Dealing with the Ending First
What a
great passage – if not a bit gory in the end.
So let’s deal with that part first and then come back to Saul. Samuel seeks out Agag, the king of the
Amalekites and hacks him to pieces.
There are some out there that question this behavior and ask if it is
really behavior one can expect from a follower of God.
This is a
tough question, but the answer I must come to is yes. This is behavior that was righteous in God’s
eyes. Notice that I didn’t say
“pleasing.” I said righteous instead of
pleasing because what would have been ultimately pleasing for God would have
been for Agag to live according to God’s ways so that judgment did not have to
fall upon him. That would have been
pleasing to God. But since Agag chose to
continue to lead his people in the ways of the Amalekites – and the worship of
the Amalekite gods – and follower their ways, then he came under judgment. Since the judgment came from God, it is righteous.
Now here
we discover a very important point. I do
not believe God wants us to be self-appointed judges over others. We cannot know each other’s hearts, and it is
not our place to go out and destroy another person. But notice that although Samuel cuts Agag to
pieces, he is not acting on his own authority and his own reason. Verses 2-3 confirm that what Samuel did (and
told Saul to do) was from the Lord.
Samuel was not a self-appointed judge over Agag. Samuel was God’s appointed judge over Agag. This is a crucial point to understanding how
this action actually is righteous in God’s eyes – as difficult as that might be
to accept.
Saul’s Third Sin: Lying to God
Let’s put
the judgment of Agag behind us and return to the topic of the last few days:
the decline of Saul. What is Saul’s sin
here in this chapter? Saul is not only
disobedient, but he also lies about it.
It is one thing to be a disobedient sinner; not many of us can change
that fact about ourselves. It is another
thing to lie about it. All along Saul
has had some real trouble confessing his errors, so it should not be any wonder
that he has trouble now.
You see,
Samuel tells Saul to destroy every aspect of the Amalekites. God wants the people dead and the animals
destroyed. {We’ll get to why God demands the utter destruction in a little
while. For now let’s focus on Saul.} Saul does not obey the Lord. He keeps the best for himself. And as I stated earlier, to make it worse he
lies about it to Samuel.
The Root of Saul’s Sin
If we
examine Saul’s sin, the main problem isn’t just disobedience. The main problem is that the disobedience is
rooted in greed and a lack of faith. Why
would someone keep the spoils of war?
Well, one might keep the spoils of war to make oneself wealthier, more
powerful, etc. To take the spoils of war
is inherently rooted in selfish behavior.
Saul is showing his character of being a self-monger in this action.
Furthermore,
Saul is showing his lack of faith {or
even more importantly, his lack of perspective!}. Saul may be increasing his wealth and animal possessions
so that he can be assured of having provision in the future. This is why most people get worried about
things like retirement accounts, amassing possessions, etc. We have an innate desire to provide for
ourselves; so much so that it often comes in conflict with a faithful desire to
trust in God’s provision. When Saul
takes these sheep, donkeys, and other things he is inherently showing a lack of
desire to place his faith in God.
Israel has
rejected the idea of having God as their king because they could not live with
trusting in God’s ability to provide. They
wanted a king to provide security for them like everyone else. Now their king has also rejected trusting in
God’s ability to provide as well. The
downfall of humanity often begins and ends with our need to focus on our own
desires rather than focusing on God and God’s desires.
Destruction of the Amalekites
I have one
last point to make. I said earlier that
I would talk a little bit about why it is that God demands the utter
destruction of the Amalekites. You can
already see how claiming their possessions can be taken as a testimony about
the human desire to provide for ourselves and not trust God. But there is more than that. The history of the Hebrew people {and Gentiles, too!} is a history that
shows how easily we are swayed into false religion and false faith. Throughout the period of the judges the
Hebrew people were always being swayed into following the gods of the
Canaanites. We seldom hear about
Canaanites turning to the God of the Hebrews.
The smallest thing – even the animals of conquered people – can be used
to sway our hearts away from God. It is
not just about faith in God’s ability to provide; it is also about establishing
an environment of loyalty to God.
This is a
place where we as Christians can learn from Saul and the Hebrew people. I don’t think we consider how easily our
hearts are swayed from God. I don’t
think that we consider often enough how the influences that we allow in our
life really do affect our relationship with God.
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