1 Samuel 15:1-23 The LORD Rejects Saul We saw in chapter 13 that Saul made an unlawful sacrifice to the LORD at Gilgal because he could not wait for Samuel to arrive because the people were deserting him. Saul rebuked him: “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the LORD your God, with which he commanded you. For then the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.” [vv. 13-14 ESV] vv. 1-9 Saul is given another opportunity to demonstrate his faith and obedience to the LORD. Samuel comes to Saul and brings him the “word of the LORD”. Saul is ordered to destroy utterly the Amalekites, without exception – i.e., men, women, children, cattle – all of it. The Lord had a reason for this “devotion to destruction” against the Amalekites. [ESV Notes p. 515 15:3 devote to destruction. This practice, known also as ‘imposing the ban,’ denotes setting aside something as the Lord’s share. Usually such a ban meant that all living things – men, women, children, and livestock – were to be killed (cf. Deut. 20:16-17; Joshua 6:17, 21; see also 1 Sam. 22:19, where Saul unjustly carries this out on the priestly town of Nob). One purpose of such total destruction was to stop the spread of the ‘abominable practices’ of paganism (Deut. 20:16-18) The ban against Amalek is based on Deut. 25:19.]Hundreds of years earlier, they harassed Israel as Israel was wandering in the wilderness. “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.” [Deut. 25:17-18 ESV emphasis added] Here Saul is ordered to do what Joshua and others before him had failed to do: to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven”. The instructions were clear, simple, easy, but not for Saul.
So Saul went forth with his army and “defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.” [1 Sam. 15:7-9] Why would all the good stuff have to be destroyed? This scene shows us how little control or influence Saul had over his people. He was weak and insecure throughout all his days. “And when Saul saw any strong man, or any valiant man, he attached him to himself.” [1 Sam. 14:52b ESV] Close but not good enough! The fact is that the prophet (Samuel) gave him specific instructions which, alas, he did not follow. He has no excuse. At this point Samuel is unaware of Saul’s lack of obedience. vv. 10-23 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” (v. 10) Samuel was angry and cried unto the LORD all night; Samuel’s devotion to God was not lip-service. Have you ever experienced distress enough to pray all night? Jesus’ last night found him on his knees sweating, as it were, drops of blood. “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” [Luke 22:44 ESV] Samuel had a heart for the nation and was now disappointed yet again. The first time was when Israel rejected God as their king and asked for a man to rule over them. Now the king disappoints. Saul has learned nothing from his experience in chapter 15 where he lists his excuses for not doing the LORD’s will {It’s not my fault!} Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 1 Samuel catches up with Saul in Gilgal and Saul wastes no time in giving birth to another lie. Samuel only knows what the LORD has told him – he has no personal knowledge of what Saul has failed to do. So Saul greets Samuel, “The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” [v. 15:13 NIV] There is nothing worse than getting caught in a lie. Hear Samuel’s arresting response: “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle I hear?” (v. 15:14 NIV) I can imagine Saul’s mouth going dry at those questions. Then the excuses being afresh: “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” (v. 15:15 ESV) At this point Saul has gone beyond the point of no return; Samuel has some shattering news now for Saul. “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night [remember Samuel was in prayer all night long –j.t.].” [v. 15:16 ESV]
“And Samuel said, ‘Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. And the LORD sent you on a mission and said, “Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?’” Saul is quick to respond “ I have obeyed the voice of the L ORD . I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the L ORD your God in Gilgal.” [vv. 15:20-21 ESV emphasis added] So it’s not Saul’s fault!
