Torn

Today's text is really going to wrestle with some of this. And it's going to wrestle with really, I think, one of the most important, if not the most important questions out there. What does God want from us? How does God want us to relate to him and to each other? What is it that God is really looking for from us? So, got your Bibles with you. Open up to the end of 1 Samuel chapter 14. Let's dive into the text. Starts this way in verse 47.

47 When Saul had taken the kingship over Israel he fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, against the Ammonites, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he routed them.

This concluding paragraph at the end of chapter 14 is going to be this kind of summary of Saul's kingship. And it starts out pretty positive. When he had taken the kingship over Israel, so when he had solidified his rule, when he had established himself as the king that God had anointed him to be, he started doing what the king was supposed to do, which was deliver and fight for the people. Israel at the time was surrounded by enemies. If you pull out an atlas and look at what's being described here, they're surrounded. So you've got Ammon to the northeast, Edom to the south, Zobah's up to the north. You've got the Philistines all along the western coast. And everywhere you look, there's enemies that want to take out the covenant people of Yahweh Israel. And so he's in this constant state of battle in his kingship. And it says wherever he turned, he routed them. The Hebrew there, yarsha, it's to inflict punishment. One of the commentaries I read this week said it was like he was playing whack-a-mole and he was winning. So he would whack them.

Anyway, so this is the nature of Saul's kingship. He didn't live in a time of peace. He lived in a time of war and conflict. And in fact, that's why God had anointed him. If you remember, we saw back in chapter 9 of 1 Samuel, Samuel comes to Saul and says, God says to Samuel here,

16 Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines, for I have seen my people because their cry has come to me.

God tells Samuel why he's going to anoint Saul, why Saul is being chosen. Saul is going to be chosen as God's instrument to lead Israel, which is God's instrument, and give them deliverance from their oppressors. That's why Saul was elevated and anointed and chosen to lead the people of Israel in the first place. As I've seen my people, their cry has come up to me. What a beautiful echo of the opening chapters of Exodus as Israel laments and cries out to God in their slavery to Egypt and God hears and remembers his covenant and delivers them, brings them Moses to deliver them. Saul, like Moses, has been called by God, anointed by God, given a position and a role by God to bring deliverance to God's people. Not just a political position. It's a spiritual reality.

You know, that's really one of the things that I try to do week in and week out is help you to remember that when we're reading this text, there's so much more that's going on than just the material, political, historical reality. These books of the Scripture, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Chronicles, yeah, they're historical books, but they're not history like we write history. They're theological history. They don't tell us everything that happened. They selectively choose and arrange and order the information so that we can see what happens through the lens of the Scripture, through the lens of what God is up to, through the lens of a greater reality. And that's going to be all over this text. Back to 14:48, it says he did valiantly. It's a great Hebrew word here, chayot. It means heroic strength. He did valiantly.

48 And he struck the Amalekites and delivered Israel out of the hand of those who plundered them.

So verse 47, he lists all these other nations, but now the Amalekites are going to be brought into focus because chapter 15 is going to be all about Saul and the Amalekites. And it starts out that he did valiantly. So there's almost this sense of like, okay, things are looking good. In verse 49, it says,

49 Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishvi, and Malchi-shua. And the names of his two daughters were these: the name of the firstborn was Merab, and the name of the younger Michal. 50 And the name of Saul’s wife was Ahinoam the daughter of Ahimaaz. And the name of the commander of his army was Abner the son of Ner, Saul’s uncle. 51 Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel. 52 There was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.

