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Saul Rejected as King
This chapter is based on 1 Samuel 15.
Saul’s errors were not yet beyond remedy. The Lord would give
him another opportunity to learn the lesson of unquestioning faith in
His word and obedience to His commands.
When Samuel had reproved him at Gilgal, Saul felt he had been
treated unjustly and made excuses for his mistake. Samuel loved
Saul as his own son, but Saul resented Samuel’s rebuke and from
then on avoided him as far as possible.
But the Lord sent His servant with another message to Saul:
“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.’” Through
Moses The Lord had pronounced sentence on the Amalekites. The
history of their cruelty toward Israel had been recorded with the
command, “You will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from
under heaven. You shall not forget.” (
Deuteronomy 25:19
).
For four hundred years God had postponed execution of this
sentence, but the Amalekites had not turned from their sins. Now
the time had come for the sentence, so long delayed, to be carried
out.
Punishment is a strange act for our merciful God. “‘As I live,’
says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but
that the wicked turn from his way and live.’” The Lord is “merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth,
... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing
the guilty.” (
Ezekiel 33:11
;
Exodus 34:6, 7
). He does not delight in
vengeance, but He will execute judgment on those who transgress
His law. He is forced to do this to preserve earth’s population from
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