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SAMUEL SET OUT TO MEET SAUL

Text: 1 Samuel 15
28 April 2009

(I) SAMUEL SET OUT TO MEET SAUL

1. With a deep sense of grief (1 Samuel 15:22)

2. Discovered that Saul had set a monument to himself (1 Samuel 15:12)

(II) SAMUEL’S CONFRONTATION OF SAUL

1. Samuel’s courage to confront Saul

“Then Samuel went up Saul…” 1 Samuel 15:13a

2. Saul’s attempt to deceive Samuel

“And Saul said to him,

‘Blessed are you of the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD’ ” 1 Samuel 15:13b

a) Proper use of salutation

b) Pretence of having fulfilled the commandment of God

3. Samuel’s retort

“But Samuel said,

‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear.’ ” 1 Samuel 15:14

a) Saul’s lie blown by the animals that had been spared

b) Samuel may be older but he was still very sharp

4. Saul’s lack of integrity

a) Blames the people for sparing the sheep

b) Spins a story of wanting to keep the animals for sacrifice to the Lord

c) Maintains his earlier claim… that he had kept God’s commandment

5. Samuel silences Saul and gives an oracle from the Lord

a) Recalling how God had graciously anointed Saul as king (1 Samuel 15:17)

b) Recalling the Mission that God had sent him on (1 Samuel 15:18)

c) Remonstration with Saul for his disobedience (1 Samuel 15:19)

6. Saul continues to protest his innocence with admission of variance

a) He had gone to war with the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:20)

b) Admission that king Agag had been spared (1 Samuel 15:20)

c) The people were the ones who spared the best of the animals (1 Samuel 15:21)

d) These animals were meant to be offered as a sacrifice to God (1 Samuel 15:21)

7. Samuel pronounces a Solemn judgment from the Lord

a) Obedience to the Lord is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22)

b) Disobedience is essentially “rebellion”

c) Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft

d) Stubbornness is as idolatry

e) Disobedience is rejection of the word of the Lord (1 Samuel 15:23c)

8. Saul finally capitulates and confesses

“I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the LORD.” 1 Samuel 15:24-25

a) Sin admitted

b) Transgression of God’s express command admitted

c) Blaming of the people again

New spin… fearing the people

d) Asking for pardon

e) Desire for worship

9. Samuel rejected Saul’s overture

The solemn word of God’s rejection of Saul as king over Israel declared again (1 Samuel 15:26)

10. Saul tries to coerce Samuel

a) Tearing of Samuel’s robe (1 Samuel 15:27)

b) Symbolic sign of the rent of the kingdom from Saul (1 Samuel 15:27)

c) Kingdom has been given away to someone else

d) The Lord (“The Strength of Israel”) would not relent (1 Samuel 15:29)

11. Plea of Saul repeated (1 Samuel 15:30)

12. Samuel accedes (1 Samuel 15:31)

13. Slaying of king Agag (1 Samuel 15:32-33)

14. Samuel returns to Ramah, mourning for Saul (1 Samuel 15: 34-35)

15. He did not see Saul ever again (1 Samuel 15:35)