Obedience is an all or nothing thing. No one can half obey. No one can drive to the middle of the bridge and say that he has driven over the bridge. No one can say that his hunger is satisfied, but all he did was cook a meal but not eat it. In the case of our text, King Saul was instructed to kill all the Amalekites including the women, children, and animals owned by them. (15:18)
Someone may ask why God would issue such an instruction especially when it involved children. Now, in this text we have the answer. Because Saul failed, the Amalekites had their way against the Israelites so much so that they burned the city Ziklag and took captives including David’s two wives. The great Jewish historian Josephus has speculated that Haman in the book of Esther who tried to orchestrate the annihilation of the Jews was himself an Agagite. This was five centuries later that Haman, a descendant of King Agag, was still a threat that still existed all those years after Saul.
God expects us to be obedient. In fact, he said, “thou shalt love the neighbor as thyself.” (Leviticus 19:18) Furthermore, it says in Deuteronomy 6:5, “thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all my might.” This injunction was repeated by Jesus. (Mark 12:30) In addition, Jesus said, “no man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)
There is a major distinction for how one lives when he calls himself a Christian. There must be a separation of the old ways in favor of the new ways. We cannot rationalize as did Saul. He said that he obeyed God when the Lord sent him. He went so far is to declare that he utterly destroyed the Amalekites when he contradicted himself by saying he had King Agag as a prisoner.
The thrust of the Scriptures will not allow us to entertain any version of being partially obedient. To accept Christ is to reject the world. To serve Christ is to turn away from the world. Saul continued to make another mistake. He blamed the people for the captured spoil and animals with the intention of making sacrifices to the Lord. Samuel replied about the significance of obeying. Blaming someone else for our sin is quite foolish.
We could not fool God or even ourselves with the idea of disobeying to have a positive outcome. Saul sought approval from Samuel (verse 13) by asking for a blessing when he had been disobedient. Anytime we try to do things our own way or take matters into our own hands, there will be a catastrophe of disobedience. We can notice the depth of Saul’s foolishness by sparing healthy animals while killing the vile ones.
God does not accept excuses. He does not accept second rate devotion. He does not accept excuses as a replacement for his own thinking. God looks beyond today and sees what issues that could await us in the future. It is evident that Saul had no trust in the Lord. Otherwise, he would’ve obeyed him. Our walk with Christ is one of trusting and obeying. Samuel said to the king and to us that if we are a little in our own sight, God will send us on journeys to realize victory. (Versus 17, 18)
Christian Writer 