Saul's lack of obedience

If there is something to be said about Saul in 1 Samuel, it is that he is ruled by his passions.  In chapter 14, he takes an oath that none of his troops should eat any food before he is avenged on his enemies.   It seems as though he makes this decision based on his own pride and reputation.  So when Jonathan (his son) sees the folly in Saul’s command and eats honey from a honeycomb, Saul is ready to kill him.  Fortunately for Jonathan, the people of Israel were on his side, leading Saul to withhold his rage from his son.  All of this to say, Saul is a man ruled by his passions and in many instances he will make decisions solely based on what the people of Israel will think of him, which eventually leads him to disobedience and disenfranchisement from God.

One telling example of Saul’s disobedience toward God takes place in 1 Samuel chapter 15.  In verse 3 God commands Saul to “attach Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”  This seems like a pretty straightforward command, right?  Well it seems that Saul misunderstood what God required of him.   But when God handed the Amalekites into his hands, Saul left King Agag and the best of the lambs, cattle, and fatlings alive.

When Saul returns with the spoils of the battle at his disposal, Samuel confronts him, asking why Saul brought back King Agag and the spoils when God had clearly “sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed’ (Verse 18).”  Saul is taken aback by Samuel’s reprimanding, claiming that he brought back the spoils as a sacrifice to the Lord, but Samuel responds with a statement that is quite telling of Saul’s time as king. He says:

Has the Lord as great delight in

burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obedience to the voice of the

Lord?

         Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed than the fat of rams. 

         For rebellion is no less a sin than

divination,

         and stubbornness is like iniquity

and idolatry.

         Because you have rejected the word

of the Lord,

         he has also rejected you from being King. (v. 22-23)

The thing that Saul misunderstands is that the Lord does not solely desire to have homage paid to Him after each battle via burnt offerings and sacrifices.  If that were the case, He would be no different than the gods of the Canaanites.  The Lords desire is for obedience, which Saul proves time and again to misunderstand.  Perhaps this is why God rarely chooses the strongest, best looking, and most talented candidates to do his work in the OT.  This harkens back to Genesis 6, where God utterly rejects the heroes of old, the warriors of renown, and later in Genesis where God chooses the weaker brother Jacob of the stronger Esau.  God’s concern is not for who is the aristoi (the best) among all others, but who will be the most obedient. This is one of the common themes we see with the prominent OT charaters: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and eventually David’s lives were marked by obedience. 

Of course I am imposing a particular arc on the OT narrative, all of these great heroes of the OT had their shortcomings and moments of disobedience, but overall each of these lived in obedience to God’s commands.  Maybe this is why David is called a man after God’s own heart, while the Lord becomes sorry that he ever made Saul king over Israel (verse 35)