Last week, we continued the “Two Kings, Two Thrones”
series examining the differences between Kings Saul and David and how they are
types or pictures of rule by law and rule by grace respectively. In 1 Samuel 15, Saul finally acts in a way
that results in God deciding that it will be time for a new king. As a picture
of law, it shows how the rulership of law had run its course, and that God was
preparing the way for rulership by grace as King David will illustrate.
At the beginning of the chapter, Samuel, the priest,
instructs Saul as to what God wanted him to do. His instructions are very clear:
attack the Amlakites, and completely destroy them. Saul was told not to spare
anything or anyone.
The Amalekites are the people of Amalek, who was the
grandson of Esau. God was exacting justice on them for how they attacked the
Israelites when they had been set free from Egypt
Saul does attack as God commanded, and he utterly defeats
them. Afterward, however, he spares the life of their king, Agag, and the best
of their livestock. The best were spared and the weak and despised were
destroyed. Nothing is despised in and of itself. Someone must choose to despise
something. Law chooses who and what will be acceptable and what will not. An important thing to know about what Saul
did is that it was what the law would have demanded – that the best of the
spoils of battle belonged to God. They would be sarcrificed to worship God for
victory. He was doing what the law would have demanded.
The only problem is that God had given Him specific
instructions NOT to bring those offerings. They belonged to Him, so He could
choose to do something else with them. Law has a hard time hearing the voice of
God. It becomes so dependent on the stone tablets that it cannot hear God’s
voice. I think that Saul may not have even heard what Samuel told him because
it didn’t fit the law.
Living by law is actually a lazy version of Christianity.
Sure, it is work to try and do what you are supposed to do and avoid doing what
you’re not supposed to do, but it never requires you to hear from God on a
daily, hourly, or minute-by-minute basis. That is a shame because He is always
speaking to us. We miss out on His best when we make a habit of just relying on
the rules instead of His voice.
God reveals to Samuel what has happened, and Samuel goes
to confront Saul. When he arrives where Saul should be, he is told that Saul
made a monument to himself and went on to Gilgal. Law living is focused on self-righteousness.
It essentially builds an altar to self. Self-righteousness is all about what
you did and did not do (and what others are doing and not doing). It fails to
appreciate the blood of Jesus. It puts works above His blood. Gilgal is also important. It is where Saul
was anointed, where he was told that his kingdom would not be a dynasty, and
where he is about to be told that God is going to replace him with a better
king (David / grace).
Gilgal is important because of what it represents. In
Joshua 5, God has all the people of Israel
who had been born since Egyptian captivity circumcised at Gilgal before they
enter Canaan . Circumcision is a picture of
partnership with God. It is a reminder that God and man would “produce”
together. Saul was supposed to partner with God to rule the people, but he
becomes more and more about himself and ruling the people himself without
obedience to God. When you read
carefully you find that, throughout this chapter, Saul refers to God as “your
God” and not “my God.” Again, law makes “self” god and rules apart from God’s
direct input.
Saul argues before Samuel that he was obedient – to the
law perhaps, but not God’s voice. Samuel makes the well-known statement that
obedience is better than sacrifice. In its context, this verse seems to mean
exactly the opposite of what it is generally used to beat people over the
head with. The obedience Samuel is talking about is the direct voice of God,
and the sacrifice is what the law had required.
This is how I would paraphrase that verse – Listen to my constant voice
instead of lazily relying on a list of rules to try to please me.
Samuel then tells Saul that one “better than him” will be
chosen king. God is not a respecter of persons. No person is truly better than
another. However, there are things about one person that might be better. David
is going to be better because he lives a life of grace before God. He makes
mistakes and sins (badly), but always runs to God when he sins and he listens
to the daily instruction of God. David will be better than Saul in the same way
that the new covenant is a new and better covenant than the old.
The chapter finishes with Samuel completing the
work Saul failed in. He slays Agag. The King James version actually says he
chopped him into pieces before the Lord. Wow?!?
The last thing it says is that Samuel never visited Saul
again. He grieved for him, but never returned to see him. Remember that Saul is
a type of the law and Samuel is the priest. Jesus is our high priest and the
mediator of this new, better covenant. He does not visit the law any more. He
remembers our sins no more. Praise God!
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/media.php. To learn more about Living Word Ahwatukee,
visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
