Thank you, brother. All right, in your Bibles this evening, the book of 1 Samuel, chapter number 14. 1 Samuel 14. I don't want to say this too often, but I always try to gather a central theme out of the book studies that we do. For example, 1 Corinthians, discipline for an undisciplined church. But here on Sunday evenings as we make our way through 1 Samuel, We subtitled this series, Having a Heart to Hear. And that is going to play out exactly in the narrative that we have tonight, and then again on next week as we get further into Chapter 15. The idea of hearing and obeying. hearing and obeying. I was tempted to sing trust and obey, but we're about to wear that song out. But trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. And Saul, King Saul, would be benefited if he not only knew that song, but if he took that song to heart and listened. 1 Samuel chapter 14, and we're gonna read beginning of verse 47 and then read into chapter 15. 1 Samuel 14, 47 says, so Saul took the kingdom over Israel and fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab and against the children of Ammon and against Edom and against the kings of Zobah and against the Philistines. And whithersoever he turned himself, he vexed them. And he gathered and host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, and Ishuah, and Melchoshua, and the names of his two daughters were these, the name of the firstborn, Merab, and the name of the other, Michelle. I want to say Michael, but we'll put some English spin on that and call that Michelle. Verse 50 says, and the name of Saul's wife was Ahinoah, the daughter of Ahimaaz, and the name of the captain of his host was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle. And Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner, the father of Abner, was the son of Abiom. And there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul. And when Saul saw any strong man or any valiant man, he took him unto him. Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them unto Lamb, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley. And Saul said to the Kenites, go depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For ye show kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. But everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And he grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night. And when Samuel arose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, And behold, he set him up a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal. And we're stopping right in the middle of the story, but that's okay. That's a big story. And we'll try to finish it up a little bit later. The beginning of the end. That is how I have termed this section. Saul will reign in Israel for some 40 years. And so as we approach this narrative in chapter number 15, understand Saul will still be king for a long time yet to come. He's not gonna, David will not replace him until the end of 1 Samuel. So another 15 books more or less, or I'm sorry, 15 chapters more or less until the end of this to where King David will be inaugurated. This is what I call the beginning of the end. This is the proverbial last straw on the camel's back. If you'll remember, King Saul had been commissioned by God to route the Philistines, to go out and deliver Israel from under the thumb of the Philistines. But Saul hadn't done that. Saul had been king two years and hadn't really done anything to deliver Israel from the Philistines. It wasn't until Jonathan got the ball rolling and he went out and fought on two different occasion against the garrison of the Philistines. And then on another occasion, if you remember, Saul was told to go to a certain area and wait for Samuel to arrive. Samuel said, once I get there, then we'll make sacrifice and ask God for wisdom and discernment on what we should do. But instead, Saul refuses to wait, and in his haste, he pushes forward and makes a sacrifice like he was a priest and that was forbidden him. He was not of the priestly line. He was not supposed to serve in the role as a priest. So strike one, he didn't fight Philistines. Strike two, he went into the office of a priest. Tonight, Strike three, and to a great extent, he will be out. This will be it for him. This is why I call this the beginning of the end. It's gonna play out for a while, but this is really the, this is strike three. This is it for Saul's role as king of Israel. This 15th chapter contains a major turning point. in Saul's reign as the leader of Israel. Now we discussed this some last week as we talked about Saul's silly and selfish or foolish oath, that that was a bad decision, it was a bad day. Saul had just had done a self-serving, made a self-serving oath or self-serving commitment that his people would be denied food, his soldiers during the battle. But overall, Saul was a good military leader. Now Saul was a poor spiritual leader. And I would submit this question to you this evening. What is more important? Material wealth, military strength, or spiritual vitality? And the answer is the spiritual is the most important. It is far more important than comfort, material strength or military strength or military might. That which is spiritual is far more important. And so we have sort of, and I don't know a better term to give it than a eulogy or an obituary column almost of the life of Saul at the close of chapter 14. These few verses read very much like an obituary column. It gives an overall view of King Saul. And one of the things that we learn about him is that he was overall, even though he made that silly decision early on, he was overall a good military leader. He was a strong general fighting for Israel's independence. But the problem is it doesn't matter how strong you are militarily if you are crumbling spiritually. And I think we can draw some kind of application to America today, right, when it comes to that? But notice with me, if you would, how that Saul was busy fighting battles. In fact, the book of Saul's reign would be one of warfare. It didn't