Day 17: A King Rejected
Read: 1 Samuel 15:1-35
Today’s excursion takes us all the way back to the infancy stages of Israel’s kings. God’s intent for the nation of Israel was that he would be their king. If you glance back at 1 Samuel 8, you’ll read how it all happened. They wanted to be like the other nations and demanded a king. The Lord assured Samuel it was not a rejection of him, but of God himself.
Their first king was Saul and that’s who we will spend time with today.
While Saul had some greatness being king, overall he was not a great leader. Impulsiveness, jealousy, greed and disobedience plagued him. Through Samuel, God told Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. Verse 3 records this, “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.” I would say those instructions were pretty clear.
“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.” While the instructions were clear, they were not carried out as required. It’s not that they didn’t understand. The problem was greed and pride. Before Samuel set out to confront Saul or heard the bleating of sheep, God saw the plunder Saul and the Israelites had taken. He saw Saul in his arrogant disobedience.
It wasn’t me! It was the soldiers. Oh, wait, that didn’t work. Okay, it was me. But I did it to sacrifice the best to the Lord YOUR God. Notice the pronoun Saul used. Not “my” God….but “your” God. Rejection.
“To obey is better than sacrifice.” God didn’t need the best of what the Amalekites could offer. He didn’t need their king. He demanded, and wanted, Saul’s obedience.
A really sad statement is made twice in this chapter: The Lord was grieved he had made Saul king (v11, v35). Saul had rejected the Lord and in turn, the Lord rejected him as king over Israel.
There are two takeaways from this story. The first is a warning about rejecting the Lord. He is patient, wanting none to perish (2 Peter 3:9), but there comes a time he turns people over to their desires (Romans 1:24-25). The second is a confirmation of obedience. He isn’t interested in our sacrifices or actions in place of obedience. God doesn’t make deals for our obedience. He requires it and then blesses it.
In what way is God asking you to be obedient? What is stopping you? Just as he didn’t accept excuses from Saul, he won’t accept them from you either. Or me. Sometimes obedience is hard. Other times it costs us time, talent or money but it always comes with the blessing and protection of God.
Prayer: Lord, I know you want obedience from me but I confess sometimes it’s too hard or I just don’t want to. Change my heart to see things as you do and to be obedient in all you ask of me.