I
S A M U E L
CHAP. XV.
In
this chapter we have the final rejection of Saul from being king, for his
disobedience to God's command in not utterly destroying the Amalekites. By his
wars and victories he hoped to magnify and perpetuate his own name and honour,
but, by his mismanagement of them, he ruined himself, and laid his honour in
the dust. Here is, I. The commission God gave him to destroy the Amalekites,
with a command to do it utterly, ver. 1-3. II. Saul's preparation for this
expedition, ver. 4-6. III. His success, and partial execution of this
commission, ver. 7-9. IV. His examination before Samuel, and sentence passed
upon him, notwithstanding the many frivolous pleas he made to excuse himself,
ver. 10-31. V. The slaying of Agag, ver. 32, 33. VI. Samuel's final farewell
to Saul, ver. 34, 35.
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The
Amalekites Destroyed.
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B.
C. 1065.
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1 Samuel also said unto
Saul, The LORD
sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now
therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
2 Thus saith the LORD
of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait
for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. 3 Now go and smite
Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay
both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two
hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And
Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. 6 And
Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites,
lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of
Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the
Amalekites. 7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until
thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. 8 And he
took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the
people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people
spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings,
and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy
them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed
utterly.
Here, I. Samuel, in God's name, solemnly requires Saul to be obedient to the
command of God, and plainly intimates that he was now about to put him upon a
trial, in one particular instance, whether he would be obedient or no, v.
1. And the making of this so expressly the trial of his obedience did very
much aggravate his disobedience. 1. He reminds him of what God had done for
him: "The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be a king. God gave thee
thy power, and therefore he expects thou shouldst use thy power for him. He
put honour upon thee, and now thou must study how to do him honour. He made
thee king over Israel, and now thou must plead Israel's cause and avenge their
quarrels. Thou art advanced to command Israel, but know that thou art a
subject to the God of Israel and must be commanded by him." Men's
preferment, instead of releasing them from their obedience to God, obliges
them so much the more to it. Samuel had himself been employed to anoint Saul,
and therefore was the fitter to be send with these orders to him. 2. He tells
him, in general, that, in consideration of this, whatever God commanded him to
do he was bound to do it: Now therefore hearken to the voice of the Lord.
Note, God's favours to us lay strong obligations upon us to be obedient to
him. This we must render, Ps. cxvi. 12.
II. He appoints him a particular piece of service, in which he must now show
his obedience to God more than in any thing he had done yet. Samuel premises
God's authority to the command: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the Lord
of all hosts, of Israel's hosts. He also gives him a reason for the command,
that the severity he must use might not seem hard: I remember that which
Amalek did to Israel, v. 2. God had an ancient quarrel with the
Amalekites, for the injuries they did to his people Israel when he brought
them out of Egypt. We have the story, Exod. xvii. 8, &c., and the crime is
aggravated, Deut. xxv. 18. He basely smote the hindmost of them, and feared
not God. God then swore that he would have war with Amalek from generation
to generation, and that in process of time he would utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek; this is the work that Saul is now appointed to do (v.
3): "Go and smite Amalek. Israel is now strong, and the measure of
the iniquity of Amalek is now full; now go and make a full riddance of that
devoted nation." He is expressly commanded to kill and slay all before
him, man and woman, infant and suckling, and not spare them out of
pity; also ox and sheep, camel and ass, and not spare them out of
covetousness. Note, 1. Injuries done to God's Israel will certainly be
reckoned for sooner or later, especially the opposition given them when they
are coming out of Egypt. 2. God often bears long with those that are marked
for ruin. The sentence passed is not executed speedily. 3. Though he bear
long, he will not bear always. The year of recompence for the controversy of
Israel will come at last. Though divine justice strikes slowly it strikes
surely. 4. The longer judgment is delayed many times the more severe it is
when it comes. 5. God chooses out instruments to do his work that are fittest
for it. This was bloody work, and therefore Saul who was a rough and severe
man must do it.
