Better than Sacrifice - 1 Samuel 14:47-15:23

Imagine a person who gives generously to the church, volunteers for every ministry, and sings loudly in worship—but at home, they neglect their family, harbor secret sin, and refuse to submit to God’s Word. From the outside, they seem devoted, but their heart is far from God.

This is exactly what we see in the life of King Saul in 1 Samuel 14:47–15:23. Saul was a man who started with great potential, yet he consistently failed where it mattered most: in obeying God.

And we’re reminded that loving obedience is better than sacrifice. In fact, we learn three things about true obedience: first, true obedience flows from a heart of love (47-52) second, true obedience requires total submission (vv. 1-9), and lastly, true obedience matters more than religious rituals (vv. 10-23).

Last Sunday we looked at Saul’s legalism and trust in rote religious exercises as the avenue to earn favor with God. And this week, something very similar takes place: because in this passage Saul delivered half-hearted, half-way obedience to God. He was commanded to go and destroy the Amalekites, but doesn’t follow through on God’s command.

True obedience flows from a heart of love (14:47-52)

Everything from the previous passage was pretty negative on Saul and the passage that we just read is negative on Saul, but for whatever reason verses 47-52 are positive. It really makes you wonder what’s going on here, doesn’t it?

In verses 47-52 we get Saul’s professional résumé and family history. And the reality is, Saul had an impressive professional résumé. We’re told of all his conquests and that whenever he went against his enemies, “he routed them.”

In the previous chapter Saul defeated the Philistines, and in this passage Saul technically “routed” the Amalekites. If you were to pick up the Monday morning Newspaper in Israel, you might read something like: Saul Defeats the Amalekites and Returns to Israel Victorious! But that wouldn’t tell you the full story would it?

Just because you know something about a person's professional career, or even their family, that doesn’t tell you about that person’s heart.

The Monday morning headline might be Saul Defeats the Amalekites and Returns to Israel Victorious!, but the real story of this passage lies in Saul’s persistent disobedience to God. At the end of the day, that tells you everything! Because obedience to God flows from a heart of love for God. Again, remember what Jesus said, “if you love me you will obey my commandments.”

Saul may have been victorious in battle but he never did it God’s way, he always did it his way.

And so, this résumé passage is quite transitional, because Saul may have had a great résumé but he was ultimately rejected by God. Because God doesn’t care about your résumé does he? He cares about your heart.

True obedience requires total submission (vv. 15:1-9)

And that’s precisely what the rest of this passage does: it exposes Saul’s heart. His true colors are revealed.

Because God told Saul exactly what to do in verse 3. He was supposed to, “... go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

Saul was to destroy absolutely everything in Amalek, which included livestock, women, and children. It was a violent and gruesome task, that sounds incredibly harsh to our modern ears. The commentator Dale Ralph Davis was exactly right when he said, “It sounds horrid because it [was] horrid.” You might read that and think, now I understand Saul’s disobedience. That’s an incredibly tough assignment.

This is one of the benefits or perhaps challenges of preaching through entire books of the Bible: you have to face head on the parts of God’s Word that make us uncomfortable. You can say a lot of things about the Bible but you cannot accuse it of being sanitized. Not every page of the Bible is going to give you warm fuzzies, because there are a lot of challenging passages.

Samuel literally told Saul to, “place them under a herem,” or as it’s often translated, “a ban.” And to place an enemy nation “under a ban” meant to completely destroy them – to destroy all of their property and to execute all of their people. This practice was fairly common in the Ancient Near East – Israel would execute “bans” on enemy nations, and at times nations carried out bans against Israel.

But of course, that doesn’t mean that when Israel was supposed to completely destroy an enemy nation that it was a pernicious, arbitrary command. It’s not like God randomly decided that he hated the Amalekites now and so they needed to be wiped off the face of the earth.

We’re actually told exactly why God wanted Saul to destroy the Amalekites in verse 2: “I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.”

There’s a backstory here to verse 2.

We’re told in Exodus 17, after the people of Israel had fled Egypt and were on their way to Mount Sinai to worship the Lord, Amalek launched a surprise attack on Israel. Moses actually gives us the details of this attack in Deuteronomy 25.

Moses said they “attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.”

