1st Samuel Chapters 15 – John Karmelich

1. I can summarize this chapter in two words: Obedience and Judgment.

a) There, all done. We can go home now. ☺

b) This chapter marks the “beginning of the end” of Saul as king of Israel. By the end of the chapter, the prophet Samuel tells King Saul that he is no longer king. Technically that won’t happen for another (roughly) 20 years, as David is only a boy at this time.

c) Saul is stripped of his title for one reason: Lack of complete obedience.

d) One of the great lessons to get out of this chapter is “partial obedience is not obedience”.

i) Partial obedience is like being a little bit pregnant. It can’t be done. ☺

e) Let’s discuss obedience God’s grace.

i) Grace is un-earned blessings. It is the idea of giving something good to someone that doesn’t deserve it. God saves us for eternity not because we are good people, but because of “un-earned blessing”, he saves us out of his love. The price for our sins is paid for on the Cross.

ii) God’s grace does not mean we are now free to sin as much as we want. What God demands for us in exchange for His grace is obedience.

iii) It would be like someone saving your life and you never say thank you. If someone saves your live, you are eternally in debt to them and owe them your eternal gratitude. Since God saves us for eternity, we “owe” Him that obedience.

iv) Let’s not mix us “faith and works”. The bible clearly teaches we are saved by faith alone (Galatians 2:16, et.al.) Yet if we are trusting in that faith, then are actions should “naturally” follow. For example I may have faith to believe an elevator will hold my weight, but I act on that faith by getting in the elevator.

f) If we have committed our lives to serving God, then we are no longer living for our desires but His desires. That is what the bible is all about: An “instruction book” on how to live our lives out. To do “God’s will” is to live in complete obedience to God’s will.

i) Obviously it is a little more complicated than that. Some parts of the Old Testament are applicable to the Jewish people only. Christians are not required to “keep Kosher” on the food laws. Acts Chapter 15 covers some of those issues.

2. Getting back to my opening theme, the other issue is judgment.

a) We tend to think of judgment as sending one to hell after they die.

b) While that is an important part of judgment, Judgment is also punishment in this lifetime as well. God can punish us in our lifetime for whatever sins we have committed.

c) God does not do this out of hatred. It is done to make us better people. The same way a parent punishes a child for bad behavior, so God punishes “His children”. The same way a parent punishes a child to make them better people, so God treats us the same way.

d) Judgment can also be done as an example. “Locations” are often judged. Nations of people are often judged. Those judgments can mean that a particular town or a particular nation will no longer exist. That is often God’s judgment for sinful behavior.

i) We’ll get into some specifics of that later in this lesson.

ii) In this chapter, Saul will be judged for a lack of complete obedience. It is important to state he is not sent to hell for his actions, but he does lose his kingship. It is an example of God’s judgment.

iii) At the same time, we are going to read of the Israelites completely destroying a particular nation called the Amalekites. It is another example of God’s judgment. Notice how God can use one group (the Israelites) to judge another (Amalekites).

e) Now that I’ve given this happy and upbeat bible lesson, it’s time to start. ☺

3. Verse 1: Samuel said to Saul, "I (Samuel) am the one the LORD sent to anoint you (Saul) king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. ² This 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. ³ Now 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.' "

a) Samuel is giving a tough message to King Saul. That message is to destroy a tribe called the Amalekites. Samuel’s orders from God are to destroy every man, woman and child of this tribe, along with their possessions.

b) Before we discuss the reasons for this judgment, first notice Verse 1:

i) Samuel emphasizes the fact the he was sent by God.

ii) Samuel reminds Saul that he was the one who anointed him king.

iii) The reason for those reminders is that the task at hand is difficult. The Amalekites are spread over a large territory. Further, it is difficult to have to tell a soldier, let alone a king that he has to kill innocent women and children.

iv) The point is when God calls you to do something difficult, or, if you are in a situation where you know the biblically “right thing to do” is difficult, remind yourself of how God has worked in your life. Sometimes that assurance can help you get through the hurdle of doing a difficult thing.

c) Now, onto the big moral question. Why would God want the Israelites to do this?

i) After all, it is cruel to have to kill innocent people. Is that a God of love?

ii) The first thing to contemplate is that this order was only to kill the Amalekites.

a) For example, God never ordered the Israelites to go kill all the Egyptians after the Exodus. God never ordered the Israelites to kill all the Philistines. God did want the Israelites to conquer the land, but never gave the order to kill every man, woman and child to any group other than the Amalekites.

iii) So, what did the Amalekites do to “earn” such a judgment?

a) First of all, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites when they exited from Egypt. It is the first recorded battle after the Exodus (Exodus Chapter 17).

b) Years later, when Moses was near the end of his life, he gave one big speech to the Israelites, as they were about to enter the Promised Land. Most of that speech is the book of Deuteronomy. Here is a quote:

(1) “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!” (Deut. 25:17-19 NIV)

(2) A few key points from that Deuteronomy passage:

(a) The Amalekites attacked the weakest aspect of the Israelites.

