Daily Devotional for Tuesday 31st October
Cleaning up after Saul
What Samuel does next is do what Saul should have done, what God told him to do. In the beginning of chapter 15, God instructs King Saul to take his army and go defeat the Amalekites, who had set themselves against the people of Israel historically and incurred God’s judgement (Deut. 25:19). God tells Saul to kill all the people and animals – everything living.
Saul defeated the Amalekites and killed all the people and only some of the animals, but for some reason spared the King of the Amalekites, Agag, and kept him alive as a prisoner (v.9). Saul and the people also kept the best of the animals. V.9 says, “they were not willing to destroy them utterly”. They let greed get in the way and kept the best of the animals. And they did not obey God fully.
In v32 when Samuel has King Agag brought out to him, scripture says Agag came cheerfully because he thought he wasn’t going to be put to death. Samuel takes a sword in his hand and says to him, “As you have made women childless (in Israel), so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal.
Samuel had to do what Saul had not been willing to do, and this was for the LORD. A priest had to do this. It is reminiscent of when Phinehas took up a spear and killed an Israelite man who flagrantly brought a Midianite woman he had taken for wife into the congregation after God had just told the sons of Israel to put aside their Midianite wives who had led them astray to worship foreign gods. It was a deliberate act of rebellion. His death was an act of purging sin and was accounted to Phinehas as an act of zealousness for the glory of the LORD and the LORD’s name (Numbers 25).
The last verse says that Samuel and the LORD grieved over Saul, the choices he made in his life, and the outcome of them. And the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.
Time to reflect…
How zealous are we for the LORD God’s name, for His truth when it is challenged by society or our culture? We may not have to take up a sword or spear like Samuel and Phinehas did, but are we willing to speak God’s truth into situations and stand for Him today? Even if it means losing the goodwill of people around us, something Saul wasn’t willing to do?
Pause to pray…
Father God, make me passionate for Your name and for Your glory. Light a fire in my heart that burns for You, and give me the courage and strength to stand for You and Your truth in this day and age. May my heart be undivided in its love and loyalty to You, for have done everything for me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