The next few verses are as true for us as they were for Saul and just as stinging: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” [15:22-23 NIV emphasis added]
1 Samuel 15:24-35 The Kingdom of Israel torn from Saul Saul, however, is not done with the excuses. While he may recognize that he sinned against the Lord, he still feels the need to justify himself: “I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them.” [v. 15:24 NIV]
The beauty of the prophets is that they see symbolism in everything. As Samuel goes to leave, Saul grabs at his robe and it tears. Unfazed, Samuel says to Saul: “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors – to one better than you.” [v. 15:28 NIV]
In verse 11 of chapter 15 “The word of the LORD came to Samuel: ‘I regret that I have made Saul king…’” [ESV Notes p. 515 “15:11 I regret (also vv. 29, 35) Here, as in Gen. 6:6 [‘The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.’] the Lord ‘regrets’ a decision. This means that God feels genuine sorrow when contemplating Saul’s sin. But it does not mean that God thinks his decision t make Saul king was a mistake in the overall course of his plans for history (cf. Isa. 46:9-10 “remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done.” “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” [v. 15:29 ESV] [ESV Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 2 Notes p. 516 The term ‘regret’ poses a difficulty, since vv. 11 and 35 say that God did regret making Saul king, while here Samuel denies that God will ever lie or have regret (cf. Num. 23:19 ‘God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.’). The term for ‘have regret’ (Hb. nakham can be translated ‘relent’ or ‘change one’s mind’ (e.g., Ex. 32:12, 14; Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 24:16 [1 Chron. 21:15]; Ps. 106:45; Jer. 15:6; 18:8, 10; 26:3, 13, 19; 42:10; Ezek. 24:14; Joel 2:13-14; Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah3:9-10; 4:2) or ‘have pity or compassion’ (Deut. 32:36; Judges 2:18; Ps. 90:13; 135:14) as well ‘be sorry’ or ‘have regret’ (cf. Gen. 6:6-7). Thus the term as used in 1 Sam. 15:11, 35 describes God’s own feeling of sorrow or regret that Saul had turned out as he did (and does not even address the question whether God knew of it beforehand), while in v. 29 God will not regret or change his mind concerning a decision once he has made it.”
Saul with saves face with the help of Samuel. “Then he [Saul] said, ‘I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel…’ So Samuel turned back after Saul…” [vv. 31-31 ESV] Saul knows he has lost the kingdom, but he still needs the support of the people. Samuel then finishes the job Saul was commissioned to do: “Then Samuel said, ‘Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.’ And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, ‘Surely the bitterness of death is past.’ And Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.’ And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.”
This is the last time that Samuel and Saul see each other. Interestingly, Samuel grieves about Saul until his [Samuel’s] death.
[Cultural and historical notes from the Archaeological Study Bible p. 419. “Herem, Holy War 1 Samuel 15 The command given to Saul in 1 Samuel 15 to ‘totally destroy everything’ that belonged to the Amalekites represents the translation of the Hebrew word haram. This verb, which means to ‘ban’ or ‘completely destroy’, has a related noun, herem, meaning ‘absolute destruction.’ In keeping with its frequent use within the context of Old Testament Hebrew warfare, the verb is also found in Deuteronomy 20:16-18, where the Israelites were command to ‘completely destroy’ all the peoples living within the land God had given them as an inheritance. These verses in Deuteronomy indicate that this total destruction involved killing all the people and domestic animals belonging to a place. The same verb appears in the Moabite language, as attested on ninth-century B.C. Mesha Stele, an inscribed stone monument on which King Mesha of Moab claimed to have ‘totally destroyed’ the people of Nebo for the god Chemosh. Mesha’s use of this verb demonstrates a connection between Israel and her neighbors in the realm of warfare ideology.
“While the phrase ‘holy war’ may be somewhat misleading, the Biblical idea of war is rooted in the notion that God led his people into battle and that certain Old Testament battles were executed as a religious acts. Although it has been suggested that herem was an element of every Biblical holy war, this most unlikely, since it was not decreed in every battle.
“While it is not mentioned in 1 Samuel 15, the ark of the covenant served as the palladium (a religious image or object thought to provide divine protection to a people or place) that signified Yahweh’s presence among the Israelite army in battle. Yahweh was often portrayed as a warrior God who was victorious over the powers of chaos. This ideology was prevalent throughout the ancient Near East, and, along with associated injunctions to purity among the warriors (De. 23:9-10), it provided the essential elements of the holy war. In the Bible this offers a powerful metaphor for God’s mighty acts in salvation history that will culminate in the absolute destruction of all who oppose him. Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 3 “The herem is Israelite warfare strikes many readers as cruel, but it is helpful t keep three factors in mind: • The Israelites were expecting judgment on Canaan specifically; they were not called to wage holy war on the nations around them in order to create an empire. • The herem was intended to remove permanently the pagan influence from the Israelite vicinity. • The herem was meant to remind the Israelites that their warfare was not for the purpose of acquiring claves and booty but was meant to secure the land as their inheritance. When the Israelites failed to carry out the herem, the reason was often not mercy on their part but greed. (1 Sa. 15:9).” Article from The Archeological Study Bible p. 419]
1 Samuel 16:1-13 David Anointed King The story of Saul and David (chapters 16-31:13) Now that Saul has been completely disqualified as king, David is introduced as his successor, and God trains David, through suffering, to lead his people. [ESV Notes p. 517]
Throughout all of Israel’s and the Church’s history, the LORD had, time and again, used the weak to display his power and strength. From early on, even as far back as Sarah who was 90 years old before delivering Isaac – “beyond the age of bearing children”; Joseph was young and powerless when he was sold into slavery in Egypt yet he became the next in power after Pharaoh; Deborah (a woman!) was raised up to defeat Jabin king of Canaan; Gideon and his 300 men to defeat Midian and so it continues even to the time of Paul who was told by the Lord: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” … “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” [2 Cor. 12:9-10 ESV] This time it is Samuel who is surprised at God’s choice of David.