III. Saul hereupon musters his forces, and makes a descent upon the country of
Amalek. It was an immense army that he brought into the field (v. 4):
200,000 footmen. When he came to engage the Philistines, and the
success was hazardous, he had but 600 attending him, ch. xiii. 15. But
now that he was to attack the Amalekites by express order from heaven, in
which he was sure of victory, he had thousands at his call. But, whatever it
was at other times, it was not now for the honour of Judah that their forces
were numbered by themselves, for their quota was scandalously short (whatever
was the reason), but a twentieth part of the whole, for they were by 10,000,
when the other ten tribes (for I except Levi) brought into the field 200,000.
The day of Judah's honour drew near, but had not yet come. Saul numbered them
in Telaim, which signifies lambs. He numbered then like lambs
(so the vulgar Latin), numbered them by the paschal lambs (so the
Chaldee), allowing ten to a lamb, a way of numbering used by the Jews in the
later times of their nation. Saul drew all his forces to the city of Amalek,
that city that was their metropolis (v. 5), that he might provoke them
to give him battle.
IV. He gave friendly advice to the Kenites to separate themselves from the
Amalekites among whom they dwelt, while this execution was in doing, v.
6. Herein he did prudently and piously, and, it is probable, according to the
direction Samuel gave him. The Kenites were of the family and kindred of
Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, a people that dwelt in tents, which made it
easy for them, upon every occasion, to remove to other lands not appropriated.
Many of them, at this time, dwelt among the Amalekites, where, though they
dwelt in tents, they were fortified by nature, for they put their nest in a
rock, being hardy people that could live any where, and affected
fastnesses, Num. xxiv. 21. Balaam had foretold that they should be wasted,
Num. xxiv. 22. However, Saul must not waste them. But, 1. He acknowledges the
kindness of their ancestors to Israel, when they came out of Egypt. Jethro and
his family had been very helpful and serviceable to them in their passage
through the wilderness, had been to them instead of eyes, and this is
remembered to their posterity many ages after. Thus a good man leaves the
divine blessing for an inheritance to his children's children; those that come
after us may be reaping the benefit of our good works when we are in our
graves. God is not unrighteous to forget the kindnesses shown to his people;
but they shall be remembered another day, at furthest in the great day, and
recompensed in the resurrection of the just. I was hungry, and you gave me
meat. God's remembering the kindness of the Kenites' ancestors in favour
to them, at the same time when he was punishing the injuries done by the
ancestors of the Amalekites, helped to clear the righteousness of God in that
dispensation. If he entail favours, why may he not entail frowns? He espouses
his people's cause, so as to bless those that bless them; and therefore
so as to curse those that curse them, Num. xxiv. 9; Gen. xii. 3. They
cannot themselves requite the kindnesses nor avenge the injuries done them,
but God will do both. 2. He desires them to remove their tents from among the
Amalekites: Go, depart, get you down from among them. When destroying
judgments are abroad God will take care to separate between the precious and
the vile, and to hide the meek of the earth in the day of his anger. It is
dangerous being found in the company of God's enemies, and it is our duty and
interest to come out from among them, lest we share in their sins and
plagues, Rev. xviii. 4. The Jews have a saying, Woe to the wicked man and
woe to his neighbour.
V. Saul prevailed against the Amalekites, for it was rather an execution of
condemned malefactors than a war with contending enemies. The issue could not
be dubious when the cause was just and the call so clear: He smote them
(v. 7), utterly destroyed them, v. 8. Now they paid
dearly for the sin of their ancestors. God sometimes lays up iniquity for
the children. They were idolaters, and were guilty of many other sins, for
which they deserved to fall under the wrath of God; yet, when God would reckon
with them, he fastened upon the sin of their ancestors in abusing his Israel
as the ground of his quarrel. Lord, How unsearchable are thy judgments, yet
how incontestable is thy righteousness!
VI. Yet he did his work by halves, v. 9. 1. He spared Agag,
because he was a king like himself, and perhaps in hope to get a great ransom
for him. 2. He spared the best of the cattle, and destroyed only the refuse,
that was good for little. Many of the people, we may suppose, made their
escape, and took their effects with them into other countries, and therefore
we read of Amalekites after this; but that could not be helped. It was Saul's
fault that he did not destroy such as came to his hands and were in his power.
That which was now destroyed was in effect sacrificed to the justice of God,
as the God to whom vengeance belongeth; and for Saul to think the torn and the
sick, the lame and the lean, good enough for that, while he reserved for his
own fields and his own table the firstlings and the fat, was really to honour
himself more than God.
