Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 15:11
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
10 23. Saul’s disobedience and its penalty
11. It repenteth me ] “God’s repentance is the change of His dispensation.” In the language of the O. T. God is said to repent when a change in the character and conduct of those with whom He is dealing leads to a corresponding change in His plans and purposes towards them. Thus ( a) upon man’s penitence God repents and withdraws a threatened punishment (Exo 32:14; 2Sa 24:16): ( b) upon man’s faithlessness and disobedience He cancels a promise or revokes a blessing which He had given. The opposite is also true, “God is not a man that he should repent” ( 1Sa 15:29). His repentance is not to be understood as though He who foreknows all things regretted His action, nor is it a sign of mutability. A change in the attitude of man to God necessarily involves a corresponding change in the attitude of God to man.
it grieved Samuel ] This rendering is probably right, though the word more commonly means “to be angry.” Samuel was grieved at the failure of one from whom he had hoped for so much advantage to the nation.
he cried unto the Lord all night ] Interceding for Saul if perchance he might he forgiven. For Samuel’s intercessions see ch. 1Sa 7:5, and compare Moses’ pleading for Israel (Exo 32:11-13). Our Lord “continued all night in prayer to God” (Luk 6:12).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It grieved Samuel – Samuel was angry, or displeased, as Jonah was Jon 4:1, and for a similar reason. Samuel was displeased that the king whom he had anointed should be set aside. It seemed a slur on his prophetic office.
He cried unto the Lord – With the wild scream or shriek of supplication. (See 1Sa 7:8-9; 1Sa 12:18.) The phrase and the action mark Samuels fervent, earnest character.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Sa 15:11-23
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king.
Saul rejected
The story is graphic and pathetic. This is Sauls victory and also his defeat. Our defeats are often wrapped up in our victories. Some of our most dismal failures are hidden from us by the glare of a partial and disastrous success. Saul succeeded and failed. He conquered Agag, but disobeyed God. And so the glory of his victory is lost in the darkness of his defeat. A man may conquer the greatest of earths kings, but his life is a consummate failure if he disobeys the King of kings. And so, instead of praising Sauls victory let us meditate on Sauls sin. His sin was the sin of disobedience, the sin by which our first parents fell. In Sauls defence of his sin we possess a study of conscience unsurpassed in the literature of the world. Samuel on hearing of Sauls disobedience goes to meet him. Saul is the first to speak. Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Was he honest in saying this? he may have been. Other men have lied as outrageously and still believed themselves to be speaking the truth. The heart is deceitful above all things and is oftentimes unconscious of its own deceitfulness. To be sure he has preserved the life of Agag, but then imprisonment is a heavier punishment to a proud king than death itself. The people have been destroyed. This is the one thing essential. No danger can come from a king in chains. Saul has whittled down tire Divine commands a little, but only a little; and who is so foolish as to think that God will notice the swerving of a heirs breadth from what He commands? And reasoning thus we sometimes pare off the edges of Gods commandments, blissfully unconscious that we are doing anything positively wrong. To be sure, we are not keeping Gods commandment to the letter, but He does not expect us to keep it so. It is enough if we kill the Amalekites. There is no need of killing Agag. We take delight in slaying the Amalekites, but we are opposed to killing Agag. And later on we discover to our sorrow that Agag is the chief of the Amalekites and that ruin lurks in the survival of anything which God commands us to destroy Saving Agag costs many a child of God his crown. I have performed the commandment of the Lord, so Saul says, and while he speaks his sentences are punctuated by the lowing of oxen and the bleating of sheep. A mans conscience may be so drugged that it will not cry out against him, but some outside voice is sure to break forth in condemnation. God never leaves Himself without a witness. And if the animals are dumb, then the inanimate earth will speak. Abels blood will cry even from the ground. Saul had said nothing about the sheep, and so the sheep supplied what Saul had forgotten to mention. In their innocence they bleated out Seals guilt. The universe is so constructed that a guilty man cannot hide his sin. You assert your innocence, and yet my senses take knowledge of the evidences of your guilt. You say you do not drink too much; what meaneth, then, this reddening of the eyes and trembling of the hand? You say your heart is clean; what meaneth then this rottenness that trickles now and then into your talk? You say you are an honest man; what meaneth then this style of living which runs beyond the limits of your income? You say you are a Christian; what mean these scores of duties unperformed, bleating evidences of your unfaithfulness? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites. Mark that word they. We might have expected it. When a man is driven into a corner, the most convenient trapdoor through which he can make his escape is that little word they. Conscience, when stirred, endeavours to shift responsibility. They did it. So says every man not brave enough to face the consequences of his own misdeeds. Why do you not, O preacher, preach spiritual and Scriptural sermons? Do not begin your answer with, Well, my people! And why, O Christian man and woman, do you not inaugurate that reform which your town needs? Please do not say anything about the people. Let each man bear his own responsibility without flinching. But even those of us who are most ready to make a scapegoat of the people do not wish to be too hard on them. We would be merciful and considerate. We can see reasons why the people act as they do. The people spared the best of the sheep. Only the best There was good reason for that. Why destroy the best of the sheep? Why cause unnecessary destruction? Extravagance certainly is not pleasing to God. We have used the same argument many a time We believe in saving the best of the sheep. We are so afraid of being reckless that we drop into disobedience. We would rather disobey God than kill one extra sheep. We are as afraid of killing good sheep as Judas was of wasting precious ointment and for the same reason. Many of Gods commands sound reckless, and so we curb His Divine impetuosity by our prudence. We do not hesitate to kill the best sheep for our own banquets, but when it comes to killing them for God that is quite another matter. But the people in this case bad not preserved the sheep for selfish uses. They had kept them with lofty and beautiful intentions. The people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. To put these sheep to religious uses is certainly better than to slay them indiscriminately in the fury of war. God said to slay both ox and sheep, but it matters not to Him how they are slain. So Saul reasoned and so do we reason. There is a streak of the Jesuit in us all. If the end is good, we will not be too punctilious about the means. God cares for results. Methods are of comparative unimportance. The church must meet its expenses. It matters little how we raise the money, providing we raise it. It makes no difference how we get people to church, providing we get them. The Bible must be defended. It matters little what arguments are used, providing the blessed Book is saved. The sheep are to be slain. It matters little how or where they are slain, whether on the altar or on the side of one of Gods hills. It must be acknowledged that God in His word lays tremendous emphasis on the How, but if we are only zealous to increase His glory we feel confident He will not scrutinise too closely our spirit and methods. This is Sauls apology. It gives us a full length portrait of the man. While he speaks we feel we are looking on a soul going to pieces, a moral character in the process of disintegration, a king degenerating into a slave. Every sentence which he speaks tarnishes the gold in his crown and falls like a blow upon his sceptre, which first shivers and tinnily breaks. It is the sacrifice of the will which is pleasing to God. Obedience is the queen of the virtues. Disobedience is the mother of sins. It is the vine, and other sins are only branches. Because of disobedience Saul lost his crown, and so shall we, if like him disobedient, lose the inheritance which is ours. (Charles E. Jefferson.)
