Well, thank you, Adam and Justin and Katie for leading us in song, and thank you all for singing. It's always so great to hear a church congregation sing. So I've not met you. My name is Aaron, and I'm the preaching pastor here. And glad you're with us this morning.
So if you have a Bible with you, if you want to open up to the Old Testament book of First Samuel, here, it's actually starting to be chapter 15, First Samuel 15. And if you don't have a Bible, there should be some on the pews somewhere next to you. And as you're turning there, I just want to just express how thankful I am for you as a church family. You know, this last week, I keep hearing stories and how you just stay connected and how you're caring for one another, and I just love hearing those stories. And it's so much fun at the Valentine's Day party on Friday.
That was a blast. And I know there's a lot of other things that you all have been doing throughout the winter months, especially to stay connected and to care for one another. And I just want you to know how, like, grateful I am for that. And I'm also just wanting, you know, how grateful I am that you give me the opportunity most weeks here to open up God's holy word, to try to teach it to you. So grateful for this time and this privilege that you've given to me.
So our text, as I said, is from 1st Samuel 15. We're gonna be studying the whole passage this morning, but I'm just gonna read verses 34 and 35, and then I'm going to read those. Those two verses, and I'm going to pray. Ask for the Spirit's help as we work through the passage, and then we'll dive into the sermon. So 1st Samuel 15, starting verse 34, this is what the Word says.
Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord regretted that he made Saul king over Israel. Okay, so that's God's word for us this morning. Let's pray.
Lord, it's good to be here.
It's good to be with fellow believers. It's good to be with people who love your word.
Lord, I do pray for the glory of Christ that you would use this time, that you indeed speak to us through your word. At this time, I not return void. Please help me to be a good communicator of this passage, please help this congregation to be good listeners. And Lord, I pray that this time would just be sweet. I pray this all in Jesus name.
Amen. So for us, even though we believe and trust wholeheartedly that God is good and he's loving and that all that God does comes from his good and loving heart, we know that not all things are good. And because not all things are good, there are just some things that are just hard for us to understand. Let me give you a few examples. So in our church family here, while we are incredibly grateful to God for all of our friends with us from Ukraine, we know all the events surrounding them coming to be with us, they're not good.
And I'm sure for our Ukrainian friends that are with us and our church family times, it's been really hard to understand or see the goodness of God or the love of God, how it fits into all the heartbreak they've had to endure the last year. This week, our friends serving in Turkey were met with an awful tragedy with massive earthquakes that have just devastated the country where there actually is a family right now, one of our families has family in the area who's still buried under rubble. Like right now, they're still trying to pull out one of our friends, aunts. And I'm sure as he lived through this awful devastation this last week, it's probably been hard for them to see the goodness of God with so many lives lost, so many lives completely, completely turned upside down. There's no doubt if we went around the room today, each of us probably has personal stories of tragedy, of heartache, of pain that likewise has made it hard to understand how God can still be good.
How can he still be loving with all of this pain? And it's not just what we see in the news. It's not just what we see in our old lives, in our own lives at times make it hard to reconcile how it fits with the goodness and the love of God. But there's just some stories in the scriptures that are just hard to understand. They're so hard that we either just like, try to ignore them, or perhaps we doubt the truth of them, or perhaps there's just a story in scripture that's just so hard to understand that we might even have our faith shaken.
Friends, this morning, I want to be up front. I want you to know that we're coming to one of those passages up front. I want you to know that we're going about to walk through a very heavy passage that might not be Easy for us to think through a heavy text that maybe for some of you might not be able to fully reconcile how this fits into, like the goodness into the love of God this morning. This is an important text though, for us to go through and to consider. And it's important not just because it's the next text in our sermon series of 1st Samuel.
It's important also because it teaches us truths about God, specifically as it relates to his justice. My friends, this passage, other heavy passages like it that speak about the justice of God actually helps us to better understand how good and loving God is to us through His Son Jesus Christ, which is a heavy and good love. Okay, now before we walk through this heavy passage, just a reminder where we left off in our study. So Several weeks back, 1st Samuel 8, the people of God demanded to God that he would give them a king so they could be like all the other nations around them. And this act here was like them rejecting God as being their king.