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Samuel
Reproves Saul; Saul Rejected of God.
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B.
C. 1065.
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10 Then came the word of
the LORD
unto Samuel, saying, 11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to
be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed
my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD
all night. 12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the
morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set
him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of
the LORD:
I have performed the commandment of the LORD.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in
mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 15 And Saul
said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the
best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD
thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Samuel
said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the LORD
hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 17 And
Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou
not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the LORD
anointed thee king over Israel? 18 And the LORD
sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the
Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. 19
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the LORD,
but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the LORD?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the LORD,
and have gone the way which the LORD
sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed
the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and
oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to
sacrifice unto the LORD
thy God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than
the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the 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.
Saul is here called to account by Samuel concerning the execution of his
commission against the Amalekites; and remarkable instances we are here
furnished with of the strictness of the justice of God and the treachery and
deceitfulness of the heart of man. We are here told,
I. What passed between God and Samuel, in secret, upon this occasion, v.
10, 11. 1. God determines Saul's rejection, and acquaints Samuel with it: It
repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king. Repentance in God is not,
as it is in us, a change of his mind, but a change of his method or
dispensation. He does not alter his will, but wills an alteration. The change
was in Saul: He has turned back from following me; this construction
God put upon the partiality of his obedience, and the prevalency of his
covetousness. And hereby he did himself make God his enemy. God repented that
he had given Saul the kingdom and the honour and power that belonged to it:
but he never repented that he had given any man wisdom and grace, and his fear
and love; these gifts and callings of God are without repentance. 2. Samuel
laments and deprecates it. It grieved Samuel that Saul had forfeited
God's favour, and that God had resolved to cast him off; and he cried unto
the Lord all night, spent a whole night in interceding for him, that this
decree might not go forth against him. When others were in their beds
sleeping, he was upon his knees praying and wrestling with God. He did not
thus deprecate his own exclusion from the government; nor was he secretly
pleased, as many a one would have been, that Saul, who succeeded him, was so
soon laid aside, but on the contrary prayed earnestly for his establishment,
so far was he from desiring that woeful day. The rejection of sinners is the
grief of good people; God delights not in their death, nor should we.
II. What passed between Samuel and Saul in public. Samuel, being sent of God
to him with these heavy tidings, went, as Ezekiel, in bitterness of soul,
to meet him, perhaps according to an appointment when Saul went forth on this
expedition, for Saul had come to Gilgal (v. 12), the place where he was
made king (ch. xi. 15), and were now he would have been confirmed if he
had approved himself well in the trial of his obedience. But Samuel was
informed that Saul had set up a triumphal arch, or some monument of his
victory, at Carmel, a city in the mountains of Judah, seeking his own honour
more than the honour of God, for he set up this place (or hand, as the
word is) for himself (he had more need to have been repenting of his sin and
making his peace with God than boasting of his victory), and also that he had
marched in great state to Gilgal, for this seems to be intimated in the manner
of expression: He has gone about, and passed on, and gone down, with a
great deal of pomp and parade. There Samuel gave him the meeting, and,
1. Saul makes his boast to Samuel of his obedience, because that was the thing
by which he was now to signalize himself (v. 13): "Blessed be
thou of the Lord, for thou sendest me upon a good errand, in which I have
had great success, and I have performed the commandment of the Lord."
It is very likely, if his conscience had now flown in his face at this time
and charged him with disobedience, he would not have been so forward to
proclaim his disobedience; for by this he hoped to prevent Samuel's reproving
him. Thus sinners think, by justifying themselves, to escape being judged
of the Lord; whereas the only way to do that is by judging ourselves.
Those that boast most of their religion may be suspected of partiality and
hypocrisy in it.
2. Samuel convicts him by a plain demonstration of his disobedience.
"Hast thou performed the commandment of the Lord? What means then the
bleating of the sheep?" v. 14. Saul would needs have it
thought than God Almighty was wonderfully beholden to him for the good service
he had done; but Samuel shows him that God was so far from being a debtor to
him that he had just cause of action against him, and produces for evidence
the bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the oxen, which perhaps
Saul appointed to bring up the rear of his triumph, but Samuel appears to them
as witnesses against him. He needed not go far to disprove his professions.