And this is more than just a listing of names of the family and those that are connected to Saul. This is really setting the stage of what Saul has around him and the potential that Saul has for a lasting legacy. He's got solid leadership around him. The Lord has blessed him with a wife, children. He's got the potential to have this lasting legacy. But we've already seen the flaws and the cracks in Saul's character, and they're going to come to fruition in this text today. Verse 52 says, there was hard fighting against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he attached him to himself. So Saul's gathered, he's been called to fight. So he's gathering an army and he's described as a valiant man. But anytime he sees a strong man or a valiant man, he brings them into the fold. He gathers them. And those words there in the Hebrew are significant. The word there for strong man is gabor. And that's an important term. It's not just somebody that's strong. It's somebody that is supernaturally strong. The first time we come across gabor is in Genesis chapter 6 to describe the descendants, the offspring of the fallen watchers with the human women that create the Nephilim. They're known as the giborim. These horrendous abominations of strength and power. And so there's these little echoes. Just the way that the author is setting this up at the end of chapter 14, trying to draw us into the larger story, the cosmic conflict that is taking place. And so you've got this battle against the fallen ones, the offspring of rebellion and evil. And that's what the conquest was all about. If you were with us a couple years ago when we walked through the book of Joshua, as Joshua comes in and leads the people in the conquest, it is about wiping out the descendants of that cosmic rebellion. So the context here screams potential but also great peril.

So we get to 15:1 to 9, and it says this,

15 And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord.

The Hebrew word there for listen is that word that we get the shema from. Listen, hear, obey. It's the same concept. To listen, to hear is to obey. So he comes to him. So God has chosen you for a purpose, not to do what you want to do. You've been chosen by God to do what God has called you to do. So listen and obey. Listen to the words of the Lord.

2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.

I have noted. I've remembered for judgment. I've remembered for judgment what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Back in Exodus chapter 17, fresh out of Egypt, Amalek ambushes Israel when they're at their weakest in the wilderness, preying on the vulnerable. And God at the time, Deuteronomy chapter 25, God makes this declaration, verse 17 to 19.

17 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, 18 how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from your enemies around you, in the land that Yahweh your God has given you for inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven, you shall not forget.

Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. And let's just be honest. These are the passages that make us really, really uncomfortable. These are the passages that on Instagram and TikTok, you see people saying God's a cosmic monster and commanding ethnic genocide and all that sort of stuff. There's this reality that it makes us uncomfortable because we've lost sight of who God is and who we are. And we've lost a biblical understanding of the storyline that God is not just the creator and God's not just a savior and redeemer, but God is a righteous judge of the whole earth. And that God has not only the right, but the moral authority and in some sense, the responsibility and obligation to judge us. And what Amalek was and what Amalek had done earned them a righteous judgment by a righteous God. Sometimes we're tempted to think that we can judge better than he can. But somehow our sense of mercy, our sense of fairness, our sense of what's right trumps God. And so we, instead of standing underneath the judgment of God, we, without any humility whatsoever, stand above God and judge him according to our standards. That way lies peril and ruin. We like judgment about as much as we like obedience. But judgment is a reality. Amalek has earned judgment. Now God says, I'm going to let it wait for a while. But when you get into the land and you get a little bit of space, I want you to remember, do not forget, God says. Now God has come with Samuel to remind Saul, now is the time. Now is the time to go after Amalek.

So back to verse 3.