So rather than God being the king, they wanted a man after their own heart to be their king. So in our study we have seen that the Lord gave to his people what they wanted. God turned them over to their own heart's desire, and a man named Saul was appointed to be their king. Now, if you remember, while Saul looked apart in that he was tall and good looking, the character was very much lacking in Saul. He was not a man of integrity.
He's not a man after God's own heart. And even though Saul got off to a pretty good start in his reign, it didn't take long for his lack of character start to really shine through. So you may remember in chapter 13, as a means by which Saul was trying to take control of a conflict that was going on with the Philistines, you may remember how he made an unlawful sacrifice where he tried to manipulate and twist things to go according to his plan. And this unlawful sacrifice that Saul gave was against the clear teachings of Scripture and it was incredibly offensive in the sight of God. So we read in 1st Samuel 13, the Lord sent Samuel, who was a great prophet and priest, to tell Saul because of his sinful actions, that the Lord would take his kingdom from him and to give it after a man after God's own heart.
That was chapter 13. Then our text last week, the end of chapter 14. We read more about the lack of character in Saul and how this began to spiral into more and more issues in his life where he continued to seek for more and more control rather than just trusting in the Lord. Last week Specifically, we read that that Saul had a problem with his tongue, where throughout the text, Saul continued to just run his mouth, which brought about great hurt to all those around him. As you may remember, this hurt rippled for years and years to come.
Where so many people suffered because of Saul, there's a lack of control of his tongue. This is where we left off last week. Saul is, like, spiraling. He's not following after the Lord and he's causing great pain to those around him. Okay, so that's a reminder where we were.
Look back with me in our text today, starting in verse one. As I mentioned, we're just going to walk through this passage, so just keep your Bible open. So verse one, we see that our text starts off with a conversation between Samuel and Saul, which is a conversation. We don't know the historical timeline, when it happened, but I think it's right to assume this is after the events recorded in chapter 13 and 14. And in this conversation, we see Samuel remind Saul that the Lord has sent him to anoint Saul to be the king over the people, which was in chapter 10 is because.
And because Samuel had this unique role in Saul's life, Samuel now had a message from the Lord that he wanted Saul to hear and to obey, which is the message in verse 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts. I have noted what Amalek did to Israel, imposing them on the way out as they came out of Egypt. Now, let me pause here just to understand what he's referring to. Amalek or the Amalekites.
So this is a nomadic tribe who are known plunderers, who sought to be optimistic on the misfortune of others. And so when others were down or others were in a vulnerable place, they would try to come against those people and to. To plunder them, which is exactly what they tried to do against God's people all the way back to the book of Exodus, which took place a few hundred years prior, where God delivered his people out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt, and he sent them on a journey in the wilderness to the promised land. So read about this in Exodus chapter 13. So as the people of God were in the wilderness in this vulnerable place, the Malachites, in Exodus 13, they went on the attack against God's people.
And in the stories, famously, when Moses, who was the leader of God's people at the time, remember how he had. When he had his arms up, the people of God would be winning in the battle. But if his arm started to drop because of fatigue, God's people started to lose, and then the Amalekites would start to win. So eventually, as you may remember, famously, Moses, brother Aaron, and a man named Hur came over and basically put their arms under Moses, arms to help keep Moses, arms up to bring forth the victory. Verse two of our text.
So I was reminded of Saul of that event that took place hundreds of years prior to verse 3. Saul reminded, or Samuel reminded Saul of the history. The message of the Lord was that the Lord had not forgotten that event. The Lord took note of what the Amalekites did. And now through Saul, the Lord wanted to settle the debt with the Amalekites, for when they attacked his people, the Lord's about to bring about justice.
So in the text, the Lord is, Saul, I want you to go and strike Amalekite, and I want you to strike them in such a way that you devote yourself to the destruction of all that they have in this text. And Saul, I want this destruction to be so thorough that I don't want you to spare any of them. I want you to kill every man and woman, child and infant, the ox, the sheep, the camel, and the donkey. Obviously, we gotta hit the brakes just for a second. Say it again.
This is a hard passage today. This here perhaps is the hardest part for us to understand. This passage, you heard that, right? God just commanded Saul to wipe out an entire people, including women and children. I'm not going to try to help us think through this command at this point here in the sermon.