(b) God ordered that after the Israelites had “rest” in the Promised Land, then the Amalekites should be completely destroyed.

iv) With all of that in mind, it is now over 400 years since the time Moses gave the command to destroy the Amalekites. Why the judgment now?

a) After all, all the Amalekite soldiers who did the damage are now long dead. Why punish their descendants?

b) First of all, it is a reminder that when God proclaims a judgment, we are reminded that this judgment does not go away with time. God may be “long suffering” before judgment occurs, but it does eventually occur.

c) Also remember that part of the command by Moses is that the judgment against the Amalekites was not to occur until “they had rest from all their enemies”. During the period of the Judges, the nation of Israel was not organized under any king. There was no army. One possibility is that God was waiting until the first king to come along with the first significant Israelite army before executing this command.

v) Now the next issue: Why do this judgment in the first place? After all, other nations and tribes fought the Israelites. What was so special about them?

a) First of all, they were the first nation to attack Israel. Second, as implied in the Deuteronomy passage, they were especially cruel in that they only attacked the weakest parts of the Israel. They picked on the stragglers.

b) Remember that God wanted to show the surrounding nations that God of Israel is far greater than all of the surrounding gods. Therefore, he “allowed” Israel to wins wars over surrounding nations. It was God’s way of showing the superiority of the Israelite God.

vi) Finally, why the completeness of the judgment? Why not just kill the soldiers?

a) One reason is that when Saul failed to kill all the Amalekites, it came back to haunt them.

(1) An Amalekite eventually killed Saul. (2^nd Samuel 1:8)

(2) King David will have to go fight the Amalekites (1^st Sam. Chap. 30).

(3) A descendant of the Amalekites, centuries later was Haman of the story of the book of Esther. (See Esther 3:1 and 1 Samuel 15:8).

(a) Haman tried to kill every Jew alive in the book of Esther. If Saul had killed all the Amalekites, Haman wouldn’t live.

b) The next reason is to show the surrounding nations that when the God of Israel does make a condemnation judgment, it is complete.

c) As to the “God of Love” and “God of Judgment” issue, I sleep well at nights knowing God is perfect. If God is perfect, he is perfect in judgment. In Revelation Chapter 20, there is a final judgment of all individuals. Nonbelievers will be judged individually based on their lives. I suspect there will be many children in heaven who come from “bad” parents.

(1) My point is I let God sort all of that out. Eternity is a lot longer than our time here on earth. God will judge individuals fairly.

(2) This is about corporate judgment. God judges tribes, nations, and people “corporately” as well as individually.

(3) Jesus said, “Woe to you, Korazin! (a city) Woe to you, Bethsaida! (a city) If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon (more cities), they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21).

(4) Jesus’ point is He is judging cities for their lack of repentant. Those cities of Korazin and Bethsaida are not part of modern Israel. They were “judged” and destroyed”.

d) OK, we’re almost done with the first three verses. ☺

e) Now comes the personal application:

i) As we live for God, our entire lives become an internal struggle between doing God’s will and doing our will. “Our will”, when it is in contradiction to God’s will, is sin. Sin means to “miss the mark”.

ii) A common Christian buzz-term for doing our will in contraction to doing God’s will is called “living in the flesh”. The “flesh” is a word-picture of our skin. The idea is we focus is on ourselves (our “flesh”) and not God.

iii) The Amalekites are a word picture of “the flesh”. Again, when I use the term “the flesh” I am referring to the desire to do our will and not God’s will.

iv) When the Israelites first left Egypt, the Amalekites attacked the “weakest”. What does our “flesh” do when we are trying to seek God? It wants to take over our lives again. It attacks the weakest areas of our lives trying to get a “foothold”.

v) To destroy the Amalekites is God’s desire for us to destroy our own desires and to do His will in every aspect of our lives. A reason (not the reason) that God wanted the Israelites to destroy every Amalekite along with all of their possessions, is that it is a word-picture to destroy every possible temptation of the flesh.

a) After Moses fought the Amalekites in Exodus 17, he proclaimed:

(1) “The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” (Exodus 17:16b NIV)

b) That does not mean that every generation of Israelites had to go fight the Amalekites. It is another word-picture about fighting “our will” in order to do God’s will. It is a life-long war. Remember the word “Israel” means to “struggle with God”. It refers to that life long battle we all have.

f) We have actually made it to Verse 4. ☺

4. Verse 4: So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim--two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. ⁵ Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. ⁶ Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

a) Verse 4 mentions that Saul raised an army of 210,000 men. For the second time in 1^st Samuel, the tribe of Judah was singled out as specifically having 10,000 men.

