything they touch is blessed. When wicked human beings exercise dominion, everything they touch is cursed.