Chapter 61—Saul Rejected
This chapter is based on
1 Samuel 15
.
Saul had failed to bear the test of faith in the trying situation at
Gilgal, and had brought dishonor upon the service of God; but his
errors were not yet irretrievable, and 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 saw no great sin in
the course he had pursued. He felt that he had been treated unjustly,
and endeavored to vindicate his actions and offered excuses for his
error. From that time he had little intercourse with the prophet. Samuel
loved Saul as his own son, while Saul, bold and ardent in temper, had
held the prophet in high regard; but he resented Samuel’s rebuke, and
thenceforth avoided him so far as possible.
But the Lord sent His servant with another message to Saul. By
obedience he might still prove his fidelity to God and his worthiness to
walk before Israel. Samuel came to the king and delivered the word of
the Lord. That the monarch might realize the importance of heeding
the command, Samuel expressly declared that he spoke by divine
direction, by the same authority that had called Saul to the throne. The
prophet said, “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 Amalekites had
been the first to make war upon Israel in the wilderness; and for this
sin, together with their defiance of God and their debasing idolatry, the
Lord, through Moses, had pronounced sentence upon them. By divine
direction the history of their cruelty toward Israel had been recorded,
with the command, “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek
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from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”
Deuteronomy 25:19
. For
four hundred years the execution of this sentence had been deferred;
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