14. The Rejection Of Saul: Obedience Over Sacrifice Series

The Rejection of Saul: Obedience Over Sacrifice

May 28, 2025

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

1 Samuel 15

Have you ever told yourself, ‘God knows my heart,’ while deliberately doing something He’s already told you not to?” We often give ourselves credit for partial obedience—as if God should be pleased with most of our compliance. But that raises deeper questions:

1. What’s the difference between obedience and legalism?

2. If salvation is by grace through faith, why does obedience matter at all?

3. Is God more interested in our actions… or our intentions?

Here’s the tension we must face tonight: Legalism obeys to earn God’s approval. True obedience obeys because because we know we already have God’s approval.

There’s an story told about a boy who was repeatedly told by his teacher to sit down. He resisted. Again and again, he stood back up—until finally, after multiple warnings, he begrudgingly sat.

But then he crossed his arms, looked up with defiance in his eyes, and said: “I may be sitting down on the outside… but I’m standing up on the inside.” Everyone chuckled. But isn’t that a picture of many of our hearts before God? We comply with just enough to feel safe, seen, or spiritual… But deep down—we’re still standing in defiance.

Obedience, real obedience, isn’t about outward performance—it’s about inward surrender. And when we substitute religious motion for heartfelt submission, we’ve missed the point. And that’s why 1 Samuel 15 is so piercing. Saul obeyed… mostly. But that “mostly” revealed his heart: he feared people more than God, valued performance over surrender, and tried to justify rebellion as worship.

This chapter doesn’t just expose Saul—it holds up a mirror to our own compromises.

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22)

I. The Clear Command (vv. 1–3)

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. 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. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both

1. The Amalekites were the first to attack Israel after the Exodus.

In Exodus 17:8–16, shortly after Israel’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt, the Amalekites launched a sneak attack on the weary, traveling Hebrews—specifically targeting the stragglers and vulnerable from behind (Deut. 25:17–19). It was a cowardly and unprovoked assault. This wasn’t just a military ambush; it was an assault on God’s redemptive plan, a symbolic attempt to crush the seed of promise in its infancy.

2. Amalek represents generational enmity against God’s people.

The Amalekites weren’t just a rival tribe—they were a persistent, generational enemy of God’s covenant nation. They reappear repeatedly throughout Israel’s history (Judges 3:13; 6:3–5; 1 Sam. 14:48). Their hatred was deep, systemic, and demonic in character—a representation of rebellion, pride, and cruelty.

Spiritual Insight: Amalek becomes a biblical type of the flesh and the enemies of God—an ongoing picture of carnal opposition to God’s purposes (cf. Galatians 5:17). Just as Saul was commanded to destroy Amalek, believers are called to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13).

3. God had long foretold Amalek’s judgment.

In Exodus 17:14, after Israel’s victory (with Moses’ hands lifted), God said: “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.”

This promise wasn’t fulfilled in Joshua’s day or during the judges. Saul’s assignment in 1 Samuel 15 is the fulfillment of that prophetic judgment. Saul wasn’t executing personal vengeance—he was acting as God’s appointed instrument of justice.

4. Amalek’s destruction foreshadows final judgment.

This moment anticipates the Day of the Lord, when Jesus, the greater King, will finally defeat every unrepentant enemy of God. Just as Amalek refused mercy, hardened their hearts, and opposed God to the end, they stand as a picture of those who will one day face righteous judgment (Revelation 19:11–16).

II. The Selective Obedience (vv. 4–9)

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. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 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. (1 Samuel 15:4–9)