1 Sam 15:10-23, 34-35 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
In the last lesson, Samuel said to the people at Gilgal: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Sam 12:23).
After Saul became king, there was a time when he did not wait for Samuel, and offered the burnt offering himself. Samuel said to him: “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God” (1 Sam 13:13); “But now your kingdom will not continue. The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart” (1 Sam 13:14).
Later Samuel said to Saul: “The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the LORD’s words” (1 Sam 15:1), and told him to go against the Amalekites. Saul went, but “Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, of the cattle, of the fat calves, of the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to utterly destroy them” (1 Sam 15:9). This lesson reads what happened next.
10Then the LORD’s word came to Samuel, saying,
11“It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.” Samuel was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night.
12Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, turned, passed on, and went down to Gilgal.”
13Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.”
14Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?”
15Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to the LORD your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest.”
16Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”
17Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel;
18and the LORD sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’
19Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight?”
20Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the LORD’s voice, and have gone the way which the LORD sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the best of the devoted things, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.”
22Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
Saul said, “I have sinned,” and asked Samuel to turn again with him; as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.” Afterward Samuel put Agag to death before the LORD in Gilgal (vv. 24–33).
34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.
35Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul. The LORD grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.
All night. “Then the LORD’s word came to Samuel, saying, ‘It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.’ Samuel was angry; and he cried to the LORD all night” (vv. 10–11).
Early in the morning. “Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning” (v. 12). Saul said: “You are blessed by the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD” (v. 13). Samuel said: “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?” (v. 14). Saul said the people had spared the best “to sacrifice to the LORD your God” (v. 15).
Little in your own sight. Samuel said: “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel” (v. 17). “Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice” (v. 19). Saul said: “But I have obeyed the LORD’s voice” (v. 20), and that the people had taken the sheep and cattle “to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal” (v. 21).
To obey is better than sacrifice. “Samuel said, ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams’” (v. 22). “Because you have rejected the LORD’s word, he has also rejected you from being king” (v. 23).
Mourned for Saul. “Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul” (v. 34). “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul. The LORD grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel” (v. 35).
How long. “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided a king for myself among his sons’” (1 Sam 16:1). Samuel anointed David in Bethlehem; see David, Lesson 1.
Ramah. Later, “David fled and escaped, and came to Samuel at Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him” (1 Sam 19:18). “Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house at Ramah” (1 Sam 25:1).
When Saul offered the burnt offering himself, Samuel said: “The LORD has sought for himself a man after his own heart” (1 Sam 13:14). In this lesson he said to Saul that the LORD “has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you” (1 Sam 15:28).
Later, in Bethlehem, “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the middle of his brothers. Then the LORD’s Spirit came mightily on David from that day forward” (1 Sam 16:13).
Readers can see this: Samuel mourned for Saul, but the LORD sent him to Bethlehem; Israel’s king was to come from the house of Jesse.
Perhaps you, too, are sad for someone: someone you once believed in, prayed for, and walked beside for a while, who later went far away, and you could not stop them.
This lesson does not say that sadness has a day on which it is over. “Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul” (v. 35). What it shows you is this: the night the LORD’s word came, “he cried to the LORD all night” (v. 11); and later the LORD spoke to him and sent him on to Bethlehem (1 Sam 16:1). A psalm says: “He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds” (Ps 147:3).
This week: Looking back over these five lessons, write down the verse from Samuel’s life that has stayed with you most. This week, pray once for someone you are sad for; if you are willing, tell God plainly how sad you are.
Samuel anointed Saul, and mourned for Saul; later, at the LORD’s word, he went to Bethlehem and anointed David.
Paul, speaking in the synagogue at Antioch about the history of Israel, said: “Afterward they asked for a king, and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years” (Acts 13:21); “When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king” (Acts 13:22); “From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise” (Acts 13:23).
Here these lines are simply read together: what passed through Samuel’s hands in his lifetime was Israel asking for a king, Saul made king, and David anointed; Paul, coming to this point, goes on to speak of the salvation God brought from David’s offspring.
Scripture: World English Bible.