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We live in a day and age where we hear a lot of things. We have all kinds of voices speaking to us, about us, which voices do you listen to? We have the talking heads on TikTok, we've got the talking heads on YouTube, you've got the talking heads on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and every one of them from Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, Jesse Waters, Sean Hannity, any other nutcase that thinks that they have the meaning and answers to life.
The text we will get to today, 1 Samuel chapter 15, will get to the heart of the problem with man. All those talking heads, they don't have the answer. Conspirator theories, all of this nonsense, who shot Charlie Kirk, who shot JFK, if you knew it would never change your life.
This text will change your life. The beginning of 1 Samuel starts at the beginning with a man named Elkanah. And Elkanah had two wives, one was Pananiah and the other one was Hannah. One could have children and the other couldn't.
And Hannah pleaded before the Lord and cried out and prayed and prayed and prayed and God heard her voice and answered her prayer and gave her a son. His name would be Samuel. She would then take him to Eli and when weaned, she would then give him to him as an offering to the Lord for the rest of his life.
Imagine the only child you ever had, promised no children at this point yet in the book, anymore. She then gives him to Eli after being weaned and it says that she would go every year and she would bring him a robe that she was made.
And if you read through the book of 1 Samuel, you will see that that robe is very significant and it will play a part in today's message as well. But then as you get into the second chapter of 1 Samuel, there is another voice that's speaking to some unregenerate, diabolical priest by the name of Hotpheus and Phineas who were extorting the people of God.
You had Dirtbag 1 and Dirtbag 2 who were taking money from the people of God, having sex with the women at the tabernacle and it says that Eli went to them and he said, what you're doing is wrong and God will punish you.
And the text says that they did not listen to the voice of their father or listen to the voice of God. And you have a little time frame in there where you have battles with the Philistines and then you have the ark taken and it hops around giving them hemorrhoids and all kinds of stuff.
We all know that story and it ends up back into the custody of Samuel. Well then you get to chapter 8 and the people go to Samuel and say, we want a king. We want to be like the nations around us. We want a king to rule over us.
And Samuel took that at heart as if they were talking bad about him. And God says, listen, don't worry about what they're saying to you. It's not about you. They have rejected me as king. And here's what he says to him, Samuel, I want you to listen to the voice of the people and give them a king.
And if you fast forward in time and you were to read when he mentioned Hosea and Hosea chapter 13, it says that God's telling the people, I was your king. I was the one who would deliver and protect you from those around you.
And in my wrath, I gave you a king to punish you. And in my wrath, I removed that man. That's talking about King Saul. So then as King Saul is looked out, they look for a man to be appointed. You remember King Saul, he was tall, dark, and handsome.
He was head and shoulders above everybody. And he is then an anointed king. He then goes back to his father's house. He is tending donkeys and doing whatever, and the man comes to Jabesh Gilead. And he tells the people of God on the other side of the Jordan, you're going to serve me or I'm going to put out your right eye and make you a scourge.
Everybody remember that narrative? And the word gets back to Saul. Saul then is filled with rage, and then the Holy Spirit comes on him. He grabs a bull, he chops it up, says this is what we're going to do with those that don't go out when he fights.
He goes out and he defeats Nahash and becomes the deliverer of God's people. Great act of deliverance by Saul. At this point, Saul being anointed king, this looks like the man. Then you move on forward, and you get to chapter 13, and they're fighting the Philistines.
And Samuel is supposed to meet with Saul to make a sacrifice at an appointed time. And those of you that have read through the book know what happens. Saul gets impatient. His men start to move. They're starting to go back home because Samuel hasn't come to make this sacrifice to God so that basically the war can begin.
And what does Samuel do? He does what God tells him not to do, and he listens to the voice of his own heart. He then takes that sacrifice and does it to himself. And as he is finishing that sacrifice, lo and behold, who walks up?
Samuel. What have you done, Saul? Could you not wait? Move on. Chapter 14. Saul makes a foolish vow. He says, you know what? Whoever doesn't go out with me... Look, we're all making it about Saul. Whoever doesn't go out with me and avenge my enemies...
He doesn't say whoever goes out and helps me avenge God's enemies. Remember, the kings were supposed to go out and fight the wars of the Lord, not their own. And he says, whoever will not fight with me to avenge my enemies shall be put to death.
And no man in the army is to eat his own son. Being wearied from battle, had already fought Philistines, reached down with his little staff, and he scoops up a little bit of honey. He licks it. The sugar in the honey brightens his eyes, and buddy, he is ready to kill Philistines.
Saul finds out. Saul said, you broke the vow. I'm going to kill you. Imagine telling that to your son. He had no idea about this vow. The people then come and intercede for Jonathan's behalf and say, Saul, this man fought for the Lord.
You will not put him to death this day. People stood in his stead. Two strikes. That brings us to chapter 15. Let's read the text. I'm going to read the whole chapter, so I'm not asking you to stand up because it is rather lengthy.
Chapter 15, verse 1, it says,. And then Samuel said to Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over his people, over Israel. Now, therefore, listen to the voice of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming out from Egypt.
Now go, strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has. And do not spare him. And you put to death both man and woman, child and suckling infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey. Then Saul summoned the people and numbered them at Tileon.
200 ,000 foot soldiers, 10 ,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and he set an ambush in the valley. And Saul said to the Canaanites, Go depart and go down from among the Amalekites that I do not destroy you with them.
For you showed kindness to all the sons of Israel when they came out from the land of Egypt. So the Canaanites departed from among the Amalekites. So Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive. And he utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings of the lambs.
And all that was good. And they were not willing to destroy them all. But everything that was despised and worthless, they utterly destroyed. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I regret that I have made Saul king.
For he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commandments. Saul was distressed and he cried out to the Lord all night. And Samuel arose in the morning to meet Saul and was told Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he has set up a monument for himself.