I do plan a circle back at the end of the sermon to try to help us maybe reconcile how this fits into the goodness and love of God. But this command here, I'm sure for some of us is like, causing at least a little bit of uncomfortableness, a little bit of unease. So I want to acknowledge this here. This is hard, let's say. Again, I'm going to circle back at the end to try to help process how we can reconcile this in our own minds, how this fits into the goodness and love of God.
Okay, keep going. Verse 4. As Saul gave this heavy command from God, this justice that he wanted executed, we see that Saul then summoned a number, his people together in a place called Telamon. And as he called his people together, we see that Saul is actually to get a pretty big army to help carry out this instruction from the lord. In the ESV, it says there's 200,000 from the tribe of Israel, another 10,000 from Judah.
The way to possibly translate it as 200 military units from Israel and 10 military units from Judah. Either way, this is a massive army. As Saul put together this army, we see that he went on the march, a march that took him to the city of Amalek. And this most likely is actually where the place where the Amalekites were probably just currently dwelling. As I mentioned, they were a nomadic tribe.
And as Saul got his army to where we needed to go, we see in the text that they lied in wait in the valley. And so they get there and they wait for the proper time to strike. And as they waited, we read in the text that Saul came in contact with the Kenites, which a group of people that we see in the book of Judges that Israel was actually on friendly terms with. And as Saul came in contact with this people, in keeping with the friendly terms, we've seen in verse 6, that Saul warns them, and he warns them to depart from the area, to stay away from the Amalekites, lest they too be destroyed. And as Saul gave them this morning, he bestowed this act of friendship upon them.
We see in the text they did in large part because of how the Kenites were friendly to Israel in the past. In particular, when Israel came out, out of Egypt, that's when the Kenites showed kindness to them. And this year, I think this is specifically referring to the story of a man named Jethro. Remember Jethro? So he was the father in law of Moses, and he gave great wisdom to Moses in Exodus 13 that blessed Moses and then really all the people.
So. So Judges one says that Jethro was a Keenite. By the way, just take note of here that this kindness also took place a hundred years before. So not only does God take account of evil deeds that in time will be met with justice, which he does in our text in verses two and three, the Amalekites. But in the same manner, God is also taking account of deeds of kindness, of love.
They also do not go unnoticed by by them. So. So hundreds of years later at this scene, the Kenites would be on the receiving end of God's kindness and his favor. Keep going. Just all warned the Kenites to get out of dodge.
We see that they heard. They heard it, they obeyed it. So then in verse six, the Kenites, they got out of there. They got themselves out of harm's way. And as the friendly Kenites left the area, in verse seven, we see that Saul now goes on the attack.
And as he attacked, we read that he defeated the Amalekites from a couple of cities. I'm not going to try to Pronounce from you. Which is east of Egypt. And this is a very broad region. So Israel is like, they're really going after the amalekites here.
Verse 8. As a battle waged on, we see that the Saul was able to capture Agag, who is the king of the Amalekites. And as Saul captured and we see that he decided it's better to keep the king alive, perhaps as a spoil of war, perhaps as maybe a bit of a power play or a flex for Saul to show how great he was. And while Agag was kept reading the text that Saul sought to destroy the rest of the people with the edge of the sword. Now, already here, there should be some flags going off in our mind.
The command was to kill everyone. But here Saul decided that he wanted to keep the king alive. And not only did he decide to keep the king alive, in verse nine, we read that he kept alive the best sheep, the best oxen. He kept alive the fattened cow and the lambs. In fact, anything that Saul, that Saul decided that he wanted to label good, that he kept alive, they would not be destroyed.
Only the things that Saul decided that were worthless, despised. Those are the things destroyed. No should mention a few times in Scripture we do see provisions for them to take the spoils of the land. But this is not one of those occasions. God gave no clear provisions for them to do that.
This was clearly not God's desire. God labeled this as evil, but now Saul is trying to label it as good. And he's rationalizing in his own mind why this clear command was up for his own interpretation, why he's able to make this to suit his own desires. He's cherry picking here. He's kind of like picking and choosing on how he wanted to obey.
