Great Battles of the Bible

Failure to Annihilate the Amalekites

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”

1 Samuel 15:22

 

In 1 Samuel 15 we have the account of King Saul failing to obey God’s instruction. Samuel the prophet came to Saul and gives God’s word on the matter of how to deal with the Amalekites. God’s purpose was to punish the Amalekites for their attack on Israel as they came up from Egypt. Often God used Israel to judge others and here God gives specific commands as to what should be done according to His will. In His own words God said, “Totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

 

When we hear these words it sounds rather cruel, but we must remember that God always knows best. God wants His judgment to be complete and obedience to His word just as exact. Any man spared could return to battle. Women and children left alive could breed a new army to come against Israel. Any animals spared could tempt Israel with financial gain and erode their dependence on God for their provisions. God knew the best way to deal with the Amalekites was to thoroughly and completely wipe them out, lock, stock and barrel.

 

As the story continues it appears Saul obeys the word of the Lord. He musters up a huge army of 200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men from Judah. He sets up an ambush in a ravine and attacks the Amalekites with a vengeance. Every person was killed, but Saul spared King Agag. Every animal was killed, except the best of the best. Saul obeyed God, sort of. Saul did what God commanded, partially. Why did Saul do such a thing? Why do we do such things?

 

Basically Saul’s disobedience boiled down to his choosing to obey his selfish motives rather than God’s word. Possibly he spared King Agag because he wanted the prestige of having an important prisoner. Possibly he wanted to parade him before Israel as a trophy. If this is true, Saul was stealing God’s glory for God should receive all the glory for anyone following His commands.

 

Often our egos get in the way of obeying our Lord as well. We read in scripture what we should do, receive direction in answered prayer or hear wise spiritual counsel but we allow our egos to rule over the word of God. We choose to do what we want to do rather than obey God. We may possibly obey part of what God instructs us to do but fail to follow it exactly. We justify our disobedience by the fact that we obeyed part of what God tells us. When Saul spared King Agag’s life, whatever the reason, he was making a statement that his judgment was better than God’s. This is sin and so we sin when we do the same thing. God wants our complete obedience to His word not partial submission.

 

Saul spared the animals very likely because of greed. It was very easy for him to instruct his army to kill the weak and maimed animals but it was another thing to kill the choice cows, camels and other animals that were plump for the taking. It possibly seemed like a waste to Saul to slaughter such a horde of luscious livestock. So Saul took it upon himself to salvage the best of the animals for Israel. God did not want to reward Israel for their battle with the Amalekites by letting them plunder and acquire animals. He wanted them simply to obey His word. Saul made a choice not to obey. Do we do this as well at times?

 

Sometimes we receive direction to get rid of those things that come between the Lord and us but we see it as a waste. We rebel against throwing away those things that have become more important to us than our relationship with Jesus. Surely we think we can do what God says and keep a portion for ourselves. We’ve all done this in some way. Possibly we think we can still be a Christian and keep all those pornographic magazines we’ve collected over the years. Maybe we can’t give up an addictive habit that drains our resources.

 

Possibly we’ve invested in our career or business and have no time to serve in our local church. Surely we can attend once in a great while and God will understand. Surely He knows that we have to make more money to buy more things. Possibly we justify our lack of involvement by tithing more. Yes, God wants our financial resources at times, but He really wants our heart. Sometimes He would rather have our talents and skills used in a local fellowship ministry rather than our money.

 

When Samuel confronts Saul about what he has done the justification and rationalizations begin. Saul says he has done what God had asked but Samuel is no dummy. He hears the noises of the animals that have been captured. But God had already spoken to Samuel the night before about Saul’s disobedience. This tells us several things. We can never hide anything from God. We can justify it to our neighbor. We can gloss it over with our pastor. We can even lie to ourselves and convince ourselves we have done right. But we can never pull the wool over God’s all-seeing eye. The other thing we learn is that our sin will find us out. God knows our sin and He will often reveal it to others in His family. God may intervene or another believer may confront us of our wrong doing. We need to remember, God is not mocked, whatever we sow, we shall reap. Saul defended his actions by saying that He saved King Agag and the animals to offer them as a sacrifice to the Lord. Now this is an interesting defense. Caught in sin Saul begins to weave a story that basically says he knew better what to do than God. He thought it would be better to sacrifice the Agag and the animals to God than to destroy them as he was instructed.

 

Have we done this at times? We are convicted to do something but we modify the conviction because we feel we know better. Or in reality we have disobeyed God, so we begin to justify our disobedience with words of righteous motives that we think are higher than God could have imagined. Whether we think we have a better idea than God or whether we are simply trying to justify our actions, it is sin. We don’t know for sure if Saul really thought he had a better idea than God or whether he was just trying to justify his actions. What we do know is no matter what his reasoning, Saul sinned. No matter what our reasons for disobeying God, our sin is sin as well.

 

The verse, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” is very appropriate in this passage. It is better to obey God than offer multitudes of sacrifices, apologies and confessions for our disobedience. It is better to listen to God in the first place and carry out His instructions than to offer up explanations and justifications for our poor choice of actions.

 

Charles Spurgeon says of this verse, “The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold, and to be hung up before the eyes of the present idolatrous generation, who are very fond of the fineries of will-worship, but utterly neglect the laws of God. Be it ever in your remembrance, that to keep strictly in the path of your Savior’s command is better than any outward form of religion; and to hearken to His precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing to lay upon His altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ’s commands to His disciples, I pray you be disobedient no longer. All the pretensions you make of attachment to your Master, and all the devout actions which you may perform, are no recompense for disobedience. “To obey,” even in the slightest and smallest thing, “is better than sacrifice,” however pompous. Talk not of Gregorian chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing which God requires of His child is obedience; and though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not hearken to the Lord’s precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child, but it is a much more blessed thing when one has been taught the lesson, to carry it out to the letter.”

 

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.”