First Samuel chapter 15. It's a long chapter, so we probably won't finish tonight. And not only is it a long chapter, it's a packed chapter. There's a lot of things going on in First Samuel 15, not only in terms of the rejection of Saul as king, and sort of the transition to David as the king of Israel.
There's some theological issues in chapter 15 that we should address as well. One ethical issue and a theological issue. So we will try to take those up as we go. I just want to read beginning in verse 1.
Samuel also said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people, over Israel. Now, therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Tilaim, 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley.
Then Saul said to the Kenites, go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.
And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel saying, Saul went to Carmel. And indeed, he set up a monument for himself. And he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.
And Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. But Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites.
For the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. And Samuel said to Saul, be quiet, and I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, speak on. So Samuel said, when you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel?
And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go and utterly destroy 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 swoop down on the spoil and do evil in the sight of the Lord?
And Saul said to Samuel, but I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me and brought back Agag, king of Amalek. I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things, which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. So 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 heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me, that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord. And the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul seized the edge of his robe and it tore.
So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor relent, for he is not a man that he should relent. Then he said, I have sinned, yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people. and before Israel and return with me that I may worship the Lord your God." So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord. And Samuel said, bring Agag, king of the Amalekites, here to me.
So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.
And Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel." Amen.
Introduction: Saul's Decline
So from the very inception of Saul's reign, we have seen that he was not a good king. Saul was a man that was appointed ultimately, yearned for by the people, God, of course, put him into that particular office. As soon as he gets into the office, he's doing foolish things. It culminates here in chapter 15.
And while he is not immediately removed from the kingdom, he is nevertheless rendered ineffective by his own actions and by the fact that he is rejected here specifically by the Lord God Almighty. In chapter 13 it was already indicated that he would not have a dynasty. Saul's son would not reign. 1 Samuel 13 in verse 13, Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." So we know this is David, king of Israel.
The chapters following chapter 15 will show his ascent to the throne of Israel. But it's not without trouble, not without difficulty, and not without problems still from Saul. So chapter 15 is a decisive turning point in Israel's history. in terms of Saul's sin against the Lord and the Lord's rejection of him as king. So the chapter breaks down into three broad categories.
The first is the command to destroy the Amalekites in verses 1 to 9. Secondly, the rebellion of Saul against the Lord in verses 10 to 23. And then thirdly, the rejection of Saul by the Lord in verses 24 to 35. And I mentioned there is an ethical challenge in the chapter, and then a challenge concerning theology proper or the doctrine of God.
So we will take those things up as we get to them.
Command to Destroy the Amalekites
But first, notice the command to destroy the Amalekites in verses 1 to 9. Samuel comes to Saul according to verse 1. He reminds Saul that the Lord had sent him to anoint him king over his people, over Israel, now therefore heed the voice of the words of the Lord. This is a crucial and key concept in the chapter.
The sin of Saul ultimately is a rejection of the Word of the Lord. The sin that Saul engages in in this particular chapter is the same sort of sin that you and I engage in. It is a rejection of the Word of the Living God. Now our sin may not look like Saul's.
We may not spare Agag and violate this particular command to engage in the extermination of the Amalekites. But sin is sin, brethren, and if we disobey the word of the Lord God Almighty, we can trust that what Samuel says to Saul is as true of us as it was for Saul. Verse 23 ought to be a haunting statement in our ears, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Every single sin that we commit is ultimately an act of rebellion.
It's an act of treason against the Lord God. And Samuel said that this is as the sin of witchcraft. What happens to witches in the Old Testament? You do not suffer them to live.
They are to be put to death. And then he goes on to say, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. You see, this stubborn ideal that rejects the word of God seeks to have a rival God, and that God ultimately is our self. When we reject the word of the true and living God, what we're ultimately doing is putting credence in our own word or in our own desire or in what it is that really causes us to be committed.
And he traces this down in verse 23 to because you have rejected the word of the Lord. So this is paramount and fundamental throughout the chapter. If we ask what is the sin of Saul, yes, the particular application is sparing Agag and sparing the livestock. But the central issue is something that is as peculiar to us in this new covenant setting as it was to Saul in his old covenant setting.