Saul rejected
On the top of the Hartz Mountains in Switzerland the figures of travellers, in certain states of the atmosphere, take on a gigantic size to the eye of an observer below, and every movement they make is exaggerated. In the career of King Saul, as it is presented to us in Scripture, we see the figure of a man raised to a dizzy height, his actions prelected, as it were, upon the clouds, so that all mankind may learn from them the desired lesson that Jehovah reigns, and that it is an evil end bitter thing to sin against him. Note–
I. Sauls elevation. If ever man was king by Divine right, it was Saul. Never were greatness and royalty more suddenly thrust upon one than in this ease. The priest and prophet, Samuel, gave him his title of king.
II. Sauls disobedience. This was seen plainly on two occasions: the first, when he sacrificed at Gilgal, contrary to an express command; the second, when he refused to smite Amalek utterly, and offer all the spoil to Jehovah. But these occasions simply brought to the surface an underlying state of disobedience which only waited its tempting inducements to appear. But before this last outward disobedience there had been a slowly increasing departure from the living God in the heart of the king, so that, when the wicked and justly punished Amalekites were put under the ban he was not equal to the occasion and he yielded to the temptation of the hour. The devoting of the whole nation to destruction was no arbitrary act of barbarism that assumed to be under Divine appointment, but a literal and genuine visitation from heaven upon those who richly deserved it. The phrase utterly destroy is in the original put under the ban. This ban was an old custom, originating before the time of Moses, but formulated and regulated by him, as were so many other social customs amidst which Israel grew up. In its simplest form it was the devotion to God of any object, living or dead.
III. The ground of Sauls rejection. It is stated in the briefest language. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath rejected thee from being king. The rejection was already an accomplished fact in the Divine purpose, although its execution was for a time delayed. In this complete rejection we are instructed in Gods ways by seeing that it proceeded on no technical and superficial grounds, as if the Almighty was an austere man, reaping where He had not sowed, and eager to secure a reason for condemning His servant. Even under the old dispensation, how spiritual was Gods claim; how identical with that which rests on us today. The sacrifices of God have always been a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Outward acts have never been accepted in place of an inward submission and penitence.
IV. The false repentance of Saul. It had much of the appearance of a godly sorrow that leads to peace. It surely was sorrow. It showed an aroused and alarmed conscience. Saul comprehended himself; saw the conflict within between his better and worse nature. Again and again he awoke to his sin and folly with bitter tears in after days, but never reached the point where he could say, in the wonderful words of his successor, Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.
V. The mystery of sin and punishment. Who can understand his errors, or those of any man in ancient or modern times, delineated in the Bible or in our own literature? Who can find the key to a sinful life, and unlook all its mysteries and incongruities? What is sin but an irrational, abnormal, strange thing, making everyones life at points an enigma, and best described as a mystery in its origin, development, and results in eternity? Who shall attempt to fathom the connection between wrong-doing and punishment, and foresee the consequences of single transgression? Who is to say what a sin is in its real nature, and what its results ought to be in a holy government? We cannot tell when our characters have become so consistent in evil that God passes judgment on us, and tears from our hands all that He gave us, and for which we are called to live. God has left the consequences of sin in the unseen future, like the shadows of mountains when the sun is behind us. This may be because He wishes us to be more afraid of sin than of its results. This man, whose downfall was the result of his own misdeeds, was, in the hands of Providence, a scourge for Israel, sent to them, as we read, in Gods anger. The career of a sinner can be understood only when we see to what uses it is put in the worlds discipline. If we are obedient to God He will turn our lives into a blessing upon men. If we rebel, He still can use us turning our actions into scourges. To each of us is offered a kingdom, invisible but real, as old as eternity. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Sauls disobedience and rejection
The intoxication of power is upon him, impelling him directly in the teeth of the Divine warning. He is occupying dangerous ground. Our passage shows the turning point in Sauls history.