Now, for us, it might be easy for us to spot this in Saul's life, but maybe not so easy to spot this in our own lives. Now, I do wonder how many times you and I, in different ways, do the same basic thing. Or maybe there's a clear expectation of scripture. But you know what? I don't really want to meet that expectation, at least not fully, at least not completely.
So maybe I'll do the expectation, but only up to, like, this point. And then I'll call it like good enough. I'll give like, partial obedience, somewhat obedience. Pick and choose obedience. And surely that is good enough.
Verse 10.
Saul was picking and choosing how he wanted to obey the Lord's good command. We see that the word of the Lord then came to Samuel and as the word of the Lord came to Samuel, this is another hard word for Samuel. Verse 11. Samuel, I regret that I made Saul king. Or I am grieved by making Saul the king.
For Saul has turned his back on following me and has not been obedient to perform my commandments. Now a couple things to talk about once more at the end. While white might be okay with like somewhat obedience, that's not how the Lord views it in the text, the somewhat obedience of Saul. This is labeled by the Lord as Saul turning his back on God. Friends, that's what we do when we but kinda, but not really seek to obey.
Like we're turning our backs on the Lord, as if we know better. Second, let me point out, God obviously knew this was going to happen to Saul. In fact, God even told the people that when they demanded a king, like this was going to happen. So even though our text says that God like regretted or he was grieved over Saul being king, it's not like this came as a surprise to the Lord, like he's still in complete control, still sovereign over the situation. However Saul is sinning, the heart of God was grieved.
Sin does not leave God apathetic where it's like no big deal to him. Rather, sin angers, it grieves the heart of God. We might be apathetic to our own sin. We might not think it's a big deal, but that's not how our holy and just God views sin. Back to our text, as Samuel was given this message from the Lord concerning Saul.
We see that this angered Samuel. Perhaps he's angered at Saul, maybe anger at the Lord, maybe just angry at all things surrounding this situation. So in the text, in his anger, we see Samuel give really a good model for us to follow. Yet another good model for us to follow from the life of Samuel. We see in the text that his anger drove him to his knees.
You see it in verse 11. We see that he prayed to the Lord all night like he's crying out to the Lord, seeking the Lord. Lord, what do you want me to do with this from here. So verse 12. After this night of prayer, Samuel felt he got the answer from the Lord what he was to do.
So we see that he rose up early in the morning and he went to go confront Saul. And as he went to confront Saul in the text we see the Spirit of God let Samuel know just where he would find Saul. Textile Saul was in Carmel where he set up a monument for himself. Which by the way, pretty much sums up the reign of Saul in a nutshell, right here's prideful Saul. He's creating a monument for himself in his own honor to show how great he was.
Like he's that impressed by himself. By the way this information, learning about this monument, I'm sure this did not help Samuel's anger that he was feeling towards Saul. This text, after Saul set up his monument for self, Samuel's form, that he then turned and passed and went down to Gilgal, which is where Samuel would find him. So verse 13, if you take your eyes there, as Samuel went to Saul, we read that Samuel spotted or Saul spotted Samuel coming near to him. This is maybe perhaps similar when Samuel came to confront saul in chapter 13 with the unlawful sacrifice in our text is Saul spotted Samuel.
Seems like Saul was under the impression that Samuel was actually coming to praise him for a job well done. So in the text, Saul said to Samuel, hey, good friend, good to see you. Blessed be you to the Lord. I'm so glad you're here today. Come see.
I have performed the commandment of the Lord, which clearly Saul thought he was doing in this close enough obedience. After all, he did chase the Malachites all throughout the region. He captured the king, he slaughtered all the despised and worthless things. So in Saul's mind, hey, this is pretty good. Samuel's coming to praise me.
Only for Samuel to respond in verse 14, Saul, what's that bleating of the sheep that I can hear in my ears along with the lowering of the oxen. This here is clearly referring to the animals that Saul decided that was better to keep alive than destroyed. Verse 15, Saul responded back, oh, those Samuel. Yeah, we, we brought those back from the Amalekites. You know, I figured, hey, let's keep them because we can use those as like a sacrificial offering to the Lord.
