[stextbox id=”custom”]In yesterday’s blog post I started to unravel the reality that God is in sovereign charge over every detail in this universe, which includes even the details surrounding Christians being persecuted, tortured, and martyred for their faith.
We began trying to answer the question, Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People. This post is the 2nd one in this series. Today we are taking that stroll down memory lane to get a feel for King’s Saul’s disobedience to the clear commands God gave him and the rest of the Israelites. (Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from 1 Samuel 15.)[/stextbox]
In 1 Samuel 15, God commissioned Samuel the prophet to inform King Saul that the Israelites were to go to war against the Amalakites. God wanted the Israelites to completely annihilate the Amalakites from the face of the planet. They were not to leave even one animal alive, let alone an Amalakite man, woman, or child.
The LORD’s mission was crystal clear. King Saul should have been wholly obedient to the command. Sadly, Saul chose to disobey God in the finer details of his mission, wrongly assuming that God would be satisfied with partial obedience.
He was dead wrong, however, and this one act of rebellion cost him both the crown and his life.
The LORD gave King Saul a clear and unique mission. God’s plan was to impose final and absolute judgment against the Amalakites because they had attacked Israel in the wilderness after He delivered them from Egyptian slavery (c.f. Exodus 17:8-16). God had decided to “put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” In other words, He had chosen to utterly destroy anything that breathed and was linked to Amalek. All memory of Amalek was to be wiped off the face of the planet.
Be careful what you say or think about the integrity of God’s edict (for many critics have not), but King Saul should have been wholly obedient to the command of the LORD. Unfortunately, Israel’s king fashioned a standard of convenient obedience that suited his own agenda rather than God’s. As the prophetic mouthpiece for the LORD, Samuel concluded that such partial obedience “is as iniquity and idolatry.”
One of the things that strike me about this passage is that God considers anything less than 100% obedience “as iniquity and idolatry.” Christian obedience that progresses no further than what is convenient for the moment is considered “as iniquity and idolatry” as far as God is concerned.
What do you think about that? Iniquity. Idolatry. It seems as though God is downright serious about this whole obedience thing. God’s revealed will regarding obedience to His Word is pretty clear.
In 1 Samuel 15:7, King Saul and the Israelites went to war and defeated the Amalakites with ease, chasing them throughout much of the Amalakite territory. So far so good. When the Lord provides a mission to His people, He remains faithful to ensure its success, so long as we remain faithful to our calling.
Unfortunately for King Saul and the Israelites, the sin of covetousness set in and, as a nation, they reaped the consequences of that sin for many generations thereafter.
Being set aflame by the lust of the flesh and eyes, the Israelite people fixed their gaze on the booty of plunder, turning their hearts from obedient compliance. They did well to kill most of the Amalakite people with the edge of the sword, but in their spiritual rebellion they also spared the Amalakite King (Agag) and the choice livestock.
Verse nine reads, “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.” Saul had failed miserably in his God-ordained mission. He was mostly obedient, but according to God’s exacting standard, mostly obedient is the twin of total failure. Both he and the Israelites were not wholly devoted to the mission God had given them to fulfill.
Saul and the Israelites were willing to be obedient to the LORD’s commission, but only to the point that it suited their comfort level. Greed and the lust for riches had turned their hearts far from God. All that the LORD considered worthless, detestable, and which should have been utterly destroyed, the Israelites considered “good” and “were not willing to destroy them.”
Such is the rationalism of a disobedient heart bent toward sin and worship of self-gratification. Partial obedience to the revealed will of a holy God is idolatry at its very core.
The word of the LORD came to Samuel because of King Saul’s misbehavior, and so the prophet was commissioned to proclaim divine judgment against Saul’s partial obedience. Notice the wickedness that dripped from Saul’s lips in verse thirteen, “I have carried out the command of the LORD.”
Samuel challenged that lie by pointing to the overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary, referring to the Amalakite livestock being held back from annihilation. Not unlike Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, King Saul shifted the blame for his sin onto his fellow Israelites, saying, “They have brought them from the Amalakites, for the people sparred the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
Stop right there for a moment. Don’t we sometimes do this as well? Too often I am quick to blame others—or even circumstance—before ever pointing the finger at the person staring back in the mirror. There is always a reason for our disobedience; always a circumstance in which to shift blame.
God’s prophet then pronounced the penalty for King Saul’s sin. The punishment was severe but it was also just. Scripture is clear about the righteousness of God’s decrees when it says of Him, “so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:4).
When it came to Saul’s disobedience (or partial obedience), no one benefited in the end. Not even Agag.
In verse 18, Samuel reminded Saul that “the LORD sent you on a mission,” and then in verse 19 that Saul did “not obey the voice of the LORD, but rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.” Notice that Samuel does not commend Saul for his partial obedience, but rather pronounces it as “evil in the sight of the LORD.”
Fellow Christian, let us not presume that God is satisfied with even a 99% effort toward obedience on our part when it comes to obeying the commands of His revealed will. He requires radical, unwavering allegiance to the mission in which we are called. It is not always easy, but it is always our responsibility. To not be obedient to the LORD’s commandments is sin. To not be obedient to the Great Commission is, therefore, “as iniquity and idolatry.”
Still justifying himself in verses twenty and twenty-one, King Saul said, “I did obey the voice of the LORD, and went on the mission in which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalakites. But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
Notice that:
- The impenitent conscience will attempt to justify his/her lack of faithfulness to God, rather than openly confess it.
- Saul admits he knew what God commanded but that his obedience fell short of the divine requirement.
- The sinfulness of partial obedience attempts to bribe God by sacrificing to Him detestable things “devoted to destruction.”
I believe I am justified in saying that God was not amused.
Samuel then rebuked the disobedient king, saying, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” In other words, God is interested in people who are radically and wholly obedient to Him, rather than obedient only to the point that it is convenient. Such convenient obedience, Samuel declared, is “rebellion” and “the sin of divination” and “insubordination” and “idolatry” and a rejection of “the word of the LORD.”
Rebellion. Divination. Insubordination. Idolatry. Rejection. Are you at all yet feeling uncomfortable about your level of obedience to God’s revealed will yet? God is by no means impressed with our half-hearted efforts at obeying His Great Commission mandate.
Convicted by his guilt-ridden conscience, Saul finally admitted his cosmic treason and confessed, “I have sinned; I have indeed transgressed the command of the LORD and your words because I feared the people and listened to their voice.” There it is. Plain and simple. To be even 99% obedient to God’s Word and to cease at that point is sin and a transgression of the commandment of God. For King Saul, unfortunately, it was too late. The sands in the hourglass of God’s patience had run dry. The LORD’s judgment against Saul’s insubordination and idolatry was that the kingdom of Israel was being torn from his grasp permanently. God had rejected him from being king over Israel and had “given it to your neighbor, who is better than you.”
The Lord gives and the Lord alone takes away. Don’t ever forget this most blessed truth.
All this divine judgment was the direct result of King Saul not being wholly obedient to the mission God had given him. He was mostly obedient, yes—but being mostly obedient to the commands of almighty God is nowhere close to the minimum requirement.
As God’s prophet declared, Saul had “rejected the word of the LORD,” and he paid dearly because of it.
QUESTION: What do you think about how God treated the Amalakites? What do you think about how God treated King Saul? Was God unjust in either case?
* Photo credit: out of ideas (Creative Commons)
QUESTION: What do you think about how God treated the Amalakites? What do you think about how God treated King Saul? Was God unjust in either case?