King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 12 notes
1Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
What a premise to start the word of the Lord with. It was as if he knew Saul's heart, and that it was prone to rebellion, so he starts with a very strong premise, probably with the hope that that would make Saul obey completely.
How wrong he was.
2Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3Now 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.
God had long been waiting for the best opportunity to avenge him of his enemies. Aside the many abominations of the nations, they also attacked God's people.
Finally the time was ripe; God had the needed resources, the king, his people and their faith in him to deliver. Everything was ripe. Who knows, maybe God had even set prophets to warn them of the coming wrath.
So all was set in the plan of God. But Saul...
Imagine God had said and prophesied through his prophets that he would destroy everything in Amalek, including even every beast, only for Saul to spare them in the name of burnt offerings, including sparing the king.
Now God's word sounds incomplete and someway.
I just checked on Google, and God had indeed said 400 years before that he would destroy the memory of Amalek, though the details about the livestock were given by Samuel the prophet.
So now imagine, of all the people to spare, Saul spared the king. Who else could have more easily revived the kingdom of Amalek if not the king?
It was like Saul had no regard to God and his ways. He would not strictly follow anything. He did what he wanted to do. NO wonder he so grieved God till God rejected him.
4And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
Saul was now a very powerful king and ruler.
5And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
8And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10Then came the word of the LORD unto Samuel, saying,
11It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
But one could argue that he performed most of the Lord's commandments for this battle.
But to the Lord, half obedience is no obedience at all.
12And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
I read this in passing, only to be brought back to it. The word used, "place", here is actually like a monument of his victory and conquest, meanwhile it was God who had given him the victory. Saul was soo proud and full of it.
13And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
14And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15And 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.
16Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
What a cheeky response, unless I am wrongly putting modern day interpretation to Saul's response.
Saul was asked to stay. Could it be he was walking off on him, and trying to maintain his kingly majesty in the midst of his rebellion? Very likely, because the next words of Samuel were to remind him of when he was lowly in his early days. Oh Saul, Saul.
This is what Google shared with me: "It highlights the tragedy of Saul's pride: he was 'big in his own eyes' and viewed the prophet of the Most High as a subject who needed permission to speak."
17And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
18And the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
20And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.
Excuses excuses excuses
What? "Unto the Lord THY God." Was the LORD NOT his GOD AS WELL? This Saul.
22And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams.
23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
Saul's lows in summary - rebellion and stubbornness
The first rejection of Saul, when he intruded into the priest's office, was that his kingdom would not continue forever as the Lord had planned for him.
Maybe, seeing how God-fearing Jonathan was, it might have ended with him or his son.
But here God rejects not the descendants of Saul, but he rejects Saul himself as king whiles on the throne. I believe that is why Jonathan might have died in the war. He would have been co-regent with David, his best friend.
This was not what God said, so Jonathan sadly died in the war; he was not spared.
We are not so wise; we all ought to be humble before the Lord, because he knows the end from the beginning of all things. We just ought to walk with him in humility in all things.
He is greater and bigger than we.
24And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
26And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.
27And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
28And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine, that is better than thou.
29And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.
30Then he said, I have sinned: yet honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD thy God.
31So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the LORD.
32Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
33And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
Hewed him in pieces, very violent and vengeful.
But Samuel said something interesting, that Agag had made others childless and now he was to reap what he sowed.
And so a just recompense was laid upon him, and he was hewed to pieces for all his wickedness.
34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
35And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.