3 Go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

It's a very important Hebrew word. We looked at a lot in the books of Joshua and Judges. Herem. Devote to destruction. And I tried to very carefully and methodically point out as we walked through the book of Joshua and the conquest that herem was only applied to peoples and places and nations that were connected to the Nephilim. This is so much bigger than just human racism or nationalism or something like that. This is God using Israel as his instrument to bring judgment and justice upon this spiritual cosmic rebellion that resulted in these strange, mighty creatures called the Nephilim, the ones that were known as giants. Remember when Israel comes up to the land and like, we can't go in there, it's full of giants (Numbers 13:33). Everywhere the giants were, those are the only places that God commanded the herem, devote to destruction. And so now here we are in Samuel and we come across it again. And there's this interesting connection between herem being associated with the Nephilim and all that sort of stuff. And the Amalekites, so the Amalekites are interesting. Amalek was a grandson of Esau. Remember the story of Jacob and Esau? Esau married a Hittite woman. His son married a Hittite concubine, had this grandson, Amalek. Hittites were part of the Canaanites. They dwelled in the land. So there's this insinuation that the Amalekites had become corrupted with the Nephilim like so many of the others that had been taken out by Joshua. And Joshua took out most of them, but now God's here going to command Saul to take out the Amalekites. And we're going to get in a few weeks to David. And you get to one of our favorite Sunday school stories, David and who? I thought you were going to say Bathsheba. But good for you. Good for you. I appreciate that. David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Goliath and his brothers are the last of the Nephilim to be dealt with in the scriptures. This is an ongoing cosmic justice judgment sentence upon the cosmic spiritual rebels that have corrupted the human bloodline. I need you to see that. I need you to understand that as we're reading through this story, that there's always a larger context going on. And man, the author just throws us like hints over and over and over again and echoes of what's going on. We got to remember that this is not merely a physical or political or national or ethnic command by God. This is a spiritual righteous judgment. It's cosmic cleanup.

4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

It's an interesting little detail in this because you look back at the story of Exodus when the Amalekites attacked, the Kenites were nearby and the Kenites were gracious and kind and helped the Israelites when they desperately needed (Exodus 18). And so now what we're getting is divine recompense. The Kenites are going to be spared and blessed, and the Amalekites are going to be judged. And it says this:

7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

So it's starting well. There's victory. There's victory. He launches this great army, and they begin to just drive them out. They spare the Kenites. This great, beautiful image of grace in the midst of judgment. And then there's victory happening. And then verse 8 says:

8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

Oh, it starts good and goes bad so fast.

So first, the king Agag. Now, Agag's probably not a name, it's a title. Because way back at the Exodus, when Balaam and the king of the Amalekites was called Agag, it's a title, like Pharaoh is for the Egyptians (Numbers 24:7). So the Amalekites' king was called Agag. And the name Agag means high and exalted, which could have implications towards giant stature. But it also means violent, burning fury. This was a broken, ugly, evil, wicked society. The Amalekites, the meaning is not clearly certain of that word, but some of the ancient rabbinic sources say that the meaning of Amalek is “one who licks blood,” which is significant in the context of what we just came out of in chapter 14, that “life is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11). These are some messed up people.

And so they spare Agag the king, but not just that, the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fattened calves and the lambs, all that was good. So God's commanded them to take it all out. And as they're doing it, they're like, well, that's pretty though. It says everything that was despised and worthless; oh, yeah, that's easy. We'll devote that to destruction. You can have that, God. I didn't want it anyway.

Sometimes you say these things out loud, and it hits differently, doesn't it? Because when we're in the midst of rationalizing and justifying our actions, it makes sense. It sounds good. We wouldn't want to waste it. “Look at how fat this cow is. I can almost taste it. We wouldn't want to waste that stuff. That's garbage. We'll give that to God.” But this, the process of rationalizing and justifying comes. So they spare. They show pity. They kind of do what God wants, and they don't do what God wants. And so the question becomes, what is partial obedience? And the answer that the text is going to give us is that partial obedience is disobedience. Partial obedience is disobedience, plain and simple.

I hate to consider how often we're like Saul. How often we rationalize and justify. We know clearly some things that God has called us to do and to be, and yet we hold on to certain things. We have our pet sins. I love the Lord of the Rings and especially I love how first Bilbo and then Gollum's grow in attachment to the One ring. The ring that's killing them. The ring that's destroying them. And yet they call it over and over again, “my precious.” It looks so good to them but it's actually destroying them.