Yes, we voted much to destruction. But I thought, hey, why waste perfectly good sheep and perfectly good oxen? So we brought those things back. Now, whether or not this is the true motives of Saul to use the animals offering to the Lord, we don't know either way, verse 16, this is not sitting well with Samuel. And if Samuel was angry before, like he's even more angry now.
So if Saul is trying to finish up why he decided to bring the sheep and the oxen back, we see in the text that Samuel simply yells out, stop, Samuel, stop with all of your excuses. Stop with all of your self justification. Saul, please stop with all the running of your mouth. I need you to listen. I need you to hear what the Lord told me the past night.
And I'm sure this had to shock Saul to be confronted in this way. After all, he's feeling pretty good about himself when Samuel comes on the scene. And he's pretty good at, like, kind of like talking his way out of things, you know, to manipulate people to get them to do what he wanted. So this year, Samuel yelling to Saul, stop this shocked mouth running, Saul. So in the text, the only thing Saul could respond to Samuel was speak.
Which is exactly what Samuel does in the text. Saul, though you are little in your own eyes, which here's referring to chapter nine, when Saul was told he'd become king, referred to himself as being little. Yet even with this humble upbringing, Saul, are you not now the head of over all the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you to be the king? And so as the Lord anointed you to king, did he not send you on this mission to go and devote yourself to the destruction of sinners, the Amalekites, and fight them until they're consumed?
So you understand that was the command that we gave you, right? That's the command that the Lord gave you, right? Correct. Right. The Lord could not have been more clear.
Verse 19. Then tell me, Saul, why is it that you decided you didn't have to obey the voice of the Lord? Why is it, Saul, explain to me, why did you pounce on the spoil and do this evil act in the sight of God?
Only for Sam? Only Saul respalled back. Well, Samuel, I don't know what you're talking about. I have obeyed the Lord. After all, I did go down the mission the Lord sent me and even brought back Agag, the king, and devoted the Amalekites to destruction.
Do you think this here, this is how far things are spiraling for Saul to the end? The Lord could not have been more clear in verses two and three. Here, somehow, Saul, in his own mind is able to twist a clear teaching of scripture to suit his own desires. He's trying to twist, and he's able to do it in such a way that he even thinks that he's now, like, obeying God by what he did. Friends, this is scary.
This is a trap we all can fall into where God might clearly say something, but we can get so twisted around in our own minds and our own hearts because we really want something to be true that we can even convince ourselves we're actually living in the will of God when we're clearly disobeying him. Verse 21. Then perhaps trying to blame sis. The blame shift. Saul once again trying to get out of responsibility.
Or maybe just another indicator how Saul really struggled with like fear of man issues. We see Saul, then tell Samuel and really, if you have an issue of what we brought back, Sam, I got to tell you, you're talking to the wrong person. It actually was the people. Yeah, it was the people who took the sheep and the oxen and the best of things devoted to destruction to. To sacrifice to the Lord your God.
And you'll go, so if there's an issue with the. With the sheep and the ox, really should take it up with the people instead. This here, this is Saul, like, he wants to be king. He wants to have the power, he wants to have the recognition, but he wants none of the responsibility. It's the people's fault, not my fault.
It's their fault. And Saul once again is trying to run his mouth, taking no responsibilities, try to talk out of. Trying to talk his way out of what he just clearly did was wrong. Sam responds back to him, which here I see like steam, like billowing out of Samuel's ears at this latest lame excuse by Saul and text. Saul, what do you think pleases the Lord more?
Does the Lord take greater delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice which we give when we are sinfully disobedient? Or does the Lord have greater delight when we actually obey the voice of the Lord and don't have to give in an offering to atone for sin? I'm feeling atonement of sarcasm here. Saul, what do you think? Does God delight in us sinning or not sinning?
Saul, you fool. Behold, it's better to obey than sacrifice and list of the fat of the rams. The text for sin rebellion is a sin of divination, which is basically an attempt to use like demons to gain power, which actually Saul literally would do at the end of his reign. Our text Samuel to Saul, you fool. Presumption is as an iniquity and idolatry, which clearly was an issue for Saul.
He was presuming upon the Lord. Presumably he could twist and manipulate the Lord, presume he could do whatever he wanted with no consequences. The text is all of this, Saul, all this kind of sort of, not really obedience, all of your attempts to control all over and over again what you've done. You've rejected the word of the Lord. So now because of your sin, your pride, your arrogant, the Lord has rejected you from being king in this text.
