Great
Battles of the Bible:
Failure to Annihilate the Amalekites
By Michael
K. Farrar, O.D.
© October
18, 2005
“Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice.”
1 Samuel
15:22
In
1 Samuel 15 we have the account of King Saul failing to obey God’s instruction.
Samuel the prophet came to Saul and gives God’s word on the matter of how to
deal with the Amalekites. God’s purpose was to punish the Amalekites for their
attack on Israel as they came up from Egypt. Often God used Israel to judge
others and here God gives specific commands as to what should be done according
to His will. In His own words God said, “Totally destroy everything that
belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and
infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.” When we hear these words it
sounds rather cruel, but we must remember that God always knows best. God wants
His judgment to be complete and obedience to His word just as exact. Any man
spared could return to battle. Women and children left alive could breed a new
army to come against Israel. Any animals spared could tempt Israel with
financial gain and erode their dependence on God for their provisions. God knew
the best way to deal with the Amalekites was to thoroughly and completely wipe
them out, lock, stock and barrel.
As
the story continues it appears Saul obeys the word of the Lord. He musters up a
huge army of 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah. He sets up an
ambush in a ravine and attacks the Amalekites with a vengeance. Every person
was killed, but Saul spared King Agag. Every animal was killed, except the best
of the best. Saul obeyed God, sort of. Saul did what God commanded, partially.
Why did Saul do such a thing? Why do we do such things?
Basically
Saul’s disobedience boiled down to his choosing to obey his selfish motives
rather than God’s word. Possibly he spared King Agag because he wanted the
prestige of having an important prisoner. Possibly he wanted to parade him
before Israel as a trophy. If this is true, Saul was stealing God’s glory for
God should receive all the glory for anyone following His commands.
Often our
egos get in the way of obeying our Lord as well. We read in scripture what we
should do, receive direction in answered prayer or hear wise spiritual counsel
but we allow our egos to rule over the word of God. We choose to do what we
want to do rather than obey God. We may
possibly obey part of what God instructs us to do but fail to follow it
exactly. We justify our disobedience by the fact that we obeyed part of what
God tells us. When Saul spared King Agag’s life, whatever the reason, he was
making a statement that his judgment was better than God’s. This is sin and so
we sin when we do the same thing. God wants our complete obedience to His word
not partial submission.
Saul
spared the animals very likely because of greed. It was very easy for him to
instruct his army to kill the weak and maimed animals but it was another thing
to kill the choice cows, camels and other animals that were plump for the
taking. It possibly seemed like a waste to Saul to slaughter such a horde of
luscious livestock. So Saul took it upon himself to salvage the best of the
animals for Israel. God did not want to reward Israel for their battle with the
Amalekites by letting them plunder and acquire animals. He wanted them simply
to obey His word. Saul made a choice not to obey. Do we do this as well at
times?
Sometimes
we receive direction to get rid of those things that come between the Lord and
us but we see it as a waste. We rebel against throwing away those things that
have become more important to us than our relationship with Jesus. Surely we
think we can do what God says and keep a portion for ourselves. We’ve all done
this in some way. Possibly we think we can still be a Christian and keep all
those pornographic magazines we’ve collected over the years. Maybe we can’t
give up an addictive habit that drains our resources. Possibly we’ve invested
in our career or business and have no time to serve in our local church. Surely
we can attend once in a great while and God will understand. Surely He knows
that we have to make more money to buy more things. Possibly we justify our
lack of involvement by tithing more. Yes, God wants our financial resources at
times, but He really wants our heart. Sometimes He would rather have our
talents and skills used in a local fellowship ministry rather than our money.
When
Samuel confronts Saul about what he has done the justification and
rationalizations begin. Saul says he has done what God had asked but Samuel is
no dummy. He hears the noises of the animals that have been captured. But God
had already spoken to Samuel the night before about Saul’s disobedience. This
tells us several things. We can never hide anything from God. We can justify it
to our neighbor. We can gloss it over with our pastor. We can even lie to
ourselves and convince ourselves we have done right. But we can never pull the
wool over God’s all-seeing eye. The other thing we learn is that our sin will
find us out. God knows our sin and He will often reveal it to others in His
family. God may intervene or another believer may confront us of our wrong
doing. We need to remember, God is not mocked, whatever we sow, we shall reap.
Saul defended his actions by saying that He saved King Agag and the animals to
offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord. Now this is an interesting defense.
Caught in sin Saul begins to weave a story that basically says he knew better
what to do than God. He thought it would be better to sacrifice the Agag and the
animals to God than to destroy them as he was instructed.
Have we done this at times? We are convicted to do
something but we modify the conviction because we feel we know better. Or in
reality we have disobeyed God, so we begin to justify our disobedience with
words of righteous motives that we think are higher than God could have
imagined. Whether we think we have a better idea than God or whether we are
simply trying to justify our actions, it is sin. We don’t know for sure if Saul
really thought he had a better idea than God or whether he was just trying to
justify his actions. What we do know is no matter what his reasoning, Saul
sinned. No matter what our reasons for disobeying God, our sin is sin as well.
The verse, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”
is very appropriate in this passage. It is better to obey God than offer
multitudes of sacrifices, apologies and confessions for our disobedience. It is
better to listen to God in the first place and carry out His instructions than
to offer up explanations and justifications for our poor choice of actions.
Charles
Spurgeon says of this verse, “The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in
letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous
generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly
neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly
in the path of your Savior’s command is better than any outward form of
religion; and to hearken to His precept with an attentive ear is better than to
bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon His altar. If
you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to His disciples, I pray
you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to
your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no
recompense for disobedience. "To obey," even in the slightest and
smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice," however pompous. Talk not
of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing
which God requires of His child is obedience; and though you should give your
body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not
hearken to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing.
It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more
blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the
letter.”
"Behold,
to obey is better than sacrifice.”