Obedience To God Matters - 1 Samuel 11-15

1 Samuel 15:17-21 (ESV)

And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD. I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”

God, through Samuel, had sent Saul on a mission.  He was to attack the wicked Amalekites and destroy them all.  It was an exact command Saul was to follow:

1 Samuel 15:3 (ESV)

Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

But, when Saul arrived and defeated most of the Amalek people, this is what happened:

1 Samuel 15:9 (ESV)

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

Now, we, as fellow human beings, might think this is okay.  But Saul disobeyed God.  So Saul actually saving people alive, was disobedient to God?   Does that make sense?   Yes, because Samuel will tell Saul this:

1 Samuel 15:22 (ESV)

And Samuel said,

“Has 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 listen than the fat of rams.

God does not want our good works.  He wants our obedience in faith to His word.   It should be noted that God was using Saul to be God’s vengeance on an evil man.  Note what Samuel says about this king just before he, himself, obeys God and kills him:

1 Samuel 15:32-33 (ESV)

Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

Saul had a mission from God.  He may not have liked the mission.  He may have wanted to show mercy and thought that he was being gracious.  But he was supposed to be God’s hand for justice, not God’s hand for mercy.   Obedience is the driving element here.  We are to obey God’s word, not fit it into our own life philosophy.