Samuel, he's not mixing words here. He's coming after Saul. With about a strong rebuke as you possibly can get. And this should be clearly knock Saul a bit off his high horse. So we see Saul actually admit in verse 24, yeah, I've sinned.
Yeah, I've transgressed the commandment of the Lord.
Saul at least admit in part that he was struggling, that he feared people, he obeyed their voice rather than fearing the Lord and his voice. And here, finally, after he finally admits where he has gone from wrong, verse 25, Saul starts to now beg Samuel to pardon his sin, to give him one more chance to be the king, that this time he might bow before the Lord. And we know what this is. This is bargaining here. God, I know I've disobeyed you over and over and over again.
I have sinned and continue to sin, where I tried to, like, talk my way out of it, where I kind of sort of obeyed, where I've not really made any changes in my actions. But God, if you give me one more chance, I promise this time will be different. That's what Saul's doing here in the text. Just give me one more chance. Even though Saul makes his best appeal to not have his power taken from him, see verse 26.
If I take it is there. Samuel's not buying it. Samuel to Saul, listen here. I'm not going to return to you, Saul, you had so many chances, but time and time again you continued to fail. Time and time again you continue to reject the word of the Lord.
Time and time again you continue to abuse your power, neglected your responsibility, and you just never learned. So now the Lord is indeed rejecting you as being king over Israel. The time given to prove yourself faithful has now run up. And Saul, you need to see this is all your doing. You did this to yourself by your sinful actions.
And Samuel said what he said in verse 27. As he turns away from Saul to go the other way, we see that Saul, like reaches out and tries to grab Samuel, attempting to further plead with him. So as Saul grabs out to Samuel and her text tells us the skirt of. He grabs the skirt of Samuel's robe and he grabs in a way that it becomes torn. And as Samuel sees this torn robe, he sees the parallels that would just have taken place with Saul.
So he tells Psalm verse 28, Saul, make no mistake, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and he's torn it from you. He's given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you, which we're actually going to get to in our text. Next week in chapter 16, Samuel to Saul. And as this kingdom is given over to this better man, verse 29, God will not lie, will not reject him like he did with you, because this man will be a man after God's own heart, one that God will not reject. Rather, the Lord will be pleased with him.
Verse 30. Even though Samuel continued to be honest, straightforward with Saul, we see that Saul, he still cannot accept the consequences of his ongoing sin. The thought of him not having power as a king was more than he could bear. He needed that control. So once again he tries to plead his way.
Once again, many yes. They keep saying, yes, I sin, yet I beg of you, please honor me now before the elders and people and before Israel, please let me still be the king and return to me this time that, yes, I may truly bow before the Lord your God. This week I thought about this thing. This is. This is really pathetic here.
I'm just thinking about. This is Saul who went from just like such a prideful, boastful person, where he made a monument of self, where he's like congratulating, patting himself on the back. When Samuel arrived on the scene to this point here, now he's like groveling, begging, pleading. He's doing everything he do to keep his kingship. This is pathetic.
This is. This is so far different from the class by which we saw Samuel step back from his role in chapter 12 in his farewell address. This is pathetic. Verse 31, Saul with groveling, we see Samuel further realized that Saul was not going to do the thing the Lord commanded him, even though Saul kept saying this time to be different. So we see that after Samuel turned his back, after Saul, with Saul bowed before the Lord, we see that Saul in verse 32, or Samuel calls out in verse 32 to bring Agag, the king of the Amalekites, over.
In this text, as Agag was brought to Samuel, we see he comes over kind of cheerfully. Agag's prayer maybe is like assuming that some type of, like, honor or recognition was about to come his way. In our text, Agag concluded that at this point, surely all bitterness of death has now passed. Well, verse 33, that's not the correct assumption.
So we read Agag came to Samuel, and Samuel had a hard word for him. And Samuel told Agag, as your sword has made women childless, which speaks of the evil acts that this king was doing, so shall your mother Aglay Agag be a childless woman. With that, Samuel takes a sword, and our text tells us he hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord. In Gilgal, justice was finally, fully, completely served.