And then he turned and proceeded down to Gilgal. So Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord. But Samuel said, What then is the bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen, which I hear?
Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord. But the rest have been utterly destroyed. And then Samuel said to Saul, Stop.
And let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. The Lord said to me last night and he said, Speak. Samuel said, Is it not true that you were little in your own eyes when you were made the heads of the tribes of Israel and that the Lord anointed you king over Israel and that the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they are completely exterminated.
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? But you rushed upon the spoil and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Then Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord. And I went on the mission which he sent me.
And I went and I brought back Agag, the king of the Amalekites, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took some of the spoil, the sheep, the oxen, and the choice of those things that were devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord, your God at Gilgal.
Samuel said, Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice unto he than the fat of rams. For rebellion is that of the sin of divination, and insubordination is that of iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the voice of the Lord, he has now rejected you as king. Then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned. I have indeed transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I have feared the people and I listened to their voice.
Now, therefore, please pardon me I sin, return with me that I may worship the Lord. But Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has now rejected you as being king over Israel.
And Samuel turned to go, and Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. So Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, just as he will give it to your neighbor who is better than you.
And also the glory of Israel will not lie nor change his mind, for he is not a man that he should change his mind. Then he said, I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and go back with me that I may worship the Lord your God.
So Samuel went back following Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord. Then Samuel said, Bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came cheerfully to him, and Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
But Saul said, As your sword has made women and childless, so will your mother be childless among all women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went back to his home in Gibeah.
Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, and Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. Most gracious heavenly Father, what a weighty text.
Father, as I once again stand before your people to explain your word, to proclaim your truth, Father, I pray that your servant would do it within the power of your spirit. Father, I pray that for the sinner in here that does not know you, that Father, the very wrath of God that's displayed in this passage would shake them in their shoes.
Father, I pray that today would be this day of salvation for the person in this room that does not know you, and Father, for the believer that's in this room, I pray that today this would encourage the believer to hear the voice of God and to listen and follow the voice of God.
Father, right now, fill me with the power of your spirit. I would preach as a dying man to dying people. In Christ's name, amen. Samuel was sent to Saul and he gave him clear instructions of what he was to do.
There is no ambiguity in chapter 15 verse 1 what Saul's job was to do. It says, then Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to appoint you king over his people. And that is true. He sent Samuel. He poured that flask over his head outside of a city, anointing him king.
And at that time, if you remember as the narrative is unfolding, Saul felt completely, I should not do this. I am not worthy to be in this place. I'm not worthy to be the leaders of Israel. There was a man of humility at that point.
He says, and when I sent you and anointed you as king over Israel, but now listen to the voice of the Lord. So now there is a new command coming. That new command is this. Thus says the Lord of hosts.
I want you to punish Amalek. Everybody remember who the Amalekites were. If you go back to Exodus chapter 17, as they were coming through, they had already come through the Dead Sea. I mean, the Red Sea, they had already come through the Red Sea, the parting over there on the other side, they're coming through the Valley of Rephidim.
And as they're coming through the Valley of Rephidim, you had the Amalekites come up behind the women, the children, the elderly and the stragglers, and they begin to brutally murder them. And it's at that point that Joshua goes out to fight.
And that the Lord was giving them the victory as long as Moses was holding up his hands. And as Moses began to get tired, as anyone else would after fighting all day, you remember what happened? Aaron and Ur came up beside them, and he held up his hands until the Amalekites were beaten.
Well, as they left that, there was a statute given. There was a statute given that for what the Amalekites had done to my people, they will be utterly destroyed. Everybody know who the Amalekites were?
The Amalekites were the descendant of Esau. And if you go back to Genesis 36, this is why reading all those funny names and all those genealogies is important because Amalek was the grandson of Esau. And that's also how I date the book of Job.
Because if you know, when you get to the book of Job, Eliphaz was a Temanite. And you know who the Temanites came from? They were a descendant of Eliphaz, who was also a descendant of Amalek. So that puts the book of Job, just for those that want to know, sometime between Esau and Moses, sometime in there.
But they were descendants of those outside the covenant. But as they came out, they were supposed to show kindness. Remember, this is still their brethren. And even the Edomites, although cursed by God, what did God tell the people of God?
You be nice to your brother, the Edomites. But when they continually persecuted the people of God, God says, just like he did the Amalekites, he'll do with the Edomites, I'm going to wipe them out. So this is roughly 500 years later.
God had every right at the time they came to the Valley of Rephidim to kill every one of them, but God did not. He said, there's coming a time when you're in the land, and you can read this in Deuteronomy chapter 25.
This is Moses' swan song, his last preaching message to the people of God, that when you come into the land and God gives you peace, I'm going to send you in and you're going to wipe out the Amalekites.
The time has come. Saul knew this. Saul knew at some point, God was going to raise someone up to go out and be vengeful for what they did for the brutal murder of the elderly, the stragglers, the children, and the women.
And it's time. He said, I will punish Amalek for what he did and how he set himself against you when you came out of Egypt. He says, now go and strike Amalek. Utterly destroyed. The word in Hebrew here is korim, and it means to offer up as an offering of destruction.
You remember when they crossed the Jordan and they went into Jericho? He said, everything in Jericho, wipe out. Except for the gold, the stuff, they would put that in the treasury. But everything was offered as an offering of destruction.
But you had one guy who screwed up, remember? He hid the little golden idol up under his tent. His family were complicit. They knew it was there because it was under the floor. And then when finding out what happened because of the defeat in Ai, what did they do to him?
They took him outside the camp and they put a memorial of stones on top of him and his family and everything that they owned. He says, utterly destroy everything in there. And then he gives clear instructions on how to do this.
He didn't just say, hey, I want you to go in there. I just want you to just fight them until they're done fighting. No, no, no. Listen to what he says. Utterly destroy them and do not spare him. Put to death, man, woman, child, suckling infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey.
