1 Samuel 15:32 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Samuel 15:32

Comments

‘Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately’, and he was duly slain. ‘Delicately’ – the Hebrew noun version of the word means, literally, ‘a delicacy’. It refers to something soft and pleasant, and the idea is that Agag walked into the presence of Samuel in a very stately way, as a gentleman, as a refined statesman and king. He came in optimistically, without fear. If the king, Saul, had spared his life, what had he to fear from an ageing prophet? Surely he is not going to expect a death sentence from an ageing man of God! And listen to his words: ‘Surely the bitterness of death is passed’, and the word surely here means assuredly, certainly. He is not a bit afraid. You can almost see him smiling in a superior way. ‘Surely the bitterness of death, the anger of past executions, any desire for vengeance; surely that is long past. No one would now execute a king for that. Many Amalekites have died.’ He suggests, ‘Surely that now is adequate atonement; I shall survive. And anyway most of the deaths were a very long time ago. This is historic sin when Israel was in the wilderness.’ But what he forgets – and this is the purpose of the demonstration here – is that justice remains. Oh yes, death may be forgotten, anger may be forgotten, grief may be forgotten, but justice remains, and God has said it, and so he must die; he must suffer for the treachery and the sin.But the end of the chapter, ‘Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.³⁵ And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul:’ – there were attractive aspects of his personality – ‘and [or but] the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.’ Of course he knew this moment would come; he repented in the sense that he changed his action towards Saul, and withdrew his kingship and his favour.

Application

This teaches us the difference between true and false conversion. Saul could pass as one of the prophets at one stage. In a strange measure he was filled with the Spirit. He could pass as a believer. That can happen. A person can appear to be converted, appear to have a remarkable measure of understanding, and enthusiasm, and earnestness, when they are not necessarily truly converted. But then it all goes wrong, and it is shown that they never really were the Lord's, and the person falls back into sin or nominalism and disobedience, or something of the kind. Well then what is the difference between a true convert and a false convert? And we saw previously two indications, two things that make a difference. Saul did not repent, and he didn't obey. He couldn't come under conviction. Look how many times on this occasion it took for Samuel to ring out of him even a superficial acknowledgement that he had done wrong. He didn't seem to have it in him to feel conviction of sin, and he didn’t repent, and he didn't obey. Fifty percent was surely sufficient righteousness, so far as Saul was concerned. Here too you see the same. No repentance, no conviction, no obedience, only conditional worship. If he could keep his honour, he would worship the Lord. There is no deep genuineness or fervour in Saul.

What makes you sure that you are a Christian? Well, a lot of the time God gives you certainty. He gives you assurance and you just know it, and you are certain of it. Sometimes that fades and feelings won’t cooperate, and your faith has to work by itself to maintain your trust, and your prayer. But that feeling of assurance is very precious, and it is particularly precious if you can have it much, or most, of the time. But there are other things. ‘I know the Lord has worked in my heart, you can say, because of how badly I feel about my failures, my failings and my sins. Before I came to Christ I never felt like this. It's true what the apostle John says in his First Epistle: ‘He that is born of God cannot sin.’ To explain that we usually add the word ‘easily’. He cannot sin easily or comfortably; he goes home and he feels conviction over that sin. ‘Oh what have I done? What have I said? What have I done to cause an upset in the family. What have I done before the Lord in this or that act or word? And you need the forgiveness of God. You are capable of conviction of sin. You have to repent frequently, and daily and often. And actually that is a mighty encouragement to you. What has God done in your heart? How has he dealt with you? There are other things like that too: your longings for holiness of life, and for improvement, and your joy in the work of God and the things that you can hear. There are things going on in your life that may convince you. You have that direct assurance that God frequently allows you to enjoy, and you have the signs within, and you have the times of strength that God gives you to obey more fully and more properly. These are precious things, and they are all parts of our assurance, and our certainty. May God help us always to note the difference between the true and the false conversion.

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1 Samuel 15:32 Commentary and Bible Study