Rejection of God's word, rebellion against the truth, choosing rather to do that which God has said not to do or not doing that which God has told us to do. This is as the sin of witchcraft according to the scripture. We ought to see it in that way. I remember several weeks ago, I mentioned a quote from John Owen.
He says, when we deal with sin, we need to load our consciences with the evil of sin. It is typical for us to try and minimize things. It's typical for us to say, well, you know, I know I have this in my life, but it's not that big of a deal. Or it's not something that is really horrible in light of abortion or in light of the homosexual agenda.
My thing really isn't that bad. We tend to minimize things. Well, who in the world would ever equate stubbornness with idolatry? Or who in the world would ever equate rebellion with witchcraft?
We would do everything we can to try and minimize the effects and the implications in our lives. Well, when we are dealing with sin and a rejection of God's holy word, we ought to load our conscience with the guilt of that sin. If we are stubborn, if we are rebellious, let's own the particular things as God declares. It is as the sin of witchcraft.
It is as the sin of iniquity and idolatry. Brethren, we are not to have truck with. We are not to have sort of Congress with our sin. It is simply unacceptable that we continue to minimize and we continue to entertain these thoughts that it's somehow okay not to heed the voice of the Lord.
Why is it that we can see, probably as I read through, you see Saul's problem. Did God say leave Agag alive? Absolutely not. God said go in and utterly decimate Agag, the Amalekites, and everything that breeds.
You don't bring Agag back to the camp, and you certainly don't bring the good animals back to the camp. You slay them as God the Lord commands. It's easy for us to see that sin and the rejection of God's word, but sometimes it's not as easy for us to see the rejection of the word of the Lord in our own lives. Let us learn the lesson from Samuel's indictment or condemnation of Saul to see sin as God sees it.
It is something vile before his sight.
The Divine Intention and the Herem
Now notice the specific command in verses 2 and 3, the divine intention. God says, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel. I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel. This is the divine intention and the divine plan.
But notice God doesn't send a fist out from heaven and crush Agag and the Amalekites. He uses historical means. He uses, in this particular case, the Israelite armies to devastate or to bring this punishment to bear upon the Amalekites. Notice the specific reason.
How he ambushed, or I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. It was pretty rotten. The people were weary, the people were very vulnerable, and the Amalekites came and they attacked them in this particular instance. Well, when we look at the passages, in fact you can turn to Deuteronomy chapter 25.
Deuteronomy 25, just so you can see the specific reason that's in view here in terms of this demand to go and punish the Amalekites. Deuteronomy 25, verses 17 to 19. Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, the parallel or the actual instances in Exodus 17, if you want to look at that later. But here is a remembrance or a recalling that particular act.
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary, and he did not fear God. Therefore, it shall be when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God has given you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven, you shall not forget. So payment has come. It's time to punish the Amalekites.
What God said in Deuteronomy 25 is now coming to fruition in the reign of King Saul. They are in the land. They have a relative degree of peace and happiness and security in the land. That's how chapter 14 ends in verses 47 to 52.
It's a nice summary statement that North, South, East, West, Israel is taking care of her enemies. She is subduing them. She is protecting her place in the land. They've got this.
Now it's time to come and punish the Amalekites. And notice the particular manner they are to do this. Verse 2, I will punish Amalek. Verse 3, now go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and do not spare them.
But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. This is called the harem principle. And harem here is not the big tent with a lot of women. That's not the heremin view.
It's the word that means under the ban or something that is devoted to God, specifically destruction. It is the Old Testament or Hebrew counterpart to the New Testament word, which is anathema. It means something that is devoted to destruction and that is precisely what was supposed to take place with reference to the Amalekites. Go and utterly destroy all that they have.
Deuteronomy 29 verses 16 to 18 specifies this particular principle as does the original mandate for holy war in Deuteronomy 7, 1 to 5. Those cities that were in or under the ban were not to be left alive. They were to be utterly destroyed. You were not to make any alliances.
You were to destroy the religious idols. You were to get rid of them, because the issue is, it was the glory of God, the purity of the land, and ultimately the purity of Israel. God knew that if they made friends with Canaanites, it wouldn't be long before they were worshiping with Canaanites. And that is precisely what happens in Old Covenant religion.
