83. A Royal Mess: The King Who Didn't Listen to God (1 Samuel 15)

G', day, Dave.

Here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Imagine a firefighter doesn't listen to all his safety training.

Imagine if he or she thinks to themselves, I'm pretty tough.

I don't need a special coat or clothes.

I don't need a hose.

I don't need other firefighters.

I'll just go into a burning building and blow the fire out.

Do you think that would be good?

Are they going to be a good firefighter?

Or what about if you go to the zoo and you see some big signs at the lion cage?

It says, danger warning, Risk of death.

Do not cross the fence for any reason.

What if you ignore that message?

What if you think, oh, they're just big cats, I'd like to go and give them a path and you climb over the fence.

I'm thinking that if you do that, the lions are going to have a very tasty meal.

Well, what about if the king of God's kingdom doesn't listen to God?

If he says, I've got a better idea than God, I'm the king, I'll do it my way.

What would that mean?

Is that going to turn out really well or really badly?

Well, we're about to find out.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, the Philistines had been driven away.

God had given Israel victory because King Saul was so selfish and silly.

Though lots of Philistines got away, he actually made the Israelite victory become not as good as it could have been.

Now God has a job for King Saul and the Israelites.

One of the jobs of God's chosen king is to punish people for their evil.

And God's going to send Saul to punish the Amalekites?

That's right, the Amalekites.

Way back when the Israelites had been leaving Egypt, the people who were the weakest and the most tied, old people, children, sick people, they'd fallen to the back.

The Amalekites thought that was great.

They attacked and killed those people and stole their things.

God had said that when the Israelites were settled into their new land, they should punish the Amalekites.

Now it's that time.

They're not going to steal things from the Amalekites.

God's really clear to Saul.

He and the army have to completely wipe them out, including their animals.

There shouldn't be any trace of the Amalekites left.

This is really massive.

It's a sign of just how bad sin is that It Deserves this.

Parents.

If you want to think more about this passage, I've got a section about it in the latest episode of the longer podcast, Stories of a Faithful God.

Well, Saul gets his army together.

210,000 men.

That's a huge army.

And he starts the mission off very well.

There are some people called Kenites living with the Amalekites.

Saul could just destroy them as well, but he doesn't.

He wants to be fair and good.

In 1 Samuel 15, 6, he says to the Kenites, go away.

Leave the Amalekites so that I won't destroy you with them.

You showed kindness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.

It's great that Saul's not being unfair.

He could attack the Kenites, he could steal their things, but instead he's doing what's right.

Maybe, just maybe, Saul's getting better at being the king of God's people.

Thankfully, the Kenites leave.

Then Saul attacks the Amalekites and chases them all the way down to the edge of Egypt.

This is great.

Saul's obeying God.

He's listening to God's word.

But then we read this in verse 8.

He took Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive, but he killed all of Agag's army with the sword.

But Saul and the army let Agag live.

They also let the best sheep, fat cattle and lambs live.

They let every good animal live.

They did not want to destroy them, but when they found an animal that was weak or useless, they killed it.

Oh, no.

Do you see what's happened?

They've obeyed God for part of the job.

But whenever there were good things to take, healthy animals, expensive animals, they kept them for themselves.

They haven't cared about what's fair or what the Amalekites deserve.

They haven't cared about what God said.

They've only cared about making themselves rich.

Worst of all, they've kept King Agag alive.

Of all the Amalekites who deserve to be punished, he's the one who most deserves to be punished.

He's the one who's led them into all their evil.

Sadly, now Saul is leading the Israelites in their evil.

He's meant to listen to God's word and help Israel listen to God's word.

Instead, he's letting the Israelites ignore what God said.

This is terrible.

And God is so Sad.

In verse 11, he says to Samuel, saul has stopped following me, and I am sorry I made him king.

He has not obeyed my commands.

Samuel's really sad as well.

He spends the whole night crying out to the Lord.

In the morning, he heads off to find Saul.

He doesn't find him straight away, but he does discover something quite disturbing.

Some people tell him that Saul set up a monument in his own honour.

That's right.

He set up a monument to show everyone how great he is.

In the last chapter, even though Saul didn't do much to trust God, at least he set up an altar to the Lord.

He recognised that it was God who'd given the victory.

Now not only has Saul not listened to God's word, he's forgotten that God gives the victory.

Instead of telling everyone how great God is, he wants to tell everyone how great he is.

Saul isn't getting better as a king, he's getting worse.

He's moving further and further away from God, which makes what he says when Samuel eventually finds him especially weird.

In verse 13, he happily cries out to Samuel, may the Lord bless you.

I have obeyed the Lord's commands.

Umm, really?

Really, Saul, Is that really what you've done?

Samuel replies in verse 14, then why do I hear cattle mooing and sheep bleating?

In other words, if Saul had really obeyed God, there wouldn't be any animal sounds.

Saul kind of knows that, so he starts making excuses.

First he blames it on the soldiers, even though he's actually in charge of the soldiers.

Then he tries to make it sound like the soldiers just wanted to honour God, even though they've disobeyed Him.

Then he tries to make it sound like that doesn't really matter anyway because they've gotten rid of everything else.