I. Let us observe the occasion which brought about the crisis. God had given him a commission to ban the Amalekites, the ancient enemies of Israel. The crisis in Sauls life had come. He fails to meet it, in the spirit of a true man of God. His soul finds temptation in a moment when power and success and human adulation have intoxicated him; he yields to the snare, and falls to rise no more. At the turning point of his life he is weighed in the balances and found wanting. The whole sad transaction and all its terrible consequences are summed up in one word–disobedience to positive Divine command. It breaks upon us at once. It is complete and fully manifested in a single transaction. But definite steps led up to it. It can be accounted for. It should have been avoided.
II. As the disobedience was complete and inexcusable, so the punishment was prompt, definite, and final. God hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. Successive steps led to its accomplishment. God caused Samuel to withdraw from him. He took his good Spirit away, and allowed an evil spirit to come upon him. He was left to his own rash, self-willed, and self-pleasing nature. He was allowed to work out his own destruction and the ruin of his dynasty, while God quietly but diligently prepared a better man to take his place on the throne of Israel. A great and solemn principle emerges here–the basis-principle upon which all right and enduring relations to God must rest,–to wit, obedience. There can be no happy relations between a sovereign Creator and dependent creatures upon any other scheme, even though that sovereign Creator be properly viewed as a tender Father. The whole question needs to be restated with firmness. The sentimentality of a spurious faith, which claims heaven and yet the right to please self, is a travesty upon the word of God and upon every serious utterance of human consciousness. And yet this sentimentality is seeking to interpret the preaching of salvation by the cross in the interest of selfish indulgence, and is going far to justify the sneer of the enemy, that morals are divorced from religion; for what are any Christian morals worth that do not mean obedience to the living God? Let Sauls sad fall by reason of disobedience warn us at thin point. In conclusion we may draw out a few brief lessons.
1. The danger of a halfway surrender to God, a consecration which has its reservations. Such a course is an insult to God. It is the very worst spirit of bargain making. It marks off a section of our individuality, into which God has no right to come with His demands. Saul was willing to serve God in being a king if he would have his way when the spoil was at hand. He was quite willing to fellowship Samuel and have his endorsement if he could sacrifice when he pleased. But this spirit brought him to a bad end.
2. See how disobedience demoralises the spirit and sets it upon unworthy shifts His character drooped lower and lower as he sought his way out from the consequences of disobedience by unworthy shifts. When we have sinned it is better to be open and ingenuous with God and man, and while sorrowing for the sin, meekly receive the consequences in the full purpose of immediate amendment.
3. The folly of those in authority, as parents, pastors or teachers, yielding to the tastes and entreaties of the young, the wayward, or the undisciplined for the privilege of doing that which is wrong either in itself or in its tendency. Saul pleaded that he yielded to the wishes of the people when he saved the best of the spoil. So with many now in the place of solemn and responsible authority. But this is simple weakness where we have the right to expect strength. This weakness does not lesson the guilt before God. (W. G. Craig, D. D.)
The commission given to Saul
The command given to Saul was unmistakable and imperative. And this was to be in fulfilment of the legacy of judgment and vengeance left to the people by Moses long before. In Moses words you have hints of the real character and life of the Amalekites that are to be associated with Samuels words, in which he calls them the sinners, the Amalekites. Here you have their character of bloodthirsty, treacherous marauders. The days of old needed the destruction of such as the Amalekites; and if Israel had to do the work it was needful that they should be utterly destroyed. It was better for the world to be without such sinners, and it was required, for Israels sake, that Saul and his people should have no gain from the conquest. God often does thus with the ill-gotten wealth of wicked nations. Where are all the riches of the mighty monarchies of old? Where is the bloodstained wealth of the ruined Roman Empire? Who can tell? God swept, it, away, for a curse–the curse of conquest and oppression–was upon at Consider, Sauls violation of the law of obedience. Saul gave himself to spoilation; the attempted shelter under fear of the people belied itself; his repeated words that they had brought the spoil to sacrifice to the Lord thy God were an attempt to justify sin by profession of good intention, and to degrade religious service of God into formal acts of ceremonial observance. The answer to all his excuses and explanations was simple and as imperative as the commands he had neglected, Because thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king. There are many lessons taught us in these things, among which, let us note the following, for they touch solemn matters in the life of each of us.
I. It is evident that a professedly good or creditable intention will not justify a bad act. It is true that, the real character of any act is in the intention of the doer; but you cannot judge acts as though they were isolated, and to be taken each on its own merits. The intention that is behind one act may itself be a depraved spiritual act or represent a spiritual state that; God hates.
II. Nor can God be honoured in one way at the cost of dishonouring Him in another. Obedience to one command that is built out of the ruins and breach of another, must be displeasing to God. If we do, we shall add to non-performance of some duties the vitiating of those we do observe.
III. So, also, are we to learn that offerings to God are abomination if they do not express obedient love. For they may represent pride, vain-glory, or hypocrisy they may be a service of self that is all the more real for being hidden under the veil of Divine honour, or they may be a following of custom, or a sensuous dependence upon superstitious services for acceptance with the Lord. Gods supreme demand is loving obedience: the submission of the heart, the sacrifice of the will the offering up of self, the fasting from the self-willed indulgence of our own thoughts and intents. (R. G. B. Ryley.)
Saul rejected
What are the lessons with which the narrative is charged?
I. The danger of mistaking partial for complete obedience. Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
1. God requires literal obedience.
2. Gods language never exceeds Gods meaning.
3. Conscience is seen most clearly in minute obedience.
II. The possibility of giving a religious reason for an act of disobedience.
I. The people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God
1. One duty must not be performed on the ruins of another. It was a duty to sacrifice, but sacrifice must not be offered upon disobedience.