The noise the cattle made (like the rust of silver, Jam. v. 3) would be
a witness against him. Note, It is no new thing for the plausible
professions and protestations of hypocrites to be contradicted and disproved
by the most plain and undeniable evidence. Many boast of their obedience to
the command of God; but what mean then their indulgence of the flesh, their
love of the world, their passion and uncharitableness, and their neglect of
holy duties, which witness against them?
3. Saul insists upon his own justification against this charge, v. 15.
The fact he cannot deny; the sheep and oxen were brought from the Amalekites.
But, (1.) It was not his fault, for the people spared them; as if they
durst have done it without the express orders of Saul, when they knew it was
against the express orders of Samuel. Note, Those that are willing to justify
themselves are commonly very forward to condemn others, and to lay the blame
upon any rather than take it to themselves. Sin is a brat that nobody cares to
have laid at his doors. It is the sorry subterfuge of an impenitent heart,
that will not confess its guilt, to lay the blame on those that were tempters,
or partners, or only followers in it. (2.) It was with a good intention:
"It was to sacrifice to the Lord thy God. He is thy God, and thou
wilt not be against any thing that is done, as this is, for his honour."
This was a false plea, for both Saul and the people designed their own profit
in sparing the cattle. But, if it had been true, it would still have been
frivolous, for God hates robbery for burnt-offering. God appointed these
cattle to be sacrificed to him in the field, and therefore will give those no
thanks that bring them to be sacrificed at his altar; for he will be served in
his own way, and according to the rule he himself has prescribed. Nor will a
good intention justify a bad action.
4. Samuel overrules, or rather overlooks, his plea, and proceeds, in God's
name, to give judgment against him. He premises his authority. What he was
about to say was what the Lord had said to him (v. 16), otherwise he
would have been far from passing so severe a censure upon him. Those who
complain that their ministers are too harsh with them should remember that,
while they keep to the word of God, they are but messengers, and must say as
they are bidden, and therefore be willing, as Saul himself here was, that they
should say on. Samuel delivers his message faithfully. (1.) He reminds
Saul of the honour of God had done him in making him king (v. 17), when
he was little in his own sight. God regarded the lowness of his state and
rewarded the lowliness of his spirit. Note, Those that are advanced to honour
and wealth ought often to remember their mean beginnings, that they may never
think highly of themselves, but always study to do great things for the God
that had advanced them. (2.) He lays before him the plainness of the orders he
was to execute (v. 18): The Lord sent thee on a journey; so easy
was the service, and so certain the success, that it was rather to be called a
journey than a war. The work was honourable, to destroy the
sworn enemies of God and Israel; and had he denied himself, and set aside the
consideration of his own profit so far as to have destroyed all that belonged
to Amalek, he would have been no loser by it at last, nor have gone this warfare
on his own charges. God would no doubt have made it up to him, so that he
should have no need of spoil. And therefore, (3.) He shows him how inexcusable
he was in aiming to make a profit of this expedition, and to enrich himself by
it (v. 19): "Wherefore then didst thou fly upon the spoil,
and convert that to thy own use which was to have been destroyed for God's
honour?" See what evil the love of money is the root of; but see what is
the sinfulness of sin, and that in it which above any thing else makes it evil
in the sight of the Lord. It is disobedience: Thou didst not obey the voice
of the Lord.
5. Saul repeats his vindication of himself, as that which, in defiance of
conviction, he resolved to abide by, v. 20, 21. He denies the charge (v.
20): "Yea, I have obeyed, I have done all I should do;" for
he had done all which he thought he needed to do, so much wiser was he in his
own eyes than God himself. God bade him kill all, and yet he puts in among the
instances of his obedience that he brought Agag alive, which he thought was as
good as if he had killed him. Thus carnal deceitful hearts think to excuse
themselves from God's commandments with their own equivalents. He insists upon
it that he has utterly destroyed the Amalekites themselves, which was
the main thing intended; but, as to the spoil, he owns it should have been utterly
destroyed; so that he knew his Lord's will, and was under no
mistake about the command. But he thought that would be wilful waste; the
cattle of the Midianites was taken for a prey in Moses's time (Num. xxxi. 32,
&c.), and why not the cattle of the Amalekites now? Better it should be
prey to the Israelites than to the fowls of the air and the wild beasts; and
therefore he connived at the people's carrying it away. But it was their doing
and not his; and, besides, it was for sacrifice to the Lord here at
Gilgal, whither they were now bringing them. See what a hard thing it is to
convince the children of disobedience of their sin and to strip them of their
fig-leaves.
