Today Our Daily Bread 1 Sam 15

1 Samuel 15: 1 – 35
1 One day Samuel said to Saul, "I anointed you king of Israel because the LORD told me to. Now listen to this message from the LORD! 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt. 3 Now go and completely destroy F56 the entire Amalekite nation – men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, camels, and donkeys.'" 4 So Saul mobilized his army at Telaim. There were 200,000 troops in addition to 10,000 men from Judah. 5 Then Saul went to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Saul sent this message to the Kenites: "Move away from where the Amalekites live or else you will die with them. For you were kind to the people of Israel when they came up from Egypt." So the Kenites packed up and left. 7 Then Saul slaughtered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt. 8 He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else. 9 Saul and his men spared Agag's life and kept the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs – everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality
0 Then the LORD said to Samuel, 11 "I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to me and has again refused to obey me." Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the LORD all night. 12 Early the next morning Samuel went to find Saul. Someone told him, "Saul went to Carmel to set up a monument to himself; then he went on to Gilgal." 13 When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. "May the LORD bless you," he said. "I have carried out the LORD's command!" 14 "Then what is all the bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle I hear?" Samuel demanded. 15 "It's true that the army spared the best of the sheep and cattle," Saul admitted. "But they are going to sacrifice them to the LORD your God. We have destroyed everything else." 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! Listen to what the LORD told me last night!" "What was it?" Saul asked. 17 And Samuel told him, "Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The LORD has anointed you king of Israel. 18 And the LORD sent you on a mission and told you, 'Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.' 19 Why haven't you obeyed the LORD? Why did you rush for the plunder and do exactly what the LORD said not to do?" 20 "But I did obey the LORD," Saul insisted. "I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. 21 Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep and cattle and plunder to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal." 22 But Samuel replied, "What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to him is much better than offering the fat of rams. 23 Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you from being king."
24 Then Saul finally admitted, "Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the LORD's command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded. 25 Oh, please, forgive my sin now and go with me to worship the LORD." 26 But Samuel replied, "I will not return with you! Since you have rejected the LORD's command, he has rejected you from being the king of Israel." 27 As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed at him to try to hold him back and tore his robe. 28 And Samuel said to him, "See? The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to someone else – one who is better than you. 29 And he who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!" 30 Then Saul pleaded again, "I know I have sinned. But please, at least honor me before the leaders and before my people by going with me to worship the LORD your God." 31 So Samuel finally agreed and went with him, and Saul worshiped the LORD.
32 Then Samuel said, "Bring King Agag to me." Agag arrived full of smiles, for he thought, "Surely the worst is over, and I have been spared!" F57 33 But Samuel said, "As your sword has killed the sons of many mothers, now your mother will be childless." And Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal. 34 Then Samuel went home to Ramah, and Saul returned to his house at Gibeah. 35 Samuel never went to meet with Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him. And the LORD was sorry he had ever made Saul king of Israel.
FOOTNOTES:F56: The Hebrew term used here refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the LORD, either by destroying them or by giving them as an offering; also in 15:8, 9, 15, 18, 20, 21. F57: Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek version read Agag arrived hesitantly, for he thought, "Surely this is the bitterness of death."