2. Gods commandment must not be changed by mens afterthought. Lucky ideas, sudden inspirations, and the like, mean ruin, unless well tested.
III. The danger of being seduced into disobedience by social clamour. I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. The people who tempt are not the people who can save.
2. Where God has spoken distinctly there should be no human consultation
IV. The certain withdrawment of the best influences of life as the result of disobedience. And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Parents, ministers, friends, gone! There are some incidental points of application:–
1. Sin discovers itself: What meaneth this this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear?
2. Sin will be punished. Four hundred years elapsed before the sword fell upon Amalek (Deu 25:17; Deu 25:19). Time has no effect upon moral distinctions, or moral judgments. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Sauls continued disobedience
A course of action more certainly calculated to insult the majesty of Heaven cannot be conceived than that which Saul adopted. It is true the command was partially obeyed, but the only case in which obedience was rendered was that in which there was no temptation to gratify selfish feeling. Where, however, anything could be turned to his own personal advantage, there the command of God was recklessly trifled with. Look attentively at Saul in this matter. When Jonathan had done nothing to deserve death, there was no mercy for him in his fathers heart; and it required the downright and peremptory prohibition of all Sauls army to save the innocent son alive. But, when a duty was rendered imperative by that God who is not bound to give, in any case, His reasons for action, Saul was deputed to put Agag to death, when to have done this would have been but an act of simple obedience, he ventured to disobey, and spared the man whom God had marked for destruction. It was, in Sauls view, a matter of pride to have his triumph graced by the presence of a conquered king, to make Agag feel that he owed his life to his own clemency, and that he held its prolongation on the tenure of his conquerors will. He found a greater gratification in ell this than in simple obedience to God. Samuel goes, after a night spent in grief and in prayer, to be the bearer of the tidings of Gods displeasure. But what strange scene is this which breaks upon us as the messenger of the Lord reaches Gilgal? Much as we know of Saul, and accustomed as we have become to the proofs of his moral obtuseness, we are hardly prepared for the downright self-complacency, for the cool effrontery of the words which he addressed to Samuel, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment, of the Lord.
I. We are reminded that a great amount of direct sin may be committed and nevertheless disguised, under a loud profession of obedience to God. There is, in some individuals, a forwardness in certain forms of duty which cost no self-denial at all; a forwardness, also, in the announcement of what has been done which is, in itself, to practised eyes a ground for suspicion that all is not right behind the scenes We sometimes notice individuals overdoing the thing that is courteous and polite–glaringly civil–towards those who come on the errand of Christian fidelity, and whose business is with souls in prospect of the great account. There is so much joy expressed at seeing them, there is so much interest taken in their presence, there is such a sudden burst of cordiality, as that upon the very amazement excited there follows the suspicion that something is going on which there is an effort to conceal. Let us aim after such a walk and conversation as that we can be natural in our demeanour, and not artificial and forced, such a life as will bear inspection behind the scenes, and as will not compel those who watch for souls to ask, as they look around, what meaneth this or that? what meaneth this unholy gratification? what meaneth this unsubdued temper?
II. The answer of Saul teaches that the men who, to gratify their own purposes, will lead others wrong and countenance them in evil-doing, will be the very first to expose them when they want to excuse themselves. And Saul said, They–not I–for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Ah! study well that sentence, They did it. Would that its impressiveness might be felt by the thousands who are too ready to be led by the advice, by the example, of those who ought to have but one rule for their own conduct and for their Influence over others too, and that rule Gods word–Gods will. There are some who will lead you into evil for the sake of getting countenance to themselves in their own want of religion. How many have had to mourn at last, when they have found their advisers converted into their accusers, when they have seen their companions in guilt stand as the witnesses for their condemnation.
III. There are other erroneous principles in this answer of Saul.
1. He evidently implied that a formal act of obedience might be taken as a set-off against an act of direct disobedience. He implied that, putting one thing over against the other, God would be satisfied in the long run. If he intended to offer sacrifice at all, it was upon the principle of compromise and composition. He would have given God a part of the spoil, that he might have kept a much larger portion for himself. He would have offered a fraction, that the extensive remainder might not have rendered his conscience uneasy. In those sacrifices which you offer to God no equivalent is found for the want of obedience. Obedience, as a principle, has a value far above sacrifice, as an action; it is better than sacrifice–better, as the principle must be superior to the form in which it is embodied–better, as the affection which sends a gift is more valuable than the gift itself. How, then, with justice, can the one be substituted for the other? The offering and the sacrifice have a value as embodiments of the principle of obedience and love–then only are they acceptable; but as substitutes for principle they have no acceptableness.
2. Another error in Sauls answer to which Samuel addressed himself was this, that, admitting he was in fault, there was no great harm in his sin after all. The king of Israel did not, indeed, use these words, but doubtless the prophet gathered that this was his real sentiment. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Here we see a class of sins mentioned whose heinousness was undoubted. Witchcraft God had forbidden to be tolerated on any account. Iniquity is here undoubtedly put for flagrant violation of Gods law; such, for instance, as the idolatry mentioned immediately after. The probability is that the king of Israel plumed and prided himself upon his public acts in reference to these very points. You have acted as though you thought witchcraft was a great crime, and so it is; but then rebellion such as that which you have manifested is as bad. Your rebellion, what has that, been but putting God out of His proper place of authority, and consulting your will and your inclination instead of listening to His voice. The actual amount of our guilt must not be adjusted by the external form of the transgression in which it issues–by its classification according to outward appearance Saul congratulated himself on being thought far superior to the consulter of those who had familiar spirits, and would have been shocked at the idea of being regarded as an idolater; but God thought him just as bad as though he were the one or the other. It is well for us to recollect that in spirit we may be bearing the very same kind of guilt before the eye of Omniscience which we are condemning in the declared conduct of others. (J. A. Miller.)
