1 Samuel 15:1 - Meaning and Application

Here, Samuel, speaking in God’s name, solemnly calls Saul to obedience and makes clear that God is now testing him in one specific matter, whether he will obey or not (1 Samuel 15:1). That makes Saul’s later disobedience even worse, because the issue was put before him so plainly. Samuel reminds him what God had already done for him: “The Lord sent me to anoint you king.” God had given Saul his power, so Saul should use that power for God. God had honored him, and now Saul must seek to honor God. God had made him king over Israel, so he must now defend Israel’s cause and avenge Israel’s wrongs. He was set over God’s people, but he still remained under the rule of Israel’s God.

Samuel also gives the broader rule that follows from this: whatever God commands, Saul must do. “Now listen to the voice of the Lord.” God’s kindness to us places a strong duty on us to obey him. That is what we must give back to him (Psalm 116:12).

Then Samuel gives Saul a specific task in which he must prove his obedience more than he had before. He speaks with God’s full authority: “Thus says the Lord of hosts,” meaning the Lord who commands all armies, including Israel’s armies. He also gives the reason for the command, so the severity of it will not seem arbitrary: “I remember what Amalek did to Israel” (1 Samuel 15:2). God had a long-standing case against the Amalekites because of how they attacked Israel when Israel came out of Egypt. The story is found in Exodus 17:8 and following, and the guilt is made even clearer in Deuteronomy 25:18. They struck the rear of Israel’s march, attacking the weak and stragglers, and they did not fear God.

God had sworn then that he would be at war with Amalek from generation to generation, and that he would one day erase Amalek’s name. That is the task Saul is now told to carry out (1 Samuel 15:3). He must go and strike Amalek, because Israel is now strong and Amalek’s guilt is now full. Saul is ordered to destroy that condemned nation completely. He must kill every person, men and women, children and infants, and not spare them out of pity. He must also destroy their animals, oxen, sheep, camels, and donkeys, and not spare them out of greed.

This teaches several things. Injuries done to God’s people will surely be accounted for, especially when those people are attacked as they come out of Egypt. God often waits a long time before judging those marked for ruin. But though he waits, he does not wait forever. The time of repayment for Israel’s cause will come at last. Divine justice may move slowly, but it always reaches its mark. And often the longer judgment is delayed, the more severe it is when it comes. God also chooses the right person for the work. This was bloody work, so Saul, a rough and severe man, was fitted for it.

Saul then gathers his army and moves against Amalek. He brings out a very large force, 200,000 foot soldiers (1 Samuel 15:4). When he had gone to face the Philistines, and the danger was high, only 600 men stayed with him (1 Samuel 13:15). But now, since he is attacking Amalek by direct command from heaven and is sure of victory, he can call out thousands more. At this time, however, Judah’s share was not large enough to honor them, whatever the reason may have been. Their number was shamefully small, only 10,000, while the other tribes, except Levi, brought 200,000 men. Judah’s day of honor was coming, but it had not yet arrived.

Saul numbered the troops at Telaim, a place-name that means “lambs.” The old Latin version understood the wording to mean that he numbered them like lambs, and the Chaldee took it to mean he counted them by passover lambs. In later Jewish practice, ten men were counted to a lamb. Saul then brought his forces to the chief city of Amalek (1 Samuel 15:5), hoping to draw them out into battle.

He also gave a friendly warning to the Kenites, the family connected to Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, to separate themselves from the Amalekites, among whom they were living while the judgment fell (1 Samuel 15:6). This was wise and godly, and likely followed Samuel’s guidance. The Kenites were a tent-dwelling people, so it was easy for them to move from one place to another. Many of them were living among the Amalekites at this time, and though they lived in tents, they were secure in a natural way, since they had made their home in rocky places. Balaam had foretold that they too would one day be wasted (Numbers 24:21-22), but Saul was not to destroy them now.

Saul first acknowledges the kindness their ancestors had shown to Israel when Israel came out of Egypt. Jethro and his family had been a great help to Israel through the wilderness, almost like eyes to them, and God remembered that kindness long afterward. In this way, a good person may leave a blessing for children and grandchildren. People who come after us may enjoy the fruit of our good works when we are already in the grave. God does not forget kindness shown to his people. It will be remembered, at the very least, on the last day, and rewarded in the resurrection of the righteous. “I was hungry, and you gave me food.” God’s remembering the Kenites’ kindness, while at the same time punishing the Amalekites’ cruelty, shows the righteousness of his judgment. If God can pass blessings down through families, he can also pass judgment down through families. He sides with his people so fully that he blesses those who bless them, and curses those who curse them (Numbers 24:9; Genesis 12:3). People may not be able to repay kindness or punish wrongs for themselves, but God will do both.

Then Saul tells the Kenites to move away from the Amalekites: “Go, leave, get down from among them.” When God’s destroying judgments are near, he takes care to separate the precious from the worthless and to hide the humble of the earth in the day of his anger. It is dangerous to be found with God’s enemies. It is also our duty and our good to come out from among them, so that we do not share in their sins and their plagues (Revelation 18:4). The Jews have a saying: woe to the wicked man, and woe to his neighbor.

Saul then defeats the Amalekites, for this was more like carrying out a sentence against condemned men than fighting a normal war between equal enemies.

The matter should not have been in doubt, since the command was just and the order was plain. He struck them down, and destroyed them completely (1 Samuel 15:7, 8). In that way, the people of Amalek finally paid for the sin of their ancestors. God sometimes holds a family or nation to account for old guilt. The Amalekites were idolaters and guilty of many other sins, so they deserved God’s wrath on their own. Yet when God brought judgment on them, he pointed to their earlier abuse of Israel as the main reason for his case against them. Lord, how deep and beyond our grasp are your judgments, yet how clear your righteousness is.

Still, Saul carried out the command only partly (1 Samuel 15:9). He spared Agag, the Amalekite king, likely because Agag was a king like him, and perhaps because Saul hoped for a rich ransom. He also spared the best of the cattle and destroyed only the worthless animals. We may suppose that many of the people escaped and carried away their goods to other lands, which is why Amalekites are mentioned again later. But that part could not be helped. Saul’s fault was that he did not destroy those who were in his reach and under his power.

What was destroyed was, in effect, offered to God’s justice, since vengeance belongs to him. For Saul to treat the torn, the sick, the lame, and the weak as good enough for God, while keeping the best animals for his own fields and table, was really to honor himself more than God.