And as the heavy justice of God was finally served through the prophet and priest Samuel, we see our text ends with Samuel going back to Rhema while Saul headed to his house in Gibeah.
As the two men departed, we see that Samuel would not see Saul again until the day of Saul's death. But we also see in the text, even though Saul was physically out of Samuel's sight the rest of his life, he wasn't emotionally out of Samuel's mind because Samuel continued to grieve over Saul with a grieving that really reflected the heart of God. Once again, our text ends with saying that the Lord regretted or grieved that he made Saul king over Israel. Friends, this is a heavy text all throughout, starting with the heavy command of God to wipe out the Amalekites to the heaviness of God as he further and completely rejects Saul to the heaviness of God through Samuel by taking justice out on Agag. And I want to recognize again that perhaps this is a hard text for some of us, maybe all of us this morning to recognize how this fits into the goodness and the love of God.
So we work through ribbons tonight. I have just some thoughts for us. I want to give you these thoughts on the banner of the justice of God. And as I give you this, just understand there's more that I could and probably should say, but we can't because of this time frame. So if this is something that you want to talk with me further with, please come let me know.
I'd love to talk more with you about heavy passages like this. Within that, there's actually a great book that I'd recommend to any of you here. It's called the Holiness of God, written by R.C. Sproul that I would recommend to you. It's really helpful in terms of helping us think through the justice of God.
Holiness of God I have a copy of I'd love for you to borrow too. I think our church library might even have a copy if that interests you as well. Okay, let me give you a handful of summary points and then we'll be done. So first, as we think through this passage, the justice of God is full and complete. Just again, maybe this is the hardest thing for us to understand from this text, and this is not something we see just in our text, but we actually see this in many places throughout the scripture.
So this week I thought about Noah and the flood, and in the full and complete justice of God, he wiped out everyone with the exception of Noah. And his family. This week I also thought about stories in the book of Joshua where when Israel entered into the promised land, we received very similar instructions today that they were to wipe out and destroy their enemies. This week I couldn't help but think about the reality of hell, the lake of fire, where the justice of God that burns over our sin and all evil will be met fully and completely for all eternity. Where all who do not bow the knee before God will be met with justice, weeping, gnashing of teeth.
So say it again. Yes, this is a heavy text. It's heavy because it's filled with the fullness and completeness of the justice of God. This is something we see throughout the Scriptures. God will bring about justice, sin and evil.
It will be dealt with.
Malachites, Saul, Agag. That's what they learn in the text for all of us. We will learn this too when one day we stand before God. When the Lord comes to judge the living and the dead, justice is coming. And as God judges, he doesn't do so on a curve where, like, we can kind of sort of obey with him or obey him.
And like that's good enough. Listen, friends, listen. I got to tell you this. We all have to give an account. We all have to talk or tell the Lord why we turned our backs on him so many times, why we sinned against them.
Every single sin, big or small, all will be accounted for.
Thinking this is hard for us to understand, thinking about God giving full, complete justice. But that's a clear teaching of Scripture. God will deal with sin. And to say it again, a day is coming where we all will have to give an account. We all have to stand before a holy and just God.
And on that day, our mouths will be stopped. Because when we stand before holy God, it will be clear to us just how far short we have fell of the standard he's given to us. Friends, when left to our own, there is nothing we can say to talk ourselves out of justice. All sinned. All have fell short of the glory of God.
None of us have an excuse. And we can't even plead ignorance before the courtroom of God. Scripture tells us that God's given us a conscience that we reject. And not only has he given us a conscience, he's given us His Word. So we can see the standard he has for us.
And in His Word, he's given us passages like this that warn us of the full and complete justice that is to come. Second, the justice of God is patient. So even though, yes, God is just, and in His Timing, he will bring about justice. It's not like God is in heaven, like eagerly waiting for us to fall so he can, like right then and there, throw the book at us. Rather, God is patient with us.
Scripture tells us the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but he's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Sure, in the text, perhaps it might seem harsh for God to judge Amalekites in the way that he did. But friends, they had hundreds of years to repent and turn from their ways. But they wouldn't do it, even up to the point of our text that Agag was very much involved in Eagle acts. Sure, perhaps, maybe it feels heavy how God judged Saul the way that he did.