So Samuel is grieving for Saul when the LORD asks him: “How long will you grieve over Saul?” [v. 16:1] The Lord then commissions Samuel to go to Jesse of Bethlehem. Before Samuel packs up his horn and oil, he raises his main concern: “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” [v. 16:2 ESV] The LORD’s response is curious: “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ I say this is curious because the notes from the ESV Study Bible (p. 517) indicate: “16:2 and say “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.” This was a true but incomplete statement of the reasons for Samuel to come to Bethlehem (see v. 1), and yet the Lord told him to say it, so it should not be considered morally wrong. It seems that telling part of what one knows to be true, in order to conceal other information, is morally right in some situations, particularly adversarial situations such as this one. Moreover, the Lord had the right to hide his intentions from Saul, who had proved himself faithless.” [This explanation looks like it is dancing around the issue. The fact is that we see these events as completed in the past and then try to make sense of them. Samuel was a man of faith and was asking an obvious question regarding his personal safety. The instructions serve to give Samuel peace of mind and they come from someone whose authority is so much greater than his own. Samuel did not question the LORD. Why do we? We always apply today’s standards to the biblical context, which usually leads us to a point of judgment concerning the right and wrong of a given situation. God always wants us to act out of faith and sometimes we don’t get the answers we think we need. Here Samuel raises a question and the LORD gives him an answer; Samuel did not question the answer. “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” {Psalm 115:3 ESV} The same moral question arises when the Lord sends a spirit of deception or a spirit of delusion upon someone. This may have more to do with the working of the Holy Spirit than anything else. The Lord will take his Spirit from Saul; the ramifications of that may be such things as delusion and paranoia as we will Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 4 see later. “…where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…” {Romans 5:20 ESV} The workings of God the Holy Spirit are so pervasive in our world today that they go unnoticed by most of us. These workings are the “grace [that] abounded all the more”. The greatest danger here is to accuse God falsely of not being just. j.t.]
So Samuel goes to Bethlehem and reviews seven of Jesse’s sons but the LORD has not chosen among them. The youngest, David, is in the pastures tending the sheep. He was least among his brothers. “Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the LORD said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he.’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.” [1 Sam. 16:12-13 ESV emphasis added] The phrase “from that day forward” confirms the identity of the king in David, though he submits to Saul until Saul dies.
1 Samuel 16:14-17:11 David in Saul’s Service / David and Goliath
As we saw in chapter 15:23 “Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.” This shows itself in that “the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.” [v. 16:14 ESV] Here we can see the consequences of disobedience. Saul was tormented by an evil spirit which I take to be paranoia, as we will see later. The suggested healing for this condition (for is comes and goes) is the soothing sounds of a lyre. So the word goes out to look for a soothing lyre-player and someone reported: “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the LORD is with him.” This is how David got drafted into the king’s service. The thing is we do not know how old David is at this time but we may guess him to be under twenty years of age. David, probably because the LORD was with him, was an engaging and charming person for he won Saul’s favor. Saul loved David and made him his armor-bearer. David was also successful in chasing the evil spirit away from Saul.
The Philistines and Israelites face off at the Valley of Elah (about 20 miles west of Jerusalem). The Philistines want to do battle via champions, i.e., each side chooses his best man and whoever wins, wins the whole battle and the loser becomes slaves to the winner. The Philistines choose Goliath of Gath as their champion. He weighed in at – I don’t know – but he was nine feet nine inches tall, considerably more than head and shoulders over Saul (who was head and shoulders over all Israel). Above I indicated that Saul was weak and insecure all his days. “When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and greatly afraid.” [v. 17:11 ESV]
1 Samuel 17:12-30 David’s question: Who is this uncircumcised Philistine the he should defy the armies of the living God?