Sauls dethronement
Saul has thrown away his last chance, and Samuel mourns for him in the bitterness of his soul. Rationalistic writers, who would fain remove the miraculous out of Scripture, and explain the currents of its history by the play of human passions, have maintained, in strange inconsistency with the facts before them, that it was Samuel who compassed Baals misfortunes. They argue that, displeased with the king for supplanting him in the rule and the affections of the people, he had secretly wrought his fall. How utterly inconsistent such a view is with the facts of Baals history, especially how utterly inconsistent it is with the true relation of Samuel to Saul, as disclosed in the history, need hardly be stated. So we read that Samuel, when be bad heard of Sauls transgression, cried unto the Lord all night. and again in the last verse of the chapter, that Samuel mourned for Saul. The prophets tears and entreaties could not avert the doom that was inevitable. Saul had sinned away his last, chance, and he was finally rejected. Saul, after setting up a monument, commemorative of his victory, at Carmel, had gone down to Gilgal. Samuel having learned of his movements, proceeded thither to meet him. An interview followed. Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. The refutation of Sauls falsehood is not far to seek. It comes from the sheep and the oxen, the very spoils which he has spared. The veil of his false piety is in a moment rent off, and his true position before God revealed. The fearful nature of that position flashes upon him; Saul must face the sad reality. The act of disobedience which had caused his rejection betrayed his whole character as carnal and estranged from God. We are struck here with the cowardice of his self-vindication. They have brought them from the Amalekites; the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen. He himself has had no share in the sin–the transgression is the act of the army! In their obedience, however, be will claim a part, The rest we have utterly destroyed. We blame our circumstances, we blame others, we blame God; how slow we are to blame ourselves! The first symptom of a right state of mind is when the sinner, in self-condemnation and sorrow, acknowledges his guilt as his own. Saul, so brave in the battlefield, so generous when his better nature was called into play, roils his guilt on others. The people did it; he himself was innocent. What moral cowardice! But his reply is not more cowardly and mean than it is false. They did it, he declares, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God. Who can for a moment believe that Saul spoke what was true? The assumed motive of sacrifice was a hollow falsehood, an afterthought, as flimsy as it was false. Further, one is struck with the profane daring of Sauls reply. The spoils were spared, he says to sacrifice, unto the Lord; it is as if the mention of such a motive would so gratify the Lord am to lead Him to compound with him for his transgression. Let us mark finally the spirit of estrangement from God which breathes in Sauls reply The people spared the spoils, he says, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God It is not the, Lord my God, for, alas! Seals guilt has estranged him from God. A great barrier has arisen between him and the Lord. God is no longer his, but Samuels God. How cad the fall! (Henry W. Bell, M. A.)
Christian culture
I. No excuse, however plausible, can ever justify disobedience to a Divine command.
II. God held Saul responsible for this disobedience, and personally punished him for it, though be plead that it was the act of the people.
III. Sacrifice instead of obedience is a loathing to God.
IV. God uses strange means, sometimes, to betray guilt. (Homiletic Review.)
The self-righteous
Solomon, in his Proverbs, writes: Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness; but a faithful man who can find? and also, There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness. Solomon discovered the self-righteous in his day. Cloaks of superior piety covered hearts full of impiety. Our Saviour likewise witnessed much of outward cleanliness, but inward wickedness. Semblances of piety only–shells without the kernel. In all ages and among all nations this class is found One of the most vivid illustrations of a self-righteous man is that presented in Sauls character. Note in what his self-righteousness consisted:
1. In partially heeding the Lords commands Partial service and fondness for spoils exhibit his true character. Society today is tinctured with like partial service and fondness for spoils.
2. In endeavours to appear good. The ready salutation was common in the East; his assertion of fidelity unasked was egotistic. Moreover it was false.
3. In excusing self and condemning others. They did it. He shirks responsibility, he would be seen of men as the true captain, when in fact he was the real hypocrite.
4. In commanding sacrifice in justification of disobedience. He claims that the spoils were for religious purposes. What vain justification! As well may the dealer in ardent spirits argue that he does his damning work that he may build a church. Good deeds cannot stone for disobedience without repentance. If we become enamoured of our goodness, our piety is vain, and exclusion from Christs kingdom is certain. It was the hidden rock that sent the City of Columbus, with her precious freight, into the mighty deep. The hidden defect in the car wheel brings wreck and ruin to the train. The hidden flaw in the column or arch tells the story of disaster and death. The hidden defect of self-righteousness will bring upon us irreparable ruin. Clothe yourselves with Christs righteousness. (W. E. Fetcham.)
Partial obedience a sin
This fragment of ancient history teaches–
I. That partial obedience to the commands of God is not satisfactory to Him.
II. That the performance of one duty cannot atone for the neglect of another.
III. That there is in sin a sad tendency to self-multiplication. History abounds in examples of this self-propagating power of evil. Men get entangled in wickedness, and then, with a view to free themselves, they plunge deeper into the labyrinth.
I am in blood
Steppd in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go oer.
—Shakespeare.
The beginning of evil is like the escape of water from a great canal or capacious reservoir; it is like the falling of a spark upon combustibles. No one can tell when or where its ravages wilt end. Will they ever totally end? Beware of such beginnings!
