1 Samuel 9–11; 13; 15-17

When I read this lesson, I couldn’t help feeling pity for Saul. I’m used to thinking of him as the tragic figure he becomes by the end of his reign, but he certainly doesn’t start out that way. According to 1 Samuel 9:2, he was “a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.” Based on the verse, “goodly” seems to mean he was a tall, strong young man whose appearance was impressive.

After Saul has been briefly introduced, we immediately start into the story of how Saul and Samuel meet. In verse 9, we are given some parenthetical background information. “Beforetime in Israel,” it tells us, “when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a Seer.” This was interesting to me because of Mosiah 8:13–18, which talks in more detail about the difference between a seer and a prophet.

The picture we have in 1 Samuel 9–10 is of a good and modest man (compare verse 1 of chapter 9 with verse 21 in the same chapter) who has the wisdom to keep his mouth shut (1 Samuel 10:14–16) and the good sense to at least try avoiding the limelight (1 Samuel 10:21–22). But whether he likes it or not, he’s going to be king, and he’ll have to deal with everything else that goes along with that.

And apparently the first thing that goes with being king is going to war. He is not crowned until after his first attempt at war, which happens to be against Nahash the Ammonite. In 1 Samuel 11:2, Nahash the Ammonite tells the men of Jabash-Gilead that the only way he will agree to any kind of a covenant of peace with them is if “I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.” Considering that they had offered to surrender and serve him, these men sensibly tell Nahash to let them think about that for a little while and then promptly sent messengers to Saul instead.

Of course Saul wins against this bad guy. In verse 12, the people offer him vengeance against those who hadn’t supported him, he nobly declines in verse 13, and in verse 15 he is officially crowned king.

Now we fast-forward to chapter 13, when Saul has been king for a couple of years. This is the chapter when things start to go wrong for Saul.

In 1 Samuel 13:1–2, we learn that Saul has 3,000 men and Jonathan his son has 1,000 men. In verse 5, the Philistines gather to fight against Saul and his army, and we learn that the odds are not good: the Philistines have 30,000 chariots, 6,000 horsemen, and a seemingly infinite infantry. Some of the Israelites hide; some run away; and the remainder “followed [Saul] trembling” (verse 7).

It seems like a good time for a sacrifice, but Samuel doesn’t arrive when he is supposed to, and Saul goes ahead without him. Of course, Samuel arrives just after Saul finishes. In verse 11, Samuel says, “What hast thou done?” and Saul explains. In verse 12, he says, “The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.”

Samuel doesn’t buy it. In verses 13 and 14, he says, “Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”

After this story, we are back to a description of the war against the Philistines. However, it is time to fast-forward again to chapters 15–17.

I remember 1 Samuel 15:22 from my days in Seminary: “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.”

Here’s the question I don’t remember paying much attention to when I learned this scripture: What, precisely, was Saul’s act of disobedience?

To find out, you have to go back to 1 Samuel 15:3, where God instructs Samuel to give Saul the following instructions: “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.”

In verse 9 we read, “But Saul and the people spared [King] 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.”

I remember who the Amalekites are because when I was growing up I loved a book by Gladys Malvern called Behold Your Queen. This book was based on the book of Esther in the Old Testament about Queen Esther and her fight against Haman the Amalekite, who almost succeeds in getting the Persians to wipe out the Jews for him.

I loved this book so much it was a family joke every time I came home with it to read it again; between third grade and sixth grade I filled out an entire library card, front and back. And because I loved this book, the first book in the Old Testament that I ever read was (you guessed it) the book of Esther. So, yes, I do understand that Saul’s disobedience had grave consequences for the Jews later. And yes, I understand that Saul was a war king, and that going to war and killing people was part of his job description. But I still don’t understand why Saul was ordered to kill everybody, including women, babies, and toddlers.

