Saul and Law

Last time we talked about Saul and David, and how Saul's best efforts are rejected and David seems to be accepted for nothing.  Saul follows the rules and forgets to dot an I and the Lord stomps him into ground over it, David just makes it up as he goes, does things he knows are against the Law and Christ goes out of His way to tell us that David was right.  Saul couldn't understand why it was like this, He couldn't accept it and this was, I think the cause of Saul's descent into madness.  Which I would like to look at in more detail today.  When our story starts, Saul is still a "Good King".  He has had his problems, but his failures have been, I think, the exceptions to a rule of following God and leading the people of Israel pretty well.  So we start at the beginning of 1 Samuel 15.

15 Samuel also said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, heed the voice of the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

So, when Israel was wondering in the desert after the Exodus the Amalekites fell on them, as far as we know with no reason or provocation, and there was a fierce battle.  During Moses' last sermon he commands the people that when they have settled down in the Promised Land they are to annihilate the Amalekites.  The Amalekites continue to be jerks to the children of Israel for the next few hundred years, and finally Saul is given the command to wipe them out...completely.  Now, I think that people are basically people, and that Saul must have had the same confusion and reservations that you or I would about murdering noncombatants including children, and destroying animals as vengeance for something that was perpetrated hundreds of years before by people who are obviously long gone on people who are likewise long gone.  The destruction must have seemed useless and wasteful to Saul.  Of course, I don't really know what Saul thought or felt, but in any case he was willing to wage an aggressive war on a neighbor to try and obey this command.

4 So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.
6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

So, Saul went and did it.  He didn't do it halfway, he not only beat them he chased and hunted them and killed all of them that he could.  He didn't kill the king, but I think it is reasonable to believe that Saul was just planning some kind of official execution, he wasn't gonna live long.  Saul also didn't act thoughtlessly, he made sure not to kill the innocent Kenites along with his targets. He also spared the best livestock, he is gonna claim that he spared them to offer as a sacrifice to the Lord, a lot of people claim he intended to keep them for himself but I believe his claim.

10 Now the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 “I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. 12 So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gone down to Gilgal.” 13 Then Samuel went to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

Saul's conscience is clean.  He is glad to see Samuel.  He expects congratulations for a job well done.  I feel sorry for Saul, anytime we think that we have done right and our works are gonna be accepted by God we are in for a very bitter disappointment.  The news of our rejection is the first step in telling us news that is much better than our works being accepted could ever be, but the sting of that failure is no less bitter for all that.

14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
15 And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

Saul's conscience is still clear.  He doesn't think he has done anything wrong.  So, they saved "the best", to sacrifice.  When we are thinking about Saul being willing to make sacrifices we need to go back to the last chapter, which curiously has him about to make a sacrifice which seems a lot more significant than these sheep.

From chapter 14 starting at verse 37 So Saul asked counsel of God, “Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will You deliver them into the hand of Israel?” But He did not answer him that day. 38 And Saul said, “Come over here, all you chiefs of the people, and know and see what this sin was today. 39 For as the Lord lives, who saves Israel, though it be in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die.” But not a man among all the people answered him. 40 Then he said to all Israel, “You be on one side, and my son Jonathan and I will be on the other side.”

The story leading up to this is kinda long and complicated and I don't want to read the whole thing but here is the Cliffnotes version.  Saul and some of his soldiers are camped out not far from where the Philistine army is, and it wasn't like modern war the armies would just sit there watching each other lots of times and unless they got a good chance there may not even be a fight.  But Saul's son Jonathan decided to go over there with his armorbearer, and just see if anything would work out.  He said, "Hey, the Lord can save Israel by the two of us just as easy as he can by a whole army." and it worked out.  They started whooping up on the bad guys, and it turned into a big thing, and the whole Israelite army started chasing and killing Philistines.  And Saul told the people if anybody stopped chasing and killing to get a bite to eat that they were cursed, basically I think that means he was gonna kill them.  But Jonathon didn't hear all that cause he was busy kicking tail, so he stopped for a bite to eat.

So Saul is trying to figure out whether or not to keep chasing the Philistines but God wouldn't answer him.  Another proof that Saul was a pretty good king at this point is that as soon as there was a disconnect between him and the Lord he immediately sensed a problem.  He didn't get an answer he knew that something had happened.  So he asks the Lord to show them where the problem is.

And the people said to Saul, “Do what seems good to you.”