You're going to go in there and it's going to be scorched earth, nothing. That means as you come in there, men, and I sent you in there, you see a suckling baby, suckling on its mother's breast. You take your sword and you run it through the both of them.
That's what it says. So what did Saul do? Saul said, I'm your man. Verse four, Saul summoned the people. He numbered them at Tehillim. He had 200 ,000 foot soldiers, 10 ,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and he set an ambush in the valley.
But Saul said to the Canaanites, go depart, get away from the Amalekites that you not get wrapped up in this destruction. Now, who are the Canaanites? Well, everybody remembers Jethro, don't you? Not Jethro Bodine in front of Beverly Hillbillies.
But Jethro, that was Zipporah's father, which was Moses' wife. That's Moses' father-in-law. And if you remember correctly, as they came out from Rephidim, they needed water. He struck the rock. Then they moved on and they got to Jethro.
Jethro was the one that says, hey buddy, you're gonna need some help dealing with all these disobedient people. And they set up some elders to help. That was because of Jethro showed them kindness. And we know that Jethro was a Canaanite because of Judges chapter one.
You wanna write it down and go read it, you can see it, he is a Canaanite. So he says, you showed kindness to us. God remember, look here, 500 years later, God remembered what those men did to them in anger and in violence, hurting his people.
But he also remembers those who showed kindness. And he says, what I want you to do is I want you to get out of the way because we don't want you to get wrapped up in this mayhem of destruction. So he said, depart from the Amalekites in verse seven.
So Saul defeated the Amalekites. From Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. That's in, if you had a map, it's the Amalekites come down to the bottom. It's basically the Negev Desert, just on the other side where the Mesopotamia and the Egypt border is.
He captured Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive. That should be a red flag. Agag, captured alive. But he uttered and destroyed all the people by the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag.
One, soon as they got into the city of Amalek, who was the first person they should have decapitated? The king. The king falls, then you can start killing people like ducks in a bucket. They spared them.
And it says they spared the sheep, the ox, the fatlings, the lambs, and it clears everything up so there's no confusion on what they saved. All that was good. I just want you to think about the mechanics of how that worked out.
So they capture Agag. Now they got to weed through all these sheep and ox to figure out which ones are good or bad. Look, when they look through these animals, they could not have a broke tooth, could not have a broke toenail, could not have spots on their gums, the sheep and the ox and all that because these could be offered up as sacrifices at the tabernacle for offering that had to be without blemish.
So you understand that this is a very timely thing to do when we're trying to slaughter everybody. And just to let you know, because of this thing right here, 15 years later, Davids' wives would be kidnapped by the Amalekites.
Fast forward another 600 years. Haman would be trying to kill all the Jews in the Persian Empire because Haman was an Agagite. And because Saul didn't do what Saul was supposed to do here, God's people were in danger twice.
Once at Ziklag, 600 years later, under the Persian Empire with Queen Esther. And they utterly destroyed it. Everything that was worthless. That's not what God told him to do. The voice of the Lord said this, you go in there and you kill everything.
God says, it's all mine. I want it all destroyed. He's the one that makes the decisions on how he wants it done. You're a soldier. You're to do what God tells you to do. You're like this. That's what he should have done.
But Saul always thinks he knows better. He thought he knew better when he didn't wait for Samuel. He thought he knew better when making a stupid vow that almost got him to kill his own son. In verse 10, there's a break into what's going on and it shifts from where Saul was at to now where Samuel is at.
It says, and the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying, I regret that I have made Saul king. Now, I want to answer the regret part. The word for regret in Hebrew can mean repent, regrief, sorrow, okay?
So let's just, this is how you have to do theology. Did God make a mistake by putting Saul in power? Thank you. God makes no mistakes. Who made the mistake? Saul did. By not listening to the voice of the Lord, he listened to his own voice and when we get to it, he listened to the voices of the sheep and the oxes.
He did not listen to the voice of the Lord. Therefore, when he came and he was disobedient, three strikes and he's out. Let's just be honest. He didn't do what God told him to do and when he is experiencing that which is sorrowful when God's people sin.
Let's go back to when Noah and the ark. It said that God regretted he had made man. Well, wait a minute. God didn't make a mistake. God was saying, look, in how the unfolding of my redemption when men begin to become so evil, it grieved him.
Hey, there is a concept that God does not have emotion. I'm going to tell you right now, those men and they're godly men that they're wrong. Read through the scripture. It even at times, Jesus, when he told the rich young ruler to go, it says he had compassion on him.
Why did he feed the 5 ,000? Because he had compassion. Did Jesus not shed tears and not feel sorrow in front of the tomb at Lazarus? Because Jesus is going to be reacting any different than his father.
Why does it say grieve not the Holy Spirit? It's because God does, and look, I'll make it very clear, undergo emotional experience that originate within him, not us acting on him. Let me explain that.
In the decree of God, God decreed that men would become so evil that he would have to destroy them with the flood. And in time and space, as that unfolded, that grieved God. Understand? Okay. Nothing you and me can do is external force on God that didn't originate from his decree.
It all originates from him. And as it unfolds, this anthropomorphic idea, but anthropomorphic, okay, is being brought out to show that God is grieved when people don't obey his voice. It's very clear.
He said, I regret that I have made Saul king. And he tells why. For he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands. Actually, some translations say words, some say voice. I prefer the word voice.
All through the book of Samuel, it's hearing voices. Hearing voices. Which voice are you going to obey? Are you going to obey your own or are you going to obey God's? And he said here, Samuel in verse 12, that Samuel rose up.
I'm going to back up. He said, and Samuel was also distressed and cried out to the Lord all night. You know how grieved Samuel had already been at this point? He was disappointed. What was Samuel? He was the mouthpiece of God, not only to the people, but to the king.