Samuel finds out about Saul’s disobedience from the Lord, and he is so upset that in verse 11 we learn that “he cried unto the Lord all night.” In verses 13 through 16, Samuel and Saul talk to each other. “And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? 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. 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.”

Verses 17–19 contains Samuel’s stinging rebuke for Saul. “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? 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. 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?”

What happens next is very dramatic. Samuel tells Saul in verse 26 that “the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.” Saul then says something very interesting to Samuel in verse 26: “I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.” Samuel refuses and tries to leave, but Saul grabs Samuel’s clothing (“the skirt of his mantle,” in verse 27) and tears it. Samuel says, “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. And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.”

In response, Saul says, “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.” This softens Samuel, who in verse 31 “turned again after Saul; and Saul worshipped the Lord.” I love the courtesy of this. Samuel then calls for Agag to be someone, and “Agag came unto him delicately” verse 32. But delicate or not, Agag is immediately and violently killed by Samuel. Samuel and Saul then part from each other for the last time. In verse 35, we read, “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.”

So what can we take away from this story? I find it very interesting what Saul considered himself to be guilty of, and even more interesting what Samuel accused him of. One of the things that happens to us in this life is that as we get older and acquire positions of responsibility, we do tend to lose the deference of youth, and we are no longer “little in [our] own sight.” In short, we become guilty of pride. C.S. Lewis talks about this, and so does Ezra Taft Benson.

What else can we take away from this story? It certainly gives us an opportunity to think about the nature of the God we believe in. We have several possibilities to consider:"

(1) God may sometimes command us to kill other people, some of whom are innocent and weaker than we are. I have to say, I am extremely uncomfortable with this one. Part of the definition of being God is also being kind, compassionate, wise, and loving. How does commanding the murder of women and children fit into that? Many people have flat-out rejected this kind of God, because they feel that such a God is both capricious and cruel, and is unwilling to defend those most in need of defense. That is a strong argument!

(2) God may sometimes command us to kill other people, but there might be more to the story than what we have in the scriptures, and if we understood what the reasoning was, we would understand why this was necessary. That’s better than the first option, but it’s still terribly weak because it is extremely unsatisfying. However, it at least offers us the option of saying that we don’t know it all. And the truth is, we don’t.

(3) Samuel may have been mistaken as to the source of the inspiration. Just as Saul’s evil spirit was not from God, it is also possible that Samuel was mistaken about the source of his revelation on this subject. Samuel could have been influenced by the adversary, but he also could have been influenced by his own feelings and simply been mistaken. This was a cruel and brutal age, after all. (Remember Nahash the Ammonite in 1 Samuel 11:2 and his rejection of any peace that doesn’t involve mutilating the men of Israel by half blinding them?)

I do not believe that God has the morals of a thug, and so I reject (1). That is not the God I worship or could worship under any circumstances.

My own views on the subject are somewhere between (2) and (3), because I have to concede that I don’t know everything (not even close!) and that I am far from having the full story. But I would also hope, quite frankly, for (3). I would prefer to think that Samuel made a mistake, and that the Israelites were as human and prone to making mistakes as we are, than think that God is cruel.

We meet David in Chapter 16, and in Chapter 17 we read the story of David and Goliath. These chapters are both usually covered pretty extensively in Sunday School classes and are more familiar to us than the story of Saul’s time as king, and I am not going to take a lot of time here to discuss them. I do love 1 Samuel 16:7, though: “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” If we could do this more effectively, we would be a much better people than we are.

The lesson guide is also careful to point out that in 1 Samuel 16:17–23, the “evil spirit was not from God.” (See the Old Testament Class Study Guide, “The Lord Looketh on the Heart,” p. 15.)

Regardless of how Saul ended up, it seems plain to me that being a war king destroyed him, but that he did not choose to be king. He and Samuel both seem so human in these pages, you can’t help but get a sense of their personality, and I cannot help but pity Saul. He deserved a better life (and a more anonymous one) than what he got.

Sunday School Notebook - June 2006 - Susan Morgan