But nevertheless, this is the particular principle. There's an illustration of it in Joshua chapter 6 verses 17 to 21. Basically, the nation or the person under the ban were devoted to God for destruction.
The Ethical Challenge of Holy War
Now, I believe this presents the Christian with an ethical challenge. Actually, it doesn't present the Christian with an ethical challenge, but rather it is presented to the Christian as an ethical challenge. People don't like this. People probably in the church don't like this, but that's not who I'm talking about right now.
But it's so bad today. Christians have to defend the Bible to other Christians. But let's just take the atheist idea for a moment. How could it possibly be just for God to command genocide, for God to tell the nation of Israel to go in and utterly destroy the Amalekites?
And notice the text is very specific. There is no one that is excluded but kill both man and woman infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Now, if you've ever presented the gospel to anybody that was sort of hostile to the truth, this might be something they bring up to you at some point. Somebody might say, do you know that the God in your Bible has commanded genocide?
The God in your Bible has told people to go in and utterly destroy infants and nursing children. I mean, what will you say to that? Are you going to stammer and mutter and say, well, that was the God of the Old Testament, and that's not the God that we have anymore. You cannot do that.
There is one true and living God. This is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This Yahweh of Israel is our God. How are we going to explain when the rabid atheist is breathing out these sort of invectives against our God, that he's vicious and warmongering and evil, and how could you love a God that does such and such a thing?
Well, let's just suppose or assume for a moment that we are dealing with the atheist. As has been pointed out in several debates by James White and Greg Bonson, the atheist simply has no concept of evil. The atheist has to take from us what evil really is, because in an atheist world, how could there be good and evil? If all that you have are molecules and atoms and whatever happens at the subatomic level, and you have randomness and chance, And if one group of Adams wants to kill another group of Adams, in the long run, who cares?
There is no evil as defined by Christians in an atheist world. So when they start saying, how could your God do such and such, ask them to give a good definition of evil without using our worldview. They simply cannot do it. Other things that we need to keep in mind, and this is probably stuff we can use with Christians in the church that get a little bit squeamish over such texts.
God's Sovereignty Over Life
Secondly, the Lord God is sovereign over all life. I think it was right over here, Steve, we went to do tracts, and that guy said, God's a murderer. No, God isn't a murderer. God is not a murderer.
If you drop dead tonight, that is not an act of murder. God is sovereign. He has absolute authority over life. He has the power.
He says, when you are born, he says, when you die. That is not murder. Murder is malice aforethought. It has criminal or wicked intent.
It is a vicious assault on the image of God. For God to take a life is not murder. for God to command Israel to go into the land and take lives, that is not murder. Notice in 2.6, in Hannah's prayer, she declares, Yahweh kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and lifts up. So the Lord God is sovereign over all of life.
Punishment of Sin in a Moral Universe
A third thing we need to remember, and a third thing we need to remind the person that is breathing this out, is that the punishment of sin by a holy God is a necessary consequence in a moral universe. God must punish sin, right? I mean, you must punish rebellion in your home. The civil government must punish crimes against persons in the body politic.
Certainly, God, the Lord, is going to punish sin and crime on that sort of a cosmic level. The previous treatment of Israel at the hands of the Amalekites demanded punishment. This happened 400 years prior. But if you look at chapter 15, Amalek was not somehow a nice respectable group of people at this particular point.
As far as I know, there's not many places in the scripture where the plural form sinners is applied to a particular people group. Notice in verse 18, now the Lord sent you on a mission and said go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites. Currently, presently, yes, this is an act of judgment and punishment from God for how they treated Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they are presently sinners, they are presently vile, they are presently engaged in all manner of evil. When Samuel summons Agag to come and stand before him, what does Samuel say?
As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. Agag was guilty of these particular crimes presently, currently, and right now. So for God to use Israel to punish the Amalekites is not only not murder, but rather it is an act of judgment and an act of punishment against these people.
The Vengeance of God as Blessing
A fourth thing we ought to consider, and this really for the people of God that are a bit squeamish about passages like these, is that the vengeance of God is a blessed reality for the people of God. Now, you may have been brought up in a Christian tradition where you were a little bit afraid of affirming that particular proposition, but it's throughout the scripture. The Lord God Almighty says that He will punish those who terrorize his people. And when the Lord God vindicates his people and visits his enemies with judgment and justice, that is a blessing for the righteous.
