1 Samuel 15:20 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me.’ He insists he has obeyed. He resents this and resists this conclusion. Then he actually begins to bring as evidence, tokens of his disobedience, ‘and have brought Agag the king of Amalek’ – he is not supposed to be alive. It is suggested that he kept Agag alive in order to get ransom money for him. Why else would he have done it? Where would he get the ransom money from? Presumably from all the Amalekites he also left alive; it looks dangerously like that. This obedience is dropping to twenty percent obedience as the verses roll on. It is pride which gives rise to self-justification: ‘I have done no wrong.’ He even claims that it was a good thing to do to preserve Agag, the king of Amalek. And he claims that he has obeyed, by utterly destroying – which he hasn't – the residue; the king is an exception. ‘But the people took of the spoil’, and they are blamed again. He is again brazen. ‘But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.’ There is a constant shifting of his ground. Frist it was, ‘I have performed the commandment of the LORD.’ He hoped this would satisfy Samuel. Then when challenged about the sound of the animals it became, ‘the people spared the best … to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God.’ Now he admits that what the people had kept to sacrifice was what should have been utterly destroyed.’ Under the pressure of Samuel’s reproof he is constantly retreating and giving ground. There is a basic lack of integrity in him. He will offer excuses and speak half truths in the hope they will be accepted. ^{15:22-23 And Samuel said, Hath the LORD} as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. ²³ For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.