41 Therefore Saul said to the Lord God of Israel, “Give a perfect lot.” So Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people escaped. 42 And Saul said, “Cast lots between my son Jonathan and me.” So Jonathan was taken. 43 Then Saul said to Jonathan, “Tell me what you have done.”
And Jonathan told him, and said, “I only tasted a little honey with the end of the rod that was in my hand. So now I must die!”
44 Saul answered, “God do so and more also; for you shall surely die, Jonathan.”

So, it comes out that Jonathan screwed up and Saul is ready to kill him.  Saul has no problem making sacrifices.  He is determined to have things right between him and God whatever it costs him.

45 But the people said to Saul, “Shall Jonathan die, who has accomplished this great deliverance in Israel? Certainly not! As the Lord lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God this day.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.
46 Then Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, and the Philistines went to their own place.

So Jonathan didn't die.  And Saul caved into "the people", which maybe he does again with the Amalekites.  And a lot of people would find the moral of the story there.  But it doesn't ring true to me.  I keep looking everywhere trying to figure out what and where Saul's failure is, but maybe this story isn't about Saul failing.

16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Be quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.”
And he said to him, “Speak on.”
17 So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? 18 Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?”
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Saul knows he has made mistakes with sacrifices in the past so he is determined to get everything right this time.  He didn't do it himself, He brought the sacrifice to Gilgal, where the tabernacle was, where the ark was, and waited on Samuel, the right guy for sacrifices.  He is doing everything he can to get this all right.  Saul is interested in reasonable sacrifices.  He is interested in giving something up to get something better.  He wants to bring a good sacrifice to God because he wants God to be happy with him.  He is even willing to give up his son for the same reason.  But those aren't really sacrifices, they are good deals.  God's favor is worth more to Saul than some livestock or even his son.  The sacrifices of the Gospel are very different.  They sacrifice what is of greatest value to obtain nothing at all.  To sacrifice Christ to get me is a moronic trade.  It is a testament to riches, to one who has nothing to gain, whereas our sacrifices testify that we lack all of the things that we seek to obtain.

22 So Samuel said:
“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
He also has rejected you from being king.”
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

Saul sees his sin as a picadillo, a minor technicality, because he sees righteousness in terms of righteous or unrighteous acts.  He is condemned not because of what he did or didn't do but because he doesn't understand God.  He sees God's favor as something to be obtained by righteous behavior, he thinks God can be bought, thinks God is pleased with sacrifice.  He still hasn't got it.

Look at verse 17 again.  "Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?"  Saul thinks that he has something to offer to God, but Samuel reminds him that his place is to receive from God not give to him.  He has inverted the relationship and thus destroyed it.  Our offerings to God might just as well be offered to Satan as witchcraft.  Viewing ourselves as givers and God as a receiver is just as backwards.

Sometimes when we read things in Scripture we take what is really extraordinary as commonplace.  We see Samuel telling Saul that he has been rejected and we focus on the why of the rejection and all of that.  But it certainly isn't extraordinary for a man to fail, not extraordinary for us to fail God, not extraordinary for a king to make a mistake.  But what is extraordinary is for God to send a personal ambassador to a man.  To understand the message we have to ask ourselves why the messenger was sent at all.  Is God sending a prophet to deliver the news, no he is sending him to deliver Saul.  So what was the affect on Saul?  Well it wasn't moral improvement.  Saul begins this story as a good king but it doesn't end that way.  After this day, the delivery of this message Saul and Samuel never saw each other again.  The next chapter starts with Samuel doing the Lord's work in secret because if Saul finds out he will kill Samuel.  Saul becomes more and more autocratic, more and more despotic.  God had a plan for Saul but it wasn't moral improvement.  Saul's legalism led to complete rebellion against God and His law.  When Saul realised he couldn't obtain God's favor he stopped trying, he threw off all restraint.  When he saw David being accepted, David who was even worse at keeping the Law than Saul, he completely lost it.  God's word always accomplishes what he sends Him out to do.  The purpose of sending Samuel, was to convict Saul of his failure as a lawkeeper.  Open rebellion against God, when God is seen as merely a personification of the Law, is a step closer to Christ compared to lawkeeping.  Saul perceived I think that there was more than law in his rejection and David's acceptance.  He caught at last a glimpse of a God who is above the Law, maybe even a God who is a man, who can relent and forgive sin.  The rejection of Saul's works is necessary for Saul to be accepted without works.