And in many ways, the prophet priest had at times more weight than the king because the king was supposed to listen to the voice of God. And where did that come from? It came through the prophets. Remember the prophet spoke for God to the people and the priest spoke to God for the people.
And in many ways, Samuel fulfilled both of those because he is working as prophet and priest. In verse 12, it says, Samuel rose up early in the morning to meet Saul. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to count Carmel and behold, he had set up a monument for himself.
Then go, I'm sorry, then turned and proceeded down to Gilgal. So if you were taking where this would have originated in Gibeah, which would have been up here in Israel, they made their way all the way down.
Hey, 120 mile trek to Amalek. Halfway on his way back at Carmel, 60 miles away, he decided he's going to set up a monument to who? To who? Who? Himself. Hmm. Thought this man was little in his own eyes at one time.
I thought this man was humbled. So what does he do? He sets up a monument, says, look what I've done. Look at Agag. I got him. Look at, you know why they captured him in the ancient days? They didn't kill the kings.
You know why? Because they wanted to make sport of them. I mean, they used to put hooks through their jaw bones and drag them around like animals. Even Ashurbanipal, ruthless, probably the most ruthless Assyrian king ever.
He would put hooks through their jaw bones or through their eye socket, like your bone here, through your eye sockets, and hook them in and then put them in cages inside of his palace. He was ruthless.
He was also the ones that created the cleats that had the spikes on it. So when they said they were going to stomp them on like mud in the street, that's exactly what they were for, for stomping their flesh to where the blood came through their feet.
Well, he makes a monument for himself. Now, on a normal trek, they could usually go about 30 miles a day, a group of men, small terrain not being real bad. So let's just say it took them four days to get there.
How long do you think it's going to take him to get back with all these sheep and cows and all the stuff they're trying to herd and all that? It's going to take a little bit longer. So halfway home, he decides he's going to set up a monument for himself, doesn't even recognize that this was a command of God to go out and do.
And we'll get to that here in just a minute. And it says in verse 13 that Samuel came to Saul and as he was coming to Saul, he'll listen to what Saul says, blessed are you of the Lord. He's like, that's like when a kid knows they've done something wrong.
And they see mom and dad pulled in the driveway. Hey, mama. Hey, dad. This is it. It's Paul Brack King trying to cut it off. Maybe if I cut him off here, he won't hear all of that in the background. Maybe if I get him here and tell him that I've done what I was supposed to do, maybe he'll go on back to Rama before he sees what the larger caravan behind us.
And he says, verse 14, but Samuel said, what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Each translation may something different than bleeding or lowing, but the word that's used there is the word for voice.
It's the same word that's used earlier in this chapter that says he did not listen to the voice of the Lord. Then it says he'll listen to the voice of the people. Well, here it's actually what are the voices of the sheep in my ear and the voices of the oxen that I hear.
And listen to Saul's response. He knows he's busted. Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites. Look at this coward. Monument builder. Look at me. Look at me. Look what I did. But then when he's called on the carpet about, hey, why am I hearing sheep and oxen?
Oh, they did it. They did it. Blame shifting. They have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice. Listen to this. To your God. Wait a minute.
Saul, that's your God. Words have meanings here. Why didn't he? Hey, if you could just white out that why in there. This is your God. Why didn't he say our God? I'm going to tell you why. Because Saul don't care about God.
Saul cares about himself. Saul has always cared about himself since he became king. Look, there was a little while when Saul was like, yeah, you know, I'm a king and God's put me here. But it wasn't long that he then got into the idea of, hey, man, I'm the man.
What I say do, he goes and does it. What I want someone to do, they go and do it. And what did Samuel tell them earlier in the book? I think it's around chapter 11 or 12, somewhere in that area, when he gives his speech of his farewell speech to the people that I'm not going to be really your leader.
You now have a king. You're supposed to obey him. And he actually says, if you listen to the voice of the Lord, you and your king will be well. He tells the people, listen to the voice of the Lord. You and your king will be well.
And if your king listens to the voice of the Lord, that's go back and read it. That's the words that are used. It will be good for you. Well, there comes a time when Saul's like, you know what, man, I don't need those voices.
I am the voice. Who's going to tell the king what to do? Hey, and if those people really, let's just say, let's give for just a second, give Saul the benefit of the doubt that they did save those without him.
What should Saul have done when he walks up and he sees that they had saved those sheep and those oxen and that they had saved Agag? What was the first thing he should have done? He should have looked like the gladiator, killing everything in sight.
But that's not what he did. He blames it on them. He said they have spared the best of the sheep and the oxen and sacrificed to your God. But the rest we have utterly destroyed. Hey, utterly destroyed appears in this text nine times.
I think it's very clear what's supposed to take place. Nine times. You know how many times the voice that they hear is listed? Nine times. Nine times it's told utterly destroyed. Nine times voices is used.
And which one is he supposed to listen to? He was supposed to listen to the voice of the Lord. It says in verse 16, and then Samuel said to Saul, wait. Translation, other translations say, stop and let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.
It's like when your kid comes up, he's trying to plead the case and you're just like zip it. I know what happened here. You don't need to try to plead your case. You're at fault, zip it. And that's what the prophet tells him.
He says, let me tell you what the Lord spoke to me. Speak. That's all Saul can say. Speak. And here's what Samuel said. Is it not true though you were little in your own eyes, you were made with the heads of the tribes of Israel?
That is so true. He should have answered yes. Though when I talk through the book of Samuel, some of you know that there is an idea and interpretation that somehow Saul was hiding in the baggage because he was a coward.
That is not my position. You don't do exegesis by, as you're reading through the whole narrative, you exegete it like this. You read the whole thing and then you take the whole narrative and then you start piecing together, how did Saul see himself?
