1 Samuel 15
Saul is told to strike the Amalekites. He musters Israel to fight, conquers them, but makes the mistake of keeping what is worthwhile:
1Sa 15:9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.
In some odd way, this reminds me of Cain and Abel. If the sacrifice is worthless in the giver's eyes, then it becomes an insult to the Lord instead of a pleasure. What good is it to destroy only the "despised and worthless"? In 1 Samuel 15:11, we are given insight into the Lord's thoughts on Saul directly:
1Sa 15:11 "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.
Samuel and the Lord seem more grieved and affected than Saul. Perhaps this is the problem? The Lord's regret centers upon two complaints (1) that---"he has turned his back from following me" (2) "and has not performed my commandments."
Fearful comment by MacLaren---which type of "devoted" do we wish to be? We are part of His plan whether we acknowledge Him and cooperate with Him or whether we stiffen our necks and deny His ways. Although there is an initial cost of obedience, inconvenience, uncertainty on the front end, I prefer that to the back end where you become a reluctant part of His plan and experience the consequences of disobedience.
"The terrible old usages of that period are brought into play again, and the whole nation with its possessions is ‘devoted’. The word explains the dreadful usage. There are two kinds of devotion to God: that of willing, and that of unwilling, men; the one brings life, the other, death. The massacre of the foul nations of Canaan was thereby made a direct divine judgment, and removed wholly from the region of ferocious warfare." -MacLaren
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