The Difficult Choice of Obedience: 1 Samuel 15:7-9
One of the biggest reasons we fail to live up to God’s calling and allow sinfulness to persist in our life is by getting distracted with our personal gain. We want to feel successful. We enjoy demonstrations of success: the fancy clothing, the big houses, the bling jewelry, the vacation properties. We enjoy the stuff in our life and know what it means to our self-esteem.
Saul is victorious against the Amalekites. God grants him the victory; it was His plan in the first place. The Amalekites are defeated and chased practically all the way to Egypt. Saul takes the Amalekite king captive and plunders their livestock.
As discussed earlier, God gave the Amalekites several centuries to learn about Him and follow Him. They did not. God is gracious in giving them time to fix their mistake of desiring to plunder the Hebrew people during the Exodus.
While this explains why God’s anger simmered, it does not explain why the judgment happened at this moment. God’s plans are always multi-layered. The Amalekite judgment happened at this point in history because the Amalekites became an excellent opportunity to put Saul on trial. This story is as much about Saul’s leadership as it is about God’s anger against the Amalekites.
During the battle, Saul captures Agag, the Amalekite king, and drags him back to the Hebrew controlled land. He also takes possession of the Amalekite herds. Herd animals provide food, clothing, and can be used to augment human labor. In other words, herds were wealth in the ancient world.
As the Amalekites were being destroyed, the opportunity to test Saul’s heart appeared. Saul was instructed to destroy everything belonging to the Amalekites. This was God’s judgment, and He wanted nothing to remain of the Amalekites as a sign of His power and His ability to remember prior transgression. It was an opportunity to wipe a civilization off the map because of their propensity to spread evil.
Saul’s heart wasn’t interested in following orders. Saul understands how his reputation could increase from keeping Agag alive and parading him in front of the Hebrew elite. Saul knows the prestige that will come when he takes the herds of the Amalekites and merges them with his own.
We know Saul’s heart is focused on himself because he only takes the best of the herds and people. Had Saul been interested in feeding the people or spreading the wealth around, he would have let everything be claimed by his warriors. Had Saul been interested in following God, he would have destroyed it all. Instead, Saul follows his own greed and claims the best before committing the rest to destruction.
Saul fails to give God the judgment He proscribed. Because of his own greed, the elite of the Amalekites persist rather than being committed to destruction. One of the biggest reasons we fail to live up to God’s calling and allow sinfulness to persist in our life is by getting distracted with our personal gain.
