Battling the Amalekites - 1st Samuel 15

I’m kind of confused about how some wars are decided on versus others. For instance, with the Philistine war in the previous couple of chapters, Jonathan just seemingly went and instigated them himself, but God aided Israel in their victory and Jonathan was praised by both TB and the IM as being inspired. Now we see Samuel coming to Saul and telling him that God wants him to go fight the Amalekites. Samuel says specifically that this is revenge for how the Amalekites treated the Israelites when they were coming out of the land of Egypt because back in Exodus 17:8-16 the Amalekites attacked Israel in their rear column which would have been the weak, old and ill people of Israel which was a coward move. The war now commanded was retribution for that offense, even though Israel won back then too. I’m not sure about the logic there but I’m not in charge. God commanding this war makes is a holy war, meaning that the laws concerning the spoils were to be kept, and God reiterates that all men, women, children, and even babies were to die, and all the animals. Pretty specific instructions.

We’ve discussed before why killing the women and children might have been commanded, mostly because the remaining women and children of a conquered people weren’t just left where they lived to go on about their lives without their men, they were taken captive and used as slaves and/or married into the population as additional wives. God didn’t want slaves in Israel, nor did he want outside religious influence, meaning that the women taken into marriage with the Hebrews would have taught their children about their pagan gods and turned their hearts away from Israel’s God. Plus the duty of any male child would have been to avenge the death of his father, meaning subversion would have been woven into Hebrew society. It’s difficult to stomach now and maybe it’s hyperbole, maybe it’s allegory, I’m not sure, but I can see why killing everyone including women and children would not be a big deal to the God of the whole universe and He who holds all time and dimensions.

Saul does what Samuel says and gathers the troops, 200,000 soldiers plus 10,000 from Judah. Why is Judah listed separately? TB says that it’s because even during the time of the writer of 1st Samuel, Judah was breaking off into their own entity, which we’ll see fully later when Israel becomes two nations, the 10 tribe collation in the north called the kingdom of Israel and Judah and Simeon in the South who are called just the kingdom of Judah. There’s a small people around where the Amalekites live called the Kenites and they are friends to Israel so Saul warns them to get out of town for a little while, and they do.

We aren’t told very much information about the war itself except that “Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comes to Shur, that is over against Egypt.” That’s the whole explanation of the war. Clearly Israel wins and that’s certainly because of God’s intervention, but let’s look at what happens afterward. God blesses Israel with victory and instead of killing everyone, Saul keeps Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive and parades him around as a victory. Plus Saul allowed “the people” to keep the best sheep, oxen, fatlings, and lambs alive because they wanted to “sacrifice” them to God. Samuel apparently wasn’t at the battles, so God comes to Samuel personally to tell him that Saul is messing up and that God regrets making Saul a king. Does God actually regret making Saul a king, in that this is an outcome that He didn’t expect? Of course not, it’s just the way it’s worded. It’s that God is displeased with Saul and the way he’s being king. The message is profound enough that Samuel gets the message and “cried unto the Lord all night.” That seems to me like a disproportionate reaction, like Samuel isn’t the one that God is angry with, why is he so upset because Saul is turning out to be trash? TB says that it’s because Samuel was the one who, publicly, in front of all Israel, ordained Saul to be king, he’s the one who said “This is who God chose for you.” Samuel is the one who decreased his own position to elevate Saul, and even though Samuel continuously and loudly denounced the crowning of a king, he was still the one who did it and said that Saul was God’s choice. I think it goes to show how just because God doesn’t something in our lives, or gives us what we badger Him for, doesn’t mean it’s going to turn out the way that we want it too. It can turn out poorly to teach us a lesson it can turn out poorly to set up other circumstances that He wants to bring to pass, it can turn out poorly to engrain in us certain personality traits that He needs for later, all types of reasons why what God does can turn out poorly but still be part of His plan for us.

Samuel gets up in the morning and has to go see Saul and confront him about whatever it was that he disobeyed God for this time. Before leaving, someone told Samuel that Saul wasn’t where he expected him, but instead was in “Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on.” This is not very descriptive, but what this actually means is that Saul is in Carmel erecting a statue of this victory to himself, he’s building a statue to himself for winning this God ordained and God won war. If that didn’t cement Samuel’s position. We’ve seen several times after battles, Israel erecting monuments commemorating their victory but it’s almost always been dedicated to God and named something like “God delivered us” or something like that. Here Saul is essentially building an idol to himself, claiming his own victory and that starts to be very dangerous.

Samuel finally finds Saul and Saul starts out “blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” He’s saying “I did everything that God commanded me.” Samuel answers, “then why do I hear sheep and oxen making noise around here?” Saul answers that they are spoils from the Amalekites but the people were the ones who wanted to keep them “to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God.” Interesting how now the God that gave Israel victory is Samuel’s God and not Saul’s God. Saul knows he was supposed to kill everything but puts all the blame on the people, even though he’s the king, he dictates what the people do. He was sure trigger happy enough when it came to who ate after his mandated fast, but not murderous enough to enforce God’s commands, even when it cost soldiers their lives for disobedience all throughout the scriptures? He’d kill to enforce the rules that stroke his own ego, but won’t even say anything when it comes to breaking God’s commands. Interesting, dangerous place to be putting yourself into.

Samuel notes that very fact, Saul was not a child subject to the whims of the people, he was king anointed by God over Israel. There’s a back and forth between Samuel and Saul where Samuel accuses Saul of disobeying God and Saul blames the disobedience on the people and their desire to sacrifice these animals to God. Samuel gives us a very famous scripture saying, “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” This might mean something different to us today than previous because we don’t do animal sacrifices and our “sacrifice” concept comes from covenants from the temple. Anciently, sacrifices were ordinances commanded by God, so he’s not saying that obedience replaces ordinances, he’s saying that obedience is the only thing that we can offer to God. This sacrifice that Saul is saying the people want to do is another self-imposed oath that God didn’t ask for, nor does He want. Samuel is saying that obedience to God’s commandments is better than whatever we come up with to try to dictate our relationship with God.

And here comes the big reveal from Samuel to Saul, “because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” Saul is no longer God’s king over Israel, and it’s interesting because we’ll see that Saul doesn’t stop being king from that moment, he just isn’t God’s king anymore. I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen now but my guess would be that God will remove His favor from Saul and prepare another in his stead to be Israel’s king. Finally Saul admits that he has sinned because he was afraid of the people. This can not be true, because just last chapter he was ready to kill his own son and any other Israelite who disobeyed his command to fast, he’s not afraid, he’s using that as an excuse. He reveals his real reason why he wants Samuel to not be mad at him right now, he wants Samuel to go with him to worship God, so that the people will see them worshipping together. Samuel says no and goes to leave and it seems like Saul grabs his skirt and tears is, Samuel says no again, and Saul begs, “I have sinned: ye honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.” Again, he wants the elders of Israel to see Samuel with Saul so that it’s implied that he’s still supported by God, by Samuel’s God, not his own. That’s what he wants, that’s what’s important to him, the support of the people, political power.

Finally, Samuel agrees to go with Saul to worship God, and tells them to bring him Agag, the king of the Amalekites and “hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.” Interesting that the prophet is the one who kills Agag. When I first heard this I thought why would Samuel do that but maybe it was because he knew that Saul wasn’t going to kill him, he was going to parade him around and humiliate him, which is not what God commanded or maybe he would torture him, which God didn’t want that either. Maybe it was because Samuel was the only one willing to follow God’s commandments to kill everyone, so he took matters into his own hands. Samuel then heads home and never saw Saul again. Interestingly, “Samuel mourned for Saul.” It’s a sad situation all the way around