IV. That obedience to popular demands is not synonymous with obedience to God. (W. Jones.)
Showy profession
as the most florid people do not always enjoy the firmest state of health, so the most showy professors are not always the holiest and most substantial believerses (A. Toplady.)
And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night.
Samuels grief over Saul
It is the distinguishing mark of Gods children that they sigh and cry for the offences and affronts committed against their God. One prophet wished that his head were waters, add his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night (Jer 9:1) Another declared, his tears ran like rivers, because men kept not Gods laws (Psa 119:136). Another said, he had continual sorrow in his heart for his unconverted brethren (Rom 9:2). And when God would point out the grand mark by which his own were to be known, he says, Go through the midst of the city, the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof (Eze 9:4). When wickedness is going on in the streets, or in the secret chambers, do you shut your door about you, and cry unto the Lord all night? or do you look on with something like interest, and smile when you ought to sigh, and laugh when you ought to weep? A school, mistress was once telling me of something that a girl had done wrong; and while she was describing the fault in a very lively manner, several of the children smiled, and scarcely suppressed a laugh. She immediately turned to them with a solemnity and concern which I can never forget, and said, Now, girls, you have made her sin your own, those who could laugh at it could do it. The girls looked alarmed, and I hope they would not again so thoughtlessly make a mock at sin. (Helen Plumptre.)
Grief over a fallen brother
Bishop Thirlby was appointed by Queen Mary, and went as her ambassador to Rome to swear anew Englands allegiance to the Pope. But when he performed the ceremony of degradation over Archbishop Cranmer, he wept with keenest sorrow as he did it. (H. O. Mackay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. It repenteth me that I have set up Saul] That is, I placed him on the throne; I intended, if he had been obedient, to have established his kingdom. He has been disobedient; I change my purpose, and the kingdom shall not be established in his family. This is what is meant by God’s repenting-changing a purpose according to conditions already laid down or mentally determined.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It repenteth me: repentance properly notes grief of heart, and change of counsels, and therefore cannot be in God, who is unchangeable, most wise, and most blessed; but it is ascribed to God in such cases, when men give God cause to repent, and when God alters his course and method of dealing, and treats a person as if he did indeed repent of all the kindness he had showed to him.
He cried unto the Lord all night, to implore his pardoning mercy for Saul, and for the people; so far was he from rejoicing in their calamities, as an envious and self-seeking person would have done.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king,…. Which is not to be understood of any change of mind, counsel, purpose, or decree in God, which is not consistent with his unchangeable nature; but of a change of dispensation, and outward dealings, and is spoken after the manner of men, who, when they repent of anything, change the course of their conduct and behaviour; and so the Lord does without any change of his mind and will, which alters not; and though he changes the outward dispensations of his providence, yet he never changes and alters in the matters and methods of his grace; though he repented he made Saul king, he never repents of his making his saints kings and priests for himself; his outward gifts he sometimes takes away, as an earthly crown and kingdom; but his gifts and calling, which are of special grace, are without repentance, [See comments on Ge 6:6].
for he is turned back from following me; from after my worship, as the Targum, from doing his will and work:
and hath not performed my commandments: particularly in this affair relating to Amalek:
and it grieved Samuel; that Saul should so soon be rejected from being king, and that he should do anything to deserve it; and whom Samuel had anointed king, and for whom he had a cordial respect, and to whom he wished well, both for his own personal good, and for the good of the people of Israel; so far was he from rejoicing at his fall, who came in his stead, and to whom he gave way in the affair of government:
and he cried unto the Lord all night; or prayed, as the Targum; either that the Lord would inform him of the particulars wherein Saul had done amiss, or that he would forgive his sin, and not reject him from the kingdom.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) It repenteth me . . . God does not feel the pain of remorse (says St. Augustine in Psalms 131), nor is He ever deceived, so as to desire to correct anything in which He has erred. But as a man desires to make a change when he repents, so when God is said in Scripture to repent, we may expect a change from Him. He changed Sauls kingdom when it is said He repented of making him king.Bishop Wordsworth.
And it grieved SamuelMany grave thoughts seem to have presented themselves at once to Samuel, and to have disturbed his mind when he reflected on the dishonour which would be inflicted upon the name of God, and the occasion which the rejection and deposition of Saul would furnish to wicked men for blaspheming the invisible King of Israel . . . For Saul had been chosen by God Himself from all the people, and called by Him to the throne; if, therefore, he was deposed, it seemed likely that the worship of God would be overturned, and the greatest disturbance ensue.Calvin, quoted by Keil. Abarbanel tells us respecting Samuels grief that he was angry and displeased, because he loved Saul for his beauty and heroism, and as his own creature whom he had made king; and that he prayed all night because God had not revealed to him Sauls sin, and he wished to know why sentence was pronounced against him.
And he cried unto the Lord all night.This was, no doubt, that piercing shrill cry peculiar to Samuel. With this strange cry he seems to have on many a solemn occasion spoken with his God. He is often in this book represented as thus crying unto God. (See Stanleys Lectures on the Jewish Church, Vol. I., 1 Samuel 18)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. It repenteth me Repentance in God does not imply changeableness in the Divine nature, like the changes oft involved in human life and action; for such a supposition is forbidden by such passages as 1Sa 15:29, where see note, and Num 23:19. But the Divine nature is emotional. Indignation and grief over the sins of men are passions as true and pure as love. The emotionality of anger, grief, or pity no more implies imperfection in God than does the emotionality of love. Can we for a moment think of a personal God destitute of feeling? And when his creatures suffer and fall through sin, what feelings but indignation and grief might be expected to move his holy nature? By repentance in God we are, therefore, to understand the change of feeling which must needs occur in the Divine nature towards any of the children of his grace when they turn from his truth, and presumptuously sin against him. Compare Gen 6:6, and note on Jdg 2:18.