i) The reason Judah is singled out is not known. They may have been the largest tribe. Other speculation is that the Book of Genesis hints that the Messiah comes from the tribe of Judah and therefore, a “special mention” is given.

b) Before the actual attack, King Saul told a tribe called the Kenites to separate themselves from the Amalekites so they wouldn’t be killed. That separation teaches us a few things.

i) It teaches us that God didn’t want to hurt the innocent with the condemned. There was no judgment pronounced on the Kenites, so there was a specific warning to them to separate themselves.

ii) The Kenites were “hanging around” with the Amalekites. That wasn’t good. ☺

a) Yet still, they were spared judgment as they were not condemned.

iii) Verse 6 gives the reason they were spared: “They (Kenites) showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt”. (Reference: Joshua 2:12-14).

c) Notice in Verse 5, Saul set up an ambush.

i) First notice Saul’s partial obedience. His failure, coming up in a few verses, was to not completely wipe out the Amalekites. He did partially obedience by mustering up an army and attacked. His failure was one of a lack of total obedience. That failure cost Saul his kingship.

ii) Second, notice that Saul didn’t just march in there and say, “God told me to wipe you out, so stand still while I kill you.” ☺ Saul still had to be sneaky and attack them. When God does not give specific orders as to how to be obedient, I will argue it is acceptable to improvise as long as there are no biblical violations.

iii) God was also working in the background that no Amalekite was aware of the ambush, even though the Kenites exited the scene.

5. Verse 7: Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. ⁸ He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. ⁹ But Saul and the army spared 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.

a) To summarize, the Israelites killed a lot of Amalekites. The territory covered was from “Havilah to Shur”. This is a good-sized territory that is today part of the Sinai Peninsula.

b) What they failed to do is to completely follow God’s orders to destroy everything.

i) King Saul spared the King of the Amalekites.

ii) The soldiers spared the best of the animals. Notice in Verse 9 that everything “weak and despised” were destroyed. “Everything that was good” was spared.

iii) One has to wonder if the solider were thinking, “Hey, if King Saul can spare the King of the Amalekites, why can’t we spare the best of the stuff for ourselves?”
It is another example of poor leadership.

iv) Remember this is about executing God’s judgment. To spare the “best of what is left” was to disobey what God had intended.

6. Verse 10: Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: ¹¹ "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.

a) Here we have God telling Samuel that He (God) was grieved about Saul being king because Saul did not carry out God’s instructions. Further, the text says that Samuel cried out to God all that night.

b) First, let’s talk a little about this from God’s perspective.

i) God is not an old man crying his pillow because King Saul messed up. ☺

ii) God, by definition, is perfect. A perfect God cannot learn. A perfect God knows all things. (Reference: Isaiah 46:10). Therefore, God knew in advance that King Saul was going to mess up before Saul was ever born.

iii) What is important to understand is God uses terminology that we can understand.

a) The idea of God grieving is not to be taken extremely literally, but to be understood that from the standpoint of human suffering it “grieves” God when we are disobedient. When we are disobedient to God’s will, we suffer and those around us suffer. That is why the grieving comes in.

c) Next, notice Samuel grieves all night over this.

i) Samuel did not say, “Well of course King Saul messed up. You told me a long time ago this guy would be trouble and now look at the mess he’s made. I can’t wait to go chew him out and all of Israel while I’m at it”. ☺

ii) There is a classical expression that measures Christian maturity that applies here:

a) How much do you hate sin? How much do you love the sinner?

b) Another way of putting this test, “Do you love the things that God loves? Do you grieve over the things that God grieves over?

c) That is a sign of our love of God, when we desire the things God desires for our lives and grieve over the things God doesn’t want for us.

d) Samuel grieves for Saul because God grieves for Saul.

d) Keep in mind the word-picture of the Amalekites as a type of “flesh”. When we fail to fully eliminate our own desires for our lives it comes back to haunt us.

i) Here is Saul failing to be obedient to God and “killing” our own desires.

ii) His soldiers follow suit and keep the best of the capture for themselves.

iii) God does not count “partial obedience” because what we don’t kill (in this word-picture) does come back to haunt us.

7. Verse 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."

a) The most important thing to notice is the fact that King Saul went to go “set up a monument in his own honor”.

i) Even if you didn’t know about the “partial obedience” and Saul’s failure to do what God told you to do, a clue that Saul is messing up is the fact he is setting up a monument in his own honor. Saul was giving himself credit for the victory.

b) There is an old cliché about an owner of two fighting dogs. When asked which dog usually wins the fight, the answer is “the one I feed the most that week”.

i) That illustration applies to our relationship with God. Here is Saul failing to be obedient to God. His ego was “feed” because he thought he was obedient. King Saul’s focus is now on himself and not God. He “fed himself” by giving himself credit for the victory and not God.