Just thinking about it, I love zombie stuff. Constantly thinking about the zombie apocalypse and how I'm going to survive. Imagine if there was a zombie apocalypse and God came and said, I want you to kill all the zombies. And you're like, OK, God, that's cool. But then you found a cute zombie and decided to keep it. Really? There's something about this. I just try to look at it from different angles. It’s tragic the way that Saul and the people rationalize and justify what they're doing. God has told them to do something because it's actually for their good. Leaving the Amalekites around, leaving the corrupted bloodline, leaving the Nephilim in the midst of the land will only bring trouble upon Israel and their children and their grandchildren and the rest to come. God is protecting them. God is cleansing and protecting the earth. And they're like, “I have a better idea.” God's after total surrender, not selective faith. It's not a pick and choose.

Let's move on to the confrontation that takes place then in verses 10 to 23. It says:

10 The word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night.

I regret. Hebrew word here, nacham, means to sigh, to grieve, to change course. We're going to see it over and over again in the rest of this chapter. But this is anthropomorphic language. This is using human emotion and language and ascribing it to God. This is not God saying, oops. There's a lot of places you don't want to hear oops. When you're going in for surgery, you don't want to hear the doctor say, oops. There's a whole list of places you don't want to... And nowhere is that more true than with God. We don't want to worship and trust and follow a God that goes, “oops, that didn't go out the way I wanted it. I better try something else.” There's something deeper going on. I'm going to unpack that more as we get later on in the text.

Samuel, and I love how the prophets value and validate their emotion. He's ticked. He's angry, and he's up all night yelling at God about it. I love that. In the ancient Near East, prophets weren't stoic. We in our culture today tend to devalue emotion and lift up and evaluate logic. And I'm a big fan of logic. But we ignore emotion to our own peril. You can squash it in. It will come out. Samuel, man, he's angry. He's deeply upset and hurt. He's invested a lot in Saul. He's incredibly disappointed in what's going on.

12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.”

So he goes looking for Saul, and they tell him, oh, Saul came to Carmel. And what did he do at Carmel? Well, he built a monument for himself. So God tells him to go take out the Amalekites. He goes, and he gets a victory, but then he disobeys, keeps Agag, keeps a bunch of this stuff, and wakes up the next morning and says, I'm awesome. Let's go build a statue to me. Saul's out of control here. This is not good.

And then he turned and passed and went on to Gilgal. Geography matters in these texts. Like Gilgal is where he was anointed as king. You look back in Joshua and Judges, Gilgal is like a significant, important place of judgment and God's presence (Joshua 4-5). So he went down to Gilgal. So Samuel came to Saul. Oh, and I love this. This would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic, okay?

13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

Samuel's walking up to Saul. Saul turns and sees him and he goes, blessed be you to the Lord for I performed the commandment of Yahweh. What's up, Samuel? I did it. I did it. And this is one of the greatest gotchas of all time. Like Samuel just goes, why do I hear sheep then? What then is the bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Like God's command wasn't ambivalent. It wasn't abstract. It was clear and cut. You're supposed to destroy everything. So he gets up there. Saul's built himself his little monument. Now he's back at Gilgal where he's anointed as king and he's feeling good about himself. He's surrounded by all the stuff that he's kept for himself. And Samuel comes up to him and he's like, what's that I hear? And Saul said, oh, this is a master class in rationalization and justification. Not in a good way. All right, I'm not suggesting you learn from Saul here.

Oh, those sheep? Those aren't mine. They brought them. Who's the king here, Saul? Who's in charge here? They have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best. It wasn't me. I just wanted to do what God wanted. But the people. Who's the king, Saul? But the people brought the best of the sheep and of the oxen. So it goes from making excuses, they did it, now to rationalizing it. Oh, but they did it to offer sacrifices. Sacrifices. Oh, we didn't take it for ourselves. We're going to offer it to Yahweh. Isn't that great of us? And then the heartbreaking is the distancing that Saul does. They spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice the Lord. What's it say? Your God. Not my God. Saul should be saying, my God. Lord, our God. Nobody's distancing. Do you see what he's doing here? There's no ownership, no repentance, no even shame. It's like, oh, that's not me. They did it. And they brought it to offer sacrifices, and it's to your God anyway. And the rest we devoted to destruction. The rest we heremed. We took out.