That is a good thing. And the people of God, instead of being squeamish or trying to apologize for the conduct or the activity of God, which is really sickening and pathetic. God never asks us to somehow anemically apologize or be sorry for the way that he conducts himself. Well, I'm sorry for that harsh treatment in the Old Testament, and I'm sorry for the way that God did those things.
But you see, in the New Testament, it's all about love and mercy and compassion. It's always intrigued me that in the book of Revelation, In Revelation chapter 6, when the wrath and fury of God Most High is coming down upon a people, the men of the place where the judgment is coming, call upon the mountains to cover them, the rocks to fall upon them, and they say, hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. It is the Lamb of God who comes in judgment against the enemies. The Lord God Almighty will vindicate His people.
This is not ungodly for us to long for this. It is not unrighteous. It is if somebody cuts you off at a red light or at a stop sign and you say, God, get them with your eternal judgment and justice and all the horrors of hell. Don't do that.
That's petty and that's wicked. But for those who continually abominate our God, those who continually afflict the people of God, those who would put little children in cages and burn them to death, you see, what God says to Israel in terms of doing to the Amalekites are the self-same things that the Amalekites had done to them. You know that last verse, I think it's in Psalm 137, blessed is he who dashes your little ones against the rock. We read that and we freak out.
Never stops to enter into our mind that the persons that were enemies of the people of Israel had done that with their little babies. had taken little Israelite children and bashed their heads against the rocks. God will visit with judgment and punishment in kind to those who give trial to his people. Again, this is not simply an Old Testament concept. We need to get rid of that mindset.
Well, that's just the Old Testament. Notice in the New Testament in Romans 12. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. That is what Paul tells us in 1219.
Do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. How many Christians misinterpret this verse? We're told not to avenge ourselves and just to let it go. That's not what Paul says.
He says, give place to wrath. In other words, realize that God has a monopoly on pouring out wrath. God is the one that will indeed repay, says the Lord, according to Paul in Romans 12.19. One of the means by which God brings wrath to bear in history is through the civil government in chapter 13, 1 to 4.
God has given the civil government the sword to wield the power of execution upon criminal offenders. Do not avenge yourselves. Don't go to the store. buy a 38 and be a vigilante. But rather, it is legit and righteous and just for you to pray and invoke the civil government to take the sword literally and to enact it against criminal offenders.
This is not a wrong thing. The Christian is a man or a woman who bears the image of God and justice and righteousness are concepts that we should long for. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians 1 is dealing with this ethical challenge that may be presented to us by the enemies of God concerning this mandate to go in and destroy the Amalekites. Notice in 2 Thessalonians 1, Verse six, we'll just skip right down to the main part I want us to consider. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you.
You see, it's a righteous thing. It's not a bad thing. It's not a vindictive thing. It's bad and wrong when we take vengeance into our own hands.
But when God, through the means he has appointed, in the case of Romans 13, the civil government, in the case of 1 Samuel 15, the Israelite nation against the Amalekites, In this particular instance, the idea might be, AD 70, it might be the second coming specifically, whatever it is, God will indeed pay with tribulation those who trouble you. And then notice in Revelation chapter 6, just prior to the section I've already referenced, when the people cry out to protect them from the wrath of the Lamb. Notice in chapter 6 verse 9, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. These are martyrs, right?
Who gets slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held? We call them martyrs. Martyrs, we call them those who shed their blood for Jesus. What are the martyrs doing under the altar?
Oh Lord, just visit them with friendly kisses from on high. Oh Lord, just make their lives blessed and beautiful. Verse 10, and they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, oh Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. Then a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed." Now it's just a brief sketch.
Now, I'm not saying, again, go out there and if somebody cheats you at Walmart, you stop for a moment and you invoke the wrath and fury of God upon that wretched teller that wouldn't give you your 30 cents back. That's not the point. But there is a concept of justice and righteousness that the Bible upholds that the people of God, unfortunately, don't always uphold. Where do we see justice and righteousness displayed more fully than at the cross?