And even at the beginning, when he was out looking for his dad's donkeys, had been gone, what, for three days, when he was told to go meet the seer and when he met the seer, which was Samuel, and Samuel says, hey man, I've got to tell you something.
God has said to anoint you as king. He recoiled and says, man, I can't do that. One, the Midianites were the smallest of all the tribes. They were the smallest. He says, I can't do that. He says, no, no, but this is what you want done.
Matter of fact, why don't you come in and eat? And they just, remember they made a big meal for him. He got the big fat piece of meat and he was really being almost like a coronation dinner. And then when he leaves, he goes outside the city.
He says, send your servants on. I don't want your servants to see what I'm fixing to do so they don't go back and say anything until I'm back and can tell the rest of the people. And then he poured that flask over his head and he says, man, he basically says, I'm not worthy.
We've come a long way, Saul. You were little in your own eyes, although you were head and shoulders above everybody else. You were little in your own eyes. You were humbled, Saul. And he says, and the Lord anointed you to be the king over Israel.
And then he sent you on a mission. And then he tells him exactly what he was supposed to do. He says, I told you this a few days ago. I told you, you were supposed to go and utterly destroy the Amalekites, the sinners.
You were to fight against them until they were exterminated. Let's just be honest. If you've hired an exterminator to come squirt bugs at your house and you wake up in the morning and there's roaches rolling around in the kitchen, did they exterminate them?
All right, snorted. I ain't gonna do it again. I can't even do it right. You ain't got me snorting now. So you hear this blowing and snorting and bleeding of these animals in the background. They weren't exterminated.
Imagine Samuel's heart at this point. Samuel has faithfully preached the word of the people until they rejected God as their king. And they wanted this guy that was gonna be just like all the others. And he has turned out just as Samuel said when he gave them the instructions.
You want a king? Well, here's what the king's gonna do. He ain't gonna do what God tells him to do. He's gonna take your girls. He's gonna make them bakers. He's gonna take your vines and give them to his people.
He's gonna take your sons and put them into service to go fight his wars. He's gonna take your horses. He's gonna take your chariots. He's gonna take your vineyards. He's gonna take, take, take, take, take.
And now he's standing before Saul and he's going, God's word has been faithful. He's done exactly what he said he was gonna do, which is be disobedient. He says in verse 19, why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?
That's an easy question to answer. Even for you and I. When we know what God tells us to do and he who knows to do good and does it not, it is sin. Why do we not listen to the voice of the Lord? Because we don't want to.
Let's just be honest. Hey man, this punches me in the gut. I'm preaching to me. I could stand right down there right now and say, ouch. Ain't nobody in this room obeyed God perfectly. But you know, God's demand is that we do.
We are to obey him perfectly. That's the goal. But when we go, God, I can't, what we do is we point to Christ and go, but God, your son did it in my place. Therefore, because I know that I have an inability, that I know that I'm bent towards sin, God, you gave me a new heart, but you didn't give me a perfect heart.
So will you just, I'm going to keep trusting in him. I'll keep trusting in the one who was perfect. I'll keep trusting in him. But we know why we don't obey because we don't want to. No different if a man walked in here right now and he put a gun to my head and he said, give me your wallet.
I got a choice. I'm either going, all right, I'm going to be a coward and give him my wallet or we're going to fight and my brains might be on the floor. I got a choice and I'm going to do at that moment whatever I want to do and I have to weigh at that point, is giving him my money or my brains on the ground, which one?
And I don't know. So don't come up here and try. I don't know. But I know this, at that point in time, in every moment in a man's life, a man does what a man wants to do. And at this point, Saul did not want to obey the voice of the Lord.
And you know why? Because he looked at all those sheep. He looked at all those oxes. He looked at all this wealth that he could have gotten and have acquired for himself. And he wanted that more than he wanted to have a relationship and an extended loving kindness from God.
You know, because of this right here, it says that God removed his loving kindness from Saul. That's hard to swallow. If God removes his mercy from you, where does that put you when you die? He says, but you rushed upon the spoil and did what was even...
Hey, the word rushed here, thinking maybe the King James, I can't remember King James, New King James, might say pounce, fly. There's a translation that says pounce. And that's actually just means to, you jumped on it.
So if you go back, when he made the foolish vow about the men weren't supposed to eat, if you go back and you read that, when they got the opportunity to eat, they slayed every... There was this great massacre of these animals and they begin to eat the meat with blood in it, which was a violation of the Mosaic law, but Saul had starved his men.
And it's the same word that's used here. They pounced on that meat and begin to eat it in such a way before it had been basically killed kosher. Same thing here. Why did you pounce on it? First of all, you have to ask yourself the question, why did Saul do that when God had given him every...
Hey, what did Saul lack? He was the King. If you had something, not you, but you, you had something that the King wanted, you know what the King could come up with? All right, buddy, I appreciate it. Whatever he wanted, it was the King's.
Why did you rush upon the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And here's what Saul says in verse 20. Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord. Hey, this is a third lie already, okay, of Saul.
I mean, Saul's lying. If Saul's lips are moving, he's lying. Why did you not obey the voice of the Lord? I did obey the voice of the Lord. I went on the mission on which the Lord sent me and I brought back Agag.
Buddy, you just confessed of your own sin right there because he said, I brought back. Were you supposed to bring back Agag? What were you supposed to do with Agag? You should have slayed every one of them and you should have set the place on fire.
And as y 'all got miles and miles away, you should have been able to look back behind us and go praise the Lord. Look what the Lord did for us. But he brought Agag back with him. And I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
But if you back up just a few verses, who did he say brought this stuff back? Whose fault was it? It was the people that did it. And he says here again, but the people took some of the spoil, the sheep and the oxen and the choices of those things that were devoted to destruction.