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

Samuel said to Saul, stop. All right? Like when you catch your kid doing something, like red-handed, like just so blatantly, and they start coming up with that rationalization. They start telling you… Just stop. Stop. We're well beyond that. Stop. I will tell you what Yahweh said to me this night. It doesn't matter what you're going to say right now. God's already told me. Just stop it, Saul. And Saul said to him, Speak.

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?”

Samuel said, This is so interesting, the insight in this. Though you are little in your own eyes. When we were first introduced to Saul, how was he described in Samuel? He was taller than everybody else and very good-looking (1 Samuel 9:2). And yet Saul was obsessed with identity and image. Though he was taller than everybody, in his own eyes he was smaller than everybody. Even though he'd been elevated to king, he was more afraid of what the people thought about him than what God asked of him. And Samuel says, though you're small in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel. And Yahweh sent you on a mission and said clearly, go, devote to destruction the sinners. That's that great Hebrew word for missing the mark. This is God's righteous judgment. Fight against them until they are consumed.

Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? Here's the fascinating irony. Like using that term pounce, the Amalekites pounced on Israel when they were coming out of Egypt (Exodus 17:8). Now Saul is pouncing on the spoils of the Amalekites rather than bringing about God's judgment.

20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. And you're like, really?!? I'm reading this again this week and just flashing through my mind were all those moments with my son when he was little and I’d catch him doing wrong. He would immediately deny; I didn't do that. Did you clean your room? Oh yeah, I cleaned my room. Let's go take a look. Oh, you don't need to look... This is Saul. I have obeyed the voice of Yahweh. I have gone on a mission on which the Lord sent me. I brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I've devoted the Amalekites to destruction. So even while he says he did it, he admits that he didn't do it. But there's no shame. There's no repentance. There's no acknowledgement of disobedience. He did it in the words of, is it Sinatra, his way.

But the people took of the spoil! He's still deflecting. Samuel has just said to him, dude, you're the king. You're in charge. But he's like, no, no, no, it was the people. The people took the spoil, the sheep and the oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal. So he doubles down and refuses to repent. We're just left with the reality that partial obedience isn't obedience.

I just made fun of my son. I better turn it around. For a long time last year I was doing the carnivore diet. I was trying to get healthy and I love meat. And for three months, I did really, really well. I was strict. I was clean. I was good on it. And then my love of food broke my commitment, but I wasn't willing to admit it to myself. I was still doing the carnivore, just modified. And Judah would come home and he'd find me eating something. He's ask, “Aren't you doing the carnivore?” I’d respond, “Yeah, I'm doing the modified carnivore.” And he’d respond, “Then you're not doing the carnivore!” And for weeks I was in denial, I was emphatic that I was doing the modified carnivore. “I am. It's good. I'm still healthy. I could be worse.” Isn't that how our minds work? “I could be worse. I'm not killing somebody, so it's still good.” It's actually fun when our kids correct us. It's a good thing. Partial obedience is disobedience.

So Samuel says to him and this is so beautiful; this is poetry. Again, Hebrew poetry doesn't rhyme. It's parallelism and it's built on a chiasm. But this is what he says:

22 And 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 listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

The fat of the rams - that's the best part of the sacrifice! To obey is better than sacrifice. Which is more pleasing to the LORD for you to bring him a whole bunch of sacrifices that he actually commanded you to destroy or to obey him in the first place? What do you think to God is pleasing? To obey is better than sacrifice and to listen better than the fat of rams. But then it gets amped up to rebellion. “I wasn't rebelling. I just saved some sheep. I wasn't rebelling. No, no, you're rebelling.” God told you do this and you did that. That's not obedience. That's rebellion. And listen to what he says. Rebellion is as the sin of divination. Presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

It's, again, another one of those connections to Nephilim and divination and witchcraft. Listen, when you go a different way from what God has directed you to, you're walking behind the enemy lines of the cosmic rebellion. Sacrifice is good. But obedience is better. Yahweh's in covenant relationship with Israel. There's this relational, covenantal loyalty to obedience. It's not just a list of abstract rules. It's not checking boxes. It's listening to the one who rescued you and redeemed you and made you in the first place. And He is trying to get you to experience what's good for you.