6. Samuel gives a full answer to his apology, since he did insist upon it, v.
22, 23. He appeals to his own conscience: Has the Lord as great delight in
sacrifices as in obedience? Though Saul was not a man of any great
acquaintance with religion, yet he could not but know this, (1.) That nothing
is so pleasing to God as obedience, no, not sacrifice and offering, and the
fat of rams. See here what we should seek and aim at in all the exercises of
religion, even acceptance with God, that he may delight in what we do. If God
be well pleased with us and our services, we are happy, we have gained our
point, but otherwise to what purpose is it? Isa. i. 11. Now here we are
plainly told that humble, sincere, and conscientious obedience to the will of
God, is more pleasing and acceptable to him than all burnt-offerings and
sacrifices. A careful conformity to moral precepts recommends us to God
more than all ceremonial observances, Mic. vi. 6-8; Hos. vi. 6. Obedience is
enjoyed by the eternal law of nature, but sacrifice only by a positive law.
Obedience was the law of innocency, but sacrifice supposes sin come into the
world, and is but a feeble attempt to take that away which obedience would
have prevented. God is more glorified and self more denied by obedience than
by sacrifice. It is much easier to bring a bullock or lamb to be burnt upon
the altar than to bring every high thought into obedience to God and
the will subject to his will. Obedience is the glory of angels (Ps. ciii. 20),
and it will be ours. (2.) That nothing is so provoking to God as disobedience,
setting up our wills in competition with his. This is here called rebellion
and stubbornness, and is said to be as bad as witchcraft and idolatry,
v. 23. It is as bad to set up other gods as to live in disobedience to
the true God. Those that are governed by their own corrupt inclinations, in
opposition to the command of God, do, in effect, consult the teraphim
(as the word here is for idolatry) or the diviners. It was disobedience that
made us all sinners (Rom. v. 19), and this is the malignity of sin, that it is
the transgression of the law, and consequently it is enmity to God,
Rom. viii. 7. Saul was a king, but if he disobey the command of God, his royal
dignity and power will not excuse him from the guilt of rebellion and
stubbornness. It is not the rebellion of the people against their prince, but
of a prince against God, that this text speaks of.
7. He reads his doom: in short, "Because thou has rejected the word of
the Lord, hast despised it (so the Chaldee), hast made nothing
of it (so the LXX.), hast cast off the government of it, therefore he has rejected
thee, despised and made nothing of thee, but cast thee off from being
king. He that made thee king has determined to unmake thee again."
Those are unfit and unworthy to rule over men who are not willing that God
should rule over them.
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Saul's
Dethronement Foretold.
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B.
C. 1065.
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24 And Saul said unto
Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD,
and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I
may worship the LORD.
26 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast
rejected the word of the LORD,
and the LORD
hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. 27 And as Samuel
turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it
rent. 28 And Samuel said unto him, The LORD
hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a
neighbour of thine, that is better than thou. 29 And also
the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man,
that he should repent. 30 Then he said, I have sinned: yet
honour me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel,
and turn again with me, that I may worship the LORD
thy God. 31 So Samuel turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped
the LORD.
Saul is at length brought to put himself into the dress of the penitent; but
it is too evident that he only acts the part of a penitent, and is not one
indeed. Observe,
I. How poorly he expressed his repentance. It was with much ado that he was
made sensible of his fault, and not till he was threatened with being deposed.
This touched him in a tender part. Then he began to relent, and not till then.
When Samuel told him he was rejected from being king, then he said, I
have sinned, v. 24. His confession was not free nor ingenuous, but
extorted by the rack, and forced from him. We observe here several bad signs
of the hypocrisy of his repentance, and that it came short even of Ahab's. 1.
