Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 15:20
And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
20. Yea, I have obeyed ] Saul still persists in justifying his conduct. ( a) He had fulfilled his mission and destroyed the Amalekites, and brought Agag with him in proof thereof. ( b) The people had brought home the spoil for sacrifice, not for themselves.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1Sa 15:20
Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me.
Sauls obedience
We invite your attention to some features of Sauls character, as drawn out by the way in which he obeyed the Divine command.
1. First, let us notice the zeal and alacrity with which Saul proceeded to carry out the Divine will. Unlike Moses, who complained of his want of eloquence when bidden to go to Pharaoh in Jehovahs name, and plead for the deliverance of his oppressed countrymen–unlike Jonah, who positively refused to bear the dread message with which he was charged to the inhabitants of the great city of Nineveh, and fled to Tarshish, to escape an unwelcome tax–Saul displayed a commendable zeal in executing the command that was laid upon him. It is obvious that he undertook the work willingly, and executed it zealously. No victory could be more complete. The King was a prisoner. The people were slain. In the Kings estimation the Divine command was fully carried out. Saul does not seem to have had the slightest misgiving as to the correctness of his own interpretation of the Divine command. He felt that be bad done a great work, and that on this occasion no one could breathe a word against him. Poor deluded, self-conceited King of Israel! We are often told that history repeats itself, and it is certain that the history of Saul, King of Israel, has been often reproduced in the history of the Church of Christ. Jehu did a work for God, and he did it with alacrity. He destroyed the worshippers of Baal–nay, more than this, for it is said that he destroyed Baal out of Israel. And yet the future of that man was a sad one. We read that he took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart; for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin (2Ki 10:1-36). The Pharisees in the time of our Lord had a zeal for God. They reverenced the law of Moses, and paid to it a certain obedience (Mat 23:1-39). And yet upon no body of men did our Divine Master so pour forth the torrent of His indignation as upon those arrogant, self-righteous, self-satisfied Pharisees. And is there not a voice of warning for us in these instances of antiquity Men of wealth may dedicate that wealth to God. They may build a church, or a hospital, or a school. And yet that building so externally lovely may be hideous–hideous, I say, to that God that seeth in secret. Self, and self alone, may have been its foundation stone It may be but a monument of human selfishness and ambition. Another man may take an interest in the missionary cause and devote his wealth to the spreading abroad of the knowledge of God. This indeed is a good object, and worthy of our best energies But, oh! if men engage in the work from any but the highest motive–the desire of saving precious souls for whom Christ has died–if being men of narrow views they seize it as an opportunity for advancing their own religions party; if above all they allow their so-called religious zeal to deaden their instincts of common justice and even humanity; if they would fain silence all but those as narrow-minded as themselves–surely they have not caught fully the spirit of our Divine Master.
2. We have seen that Sauls obedience was marred by a spirit of boastful self-confidence. And his history is instructive, because the spirit of Saul still lives in the religious professor of the present day. Tell the respectable man as he leaves the church porch that he is a sinner, that there is iniquity in his holy things–sin in his prayers, sin in his praises–tell him, in the touching language of the good Bishop Beveridge, that his very repentance needs to be repented of, and that his tears need washing in the blood of Christ, and he indignantly repudiates the charge, and says, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me. Self-confidence is the mark of the natural man. Self-distrust is the mark of the genuine disciple of Christ. (C. B. Brigstocke.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
He addeth obstinacy and impenitency to his crime, and justifies his fact, though he hath nothing of any moment to say but what he said before. So he gives Samuel the lie, and reflects upon him as one that had falsely accused him.
Have brought Agag to be dealt with as God pleaseth, and as thou thinkest fit.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Saul said to Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord,…. Here Saul breaks in upon Samuel before he had declared all that the Lord had said unto him; for having expostulated with him for not obeying the voice of the Lord, he could not forbear interrupting him, but with the utmost assurance affirms he had obeyed the voice of the Lord; but then it was very imperfectly, and poor proof does he give of it:
and have gone the way which the Lord sent me; it is very true he went into the country of Amalek, but he did not do there all the Lord commanded him:
and have brought Agag the king of Amalek; took him alive, and brought him captive; whereas he ought to have destroyed him at once, and not have reserved him for triumph; a sad proof this of his obeying the voice of the Lord:
and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites; all that came in his way, in which he did right; but then he had not destroyed the principal of them, their king.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ Yea, I have hearkened to the voice of Jehovah ( serving, like ekil , to introduce the reply: here it is used in the sense of asseveration, utique, yea), and have brought Agag the king of the Amalekites, and banned Amalek.” Bringing Agag he mentioned probably as a practical proof that he had carried out the war of extermination against the Amalekites.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(20) Yea, I have obeyed . . .These and the words which follow are simply a repetition of the kings former excuse for his act: but they show us what was the state of Sauls mind: he evidently disbelieved in the power of the Eternal as a heart reader. If he could justify himself before Samuel, that was all he cared for. He asserted his own integrity of purpose and his great zeal for the public sacrifice to God, knowing all the while that low earthly reasons had been the springs of his conduct. He reiterated the plea that what he had done was in accordance with the voice of the people, conscious all the while that the plea was false.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Yea, I have obeyed Still the guilty spirit seeks to justify itself. Strange stupidity! Sullen perversity! How prone are sinners to throw their guilt on others, or else to plead for it a religious motive! Saul did both.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Sa 15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
Ver. 20. Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. ] He thinketh to overcome the prophet, and to make his penny good silver. He putteth God to his proofs, as those did in Jer 2:25 . Et pudet non esse impudentem, as Augustine speaks.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
obeyed = hearkened.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Yea: 1Sa 15:13, Job 33:9, Job 34:5, Job 35:2, Job 40:8, Mat 19:20, Luk 10:29, Luk 18:11, Rom 10:3
have brought: 1Sa 15:3, 1Sa 15:8
Reciprocal: Gen 3:12 – General 2Sa 12:13 – David Mat 25:44 – when Heb 13:17 – Obey
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS
And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, etc.