matter which direction you look, north, south, east, or west. Saul had enemies and he was fighting enemies. In verse 47, where we began reading, it says, Saul took the kingdom of Israel and fought against his enemies on every side, against Moab, against Ammon, or Ammon, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, against the Philistines. It didn't matter, north, south, east, or west. That is literally every direction. He was surrounded by enemies and he would go out and fight against them. And that's what he should do as Israel's leader. And whether he went, he vexed them. He went to war against them. Sadly, however, he did not vanquish them. And one of the chief enemies was the Philistines. The Philistines were a thorn in the flesh of Israel for generations, and they would continue to be a thorn in the flesh for generations. But they're not the only enemy, and we'll talk more about that in just a moment. But if you notice in particular in verse 52, it says, there was sore war against the Philistines all the days of Saul. All the days of Saul. And because of this, because they were constantly at warfare, whenever Saul saw, and I told y'all that's hard to say, whenever Saul saw a strong, young, strapping man that would look good in soldiers attire who would make a good addition to his military campaigns, he snatched him up. That's what it says at verse 52. And when Saul saw any strong man and any valiant man, he took him unto him. Now, I just wanna bring this back to your memory because we read this several weeks ago, but this was the warning. Now you moms, I've got some military moms in the house today. Military moms, you know how it is when your son is deployed, goes off. Or daughters, as the case may be now. But it was the warning that Samuel gave Israel. If you get a king, he's going to take your sons to fight his wars. Chapter 8, verse 11 says, and Samuel says, he said, this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself and for his chariots to be his horsemen and some shall run before his chariots. So this is exactly what Samuel said was going to happen, happened. Samuel warned them, you want a king, here's what's gonna happen. He's gonna come snatch your sons away from you to serve in his military, to fight his wars. And that's been the history of mankind, has it not? And such was the case here. But we see in verse 48 of this text that he gathered a host and smote them Malachites, delivered Israel out of the hands that spoiled them battle after battle after battle, war after war. King Saul served as a military general. David would serve, and in like vein, David would also fight many battles, but the difference was David was a strong spiritual leader. Not perfect, but David was a strong spiritual leader where Saul was not. But the reason I say it reads sort of like an obituary is you have this list of his exploits. This is what he did. And then now we have his family. In verses 49, 50, 51, we're given an account of his family. And so this does, to me, reads a little bit like an obituary column. We're introduced to, again, his other sons. We've already met Jonathan, but now we find his other sons. But in particular, there's a couple names that leap off the page. The close of verse 49, his youngest daughter, Michelle, Michael, however you rightly pronounce that, she will play a role. She will at one point become wife to King David. Although she's not all that happy about it, but anyway. And then in verse 50, we're introduced to a man by the name of Abner. Abner is Saul's general, if you will, the leader of his army. Those are a couple of people. If you keep track of names and involvement, Michelle and Abner are a couple of names that are gonna leap off the page here pretty soon in the narrative of 1 Samuel. And so we find now this is this, really it is a somewhat positive review of the reign of King Saul, verses 47 through 52, offer a bird's eye, positive review of the reign of King Saul over Israel. And it looks pretty good when you read it. He went to war. He vexed his enemies. He delivered Israel. He had a family life. He had a military general. He was a busy guy. But then you get to chapter 15. and you see the negative side. And so there's this contrast, if you will, between this positive brief overview of his time of leadership, but then you get to chapter 15 and he gives a detailed account of Saul's failure, in particular his disobedience when it comes to the Amalekites. And so you have to wonder which record is true, the good or the bad, the close of chapter 14 or all of chapter... Which of these is rightly described Saul? And the answer is both of them describe Saul. And you know why? Because that would also be true of us. If somebody were to sit down and write an obituary column about you, I hope we could find some really good things to say. This was a servant of God, used by God, fought against the enemies of God in his spiritual warfare, of course, stood for the things of God, loved the church of God, committed to his family. I hope we can find some positive things. If we're honest, there's also some negative things that could be said about our lives as well, right? So it's not either or. It's not Saul is all good or Saul is all bad. Saul's just like the rest of us. He is a hodgepodge of both positive and negative, good qualities and negative qualities. Now, depending on where you fall, on whether or not Saul was actually a redeemed man, whether or not he was a real follower of Yahweh or Jehovah God. That's going to determine some about how you see this, whether he was good or bad. But either way, there's some of that in all of us. And I have tried to remind myself as I make my way through these narratives, particularly on Sunday nights, that if somebody sat down and looked at my life and they knew some of the intimate details, some of the behind the scene things, it wouldn't be hard to look at him and have some real questions about his commitment to the Lord altogether. Like Saul, I hope you can find some positive things to say, but if you find out some