When God anointed Saul to be king of Israel, He did so with the understanding that Saul would follow God’s lead. God knew that anointing a King would be difficult, but anointing a King that was self-absorbed, would doom Israel. Saul had not shown any desire to honor God in his leadership of Israel. So, God sent Samuel to give Saul one last chance to obey God’s leadership and remain Israel’s anointed King. Here was the test–Wipe out the Amalekites–totally and completely. Do not allow anyone or anything to live! Not a hard test, really. Easily measured and easily followed…at least, that is what one would think.
Saul gathered the troops, went to the Amalekites’ lands and began the annihilation. Well, except, he did not kill their king, and he did not kill the good livestock–that would be such a waste after all. In short, Saul did what Saul wanted to do–not what God commanded him to do. There could be no misunderstanding–kill off everything. Saul simply chose not to. Needless to say–Saul chose His own way rather than God’s way. God was not pleased.
Sadly, in our lives, we spend a great deal of time doing most of what God tells us. Still, there are various times when God asks us to trust and follow Him and we choose to either help God out or simply do our own plan. In those times, it is not that we do not understand God’s direction, we simply would rather not obey. Our way seems so much better…Sorry, God does not rule by committee! We have to trust Him and follow His direction. If we will, the Lord will bless us mightily, and direct our path to a purpose-filled and meaningful life. If we try to co-lead, God will simply step back and allow the chaos to ensue. There is a great old hymn, I Surrender All, it is the embodiment of the right choice, “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him; in His presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender ALL!”
Help me, Lord to surrender all!
God Bless You
Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy[a] all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, “Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves[b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
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