And here it is again, to sacrifice them to the Lord, your God. Not his God, your God, Samuel. That's your God. I did it my way. And it's your God that we're gonna sacrifice these two. And in verse 22, this is what Samuel says.
This is probably one of the most quoted passages from the book of 1 and 2 Samuel. Has the Lord as much burnt delight and burnt offering and sacrifices? And I do want to tweet, that's normally not how we quote that.
Does God delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice? That's how we say it. That's not what the text says. Because be honest, did God delight in burnt offerings? You better believe he did. Under the Mosaic legislation, what did he do?
Hey, we know under the Mosaic legislation, there was one that had to burn every morning and every night as a sweet aroma to him. And then all those other offerings where there'd be wave offerings and pour out offerings and drink offerings and peace offerings and voluntary offerings of those people.
Hey, God did delight in those as long as it was accompanied with obedience. But now we're getting to something where he says, wait a minute, does God as delight in that as much as he does you being obedient?
Well, no, he wants you obedient. That'd be like me saying, all right, check it out, God. I'm gonna go rob the bank down here so I can put it at all for a plate. And then I want you to forgive me. That's pretty stupid sounding, isn't it?
That's Saul. That's Saul. Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings as he has sacrifice? As in obeying the voice of the Lord. No, he wants you to obey his voice. If his voice says you go out there and you make a sacrifice every morning and evening to me, you go out and you do that.
If he says you go in and you slay every man, woman, boy, girl, infant and suckling baby, you go in there and do it. He says, behold, so to obey is better than sacrifice than to heed than that of the fat of rams.
And then we're gonna get into verse 23 of that which is rebellion. He says, for rebellion is as the sin of divination. What is rebellion? It's direct disobedience to the command or the voice of God. And he says here, it's the same sin of divination.
When Saul became king, he went out through all of the land killing all the diviners, all the mediums, all the necromancers, everybody that would try to call up other spirits to hear other voices. That's what the divinators were.
Matter of fact, when it says here that Samuel didn't see Saul until the day of his death, if you remember what happens at the end of Saul's life, he says, hey, God doesn't speak to Saul anymore. This is it.
Saul has voiced, has silenced the voice of God in his life. This is it. He says, hey man, can you please call up this guy? He wears a robe and she says, hey, you know, remember he's disguised. He says, hey, can you raise up this guy?
His name's Samuel. And she's like, well, you know, Saul, she doesn't know it's Saul. He killed everybody. He says, oh, well, I'll make sure you're okay and blah, blah, blah. Well, when she actually calls up and Samuel's spirit actually comes forward, she's like, ah, you're Saul.
And he tells him, he tells, he says, why didn't you obey? This is what Samuel tells him at the day of his death. Saul, why didn't you obey the voice of the Lord? He says, oh, you know, it's been all these years since way back then.
I've not been able to get God to talk to me. I've been crying out to him and he won't answer. He won't listen. I've gone to the priest and they won't listen. I've used a little, the roll and the dice of the Urim and the Thummim and he won't answer me.
And Samuel said, he ain't going to answer you now either. I'm telling you. Matter of fact, I'm going to be the one that's going to tell you. You're going to die today. And that's what happened to Saul.
He did not obey the voice of the Lord. He silenced it in his life. We see that with other kings being fools. Think about King Herod. He used to like to hear John the Baptist preach. Remember John the Baptist?
Hey man, when John preached, he preached for a verdict. He was not some mamby-pamby, limp-wristed, swivel-hipped preacher. You brood of vipers, who warned you that the wrath was to come? Don't you know that the ax is laid at the root?
That's John the Baptist. And then he called him out here and about sleeping with his brother's wife. And he put him in jail. Everybody remember that? And then Herodians had his daughter come and do a little dance.
She did a little sensual dance. Got that old guy's blood turning. Got his crank moving. And he said, I'll give you anything up to half the kingdom. And what did she say? You give a stripper a proposition, you're going to get a stripper answer.
She says, I want John the Baptist's head on a platter. And what did he do? Fear of man, he went and he had John the Baptist beheaded. And he silenced the voice of God in his life forever. Matter of fact, we know that because when Jesus goes before him, on the night in which Jesus, before he was crucified, Jesus stands in front of him.
He wants Jesus to do a trick, do a magic trick. He just wants Jesus to answer something. And what did the son of God do? You had your chance. You silenced the voice of God. So don't look at when he beheaded John the Baptist, just murdering a prophet.
No, no, no, no, no. He silenced the voice of God in his life. Same here with King Saul. He has now disobeyed God and it is over. It's done. God ain't gonna speak to you no more. You had your opportunity.
You had the constant prompting of God through the prophet. You would not listen. You wanted your own way. Now you got it. He can sing, I did it my way. Yeah, go ahead. That's what you want. Now you got it.
He says, insubordination is that of iniquity and idolatry. Insubordination is the idea of unwillingness. And if you go back in the passage, it says they were unwilling. Hey, before you and I come to faith in Christ, is there a willingness to follow God?
No, we have an inability. We cannot do what God requires. That's why the power of the spirit needs to come, regenerate us, give us the gift of faith. Then we give us the gift of repentance. And then we now have the ability to obey because that unwillingness has been gone, is now gone.
And we can obey. The problem is we don't. We can no longer say we can't. We can say I can. And it says it also is that of iniquity. Well, what's iniquity? Iniquity is that which is down into our very being of who we are.
We are bent towards sin. You look, think about of iniquity, sin, trespass, transgression. Sometimes they're used interchangeably. Difference between the transgression, between a sin and a trespass is sin is missing the mark.
Like, sorry, Brian, but if you had a bullseye on your forehead right now, and I let it go with an arrow, I fall short. I missed the mark. Well, what's a trespass? Trespass is when Mike puts up a fence at his house and I go, I don't care about his fence.