Do you realize that in Romans 3, Paul the apostle says that when God set forth Christ on the cross as a propitiation, it was to demonstrate his righteousness. Yes, the cross demonstrates love. It demonstrates grace. It demonstrates mercy.
It demonstrates kindness. But it demonstrates the righteousness of God, that God can be both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. You see, the salvation of sinners did not come at the expense of the righteousness and justice of God. It came because the righteousness and justice of God was satisfied by the curse-bearing servant.
You see, God doesn't avert those things. God satisfies the righteousness and justice that His law demands, that His holy character demands, and so the cross upheld that. Christian people ought to be a people who love righteousness, who love justice. And again, they're not vindictive.
They're not petty, they're not small, they're not little irritating people that are an annoyance to society. But there ought to be something in us that longs for the day when Jesus will come and he will vindicate his elect. He will vindicate his church. He will vindicate his bride.
He will stop the mouths of blasphemers. He will stop those who shed the innocent blood of babies. He'll stop those who continue to blaspheme and curse his name. Brethren, these are wicked people, and it's righteous for God to judge them and punish them.
So when somebody says, that seems so outlandish, You ought to say, you know what's outlandish is that God doesn't slay every single one of us because we're as wicked as the Amalekites. The fact that we're drawing breath into our bodies at this particular time is proof positive of the long-suffering of God. And look at the particular situation here. It was 400 years prior.
Talk about patience. Talk about long-suffering. Talk about forbearance. It's an amazing reality that God lets any one of us finish a day.
It's an amazing reality that there are sinners in this world that continue to draw breath in their lungs simply to blaspheme or dishonor or sin against the Lord God Almighty.
Holy War as Covenant Judgment
And then a fifth observation is that the Lord God commanded holy war as a means of particular judgment upon the wicked inhabitants of the land. Now he says to Israel, I did not choose you because you were more righteous. It's not like Israel was the best of the lot. God set his love and affection upon them according to his eternal decree.
But he chose them, he selected them. He takes none too righteous Israel to judge the inhabitants of the land in Canaan. What happens when Israel settles the land and they start living like the Canaanites? They too are judged.
They too are dispossessed. They too are thrown out by the Assyrians in 722, and by the Babylonians in 586. So God is not arbitrary. God is not capricious.
When the Israelites behave like Canaanites, they too are excluded and expelled from the land of Canaan. But this was the purpose of God in terms of judgment upon the Canaanites. You can turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 to 5. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 to 5.
When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And if you say, well, what about the Amalekites? God is at liberty to include them because they were the ones who oppressed his special people. in Exodus chapter 17. This is the harem principle.
This is the idea of utterly destroying them. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them. God knows what's going on, right?
If they actually destroyed them, there'd be no prohibition necessary against merit. God knows they're not going to totally destroy them. So He makes this statement concerning no marriages, no social interaction, no political interaction, ultimately no religious interaction. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them, nor shall you make marriages with them.
You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. Why? Because if your little junior marries their little junior, what's going to happen? She's going to lead him to Baal.
Right? That's just the reality. God is not saying, Israel, you're so holy, you can't mix with those people. No, Israel, you're so not holy, you can't mix with those people, because they will lead you astray.
One day you'll be borrowing a cup of sugar from your Canaanite neighbors, the next time you'll be at the bail service doing this, before that one from whom all blessings flow. You see, God knows his people, and he makes these prohibitions. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods. So the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.
But thus you shall deal with them. You shall destroy their altars and break down their sacred pillars and cut down their wooden images and burn their carved images with fire." Is this akin to ISIS going in and destroying all those old things? No, this is akin to keeping the people of Israel holy and pure and from idols. God knows the hearts of His people.
If you get too close, you are not holy enough to affect the change. You are unholy enough to be affected and changed, and you've got to be careful. But go back to Leviticus 18. Just another piece of information that I think is very helpful in this whole issue concerning holy war.
Now, I must say this because we need to say it.
Holy War Not Binding on the Church
We are not under the mandate of holy war in the New Covenant. We are not told to take up carnal weapons and destroy Abbotsfordians. We are not called to march against Vancouver and utterly dispossess the city and destroy everything that moves and breathes. We are not under this mandate.
