There is a pastoral lesson for us as Christian people, saved by the grace of God, brought to a wonderful mercy, spiritual light, understanding, and experience. We too have to obey the Lord. We can too readily can say, ‘We will obey, but we will obey in our own way.’ We innovate freely; we do not consider that there is a blueprint or principles for Christian service in the word of God. We reserve the right to invent, and our pride says, ‘Why not? Why should we not?’, as if we were people in business, inventing our own approaches and our own methodology. That is what we want to do: express ourselves and do things our own way. But we see in these Old Testament records events which speak to us, and it was for this disobedience that Saul was rejected.
You see it in the whole Alpha Course business. Free adaptation! Adaptation of the message of the gospel too: writing out the parts of it which talk about man’s sin. Making light of all that, expressing certain benefits, and in their case mainly Charismatic benefits. So people are not brought under conviction. People can have Christ on a simple profession of faith, without any searching of heart, any genuine repentance. And then the methods are adapted freely too. Instead of the reaching out to people on the basis of the word of God, supported by earnest prayer to God, various methods are devised. Minister to people’s hurts; use friendship evangelism; catch them, bait them, snare them by friendship and companionship, convivial hospitality and things of this kind. Everything is changed and rewritten. But we are not to do that, and this is established in the word of God as long ago as these early chapters in the Bible.
Why were there to be no spoils, no sheep, no cattle, for the people of Israel. Israel was sometimes allowed to keep the spoils of war. Because this was a demonstration of the justice of God. If the animals were spared it would certainly look to the nations around as though this was just an attack, on the part of Israel, that was for their own enrichment, and their own benefit. But it was to be demonstrated and seen that this was a divine command, because of the evil and the historic viciousness of the Amalekites and the evil of their community also. So to preserve the best of the animals for themselves undermined the justice of God, and it gave a totally wrong impression to the pagan nations around of what was going on. The whole purpose of the action was lost as a testimony to the people of those times. So Saul did great damage. But that is not the main issue. It is an issue, but far more important is that he disobeyed God. We have observed fifty percent obedience was good enough for King Saul. He did not always agree with the commands he was given, though they came from God's prophet, from Samuel, though they came from God himself. He reserved the right in his rebelliousness and his pride, to freely interpret the instructions and to carry them out in a very modified form, inserting his own innovations. That was the great crime of Saul. When he started, as is pointed out by Samuel, he was very humble and retiring; but as he went on, within a short time, as king, he was taking matters into his own hands.