He made his application to Samuel only, and seemed most solicitous to stand
right in his opinion and to gain his favour. He makes a little god of him,
only to preserve his reputation with the people, because they all knew Samuel
to be a prophet, and the man that had been the instrument of his preferment.
Thinking it would please Samuel, and be a sort of bribe to him, he puts it
into his confession: I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and
thy word; as if he had been in God's stead, v. 24. David, though
convinced by the ministry of Nathan, yet, in his confession, has his eye to
God alone, not to Nathan. Ps. li. 4 Against thee only have I sinned.
But Saul, ignorantly enough, confesses his sin as a transgression of Samuel's
word; whereas his word was no other than a declaration of the commandment
of the Lord. He also applies to Samuel for forgiveness (v. 25): I
pray thee, pardon my sin; as if any could forgive sin but God only. Those
wretchedly deceive themselves who, when they have fallen into scandalous sin,
think it enough to make their peace with the church and their ministers, by
the show and plausible profession of repentance, without taking care to make
their peace with God by the sincerity of it. The most charitable construction
we can put upon this of Saul is to suppose that he looked upon Samuel as a
sort of mediator between him and God, and intended an address to God in his
application to him. However, it was very weak. 2. He excused his fault even in
the confession of it, and that is never the fashion of a true penitent (v.
24): I did it because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. We
have reason enough to think that it was purely his own doing and not the
people's; however, if they were forward to do it, it is plain, by what we have
read before, that he knew how to keep up his authority among them and did not
stand in any awe of them. So that the excuse was false and frivolous; whatever
he pretended, he did not really fear the people. But it is common for sinners,
in excusing their faults, to plead the thoughts and workings of their own
minds, because those are things which, how groundless soever, no man can
disprove; but they forget that God searchest the heart. 3. All his care was to
save his credit, and preserve his interest in the people, lest they should
revolt from him, or at least despise him. Therefore he courts Samuel with so
much earnestness (v. 25) to turn again with him, and assist in a public
thanksgiving for the victory. Very importunate he was in this matter when he
laid hold on the skirt of his mantle to detain him (v. 27), not that he
cared for Samuel, but he feared that if Samuel forsook him the people would do
so too. Many seem zealously affected to good ministers and good people only
for the sake of their own interest and reputation, while in heart they hate
them. But his expression was very gross when he said (v. 30), I have
sinned, yet honour me, I pray thee, before my people. Is this the language
of a penitent? No, but the contrary: "I have sinned, shame me now,
for to me belongs shame, and no man can loathe me so much as I loathe
myself." Yet how often do we meet with the copies of this hypocrisy of
Saul! It is very common for those who are convicted of sin to show themselves
very solicitous to be honoured before the people. Whereas he that has lost the
honour of an innocent can pretend to no other than that of a penitent, and it
is the honour of a penitent to take shame to himself.
II. How little he got by these thin shows of repentance. What point did he
gain by them? 1. Samuel repeated the sentence passed upon him, so far was he
from giving any hopes of the repeal of it, v. 26, the same with v.
23. He that covers his sins shall never prosper, Prov. xxviii. 13.
Samuel refused to turn back with him, but turned about to go away, v.
27. As the thing appeared to him upon the first view, he thought it altogether
unfit for him so far to countenance one whom God had rejected as to join with
him in giving thanks to God for a victory which was made to serve rather
Saul's covetousness than God's glory. Yet afterwards he did turn again with
him (v. 31), upon further thoughts, and probably by divine direction,
either to prevent a mutiny among the people or perhaps not to do honour to
Saul (for, though Saul worshipped the Lord, v. 31, it is not said
Samuel presided in that worship), but to do justice on Agag, v. 32. 2.
He illustrated the sentence by a sign, which Saul himself, by his rudeness,
gave occasion for. When Samuel was turning from him he tore his clothes to
detain him (v. 27), so loth was he to part with the prophet; but Samuel
put a construction upon this accident which none but a prophet could do. He
made it to signify the rending of the kingdom from him (v. 28),
and that, like this, was his own doing. "He hath rent it from thee, and given
it to a neighbour better than thou," namely, to David, who
afterwards, upon occasion, cut off the skirt of Saul's robe (1 Sam. xxiv. 4),
upon which Saul said (1 Sam. xxiv. 20), I know that thou shalt surely be
king, perhaps remembering this sign, the tearing of the skirt of Samuel's
mantle. 3. He ratified it by a solemn declaration of its being irreversible (v.