I don’t know if you caught it, but it was a particularly dirty attack because the Amalekites attacked those who were lagging behind and therefore, at some point, Israel was going to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven…”

Who do you think would have been lagging behind as the people of Israel made their way towards Mount Sinai? It probably wasn’t the young healthy men who could defend themselves. It would have been the weakest people in Israel. It would have been the sick, the elderly, and probably children. My point is, before you jump to the Amalekites defense, understand that they weren’t a nation full of innocent angels.

But some of you may be thinking, but does that really justify God’s command to devote them to destruction? Saul comes on to the scene like 400 years after Moses. So, it’s not like they're going to destroy the people who committed the evil attack from Exodus 17. They’re going to be attacking their children’s children’s children’s children… They’re not going to be killing the people who were directly responsible for the Exodus 17 attack.

But if you jump down in our text, notice how Samuel referred to the Amalekites in verse 18: “Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.”

He calls them sinners. Now of course, we’re all sinners and we all fall short, but Samuel’s point to Saul is that the Amalekites’ wickedness had not diminished over time, if anything, it had increased. Idol worship and wicked practices like child sacrifice were common among the pagan nations in the Ancient Near East. Simply put, the Amalekites were a wicked, pagan, people, and God had had enough. It was time for his righteous judgment to fall upon the Amalekites and his chosen instrument to carry it out were the people of Israel.

Before any of us climb onto the moral high ground and begin to condemn God and question his love, mercy, and grace, it’s important that we first ask ourselves a more basic question: Do you believe that God has a right to judge sin and evil? Is God allowed to condemn wickedness according to his perfect timeline? The answer is obviously, yes.

And when you really think about the circumstances here God’s graciousness really does shine through: after all, the Amalekites had 400 years to turn from their wickedness and trust in Him.

I can’t help but think about Adam and Eve in the Garden and how God warned them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that on that day they would surely die. But of course, after eating, they didn’t immediately die. They continued to live ultimately displaying the love, grace, and mercy of God.

And what we see here is very similar here. Just as Adam and Eve weren’t immediately struck dead when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil neither were the Amalekites wiped completely off the face of the earth after their unjust attack in Exodus 17. He waited 400 years! God’s grace and mercy is on full display through his patience.

Isn’t that true for each of us? In many ways aren’t our lives evidence of God’s grace, mercy, and patience? None of us would be here if God immediately judged us the moment we sinned. Praise God for his patience and long-suffering! It’s exactly what Paul was talking about when he said, “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” But you cannot ignore, dismiss, and reject Jesus indefinitely, at some point, the clock will run out.

And that’s precisely what’s going on with the Amalekites. Their time had run out and it was time for God’s righteous judgment to fall upon them.

Which is going to happen to the whole world. One day, the Lord will one day judge the whole world and grant eternal life to some and condemn others to everlasting judgment.

So what Saul was instructed to do wasn’t to another run-of-the-mill battle. It wasn’t a phishing expedition to find a pretense for war, rather, it was holy war. It was a theological mission and his obedience was absolutely critical. Not only was his obedience necessary to carry out God’s righteous judgment, but his obedience would have also been a direct reflection of his submission or lack of submission to the Lord.

Obedience is a difficult topic isn’t it? In many Christian circles, the word, “obedience” has essentially been outlawed because it smacks of legalism. People are always afraid if you say obedience that everyone will think that it’s your grounds for justification. That is, if you utter the word obedience then you’re teaching some sort of works’ righteousness.

Obedience doesn’t earn you favor with God, rather, obedience is a response to God’s love.

But again, that’s legalism. Legalism says, ‘you obey to earn God’s love,’ but the gospel says ‘you obey because you have already been loved by God in Christ.’

True obedience matters more than religious rituals (vv. 10-23)

And so that means, a lack of love and trust in Christ is reflected in a lack of obedience to his Word. True love for Christ is demonstrated through willingness to lay everything down for him.

That means Christians are expected to remain faithful to Christ even in the midst of incredibly difficult circumstances. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? We’ve all been in situations where the easy thing to do would be to turn your back on your Savior?

The issue is almost never with understanding God’s Word, the problem is always in our hearts. Isn’t that exactly what we see in our text? Samuel’s instructions to Saul were crystal clear. The question wasn’t whether or not he understood the assignment, the question was, would he do as he was instructed – which is why in verse 1 Samuel told him to “...listen to the words of the Lord.”

