Chapter 61—Saul Rejected as King
This chapter is based on
1 Samuel 15
.
Saul’s errors were not yet irretrievable. The Lord would grant him
another opportunity to learn the lesson of unquestioning faith in His
word and obedience to His commands.
When reproved by the prophet at Gilgal, Saul felt he had been
treated unjustly and offered excuses for his error. Samuel loved Saul
as his own son, while Saul resented Samuel’s rebuke and thenceforth
avoided him so far as possible.
But the Lord sent His servant with another message to Saul: “Thus
saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel,
how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox
and sheep, camel and ass.” The Lord through Moses had pronounced
sentence upon the Amalekites. The history of their cruelty toward
Israel had been recorded with the command, “Thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
Deuteronomy 25:19
.
For four hundred years execution of this sentence had been de-
ferred; but the Amalekites had not turned from their sins. Now the
time had come for the sentence, so long delayed, to be executed.
To our merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. “As I
live, saith 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 abundant in goodness and truth, ...
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forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Yet He will “by no means
clear the guilty.”
Ezekiel 33:11
;
Exodus 34:6, 7
. While He does not
delight in vengeance, He will execute judgment upon the transgressors
of His law. He is forced to do this to preserve the inhabitants of the
earth from utter depravity and ruin. In order to save some, He must
cut off those who have become hardened in sin.
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