It grieved Samuel Literally, It burned him. It thrilled his great soul to its profoundest depths, for he saw that this rejection of Saul must result in great calamity to Israel. So Jehovah and his holy prophet both were grieved.
He cried unto the Lord all night He probably prayed that this cup might pass from him, and that Saul might be forgiven and established in the kingdom.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 297
MOURNING FOR THE SINS OF OTHERS
1Sa 15:11. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.
NEVER can we be weary of contemplating the scripture history; so diversified are its incidents, and so instructive the examples it sets before us. The whole life of Samuel, from his first dedication to God by his mother to the very hour of his death, was one uniform course of piety. That particular part of it which I propose at present to consider, is his conduct in reference to Saul, when God declared his purpose to rend the kingdom from him, and to transfer it to another who should shew himself more worthy of it: we are told, it grieved Samuel: and he cried unto the Lord all night.
In discoursing on these words, we shall notice,
I.
The pious grief of Samuel
Respecting this we shall distinctly consider,
1.
The grounds of it
[Saul had disobeyed the commandment of the Lord, in sparing Agag the king of the Amalekites, together with all the best of the spoil, when he had been strictly enjoined to destroy every thing, man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
This, at first sight, might appear a venial fault, inasmuch as he had leaned to the side of mercy, and had acted in conformity with the wishes of his people; and had even consulted, as he thought, the honour of God, to whom he intended to offer all the best of the cattle in sacrifice.
But he had received a specific commission, which it was his duty to execute. He was not left at liberty to act according to circumstances: his path was marked out, and should have been rigidly adhered to.
It does not appear that he stopped short of his purpose, because he thought that the command itself was too severe: for, in the first instance, he set himself to execute it fully: but, if he had felt some reluctance on account of its severity, he had no alternative left him: it was his duty simply to obey. When Abraham was called to come out from his country and from his kindred, he obeyed, though he knew not which way he was to direct his steps. And, when he was enjoined to offer up upon an altar his own son Isaac, he hesitated not to do it; notwithstanding he knew that on the life of Isaac, to whose lineal descendants all the promises were made, the coming even of the Messiah himself essentially depended. Had he judged it right to listen to carnal reasonings of any kind, or to put his own feelings in competition with his duty, he might have easily found enough to satisfy his own mind. But he knew what was the duty of a creature: and he obeyed it without reserve. And so should Saul have done. We will take for granted that all his excuses were true; (though we doubt much whether covetousness was not the true source of his conduct:) still they were of no real weight: and his listening to them was nothing less than an act of rebellion against God.
And was not this a sufficient ground for grief? Yes: and Samuel did well in that he was grieved with it.
Doubtless Samuel was also grieved on account of the judgment which Saul had brought on himself and on his family, by this act of disobedience. He pitied the man who had subjected himself so grievously to the divine displeasure: and pitied his children also, who were involved both in his guilt and punishment. When he himself, indeed, had been dispossessed of the kingdom, we do not find that he was grieved either for himself or his children: but for Saul and his children he deeply grieved. In his own case, Samuel had nothing to deplore: whilst he fell a victim to the ingratitude of man, he had a testimony from the whole nation, and from God himself, that he had discharged his duty towards them with fidelity: but in the case of Saul, he saw the man who had been specially called by God to the kingdom, now dispossessed of it by that very God who had appointed him, and under his heavy and merited displeasure. In a word, the sin and the punishment of Saul formed in the mind of Samuel one ground of deep and undissembled grief.]
2.
The expression of it
[By God the sentence against Saul had been pronounced; and none but God could reverse it. But so often, and in such astonishing instances, had God condescended to the prayers of his servants, yea, to the prayers of Samuel himself, that this holy man did not despair of yet obtaining mercy for his unhappy prince. He, therefore, betook himself to prayer, and continued in it all the night, hoping that, like Israel of old, he should at last prevail. With what strong crying and tears may we suppose he urged his suit! And what an extraordinary measure of compassion must he have exercised, when he could continue in supplication for a whole night together! Such had been his feelings towards the people at large, after they had rejected him: God forbid that I should sin against the Lord, in ceasing to pray for you [Note: 1Sa 12:23.]. And such is the proper expression of love, whether towards God or man: for God it honours as a merciful and gracious God; whilst it seeks to benefit man, by bringing down upon him the blessing of the Most High.]
But, in contemplating his example, we are chiefly called to notice,
II.
The instruction to be derived from it
In this record we may see what should be our conduct,
1.
In reference to the sins of others
[It is amazing with what indifference the universal prevalence of sin is beheld by the generality of mankind. Those evils which tend to the destruction of all social comfort are indeed reprobated by men of considerate minds: but it is in that view alone that they are reprobated. As offending God, they are scarcely thought of: men may live altogether as without God in the world, and no one will lay it to heart, or shew the least concern about the dishonour which is done to God.
The eternal interests of men too, it is surprising how little they are thought of. Men are dying all around us, and no one inquires whether they are prepared to die: and, when they are launched into eternity, no one feels any anxiety about their state, or entertains any doubt about their happiness before God. It is taken for granted that all who die are happy. Whether they sought after God or not, all is supposed to be well with them: and to express a doubt respecting it would be deemed the essence of uncharitableness and presumption.