Saul rejected God's word, so God rejects him. It's just a heartbreak. Saul could have had it all. But instead, it's lost. He doesn't go out without a fight.

24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

Is Saul repenting here? Is this repenting? If it is, even in the way that he repents there's still an element of blaming, of rationalization and justification.

25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.”

Now we get an understanding of what he's asking for. He wants to be forgiven so that he can stand in front of the people and look good. It's really more like regret than repentance. He's more afraid of what he's losing. He begs for this public cover. Even in his repentance, all that Saul cares about is Saul.

26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.”

I'm not going to play your game. There is no cheap repentance here. You don't get to just say you're sorry and move on like it's all okay.

27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore.

And you can picture Samuel walking away and Saul reaching for him and grabbing the robe and it tearing, Prophets never waste something like that so Samuel turns to him and says:

28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you.

Saul's desperate grab mirrors his clinging to his own self, his lack of humility. In verse 29:

29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.”

Wait a second. If you haven't fallen asleep yet you’ll remember that way back in verse 11 it said that God did regret! “I regret that I made Saul king.” But now Samuel's saying the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret because he's not a man that he should have regret. The chapter is going to end with God once again saying, “I regret that I made Saul king.” So which is it?

Some people will say, see, this is why you can't trust the Bible. It's full of errors. It's full of contradictions. Verse 11, and the end of the chapter says God regrets it. This verse says God doesn't regret. So the Bible's untrue. That's just lazy. That's the best way to think of it.

You've got to read in the context and listen to what's going on. This is, again, anthropomorphic language. It's talking about God's experience with human freedom and sinful choices. How does God feel when we disobey? How does God feel when we choose the wrong thing? When we willfully, eyes wide open, intentionally, he says, go left, we go right. How does God respond to that? And this is what the text is describing. There is this reality within God where our sin grieves Him. Why? Because He loves us. And who are we hurting when we disobey God? Ourselves. It doesn't hurt Him. We're hurting ourselves. There's this sense that when Saul, who had the potential to have it all - the potential for this amazing legacy of kingship and to pass it on and to see Israel be the light to the nations and God's instrument in the world. Instead, he lost it. God grieves that. It's not an oops but it is a heartbreak.

There's also this sense where God doesn't repent or relent or change his course because God is determined to get his will accomplished. So Saul, I'm sorry, you lost the opportunity to be a part of it, but God's still going to get it done. You don't get to be the king, but I got another king in the wings waiting. This is the first reference to David, one of your neighbors, one who's better than you. That must have stung.

30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord.

There's no explanation here of why Samuel changed his mind. He was walking away. Saul ripped the robe. We don't really know. We know from the text that Samuel actually really loved Saul and vouched for him and had this relationship with him. So this is a heartbreaking moment for Samuel as the prophet. He's got to deliver God's word, and God has rejected Saul. And when Saul asks him again. Samuel agrees.

32 Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

Just think about that. His army's been defeated. His people have been destroyed. He's been spared. He's not grieving the loss of his people. He's just happy that he's still alive. Think about this guy, Agag. And he comes in before he's been spared. He thinks he's free. He thinks he's good to go. And Agag came in cheerfully, and Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. Because Saul didn't have the conviction and the courage to do what God had called him to do. But Samuel was obedient.

You must remember, Samuel's an old dude at this time. And I want to just say, old man strength is a real thing. All right? It's a real thing.