Listen to his words.

See how he's tried to twist and turn his way out of admitting that he's done anything wrong.

In verse 15, he says, the soldiers took them from the Amalekites.

They saved the best sheep and cattle to offer as sacrifices to the Lord your God.

But we destroyed all the other animals.

Samuel's heard enough excuses.

He says, stop.

Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.

And Saul's like, umm, okay.

In verse 17, Samuel reminds him how it's his job to obey God's word, not to make things up or to change what God said.

Samuel says, once you didn't think much of yourself, but now you have become the leader of the tribes of Israel.

The Lord appointed you to be king over Israel and he told you to do something.

He said, go and destroy those evil people.

The Amalekites.

Make war on them until all of them are dead.

Why didn't you obey the Lord.

Why did you take the best things?

Why did you do what the Lord said was wrong?

Saul sticks to his excuses.

He says that he has obeyed God, and then he makes excuses for all the ways that he hasn't obeyed God.

He says in verse 20, but I did obey the Lord.

I did what the Lord told me to do.

I destroyed all the Amalekites and I brought back Agag, their king.

The soldiers took the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord.

Your God.

At Gilgal.

Have you ever tried to make a bad thing sound good by saying that you're doing it for God?

Well, that's what Saul's doing here.

He's saying, it's fine that the soldiers have kept all these animals because really they're doing it for God.

But you can't use that as an excuse to disobey God.

You can't say, oh, I don't have to obey God because I really want to worship God.

That's nuts.

Samuel's having none of it and neither is God.

Samuel answers in verse 22.

What pleases the Lord more?

Burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience?

It is better to obey God than to offer a sacrifice.

It's better to listen to God than to offer the fat of male sheep.

Refusing to obey is as bad as the sin of sorcery.

Being stubborn is as bad as the sin of worshipping idols.

You have rejected the Lord's command.

For this reason, he now rejects you as king.

There it is.

Saul's refused to listen to God, so God's refusing to have him as the king.

Saul's rejected the word of God, so God's rejecting him.

Saul's given up on God, so God is giving up on him.

Too late.

Saul agrees that he has done the wrong thing.

The words he says at this time are good.

He says in verse 24, I have sinned.

I didn't obey the Lord's commands.

I didn't do what you told me.

I was afraid of the people and I did what they said.

Now, I beg you, forgive my sin.

Come back with me so I may worship the Lord.

Those are good words, aren't they?

And if he'd recognised his sin before and asked for forgiveness, maybe he wouldn't have to be punished.

But now it just seems like he's trying to trick God into liking him.

He also wants Samuel to come with him, because then it looks like God's still on his side.

If Samuel doesn't come, people might say, uh, Saul, why isn't God's prophet With you.

Have you done something against God?

Is he not speaking to you anymore?

That would be really embarrassing.

Samuel says, I won't come back with you.

You refused the Lord's command and now he rejects you as king of Israel.

Now Saul's desperate.

He reaches out to grab Samuel.

He doesn't want to let him get away.

He grabs Samuel's clothes, but the clothes tear as Samuel keeps walking.

He turns back to Saul and he says, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today.

He has given it to one of your neighbours.

He has given it to one better than you.

The Lord is the eternal one of Israel.

He does not lie or change his mind.

He is not a man, so he does not change his mind as men do.

Saul keeps begging Samuel to come back with him and honour him in front of the leaders of Israel.

He still doesn't get it.

He still wants honour for himself.

Really.

He should be shamed in front of the leaders for not obeying God.

And that is exactly what happens.

Samuel eventually does go with him, but only to do what Saul should have done.

He gets them to bring Agag, King of the Amalekites over to him.

Agag doesn't really know what's going to happen.

What's going to happen is the justice of God, the fairness of God through Samuel.

God is going to do to Agag exactly what Agag has done to other people.

Samuel says to agag in verse 33, you, sword caused mothers to be without their children.

Now your mother without will have no children.

And with that, he kills Agag.

By the way, we never have that job.

Samuel was only doing it because God told him to.

It's something he only told his people and kings to do in the Old Testament.

And then only sometimes.

Now we have a better king than any of the kings in the Old Testament.

A king who always listens to and obeys God's word.

A king who is the perfect king.

King Jesus.

When the devil realized that Jesus was the new king God had sent, do you know what he tried to get Jesus to do?

He tried to get Jesus to disobey God, to not believe God's word, to not listen to God.

But each time he tried, Jesus replied by telling him what God had said.

He refused to listen to the words of Satan and only listened to the word of God.

Jesus is the perfect king of God's people.

And thankfully, God didn't send him to punish us.

He sent Jesus to save us.

To save everyone who trusts and serves him as king, to forgive everyone who trusts him.

Jesus will come again.

And if people have rejected him, then he'll reject them and punish them then.

But for those who come into his kingdom, he's taken away our punishment, and it'll be awesome forever.

Back in Israel, Samuel leaves Saul and for the rest of his life never sees him again.

Saul's been rejected as king, but Samuel mentioned a new king, a better king, someone who God's chosen to do a better job.

Who could that be?

Well, that's a story for next time.

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Bye for now.