Holy Bible, New Living Translation,copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.,
~Lena’s Comments~
I think of the scripture that says something like: many are called, few are chosen Mt 21:14. God called Saul "king", Saul would choose through the test of his will and his decision to weigh the cost and decide how willing he was through what price would have to be paid, to BE king! This is the same thing for all of us with day to day salvation and our new faith walk. We are all called by God’s Spirit to this lifestyle and Destiny, but who will choose to go al the way and do what it takes to get "the prize?" It does not take a whole lot of time to find out. Obediences tell the difference. If a person is able to obey God or anyone else for that fact, they have a vision that goes beyond the decisions and hurts of today. We always want God to do His part in making us free, but we also have to do our part. If freedom is held up because you won’t decide to be free, that’s not God’s fault. Here’s a stupid but very true example -say you had a weakness to sexual appetites and you have posters hanging in your room and in your car and magazines at easy reach. You want to be free from always thinking about sex and you want God to take away your cravings for it outside of marriage, or inside marriage, but the craving is for every person who walks by, other than your wife or husband. So you confess your sin (I Jn 1:9), but God gives you a tiny bit of wisdom to obey and that obedience will help you. He tells you, through a Christian friend, to get rid of all of the dirty magazines- throw them in the trash- burn them if ya have to, (so ya can’t get them back out or anyone else for that matter…). He tells you to take down the posters, get rid of the x rated videos and then goes a bit further by saying to decline any offers to go into the strip joints etc. IF you obey these things you will be blessed, you will find your appetites changing, you will find yourself getting stronger and nt thinking sex every other minute! BUT if you say, well ya know it’s not ALL bad, I’ll just take down the posters, but once a week I’ll go with the guys to the strip joint, you are kidding yourself and God. You will not be able to be free. Egypt is an example of a place where any of us are in bondage or whatever we’ve been in bondage too that is not promoting Godliness in us (Remember how Pharoah would not let the people go and worship God?) So we get crunched in our world and realize we need freedom and freedom is the only way out of the crunch, but some of us only want to be a little bit free, only enough to get relief from the crunch. God knows a little freedom will take us no where and we are still in bondage and will still be subject to the curses of Egypt unless we come completely away from Egypt and all of it’s influences, ridding our lives completely of all of the remembrances of our past behaviors and habits. When God says get rid of all of your enemies, he means ALL.ALL of the posters, ALL of the pictures, ALL of the videos, ALL of the party stripper friends, ALL of the magazines, (this is silly and figurative, but I believe in this type of example God will show us something personal to us here) ALL of the wrong appetites, ALL of the wrong behaviors, ALL of the wrong habits, ALL of the bondages, ALL of the sin- that keeps us from being the Love that God is for this world! God is looking for kings – unto Himself, who are willing to give it ALL up for His will to be accomplished in the earth, and who are willing to give all of their weaknesses and strengths over to His use.
Do not deceive yourself, like Adam & Eve did, buy thinking because maybe you want to you are, No, if we are we are, if we aren’t we aren’t and need to. Give things up, throw them away and burn them out of our lives, lest we later be burned by them and their influences on us.
Vs 17 says something very, very significant in the kingdom- Even though you think very little of yourself, are you not the leader of Israel?
There is a scripture that says the gifts and calling of men are without repentance. This means that we are all called by God and have an assignment or assignments given to us by God while we are here on earth. Whatever we think of it, or how we think about ourselves is not at all an excuse before our Maker. We are who we are whether we know who we are, or whether we decide to be who we are, or whether we wake up to the fact, get healed from hurts that prevent us, warm up to the thought, or not. What matters is God’s plan, purpose and will. That’s all that matters, and whether we are also willing to obey and fulfill it.
We CANNOT do it the way we think we want to do it, when we want to do it, copping out by saying things like, if God wanted me to I would, or whatever.
We all have a mission, we’ve all had it since we were born. If we did not know and have not done it, but now know it, we’d better get to being about our Father’s business while there is still daytime and light (for us) in the earth. No excuses. Saul made excuses and that made God mad! He also thought if he did part of the work or made it sound like he was doing it (talking about it, intending to do it ), it was ok with God. Good intentions are dangerous, especially when we talk a lot about it. God wants us to obey by doing, not by thinking about it or talking about it.
One of the major roots of sin is Pride, it is the origination of sin, which began with Lucifer’s revolt in heaven. Saul was letting people’s opinions count with Him more than he let God’s opinion count. He cared what the people thought and how the people looked at Him, He forgot to "care" more about what God thought of Him and how he looked in God’s eyes! We have got to look to our Creator before we turn our heads towards others thoughts, opinions, etc. He is our Shepard and leader and people on their own will not lead us towards fulfilling His call.