33 And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

That's icky. That's one scary worship service! I can pretty much guarantee that's never going to happen here. We're in a different covenant reality. But Samuel is actually worshiping the Lord when he does what God has asked him to do. Because judgment for sin is messy and bloody. He hacks him, dismembers him.

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.

That's absolutely gut-wrenching, isn't it? Heartbreaking, hard. And yet in the midst of it, there's this beautiful thread of hope. This little kernel. God says, I regret that Saul was made king. I regret how this went. But there's another coming. There's another coming. Even as Yahweh tears the kingdom from Saul, he promises to replace him with one who is better. Again, that's our first reference to David in the story. But you know enough of David's story to know that he had a bunch of partial obedience in his life as well. So that little nugget, I got one who is better, not only points to David, but ultimately is pointing to Jesus, the true king, the king of kings, the one who will do it right.

Saul was anointed to save Israel from their enemies and bring God's justice, but he failed to be obedient to God. Samuel announces one who is better, pointing to David, who will do incredible things. He is described by God as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), but he too will fail to be completely obedient. Thankfully, we've been given Jesus to rule as the true king of kings. He is the ultimate gibbor, the ultimate mighty one, wielding strength not for himself, but to rescue the powerless. Jesus does and did what Saul was supposed to do, what a true king does. Jesus delivers us from our enemies. As John writes:

8 The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Jesus does and deals with and delivers us from the monsters of sin and death, the great enemy, Satan, and the spiritual powers fall before the true King, Jesus. He crushes them at the cross. Paul writes:

15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Think about this. Jesus' victory is actually found in his death. Jesus' obedience is in his sacrifice. Jesus knows that obedience trumps sacrifice. But in Jesus, those two things come together in perfect harmony. Jesus's obedience is to offer himself as the sacrifice that will bring deliverance from the enemies. Jesus goes into the garden and says, “hey, you know, if there's another plan that would be cool.” But then comes that phrase, “not my will, but yours be done” (Matthew 26:39). Not my will, but yours be done. Jesus completely submitted. Jesus completely surrendered. Jesus offers wholehearted obedience and faithfulness to God. Even as it takes him to the cross. So Hebrews 5:8-9 says,

8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

Although he was a son, he learned obedience. He showed us what it's like. He showed us that you can obey God even if it takes you to death and that you're still going to be okay because death is not an obstacle or enemy that God can't handle. Because of that, he's been elevated. Because of that, he's been given the name above all names. Because of that, he's been placed above every power and authority above the earth, in the earth, under the earth. And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). So being made perfect, he becomes the source of eternal salvation to all those who obey him.

Saul's not the hero of the story but he points to the hero. Jesus is the true and better Saul. He's the true and better king. He is the king of kings and lord of lords. He's the ultimate deliverer. He is the true obedient one. And he is the one to whom our loyalty now lies. He invites us to shelter in his wings. He invites us to come to Him. He is the source of those who obey Him.

So, how's your obedience? It was my guess. There are probably some things in your life that you try not to think about too hard. Probably some things in your life that, like Saul, you're rationalizing and you're justifying and you're holding on to because you think that that thing is precious and you think that that thing will give you life and you think that that thing is better for you than what God has for you and what God wants for you and what God has asked of you. And I want to plead with you this morning. Trust God with everything you've got. To lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:5-6). To trust and obey. For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. Obedience is freedom when it's obedience to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Obedience is joy when it's to the one who is the source and fountain of everlasting life. Obedience is what you were made for. It's where you will find your rest.

We live in a culture that tells you over and over again the exact opposite. Follow your bliss. Do your own thing. Be the captain of your own destiny. You've got to take the reins. You've got to be in charge. You've got to be in control. And Jesus comes with this beautiful gospel and he says, you know, if you are weary, if you are tired, come to me. I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). Freedom is found in Jesus. It's not the freedom to be what we want to be. It's the freedom to be what we were made to be by the God who loves us more than we'll ever grasp or imagine. Church, trust and obey. Amen.