And I go right through the fence. I've gone too far. So one's missing the mark. The other one's going too far. But all of them are a violation of the law under the command of God. And the iniquity is that which is made up of who and what we are, which is our propensity and bent towards doing evil.
And he says, you have rejected the voice of the Lord and now God has rejected you as being king. Verse 24, and then Saul said to Samuel, listen to this. This is still clothed with pride. Listen. And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned.
I have indeed transgressed the Lord and your words and I have feared the people and listened to their voice. One, I don't believe what he is saying here is he really feared the people because the king didn't fear anybody.
He is masking this as I feared them. I did this. I did that. Now I do want to say the fear of man is a snare. It is. You fear men. You will not stand to be a good witness for God because the fear of man is a snare.
What's the greatest thing to overcome the fear of man? It's the power of the Holy Spirit living in the life of the believer. And I'm not saying everybody needs to stand on a corner and proclaim, preach and herald the word as a stoplight.
Although if you want to do that, I'm good with that. I'm fine with that. Tell me when you go and then we'll go. But it should give you enough, no fear of man that you can at least proclaim the gospel where you go, as you go, in the market, with the kids playing, at your job.
Fear of man is a snare. And he said he listened to their voice. Once again, these voices he's hearing ain't the right one. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord.
Do you hear what he's asking him to do? He's asking him, okay, what I want you to do is I want you to pardon me so that then I can go worship. Buddy, you had your opportunity to worship. Your opportunity to worship was 120 miles away when you're supposed to slay everything in God's path and you failed to do so.
So now you want to do something where the people can see. And we'll see that here in just a second. And here's what he says, Saul, Samuel says to Saul, I will not return with you for you have rejected the voice of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you as being king over Israel.
He says, look, I will not do what you're asking me to do. God has rejected you. And as in rejecting you, I'm now going another direction. And what we do know in the next chapter, that other direction is going to Jesse's house to go then and look for a shepherd boy who they said was not sufficient to be a king.
And then they go, hey, don't you have, it's just all these guys that have come by. These can't be the right one. You don't, you got another, you got another son. He's like, oh yeah, he's a little rug rat, little ruddy thing.
He's out there, you know, tending sheep. Go get him, go get him. And that winds up being David. He says in verse 27, as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe and tore it. In chapter two, Samuel is remembered by this robe, this thing that he wore.
You know, under the Mosaic legislation, they were to wear a robe. They were to wear a robe. It was called the tallit. And on the tallit, you had the tzitzit. Man, that's a bunch of Ts. Tallit and tzitzit.
It was the little fringes on the bottom. And those fringes stood for something. Those fringes at that hymn stood for something as the supplicating prayers of the people of God to God. That's what it stood for.
So you had taken a time when you had Jesus going in and out of those cities. And there's some times where it says that one of the ladies, if I could just reach and touch the hem of his garment. Don't think of it just as in, oh, if I could just, it was an act of supplication.
What she was saying was, I don't need to actually speak to him. Me just making that request by touching his hem, he would heal me. Anyway, what happened to her? She was healed. And there's another passage.
I think it's in Matthew where he's going through the city and it says all who touched the hem of his garment were healed. I think it's in Matthew. All of them touched it. So when we see it here, I don't want you to think at this moment that this has been a heated, violent exchange between Saul and Samuel.
This is a brokenhearted prophet to a king who knows he's done wrong, but really don't care. He just wants to be repositioned. And as Samuel goes to walk away to head back to Ramah, he reaches out as a supplication to grab his garment.
And in the providence of God, what happens to that garment? It's torn. And immediately the prophet of God uses it as a metaphor. As you reached out to ask for one more supplication, your supplication's no good because just as you tore this garment, God has now torn the kingdom from you and will give it to another.
Don't think as he reached out to grab this 80, 90 year old prophet to spin him around saying, what are you doing? He'd probably knock him off his walker. No, I'm just kidding. He just reached out as an act of supplication to his prayer shawl.
I want to request. Samuel says no. And then in verse 29 says something that seems like would be contrary to what he said earlier in the book, in the chapter it says, and also the glory of Israel will not lie or change his mind.
Wait a minute. He just said he regretted right here. Will you have an affirmation of the tearing of the metaphor of the garment? And he says, just as this garment has been torn, so your kingdom has, there's no going back.
God has settled his mind with you. Just as that garment has been torn, so's God's minds made up with your kingdom. And then in verse 30, he says, I have sinned. Once again, listen to what he's last for.
And we're coming to an end here shortly. We've got another hour. I'm just kidding. He says, I have sinned, but please, come on, Samuel, honor me. Honor me before the elders and the people. Come on. I mean, we see this all the time.
We see it on TV. We see it with politicians. We see it with sports players. They get caught in some crazy sin, go around there, mess around on their wife, get caught in adultery. They're going to pull their sponsorships, and they come out.
They boo-hoo. And then they say, okay, just put me back. Just put me back. Let me tell you something. If I ever violated the monogamous relationship with my wife, you would never see me stand in a pulpit again.
Never, ever. These men that do that, they just want to bust them in the mouth. God forgive me. They should never stand in that pulpit. One, they should be able to say, you know what? I got too much baggage at this point.
I should probably sit. I remember as a kid, seeing some of y 'all may remember, Jimmy Swagger, ball on TV after meeting with some hookers. And do you ever remember what happened to that whole situation?
His church put him under discipline. He said, I will not be under discipline. He went and started his own church, another. It's like, dude, they were even willing to put him back in his position after a time of examination.
They showed grace, more grace than I would have shown, okay? And he said, no, I'm gonna go do my thing. He was not willing to step back. Here's what he's saying is, hey, I know I've done wrong. I know that you're pulling your sponsorship from me, Samuel, because you say you're done with me.
But hey, just one last time, can we just walk in arm in arm together, showing, hey man, you're still my buddy and you still got my ear. And verse 31, so Samuel went back following Saul and Saul worshipped the Lord.
