Obedience, Not Sacrifice

This morning we’re going to discuss the sin of disobedience to God’s commands. Disobedience is an extremely costly sin; for we know that when the Israelites were on their exodus from Egypt that they refused to follow God’s plan for taking the Promised Land, and the consequence was spending forty years aimlessly wandering in the wilderness on what should’ve been an eleven-day journey. The tragedy of this sin can be further seen when calculating the frequency of funerals conducted by God’s chosen but disobedient people. The death rate was one funeral every 20 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 40 years!(1) We need to be careful about disobedience.

This morning we’ll soon discover, from 1 Samuel chapter 15, that many times we can disobey God and be blinded to our own sin. Hopefully, this message on disobedience will help us to identify when we’re not obeying the Lord, and also help us to escape the consequences of our wrong actions; for disobedience is a sin, and Romans 6:23 declares the wages of sin to be death. It is my earnest hope that this message will be eye-opening and life-changing as you hear the Word of God.

Saul’s Disobedience to the Lord (vv. 1-3, 7-9)

1Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey’” . . .

7 And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 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 unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

We see in verses 1-3, that the Lord commanded Saul to destroy the Amalekites because they had formerly ambushed the Israelites when they were making their exodus from Egypt. In Exodus 17:8-16, we find the account of the Amalekites’ attack on Israel, and we read that the Lord had promised to avenge Israel someday in the future.(2) That day for vengeance had come and God commanded Saul to kill all men, women, children, and livestock (v. 3).

In verses 7-9, we see the events of the battle unfold and we immediately notice something that’s not right. What’s wrong with this picture? First, we read in verse 8 that Saul took Agag king of the Amalekites alive. Agag was a man and the Lord had commanded that all men be put to death, so why should Agag have been an exception? Next, we read in verse 9 that Saul had kept the best of the livestock alive and all for himself, even after God had clearly stated in verse 3 not to spare any animals.

What we have here is an undeniable case of disobedience to God’s will. What could Saul have been thinking that would have caused him to go against the Lord like that? Have any of us ever received a command from God and failed to be obedient? What were some of the causes of Saul’s disobedience, and could they be some of the same things leading to our disobedience as well? Well, we’re going to find out in the following verses.

Pride Goes Before a Fall (vv. 10-12)

10 Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11“I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.”

Author Beth Moore is quick to point out that pride was one of the causes of Saul’s failure. She says that Saul “kept King Agag alive to present him as a trophy – a public exhibit. He did not slaughter the sheep and cattle for the very same reason: he saved the best to make himself look better.”(3)

In verse 12, we see an obvious sign of Saul’s pride when he made a monument, or altar, for himself; and then the Scripture goes on to say that he had “gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” Matthew Henry says that this wording here means that Saul marched himself all the way to Gilgal with a great deal of pomp and parade, being sure to show off to those around him.(4)