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Not to be Trusted, May 30
1 Samuel 15
But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the
oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would
not utterly destroy them.
1 Samuel 15:9
.
Since the defeat of the Philistines at Michmash, Saul had made war against
Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and against the Amalekites and the Philistines;
and wherever he turned his arms, he gained fresh victories. On receiving the
commission against the Amalekites, he at once proclaimed war. To his own
authority was added that of the prophet, and at the call to battle the men of
Israel flocked to his standard. The expedition was not to be entered upon for
the purpose of self-aggrandizement; the Israelites were not to receive either the
honor of the conquest or the spoils of their enemies. They were to engage in
the war solely as an act of obedience to God, for the purpose of executing His
judgment upon the Amalekites. God intended that all nations should behold the
doom of that people that had defied His sovereignty, and should mark that they
were destroyed by the very people whom they had despised....
This victory over the Amalekites was the most brilliant victory that Saul had
ever gained, and it served to rekindle the pride of heart that was his greatest
peril. The divine edict devoting the enemies of God to utter destruction was but
partially fulfilled. Ambitious to heighten the honor of his triumphal return by the
presence of a royal captive, Saul ventured to imitate the customs of the nations
around him and spared Agag, the fierce and warlike king of the Amalekites.
The people reserved for themselves the finest of the flocks, herds, and beasts
of burden, excusing their sin on the ground that the cattle were reserved to be
offered as sacrifices to the Lord. It was their purpose, however, to use these
merely as a substitute, to save their own cattle.
Saul had now been subjected to the final test. His presumptuous disregard of
the will of God, showing his determination to rule as an independent monarch,
proved that he could not be trusted with royal power as the vicegerent of the
Lord
[157]
60
Ibid., 628, 629
.
161