Saul's disobedience and punishment.
1 Sam. XV. 22, 23. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in hurnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the
299. J Saul's disobedience and punishment. 191
sin of witchcraft ^ and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
THE sins of God's enemies, and especially of those who ohstruct his people in their way to Canaan, will certainly be punished : God indeed may bear long with them, even so long as to make them tauntingly exclaim, "Where is the promise of his coming?" but he will surely come at last, to their utter confusion and their eternal condemnation.
The Amalekites had very cruelly attacked the Israelites in the wilderness, and without any just occasion. God therefore gave them up to the sword of Joshua, and commanded that his people should in due time inflict upon them far more extensive judg- ments^. The time was now come that their iniquities were full : and therefore God commanded Saul to execute upon them the threatening which had been denounced several hundred years before. This com- mand Saul neglected to execute as he should have done ; and thereby brought upon himself the heavy displeasure of his God. We behold in our text, I. The sin reproved —
It might appear a small thing in Saul to spare Agag and the best of the cattle, when he had been enjoined to destroy all; and his vindication of himself to Samuel has an air of plausibility about it, which might almost reconcile us to this act as not very exceptionable: but Samuel, in the words before us, characterises the conduct of Saul,
1. As rebellion —
[The command which had been given was exceeding plain and strong. The solemnity with which it was given, " Hearken thou," &c. ; the reason assigned for it, " What Amalek did to Israel in the way from Egypt ;" the minuteness to which the order descended, " Go, smite Amalek, and destroy — utterly — all that they have — and spare them not — but slay man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass :" all this shewed that there was no option left him, no discre- tion ; but that the whole was to be executed according to the
^ Deut. XXV. 17 — 19.