But widely different from this should be the state of our minds. We are not indeed called to sit in judgment upon men: but to feel compassion towards them, and to pray for them, is our bounden duty. David tells us that horror seized hold upon him, and rivers of waters ran down his cheeks, because men kept not Gods Law. The Prophet Jeremiah exclaimed, O that mine head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Thus was it also with Samuel, in relation to Saul; and thus should it be with us, in reference to all around us. To see them dishonouring God and ruining their own souls, ought to create in us the same emotions as were felt by the Apostle Paul, when he declared that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart for his brethrens sake. Even though we have no hope of doing them good, yet should we, like our blessed Saviour, weep over them, saying, O that thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! Nor should we ever cease to pray for them, in hope that God may be gracious unto them, and make them distinguished monuments of his grace.]
2.
In reference to our own sins
[Here is reason for the very same complaint. Men can violate every command of God, and feel no fear, no compunction. As for such a sin as Sauls, it would not even be deemed a sin. True, they have not strictly adhered to the divine command; but the command itself was too strict; and they complied with the solicitations of their friends; and they meant no harm. Hence, in their prayers, if they pray at all, there is no fervour, no importunity, no continuance. A transient petition or two is quite as much as their necessities require.
But did Samuel feel such grief for another, and should not we for ourselves? Did he cry to God all night for another, and should we scarcely offer a petition for ourselves? Should the deposing of another from an earthly kingdom appear a judgment to be deprecated, and shall we not deprecate the loss of heaven for ourselves? Verily, in neglecting to pray for ourselves, we not only sin against God, but grievously sin also against our own souls.]
Let me then address myself,
1.
To those who are in a state of careless indifference
[Alas! What a large proportion of every assembly does this comprise! What then shall I say unto you? To Samuel, whose grief for Saul was inconsolable, God said, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul [Note: 1Sa 16:1.]? But to you I must say, How long will ye refuse to mourn for yourselves? Has not your impenitence continued long enough? Many, of you have sinned against God, not in one act only, but in the whole course of your lives; and that, too, not in a way of partial obedience only, like Saul, but in direct and wilful disobedience. Will not ye, then, weep and pray? Remember, I entreat you, that if you will not humble yourselves before God, you must be humbled ere long; and if you will not weep now, you must ere long weep, and wail, and gnash your teeth for ever in that place where redemption can never come, nor one ray of hope can ever enter. I beseech you, Brethren, reflect on this; and now, whilst the sentence that is gone forth against you may be reversed, cease not to cry unto your God for mercy day and night.]
2.
To those who are desirous of obtaining mercy from God
[Great as was Samuels interest with God, he could not prevail for Saul. But you have an Advocate, whose intercessions for you must of necessity prevail, if only you put your cause into his hands. This Advocate is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is also the propitiation for your sins. To him St. John directs you: and, if you go to him, it is impossible that you should ever perish: for he has expressly said, Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. To have a praying friend or minister is a great comfort to one who feels his need of mercy: but to have One who ever liveth on purpose to make intercession for us, and whom the Father heareth always, this is a comfort indeed. Commit then your cause, Brethren, into the Saviours hands; and you may rest assured, that, whatever judgments you may have merited at Gods hands, you shall never perish, but shall have eternal life.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
1Sa 15:11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
Ver. 11. It repenteth me that I have set up Saul. ] This is humaniths dictum, spoken after the manner of men: as man when he altereth anything that he did before, seemeth to repent. It hath been elsewhere noted, that God’s repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work. Repentance with man, is the changing of his will; repentance with God, is the willing of a change.
And it grieved Samuel
And he cried unto the Lord all night.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It repenteth Me. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
repenteth
(See Scofield “Zec 8:14”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
repenteth me: 1Sa 15:35, Gen 6:6, 2Sa 24:16, Psa 110:4, Jer 18:7-10, Amo 7:3, Jon 3:10, Jon 4:2
turned: Jos 22:16, 1Ki 9:6, Psa 36:3, Psa 78:41, Psa 78:57, Psa 125:5, Zep 1:6, Mat 24:13, Heb 10:38
hath not performed: 1Sa 15:3, 1Sa 15:9, 1Sa 13:13
it grieved: 1Sa 15:35, 1Sa 16:1, Psa 119:136, Jer 9:1, Jer 9:18, Jer 13:17, Luk 19:41-44, Rom 9:1-3
he cried: 1Sa 12:23, Psa 109:4, Mat 5:44, Luk 6:12
Reciprocal: Num 12:13 – General Jos 11:15 – he left nothing 1Sa 8:6 – prayed 1Sa 15:13 – I have performed Neh 1:6 – day and night Job 34:27 – turned Psa 18:21 – have not Psa 101:3 – them Pro 29:10 – but Jer 11:10 – turned Jer 18:10 – then Jer 34:16 – ye turned Jer 50:21 – and do Eze 18:24 – when Hos 4:16 – slideth Mat 21:6 – and did Act 13:22 – when Rom 10:1 – my heart’s 2Co 12:8 – I besought Heb 10:39 – we are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Sa 15:11. It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king Repentance, properly speaking, implies grief of heart, and a change of counsels. Understood in which sense, it can have no place in God. But it is often ascribed to him in the Scriptures when he alters his method of dealing with persons, and treats them as if he did indeed repent of the kindness he had shown them. He is turned back from following me Therefore he did once follow God, otherwise it would have been impossible he should turn back from following him. He cried unto the Lord all night To implore his pardoning mercy for Saul and for the people.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:11 It {e} repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
(e) God in his eternal counsel never changes or repents, as in 1Sa 15:29, though he seems to us to repent when anything goes contrary to his temporal election.