As we have seen, David was the youngest son of Jesse at home tending the sheep while his three eldest brothers were with Saul at the Valley of Elah. Jesse sends David to his brothers with victuals. Just as David enters the camp, Goliath emerges from the camp of the Philistines and makes his twice daily challenge. This is something he has been doing for 40 days, morning and evening. All the Israelites fled from before Goliath and were very afraid. “And David said to the men who stood by him, ‘What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?’” [v. 17:26 ESV] The men said to him: “The king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” [v. 17:25 ESV]
Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 5 David’s oldest brother Eliab chastises David for being in the camp because Eliab thinks David is only there to watch the battle. Eliab was not aware that David was sent by their father so that he could report to Jesse how his brothers fared.
1 Samuel 17:31-49 David Deals with Goliath
David is outraged by the behavior of the Philistine Goliath so much so that he volunteers to take on the giant. Naturally, Saul reminds David that he is but a youth and that Goliath “has been a man of war from his youth.” [v. 17:33 ESV] “But David said to Saul, ‘Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth… Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God. … The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.’” [vv. 17:34-37 ESV]
Saul then attempted to clothe David in his armor but, alas the equipment was too big and thus useless. David “took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.” [v. 17:40 ESV]
How embarrassing for a nine foot giant to go against a “ruddy” boy. Goliath was insulted: “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” He continued, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field.” David replied: “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all his assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand.” [17:45-47] And to make his point, David drew a stone from his bag and slung it and struck Goliath on his forehead. “The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the ground.” [v. 17:49 ESV] This is another example of the “weak” overcoming the “strong”.
1 Samuel 17:50-18:4 David and Jonathan
“There was no sword in the hand of David.” [v. 17:50 ESV] This is significant because of what David said in verse 45 of chapter 17. He then went and stood over Goliath, took Goliath’s own sword and slew the giant and then severed his head from his body. Once the Philistines realized what had happened, they fled from before the Israelites. There must have been pandemonium in both camps, everyone running to and fro. The Israelites pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron and plundered them as they went. What is interesting here is that Saul seems to know very little about David for he asks Abner his commanding general to root out David’s history. Later David and Abner approach Saul and David tells Saul, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.” [v. 17:58 ESV]
“As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan [Saul’s eldest son] was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” [v. 18:1 ESV] The next thing that Jonathan does is rather significant: “And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.” [v. 18:4 ESV]
Writing Group June 28, 2011 Page 6 {This event reminds me of Joseph, son of Israel and the famous coat of many colors. [Gen. chapter 37] Admittedly, Israel loved Joseph more than all his other sons and I think he was grooming Joseph to assume leadership of the clan once Jacob died. Reuben, the firstborn had lost his “right” to succeed because he “went and lay with Bilhah his father’s concubine.” [Gen. 35:22 ESV] Jacob puts it this way: “Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the firstfruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father’s bed; then you defiled it – he went up to my couch.” [Gen. 49:3-4 ESV]}
{Joseph’s coat signified Jacob’s predisposition for Joseph which was not lost on his ten brothers (Benjamin would have been too young at this point to be involved.). The gift of the coat may have been a signal to the others that Jacob would name Joseph his successor. As it turns out, Joseph got a double portion in the inheritance.}
{Something happened in the meeting with Saul and David and Abner because it appears that Jonathan was moved so much that “the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David.” [v. 18:1] Jonathan would have been seen as the heir apparent to Saul so for him to strip his robe off and give it to David may symbolize Jonathan’s abdication, but at this point Jonathan probably did not know that Samuel had anointed David to succeed Saul.} {j.t.}
[ESV Notes p. 521-522 18:3-4 he loved him as his own soul. Jonathan would eventually give up any claim to the throne for David’s sake (1 Sam. 23:17) and even risk his life (chap. 20:30-33) for David. Jonathan … gave it to David. Primogeniture, whereby the firstborn son received the primary leadership role and a double portion of the family inheritance, was a tradition but not an absolute rule. Nevertheless, as the popular eldest son, Jonathan would have been accepted as Saul’s heir (1 Sam. 20:31; 23:17; 2 Sam. 1:4). Since to all appearances the dynasty had just begun, however, David was considered even more a threat to Jonathan than to Saul. No one seems to have viewed Jonathan’s gift to David as a sign of abdication, but Jonathan’s actions (perhaps unwittingly) foreshadowed the transfer of the kingship to David. It is not recorded at what point Jonathan realized that David was God’s chosen. ]
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