1Sa 15:20-21
It will appear somewhat startling to any one who first notices it how very little is said in the Bible about truthfulness. The reason is that truthfulness is not a strictly religious duty; it is a duty which is entirely independent of faith in God or Christ, a duty which is so absolutely necessary to the very existence of society, that without reverence for it no community could last for a day. The Word of God passes by those things which men can find out for themselves, and does not insist on those duties which the common interests of commerce and security and comfort are sure to enforce.
I. It is most important to notice with regard to this passage in Sauls life that, taking the words as they stand, there was probably no absolute falsehood in them.Nothing is more probable than that the people did take of the spoil to sacrifice unto the Lord, and that at any rate it was very nearly true that Saul had utterly destroyed the Amalekites. And yet, after all, in Gods sight, with all this semblance of veracity, the unhappy king stood up as a convicted liar, who, with his reddening cheek and his stammering tongue, was being put to shame before all his people. He did not dare to lie outright. He would not quite confess his guilt, but he dressed up a lie in the garb of truth, and took his chance of getting off his punishment by a paltry subterfuge.
II. Saul is only a type of a million others who have done the like again and again in all times.It is the hardest thing in life to be true, and the rarest. To state the simplest fact with perfect simplicity, to explain our most innocent motive with exact honesty, are feats which will often baffle the most sincere among us. Truth is not natural. It is not common. It is not easily learnt; only by watchfulness and prayer can it be learnt at all. The first temptation was but a piece of cheating: the traitor Judas acted a lie when he gave his Master that false kiss in Gethsemane, and ever since then falsehood has been Satans chosen weapon for plucking Christs children out of their Saviours hands, and robbing them of that heaven where only the true can live.
Canon Jessopp.
Illustrations
(1) In the twenty-second and twenty-third verses we have one of those great golden principles which are not for an age, but for all time. With a burst of prophetic inspiration Samuel rends asunder Sauls tissue of excuses and lays bare his sin. His words are the key-note of the long remonstrance of the prophets in subsequent ages against the too common error of supposing that external ceremonial can be of any value in the sight of God when separated from the true devotion of the worshippers heart which it symbolises. David often insisted on this in his Psalms. Micah the prophet, in words which recall these, did the same. So did JesusGo ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. Here is a perpetual, world-wide principle. Build a church, leave money to some charity, give liberally to the collectionall this avails nothing if your heart is not right with God. To lay this down clearly has often brought morality in conflict with formalism, the prophet into conflict with the priest, the preacher into conflict with the ritualist: but it cannot be said too emphatically.
(2) Nothing can be love to God which does not shape itself into obedience. We remember the anecdote of the Roman commander who forbade an engagement with the enemy, and the first transgressor against whose prohibition was his son. He accepted the challenge of the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled him; and then in triumphant feeling carried the spoils to his fathers tent. But the Roman father refused to recognise the instinct which prompted this as deserving the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it and deserved death.
(3) Though Saul was not necessarily a castaway soul, he was a castaway king; a failure, not because God willed it, but because, as we have seen, by the trend and temper of his heart, he could not be aught else. But what a majestic failure! See how he sought to hide his tragedy from his peoples eyes, struggling on under the burden of kingship, with his might have been burning in his heart. As we follow this noble ruin of a king on past Endor to his last weird battle on Mount Gilboa, we yearn to see him look beyond the shade of Samuel, and to hear him say in all-surrendering faith: The Lord my God. The faith that glorifies a life has no links; it binds us directly to the feet of God.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Sa 15:20-21. Have brought Agag the king To be dealt with as God pleaseth. Strange stupidity! to imagine such a partial obedience could be pleasing unto God. But the people took of the spoil It was a mean thing to throw all the blame on the people, whom he ought to have governed better; and it was worst of all to pretend religion for his disobedience. The things which should have been utterly destroyed Here he shows that he was conscious he had not done as he was commanded.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, {h} I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
(i) He stands most impudently in his own defence both against God and his own conscience.