details, there's some negative around there too. And that's just the way that it is for all of us. So here we find, In chapter 15, and this is where we're going to get into and we're going to spend the next couple of weeks on Sunday night in chapter 15. Having given this brief interlude of Saul's reign, now we get down to the nitty gritty of the final disobedience that cost Saul the throne. God had already told him, your kingship will not be forever. Your line will not sit upon the throne. God will seek of a man after his own heart. But because of the events that unfold in chapter 15, we find that Saul will be told by Samuel, he's going to say, God's just done with you. God is going to find somebody else and he's just done with you. And this is a major transition in the life of King Saul. This is going to take a while to unpack. This is a big story. In 1 Samuel, this is a major, major event. So chapter 15, what do we find? Samuel says unto Saul, the Lord has sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore, notice these words at the close of verse 1 of chapter 15. Hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. That's why I said you a heart to hear. Do you have a desire to obey the voice of God? Samuel is not speaking for himself. He is speaking in the behalf of God. He speaks with the authority of the Almighty. And he says, Saul, you may be king, but there is a king above you, and he is the Lord of lords, and he has sent me to tell you what to do. Now do what God has said. And that begins in verse number two by Samuel saying, thus saith The Lord of hosts. In other words, this shouldn't be confusing. This shouldn't be all that hard to figure out. This is the Word of God. This is the Word of the Almighty. Obey, listen, submit. What does God have to say to Saul? He says, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, verse two, how he laid weight for him up in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now, if you could go way back, we studied this, but you gotta go back a few years now. But for those of you who are Bible students, you'll remember this story. Israel had just exited Egypt. Remember, they had been a slave nation for generations. They were weak. They were frail. They were not soldierly. They were not strong. They had been slaves for generations. And as they exit out of Egypt, once they cross over the Red Sea, begin to make their way towards Mount Sinai, the Amalekites attack. Unprovoked. Israel was not trying to take their land. Israel was not trying to take their property. Israel was not trying to steal their women or their treasure. Amalek attacked Israel, the Amalekites attacked Israel in an unprovoked way. But not only that, if you'll remember, they attacked the weak, the elderly, those who were struggling to keep up. You talk about cold and cruel. Think about that huge procession of people, some two, two and a half million people, it is thought, coming out of Egypt. And who's gonna lag behind as they make their way? Children, elderly, sick, the weak, the infirm, and that's just exactly who the Amalekites attacked. And because of this, God says there will come a day when you will bring judgment on them because of this. Because of their cruel, sadistic, wicked behavior, there will come a day when you will, when I'm going to expect my people to render an exact justice and punishment for this wickedness of the Amalekites. And in fact, it's the same story if you'll remember. Joshua turns back and he goes to war. And when Moses held his hands up, Israel prevailed. And when his arms fell down, the Amalekites prevailed. So Aaron and Hur get up under the arms of Moses to hold his arms up so that Israel would finally prevail. This was a cold, calculated attack. Let me help you some. Because we're gonna get into this, and there's a little bit of difficulty here. The Amalekites were a, they were a nomadic people. They were a tribe of nomads. They didn't really have a specific homeland. They were marauders. That's what they did. When they saw, they were opportunistic. Did I say that right? Opportunistic. When they saw an opportunity, they took advantage of it. And when they saw the weak straggling come dragging in behind everybody else of Israel, they attacked. They were literally, and a good term for them was plunderers. That's who they were. And throughout, these people were a, you talk about the Philistines being a problem for Israel, the Amalekites were. They attacked Israel when they first came out. that continued to attack Israel. If you look at the book of Judges, you will find again and again and again through the book of Judges that it was the Amalekites who would join with other armies like the Midianites or the Ammonites, they would gather together with them to attack Israel. They were not inhabitants of the promised land. Israel was not taking anything away from them that belonged to them. These were just a people who were bent on hurting Israel. And because of this, verse 2 says, I remember how he laid wait for him upon the way when you came up out of Egypt. Verse 3, notice this. Now go and smite Amalek. and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not. Now let's just stop there for just a moment. The Israelites under the reign of King Saul were commanded to do what? To utterly destroy every Amalekite. To show no mercy. not to them as individuals, not to even their animals. They were to show no mercy to them, not keep part alive, not save the good looking girls, not keep the king alive, not take the strongest horses and keep them. They are to utterly destroy everything. And now what it says in verse 3, spare them not, but slay, notice this, both man and woman, infant and suckling, and that just means a newborn, a child, ox and sheep, camel and ass. Now folks, that's hard. And if you'll just stop and meditate on this, There are some moral and ethical questions that should come to mind. Why is God commanding them to kill every man, woman, boy, girl, and animal throughout all of Amalek? Now, are you ready for the theological answer