1 Samuel 15:4-35 | Food for Thought

 

1 Samuel 15:4-35

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Food for Thought:

  • Justice, Mercy, and Obedience. In the first few verses of this chapter, God commands Saul to strike the Amalekites, devoting everything they have to destruction. In this way, the Lord will claim his land and his people’s future home of idolatry. But in our passage today, Saul and his people take a few liberties of his own - for better or worse.

    • Saul gives a warning to their friends, the Kenites, who were living among the Amalekites. They aren’t part of God’s people, but they’ve been a blessing to God’s people. Saul isn’t confronted on sparing the Kenites, but he is confronted on sparing Agag. What’s the difference?

    • What other liberties do Saul and his people take? According to the text, what were their motivations? Can you see where they’re coming from?

    • What the Lord saw as needing to be destroyed, the people saw as either “worthless” or “good,” offering to the Lord the very best in worship. Why do they - and we - define what’s fit for worship differently? Why do we confuse clear commands in service of worship, sacrifice, or offering?

    • Are there things in your life - possessions, habits, ways of thinking, relationships, loves, etc. - that you know you shouldn’t have but are convincing yourself you can keep by justifying it with “worship,” “sacrifice,” or “mercy” on your own terms?

    • Sometimes we think that if we don’t “feel like” obeying, then God won’t be worshiped by our obedience. Why is this a wrong way of thinking? What does this passage say about God’s desire for obedience in worship?

  • God’s Regret. A couple of times in this passage, God says he regrets making Saul king. Later, Samuel says that the Lord isn’t like a man, and that God shouldn’t regret anything. This is one of those places in the bible where we see the personal nature of the Lord (he’s not a stiff, unemotive robot) and his impassibility (he’s not stuck reacting to / being bound by his circumstances).

    • What do you think about God regretting a decision he made? That said, how does knowing that God gave the people the kind of king they wanted shape this particular circumstance?

    • It’s safe to say that not everything that happens here on earth is God’s ideal; sin, suffering, evil, and death aren’t good things. How does this part of our story in 1 Samuel contribute to the conversation about the world “not going God’s way,” all the while God being sovereign ruler of creation who’s steering all things to redemption and reconciliation in Jesus?

    • In the end of our passage, Samuel finishes off Agag, the enemy’s evil king, and says that Saul, the Israelites’ bad king, has been rejected in favor of a better one. How does this point forward to our future hope in Jesus, our good king, to return and put an end to all evil, once and for all?

 
1 SamuelScott O'Donohoe