But if you've been with us in the story, or maybe read 1st Samuel in the past Saul, he had one awful sin after another after another that God was so patient with him until enough was enough. Yes, God is just, but he is patient, friends, that is important for us to see, not to abuse his patience, but to understand how patient he is with each and every one of us. Third, the justice of God shows us that God is good. And here's where I want to try to maybe start to reconcile this passage from for you, how this fits into the goodness of God. So let me just give you two reasons more can be said.
Let me give two. So listen to this. If there was like, known evil. First, if there's known evil before the court, which there certainly was in this text here, there's known evil, and a judge did nothing with that known evil. Rather, he turns a blind eye and lets a known evil off the hook.
Would he be a good judge? Of course not. A good judge punishes evil, friends. Evil needs to be punished fully, completely. That's exactly what our good God does in this text.
He punishes evil. Listen, the problem that we need to understand, to reconcile our own minds, it's not that God isn't good to have full and complete justice. Rather, what we need to understand is that you and I are not good.
Second, when God judges evil, he's preventing future evil, which is good. Okay? So within Christianity, there's a thing that scholars refer to as like a just war. Maybe some of you heard that before. So even though, as Christians, we want peace because we live in a world that's broken with sin, with evil, there's times when war is a necessary good to take out evil, to prevent future evil from taking place.
Maybe the most Famous example of this is from a Lutheran pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I'm sure most of you have heard of him, who was in Germany during the time of the Nazis. In which Bonhoeffer and his companions determined that there was such evil being done through the Nazis. It was good for them to try to take out Hitler, to try to prevent future evil from happening. Now.
Their attempt failed. Bonhoeffer was caught and executed. But this is a good act by Bonhoeffer. It was right that he wanted to bring justice to prevent future evil. Now, I don't claim to know all the reasons why God does what he does, even here in the text, but for me, as I thought about this text, you know, this judgment on it by the Amalekites, I just kind of wonder, how is this actually a judgment to prevent future evil from taking place?
That definitely seems behind the motive of Samuel when he took out Agag. He's preventing future evil. Listen, we might not understand the justice of God, but friends, listen, it proves that he's good, like he's a good God. He will deal with evil. He will not let evil reign.
Let me give you one more. The justice of God helps us see how loving he truly is. And where we see that most clearly, it's on the cross of Jesus Christ. We're in God's incredible love he sent to the broken, sinful, evil world to people like you and me, his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who came for us to die, for us to take on the full and complete justice of God in our place, to die for us. Friends, that's how loving God is.
He's not only the just, but in his great love through His Son, Jesus Christ. He's also the justifier of our sin. So, friends, this morning, if you're trying to reconcile a passage like this, how it fits into the loving God, let me encourage you to look to the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, who took on God's just demand for sinners like us to reconcile us back to Him. Friends, what Jesus did for us, taking the justice of God in our place. Friends, that's heavy, heavy glorious love that shows us just how good God is, that he would send His Son to do that for us, even though we are his enemies.
Friends, because Jesus Christ died, because he rose again, he promises to come to judge the living and the dead.
And when the Jesus, when our King Jesus returns, all evil will be dealt with. And for those who have been reconciled to him on that day of justice, never again. We have to plead or try to figure out the pain of being displaced because of war. On that day when the Lord returned, there would never be any more sadness of awful devastation that comes with earthquakes. All of your personal struggle, of the pain and loss that caused so many tears on that good judgment day, all that all evil will be banished from God's people forever.
And as he banishes all sin, all evil, he will even wipe our tears, all the tears of uncertainty that we've cried all. And on that day, all we will know is his kindness, his goodness, his love, because he was willing to reconcile sinners like us. Let's pray.
Lord, there are things in life and even in your word that are at times hard for us to understand.
So God, in our unbelief, we pray that you would help us, Lord, in every struggle that we might have God, please use that as a means to draw us to you and to trust in Jesus.
And to trust that through Jesus you are good to us and that indeed you do love us.
Lord, thank you for being a good and just God.
Thank you. In your kindness you saw it fit for your glory to send Jesus to stand in our place to take on your justice.
And Lord, I pray today that that heaviness would feel heavy in our hearts.
Pray this all in Jesus name. Amen.