This was under the old covenant, theocracy. It was consolidated to Israel as a body politic. This is crucial. We are not to do this.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty for the pulling down of strongholds. They're not carnal. We are not to take up arms. We are not, as Church, to go out and advance the Kingdom of God.
Now, as individual Christians, I believe you can serve in the military. As individual Christians, you can take up arms, most assuredly. But the Church, as Church, to advance the Kingdom of God is not to do it with carnal weapons. That's just the reality of it.
Deuteronomy 7, 1 to 5, has expired. That is something that is not binding on us. Certainly we ought to learn what is the underlying idea. No political alliance, no social alliance, no religious alliance with those who would do damage to us spiritually.
Certainly there's a great application there for our young people. You can't marry unbelievers. Certainly the New Testament upholds this principle as well with reference to social lines. All these things.
We need to be on our guard. But the mandate of holy war is not for us today in terms of a physical execution of violence upon image bearers to advance the kingdom of heaven. Everybody got that? I don't want you going to the gun store on the way home and saying we got some work to do.
We got some scores to settle, man. I got to learn. I got to fire. I've got to pile up my armament.
OK, notice in 1824. the reason for the expulsion of the Canaanites. You see, here's an unspoken assumption by those persons that say, wow, it's just so vicious for God to send in the armies of Israel to destroy those Amalekites. The unspoken assumption is those poor, innocent Amalekites, isn't it? Those poor, innocent Amalekites, they're just minding their business.
They're just hoeing their gardens. They're just tending to their spouses. They're just rearing their families for bail. They're just doing things that Canaanites do.
Just leave them alone. Live and let live. Why isn't Yahweh like that? Live and let live.
That's what I say. They're innocent persons occupying a piece of property. Just leave them alone. Look at 1824, do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
For the land is defiled, therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You see, the idea is that this is God's property, God's parcel. And these Canaanites are in there engaged in bestiality, and in homosexuality, and in idolatry. That's what the context talks about, in engaging in all manner of evil.
And God says to Israel, Go in and expel them from the land. This is God's earth. He regulates. He governs.
He legislates. He commands. When men breach His law, when men violate His commandments, it's righteous with God to punish them. When your little kid takes something that you told him not to take, I trust you think it's righteous with you to punish them, right?
So when God in his earth or people on his earth are engaged in lawless activity, God says to Israel, go and dispossess them from the land. Again, God's not arbitrary. God's not capricious. Because when Israel behaves like the Canaanites, they too are dispossessed from the land.
It is one righteous standard of judgment. It is God's holy moral law. And this is what he is holding them to.
The Wickedness of the Canaanites
Notice, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not commit any of these abominations either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you. For all these abominations the men of the land have done who were before you and thus the land is defiled. You see, that supposition, that unspoken implication that the God of the Israelites sent in these people to destroy these innocent, peace-dwelling, lovers of the land, nut-and-berry-eaten persons, just singing to Baal daily, leave them alone. That's just wrong.
They were wicked. Verse 28, lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it as it vomited out the nations that were before you. For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. You see, it is not arbitrary, it is not capricious.
We see the principle carry over into the new covenant. In the churches in Asia Minor, what does Jesus say to the church at Laodicea? Because you're neither hot nor cold, what will He do? I will vomit you out of my mouth.
In the Old Covenant, the land vomited out the inhabitants. In the New Covenant, the church that professes saving faith in Jesus, but lives like the Laodiceans, Christ will vomit them out of His mouth. He has no truck with the people that say they're one thing, but act another way. This is a principle of God's judgment.
Davis says, the conquest, talking about going in and dispossessing the land of the Canaanites, is not a bunch of land-hungry marauders wiping out at the behest of their vicious God hundreds of innocent God-fearing folks. In the biblical view, the God of the Bible uses none too righteous Israel as the instrument of his just judgment on a people who had persistently reveled in their iniquity. So get it out of your head, or do not allow somebody to make that assumption that these were just innocent folk. I mean, they just wanted to make a living in the land, didn't they?
By having sex with animals? By offering their children a mullet? By having homosexual relationships? By murdering?
By engaging in all manner of lawlessness? You call that an innocent, peace-loving folk? Again, when we go back to 1 Samuel chapter 15, the question ought not to be, how in the world could God authorize Israel to do this? The question ought to be, how in the world does God not authorize this daily on people groups who continually violate his holy law?