I have no idea why Samuel did that. And you don't either. We can speculate. We can say, well, maybe he was trying to save face. Maybe he was trying to just kind of keep things on the down low until the new king comes along.
We don't know. We know what Samuel did say. God's done with you. He's done with your kingdom. And technically speaking, whether Samuel walks in with Saul or not, it's over because God's not changing his mind.
And then verse 32, then Samuel said, bring me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. How bad he did. I mean, come on. How many days has it been now, Lee? Would say four days.
Surely me just says it. Surely the sting of death or whatever, the desire to kill me, basically. Yeah, the bitterness of death has passed. Surely. I mean, look at all these bleeding sheep. Look at all these sheep and these donkeys.
Come on. And one of the most brutal pictures and one of the saddest chapters of all the Bible takes place. Hamas says this. As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.
And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. I want you to get a grasp of what just took place. This is a man in his 80s and 90s. He reaches out, grabs his sword. He didn't plunge it into the man's heart and him drop to the ground as a garment and bleed out.
He didn't make one swing of it and decapitate him. He took that sword and he cut off his arms, his legs. He cut his head from his torso and he split his torso into pieces. Has anybody ever here chopped a piece of wood?
This is what Samuel did to the man that was responsible for killing probably hundreds of women and children. His tribe. And when we think of that, we go, that seems so violent. Yeah, hacking somebody to pieces is violent, but it was done as an act of worship before God.
He carried out what Saul was unwilling to do and God says, I will take care of it and I'll use my prophet and he hacked him into pieces. One, God was right in doing so. And I don't want you to think for one second, and we'll close here in a minute.
I don't want you to think for one second that this somehow promotes ethnic cleansing or genocide, okay? The Amalekites got what they got as a judgment of God for killing women and children. They came up from behind and they attacked the people of God unprovoked and God says, because that's what you've done, I'm going to wipe you out.
And God gave them 500 years to repent of that. There's 613 commands and prohibitions under the Jewish law. The last 611, 612, and 613 deal with the Amalekites. You remember what they did to you when you came out of Egypt?
You don't forget what they did? And the last one, number 613 says, you utterly wipe them out. God will keep his word. 500 years later. 500 years later, God kept his word. It says in verse 34 that Samuel then went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.
Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. For Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. We see the last little bit of that verse. We see Samuel and God in communion and in agreement with one or both of them grieving over a man whose doom was sealed.
Because he did not obey the voice of the Lord. I ask you today, first, let me deal with the unbeliever. Because they're here. Don't think everybody in this room is a believer. Don't think because you came here today and you raised your hands and you walked down here and you put some money in the plate that somehow you're a Christian.
You're not a Christian unless you've bent the knee and you've placed your faith in Christ and him alone for forgiveness. That's hearing the voice of God and responding positively to it. Agag and the Amalekites pale in comparison to eternal judgment.
That's a bloody scene. That's a rough scene. Why don't we have children's books like when they did the flood? Bodies floating all over the water instead of some goofy giraffe head sticking out of the ark.
Why are their bodies floating in the water? Why don't you read a children's book and you see an 80-year-old man chopping a man to pieces with pictures back at the Amalekite land with bodies and pieces everywhere.
Why not? That's the truth of God's Word and those are only pictures of what God will do to those who do not hear his voice. It says here in the book of Hebrews, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart as they did in the day of the provocation.
And what does he go on to say? Because they did not hear his voice. He said, I swore in my wrath you will not enter the kingdom. What does that tell you about all those people who wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years?
They died in unbelief. So if you're here today and you have not placed faith in Christ and him alone for forgiveness, oh, the hell that awaits for you is horribly exponentially worse than what happened to Amalek.
And if you're a believer here today, this should encourage you to hear God's voice. How many of us know what God requires of us? Everybody in here should raise your hand. It's right here. We know what's required of us.
We know what God says do. Said it earlier, he who knows to do good and does it not to him it is sin. Don't leave here saying, oh, Mike's a legalist. He thinks that you should obey. If we don't obey God perfectly, we won't enter the kingdom.
I'm not saying that. That's why I don't obey him perfectly. That's why I trusted in the one who did. But that does not mean that I don't pursue holiness for without it, no man will see God. That's what Andy taught for four weeks on Wednesday night.
Pursue holiness. So I ask you today, believer, are you pursuing holiness? Do you pursue God? Are you pursuing the voices of this world? The things that give you no substance in life. Look, man, gifts are good.
Money helps life go easier. Ecclesiastes. Anybody remember Ecclesiastes? Money is the answer of all things. But all right. Money that gives us a gift from God to be enjoyed in this life. But you don't worship the gift.
You worship the God who gave it to you. This is a good time for you to prepare your hearts for the table. Our men will be coming forward here in a minute because I'm shutting up and they're going to come forward and they're going to fence the table.
If you're here today and your heart's not right with the son of the living God, today is the day of salvation. If you're here today and your heart's not right with God and you're a believer, why? What are you waiting for?
What are you waiting for? You're waiting for lights to flash in the sky. You're waiting for God to float down here and hand you some answers to something that you'll never have the answers for. Trust in his son.
Lean out on your own understanding and all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will direct your path. Father God, we thank you for your word. Father, we thank you for this very sad but brutal chapter. Father, thank you for Samuel.
Thank you for his faithfulness to follow you. Thank you for his faithfulness to continue to be a voice to the people of God when they wanted to go their own way and do their own thing. Father, help us to take this passage, apply it to our life.
Father, to hear the voice of you, to obey it, and to block out the voices of those things around us that desire to pull our hearts away from you. Father, we are prone to wander, prone to leave the one we love.
So Father, forgive us where we have failed you. Equip us to follow you and serve you more. In Christ's name, amen.