8. Verse 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?"

a) This is the great confrontation scene between King Saul and the Prophet Samuel.

i) Notice in Verse 12, Saul made a monument to himself. Now that Samuel was in front of him, now Saul says, I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.

ii) (Technical note: When you see the word “LORD” in all capitals, it simply means the most holy name of God is used. This is often transliterated “Jehovah”.)

b) You have to love Samuel’s response. Let me paraphrase: “Hey Saul, you are claiming you obeyed all of God’s orders? If that is so, why do I hear the “baah-ing” of sheep and the “moo-ing” of cows in the background?”

9. Verse 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."

a) What we have here is an excuse. King Saul knew he was disobedient and is now coming up with excuses.

b) This reminds me of my favorite quote about sorrow and confession:

i) “The blood of Christ has never covered one excuse”. Corrie Ten Boom.

10. Verse 16: "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied.

a) What was Samuel’s response to Saul’s excuse? To paraphrase, “Shut Up!” It was Samuel stating the fact that God will not accept excuses for disobedience.

b) Now that Samuel got King Saul to stop moving his lips, Samuel starts to tell Saul what God wanted him to do.

11. Verse 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; make war on 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?"

a) If you remember when King Saul was first anointed king, he stated that he was from the smallest of the 12 tribes. (1^st Samuel 9:21). Even when Saul was publicly proclaimed as the king, Saul was hiding and didn’t want to face the crowd as king. (1^st Samuel 10:22).

i) The point is the prophet Samuel is reciting Saul’s history that God has raised him from a lowly person to be king.

ii) We are now many years after that event. King Saul now has a king sized ego. ☺ That ego got in the way of submitting his will to God’s will.

b) The first key word in this paragraph is the word “completely” in Verse 18.

i) Saul failed to completely destroy the Amalekites.

ii) God is not interested in partially obedience, but full obedience.

iii) The next key word is “do evil” in Verse 19.

iv) Samuel is saying for King Saul to not do complete obedience is “evil”.

v) My point is that God does not give half-credit. God does not say, “Oh well, you partially did what I asked you to do. I’ll give you a “B-“ today and let you go!” ☺

vi) As a Christian, we over emphasize God’s grace and underestimate obedience.

a) Don’t get me wrong. Our salvation begins and ends with God’s grace. Grace is unmerited favor (and love) from God himself.

b) That grace should drive us to total obedience. Out of gratitude for God’s grace, we need to be in full submission to God and live a life of total obedience to God. If you get nothing else out of this lesson, learn that!

vii) When we think of “evil”, we think of killing someone or some horrible crime.

a) Here, God calls “evil” when we fail to be in full submission to Him.

b) Jesus said “If you (believers!) then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 NIV)

c) God considers a lack of total obedience to be evil because “what we don’t kill comes back to haunt us”. Our lack of obedience leads to greater sin, as it does in Saul’s case here.

d) God sees our lack of obedience as evil. That realization should make us even more grateful for God’s mercy as well as His grace.

12. Verse 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."

a) Remember a few verses back Saul told Samuel to shut up. That only lasted 4 verses. ☺

i) Here is Saul making more excuses.

ii) It makes you wonder that if Saul simply confessed his sin without making excuses that God would have kept Saul as king.

b) It is interesting to contrast Saul’s attitude with King David’s attitude in 2^nd Samuel, Chapter 12 when David had adulterous relations with Bathsheba. When David realized what he did was wrong, he confessed his sin without making excuses. While David had to suffer for that sin, he didn’t lose the throne over the issue.

13. Verse 22: But Samuel replied: "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, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

a) Here is your memorization verse of the week. I’ll even make it easier for you. ☺ All you have to do is to remember the expression “To obey is better than sacrifice”.

b) For an Israelite, to sacrifice meant to take one of your animals and to kill it for God’s sake. To kill the innocent animal is to remind yourself that when you sin, innocent suffer.

c) To be obedient is to change your lifestyle to do what the bible teaches and do God’s will.

d) Sacrifice means to give up something you own. Obedience involves you changing. This is why obedience is superior to sacrifice.

e) Think of sacrifice as a visual, outward commitment to be willing to change. Obedience is the actual change of the lifestyle.

f) Sacrifice emphasizes the “external”, while obedience emphasizes the “internal”.

14. Verse 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."

a) This is the “heaviest” verse in the chapter and has a lot of theological implications behind it. It is time to remember the riddle: How do you eat an elephant? The answer is one bite at a time. Whenever you come to a complicated issue, “eat it” slowly and steadily.

b) This verse starts by saying that rebellion is like the sin of divination.