That's the perplexing thing. You know, it was C.S. Lewis who wrote a book, The Problem of Pain. You know, why is there pain in God's world?
John Gershner wrote a little pamphlet, The Problem of Pleasure. Pain is perfectly explainable in a world governed by a moral God, and we are an immoral people. Pain is the legitimate result, punishment for sin. The problem is pleasure.
Why is it that in a world with sin and a holy God, any of us get to smile in a given day? Any of us ever get to eat a piece of chicken? Any of us ever get to do anything nice? The problem is really pleasure.
That is the thing that needs explanation. So the issue here in 1 Samuel 15 with the Amalekites is not, how could God ever do this? The question really is, how come God doesn't do this constantly with people who always violate his holy law? Now notice, the execution of the plan, verses 4 to 9.
We're going to stop after this point. We'll deal with the issue concerning theology proper next week. If you paid attention, in 11 and 35, we have God regretting that he made Saul king. And in verse 29, it says, the Lord is not a man.
He does not relent. How do we harmonize those two things? The doctrine of divine impassibility. That's how we harmonize that.
But we'll get to that, God willing, next week.
Execution of the Plan: Verses 4–9
Notice the execution of the plan, verses 4 to 9. The troops assembled in verses four, verses four and five. He numbered them in Tulam, 200,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 men of Judah. Some will say, but at the end of chapter, you know, in 13 and 14, he had 1,000, then he only had 600 men.
Well, this is probably a couple years after the fact, and this is more Israelites than the few that were with him in 13 and 14. So the big numbers should not disturb us. Okay, and then 10,000 men of Judah, and then Saul came to a city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. The Kenites are spared.
The Kenites did the Israelites a solid, and so the Kenites are spared. They are warned, they are told, if you don't get out of there, then you will go down with the Amalekites. We are on a mission. to deal with Amalekites. So Kenites, you should pack up your things and move so that you do not go down in this exchange." So they did.
So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. Good idea on the Kenites' part, right? When the Israelites come at the bidding of Yahweh, it's a good idea to listen to them and move out of the way. 7. Saul attacked the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive. It's like the author here is going, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. This is bad. This is wrong.
This is terrible. That wasn't the instruction, Saul. What part of utterly destroy everything didn't you get? Saul, you messed up.
And Saul then continues to try and blame the people. There's an ambiguous, they brought the livestock. There's a later, the people wanted to do this. And in his repentance, he says, I feared the people.
I don't think what he says in verse 24 is legit. He says, I have sinned. I definitely think that's legit. But when he says, I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in your words because I feared the people.
The author does not call it that way. The author says, Saul spared Agag. And then notice in verse 9, Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. You see, Saul led this.
Saul was the king. Saul was the responsibility. Saul was the main man. He is royal.
He cannot blame the people for this. He is rather the commander of the people. If Saul spares Agag, and Saul says, collect the livestock, then the buck stops with Saul. All of Saul's shenanigans notwithstanding, the people this, the people that, the people this.
And I love the way, no I don't. I hate the way he does it, but I think we're guilty of this as well. Trying to justify sin under pious guides or pious roads. Well, we spared the livestock so that we'd have sacrifices for Yahweh.
If Yahweh says destroy the livestock, Yahweh knows what's best. He doesn't need you sparing livestock to present sacrifice. This is the point. Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice.
I don't care about your sacrifice if you come before me and your heart is polluted with rebellion. I don't care about your sacrifice or your praise offerings or your Sunday worship if you've come there and you're guilty and you have no intention whatsoever to deal with your sin. What does Jesus say in Matthew 5 if you go to present your offering? And you go to present your gift at the altar and there you remember that your brother has a problem with you.
Go and be reconciled to him and then come back. Now in that particular instance the temple was in Jerusalem. Not everybody lived in Jerusalem. Perhaps you lived 70 miles away from Jerusalem.
So that would be akin to us coming on Sunday in Chilliwack and remembering, boy, I offended a brother in Vancouver. Hang on, everybody. I need to go reconcile with him before I go worship my God. Oh, no, that just seems a bit odd.