He was supposed to devote the Amalekites to destruction. But instead, he rolls back into town with captured king Agag and “the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good.”

And then confidently asserts in verse 13, “I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

It’s like when your child tells you that she cleaned her room but only cleaned about half of it. Stuff is still all over the floor but she rearranged the books on her shelf, and insists that she cleaned her room. It’s halfway obedience.

This is an important lesson for all of us, but especially for the children here this morning that halfway obedience is not obedience at all. Halfway obedience is disobedience. King Saul was supposed to clean his room and only rearranged a few books on his shelf. He defeated the Amalekites which he could add to his professional résumé, but he didn’t do it to the degree God had commanded him. He wasn’t supposed to bring the Amalekite king back or the best of their livestock.

You can see the rub clear as day: because if Saul had destroyed the king and all the livestock – how would he get any praise for victory? How would his wealth and the wealth of Israel increase? If Saul destroyed everything how would he get any recognition?

The things of the world were more important to Saul than honoring God.

And of course, God knew this was the case, which is why he said, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”

It’s unusual language isn’t it? God regrets making Saul King? Is God admitting that he made a mistake? We’re actually going to have to revisit this topic next week because 1 Samuel 15:29 helps us better understand what’s being said here in verse 11.

1 Samuel 15:29 says, “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” So he’s not admitting that he made a mistake.

There’s a big fancy word for what’s going on here called anthropomorphism. Again, I find the commentator Dale Ralph Davis helpful. He says, “anthropomorphism [is] attributing human forms or characteristics to God… [because] sometimes the Bible must use the grammar of humanity to communicate the truth about [the divine]... [so] Scripture stoops to use human categories to tell the truth about a God far beyond all our categories.”

God is using emotive language to help us better understand his character. God didn’t make a mistake when he made Saul king, he always knew he would fail and that David would eventually be king, rather, God is communicating His moral opposition to sin while still maintaining His sovereign plan.

But Saul’s heart is exposed in verses 14-15 when he insists that he fulfilled the command of the Lord.

“Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

Saul tried to spin his disobedience as an act of holiness. These animals that we took from the Amalekites to be sacrificed to… did you catch what he said? “...to the Lord your God.”

The Lord wasn’t Saul’s God – he referred to the Lord as Samuel’s God. Doesn’t that tell you everything?

I’m sure many of you know the name Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain was a world-famous chef, bestselling author, and television personality. He traveled the globe, experiencing the finest foods, cultures, and luxuries that most people only dream about. He had fame, wealth, influence, and access to nearly anything he wanted. Yet, despite all of this, he battled deep emptiness and despair and tragically, took his own life in 2018.

Like Bourdain, Saul had absolutely everything! He was tall and handsome, had a great militaristic resume, family, wealth, status. But he lacked the most important thing: he didn’t have God.

Remember what Jesus said? “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?”

The Apostle Paul makes a similar point in Philippians 3 when he gives his pharisaical credentials:

“If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

On paper you can have everything but if you don’t have Jesus – you have nothing.

We need to be reminded of that truth from time to time don’t we? Because we can spend so much of our time chasing the wind! We worry about this thing or that, without ever giving a second thought to our own spiritual condition.

But what’s even worse is that we can go through the motions of religion, without having Jesus. We can fake obedience to the Lord while never trusting in him, which is exactly what Saul was doing.

Which explains Samuel’s speech to Saul in verses 22-23:

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”

Obedience to the Lord is better than sacrifice or the fat of rams and disobedience to God’s Word is equivalent to divination and idolatry. Because rejection to the Word of God is to reject God himself, which is why God rejected Saul as King. A new King would rise up in his place.

Saul never figured out that reliance and obedience to the Lord is better than religious act. It’s better than walking the aisle, repeating the sinner’s prayer, or confessing your sins to a priest. A heart for God that seeks to do His will is better than the motions of religion.

Someone like Saul, who simply goes through the motions of religion believes that they can trick or manipulate God, but God knows your heart. He can see through it all and one day he will judge each and every one of us just as he judged the Amalekites.

One day your time will run out too. On that day will you point to your religious credentials? Or will you point to Jesus Christ?

Saul may have had everything by the standards of the world, but according to God he had nothing. You may have little by the standards of the world, but if you have Jesus Christ, you have everything. God doesn’t want religious acts, he wants your heart.

Let’s pray together.