29): The Strength of Israel will not lie. The Eternity or Victory
of Israel, so some read it; the holy One, so the Arabic; the
most noble One, so the Syriac; the triumphant King of Israel, so
bishop Patrick. "He is determined to depose thee, and he will not change
his purpose. He is not a man that should repent." Men are fickle
and alter their minds, feeble and cannot effect their purposes; something
happens which they could not foresee, by which their measures are broken. But
with God it is not so. God has sometimes repented of the evil which he thought
to have done, repentance was hidden from Saul, and therefore hidden from God's
eyes.
32 Then said Samuel,
Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him
delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.
33 And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy
mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD
in Gilgal. 34 Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his
house to Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel came no more to see Saul
until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD
repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
Samuel, as a prophet, is here set over kings, Jer. i. 10.
I. He destroys king Agag, doubtless by such special direction from heaven as
none now can pretend to. He hewed Agag in pieces. Some think he only
ordered it to be done; or perhaps he did it with his own hands, as a sacrifice
to God's injured justice (v. 33), and sacrifices used to be cut in
pieces. Now observe in this,
1. How Agag's present vain hopes were frustrated: He came delicately,
in a stately manner, to show that he was a king, and therefore to be treated
with respect, or in a soft effeminate manner, as one never used to hardship,
that could not set the sole of his foot to the ground for tenderness and
delicacy (Deut. xxviii. 56), to move compassion: and he said,
"Surely, now that the heat of the battle is over, the bitterness of
death is past, v. 32. Having escaped the sword of Saul," that
man of war, he thought he was in no danger from Samuel, and old prophet, a man
of peace. Note, (1.) There is bitterness in death, it is terrible to nature. Surely
death is bitter, so divers versions read those words of Agag; as the LXX.
read the former clause, He came trembling. Death will dismay the
stoutest heart. (2.) Many think the bitterness of death is past when it is not
so; they put that evil day far from them which is very near. True believers
may, through grace, say this, upon good grounds, though death be not past, the
bitterness of it is. O death! where is thy sting?
2. How his former wicked practices were now punished. Samuel calls him to
account, not only for the sins of his ancestors, but his own sins: Thy
sword has made women childless, v. 33. He trod in the steps of his
ancestors' cruelty, and those under him, it is likely, did the same; justly
therefore is all the righteous blood shed by Amalek required of this
generation, Matt. xxiii. 36. Agag, that was delicate and luxurious himself,
was cruel and barbarous to others. It is commonly so: those who are indulgent
in their appetites are not less indulgent of their passions. But blood will be
reckoned for; even kings must account to the King of kings for the guiltless
blood they shed or cause to be shed. It was that crime of king Manasseh which
the Lord would not pardon, 2 Kings xxiv. 4. See Rev. xiii. 10.
II. He deserts king Saul, takes leave of him (v. 34), and never came
any more to see him (v. 35), to advise or assist him in any of his
affairs, because Saul did not desire his company nor would he be advised by
him. He looked upon him as rejected of God, and therefore he forsook him.
Though he might sometimes see him accidentally (as ch. xix. 24), yet he
never came to see him out of kindness or respect. Yet he mourned for Saul,
thinking it a very lamentable thing that a man who stood so fair for great
things should ruin himself so foolishly. He mourned for the bad state of the
country, to which Saul was likely to have been so great a blessing, but now
would prove a curse and a plague. He mourned for his everlasting state, having
no hopes of bringing him to repentance. When he wept for him, it is likely, he
made supplication, but the Lord had repented that he had made Saul king,
and resolved to undo that work of his, so that Samuel's prayers prevailed not
for him. Observe, We must mourn for the rejection of sinners, 1. Though we
withdraw from them, and dare not converse familiarly with them. Thus the
prophet determines to leave his people and go from them, and yet to weep
day and night for them, Jer. ix. 1, 2. 2. Though they do not mourn for
themselves. Saul seems unconcerned at the tokens of God's displeasure which he
lay under, and yet Samuel mourns day and night for him. Jerusalem was secure
when Christ wept over it.
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