No, that's what God says. He wants our hearts. He doesn't want us to be fakes. So in this particular instance, Saul attacks the Amalekites from Avila all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
Sounds good, right? A little geography, a little bit of battle plan. This is good. Everything's going right.
But verse 8, boy, this is the downfall. He also took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive and utterly destroyed all the people at the edge of the sword. It's almost like the author is just showing us, weaving it in such a way as to say, look at the irony. Look at this.
He thinks he's doing a good thing. I don't know. Does Saul actually think he's doing right? He certainly vindicates himself.
He celebrates his accomplishment with a monument. I mean, when he finally does meet up with Samuel, look at verse 13. Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
Are you kidding me? Agag is still breathing. These sheep are bleeding in my ears and these oxen are lowing. I love Samuel's response.
If you've done everything that the Lord has said, why am I hearing sheep and oxen? Saul, you didn't do everything. You have sinned against Yahweh. God doesn't ask you to be innovative or creative with His commands.
He doesn't say spare some animals so that you have a sacrifice. He says obey Him. Brethren, that's what we need to get from these Saul narratives, how bad it is to disobey God, and how right it is to obey God. So he takes Agag.
Notice in verse nine, but Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. How does he say, I did a good thing? You see the deceptiveness of sin? You can fall into patterns, you can get into ruts, you can get into a way of life that thinks or you think that everything is going well, and everything is right, and everything is good, and yet people like us, that aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, could read a page out of your life and say, are you nuts?
You actually think you're doing well and you're engaged in this activity? You actually think that you're to be celebrated and congratulated when you've got this issue? Are you kidding me? I mean, come on, it's pretty obvious in the passage.
But everything despised and worthless, the end of verse 9, that they utterly destroy. What's the implication? They want stuff. Saul not withstanding, we saved the livestock simply to present it as sacrifices to the Lord.
No, probably you wanted livestock. Probably you wanted stuff. Probably you wanted more goodies, more trinkets, more baubles, more things for your garages and your storage sheds. You wanted more items so that you could say, wow, what a king I am.
So don't do that. Just obey God. Do what God says each and every step of the way, and everything will be hunky dory.
Christ's Perfect Obedience as Our Hope
And we know, of course, that none of us ever do that. And we ought to be thankful in light of 1 Samuel, chapter 15, that we have our Lord Jesus Christ, because he always obeyed the word of God. He always did what the Father sent him to do. Notice in verse 22, behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
Davis makes the comment how wonderful it is to have a sacrifice who always obeyed. How wonderful it is to have a high priest who always did what the Father told him to do. How wonderful it is that we have a Redeemer, a Savior and a Lord who never shrank back from obeying the Father. And it's because of that obedience, because of his life of active obedience to the Father, his death and what's called the passive obedience, That is imputed to us, received by faith alone, and it's by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we stand.
Because more than likely, if you and I were commanders of Israel's army, and our names were whatever they are, and we were in Saul's position, we probably would have done the same thing. I know I'm pretty hard on Saul, but I think there's a little Jim in Saul and a little Saul in Jim, and that makes me very thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ and the mercy that we have in and through him. So that's the first section, the command to destroy the Amalekites. God willing, we'll take up the rebellion of Saul against the Lord.
And we'll deal with verses 11 and 35 and what they maintain concerning our Lord's regret and verse 29, which is a clear statement that the Lord does not relent. And it's the same word that is used in all three of those verses. It's the same word that's used in Genesis 6. Six and seven, when the Lord regretted, the Lord was sorry that he had made man.
It's the same word that's used in the Balaam oracles in Numbers 23, 19. So God willing, we'll take that up next time. So let's close in a word of prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this time that we can study scripture. We thank you for the lessons that we learn in these books of the Bible. And we pray that you'd help us to learn these ones well, that we would see rebellion, and we would see stubbornness, and we would see an unwillingness to obey your law for what it is. And God, help us by your spirit, according to your will and word, to walk in a manner that is pleasing in your sight.
And even now, we are probably conscious of the fact that we are rebels, and we are stubborn. And we confess our sin, and we thank you for the Lord Jesus. We ask that you would wash us afresh in his precious blood, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and cause these things to be a help and a promotion of holiness and righteousness in our lives. Go with us now, we pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.