for this? Because God is God, and He didn't ask our permission. Now I know that that's not going to ring well, sound good in the ears of some, but folks, I'll break it down a little bit more, but when it's all said and done, God is God and you're not. And neither am I. And God is indeed the absolute creator, sustainer, giver of all life. He is the sovereign of the universe. And He can do whatever He wants to do, whenever He wants to do it. And He's not going to stop and ask anybody's permission to do what He wants. That's who God is. He is either sovereign overall, or He is not sovereign at all. Now let's get into that just a minute. Because, listen, Did that really mean when they attacked, if there were young children there, that they were supposed to kill them? That's exactly what it meant. That's hard. You know, one thing you can say about the Bible is it doesn't pretty it up, it doesn't sugarcoat it, it relates it as it is. But let me say this. God is love. Amen? God is good. God is just. God is perfect in all His ways. So if he commanded his people to do a thing, it will be consistent with his nature. It will be consistent with who he is. And so if he says, do this, if he says, slaughter them, kill them all, it will be because it will be the good thing to do, the holy thing to do, the right thing to do, the perfect thing to do. You say, I don't understand that. God's God and you're not. We run into Leland over here this afternoon. I've been wrestling with the theological ramifications of this for a few days. And so I asked Brother Leland, running into him at Summerhill over here this afternoon, and I asked a question. Imagine somewhere around 1920, 1925, you'd run into a little dark-haired boy whose name was Adolph. And you knew who and what he would become. You knew it. Would it be an act of murder or mercy to kill him as a child? You do realize that the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, was responsible for exterminating one-third of the Jewish race. Over six million Jews. Now if you found him as a young boy and you knew that's who he would become, just from my side of it, I think it would be a service to humanity. But here's the thing, I'm not God, but God is. And God knows everything, does he not? And he knew that it would be the right, just, pure, good, and holy thing to do to tell his people to slaughter those Amalekites. Again, the Amalekites are not running around in choir robes with little halos on their head like they're little angels. These are wicked, vile people. In fact, the text says they're sinners. And just so you know, I want to read something to you. Romans chapter number 9. Now, if you get out here and you try to witness, you talk to people about the Lord, there are some people who are going to have some questions. How can God be both ethical and moral and command the genocide of a people? And the answer to that, and I know it's not a good, I know it's not, to some people, it's not a good answer, but the answer is God is God. God knows what you do not know. God knows the end from the beginning. And everything He does will always be consistent with who He is and His nature. But we could also say this, Romans 9, and where to start? That's the problem. Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? So is somebody going to say, that's wrong, God, you can't do that. You can't order the murder, the death of all those Amalekites. You can't do that. That would be unrighteous. And in fact, if you go back in Romans 9, he's talking about Jacob and Esau and the love that he had for Jacob and not for Esau. Just follow it out. But in verse 14, Paul asks and answers his own question. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? And the answer is no, no, no, no, no, no. God forbid. Verse 15, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on him on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and on whom he will he hardeneth. Now you can get mad at me if you want to, but I just tried to read it. And now what the text says? God can show mercy on whom he wants to show mercy, and if it pleases him to harden Pharaoh's heart, which is what the narrative says often, and that's what he did. Now, Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but God also hardened his heart. If God chooses in His sovereign pleasure to do that, who are we to question the Almighty? And I tell you what this will do. If you get a right idea around this, it'll make you fall down at the throne of grace and say, thank you, Lord, for showing mercy on me because I didn't deserve it. I don't deserve any more mercy than the Malachites did. If you'll get your mind around this, you'll say, thank God that He chose to show mercy on me. I don't know who else He may show mercy on, so I'm going to preach the gospel to everybody. I don't know who and who will hear and who will reject. I'm going to preach Jesus to any and all that I can, but I'm going to tell you something. I didn't deserve God's mercy, but He showed it to me. That will humble you. That will humble you. And folks, that's the God we serve. I know it's hard. When you get back into 1 Samuel, I know it's hard. When you read verses like this where it says that God commanded that they utterly destroy, especially, now I'm going to be lighthearted for a minute because we've been so heavy, okay? Especially if they had to kill all the cute little puppies and the cats and everything else. Now I know that wasn't lighthearted, but you understand what I mean? That's hard. That's hard. But if God commands it, it will be in accordance with his nature and his nature. So there it is. Go do this, show no mercy, kill them all. Now I want you to realize this. This was not to be a battle with the Amalekites to recover land. That's not what this was about. They weren't possessors of Canaan. The Amalekites didn't possess the promised land. This was not a battle to restore stolen property. This was not a battle to gain material wealth or treasure. This was Israel under the leadership of Saul, serving as the divine hand of judgment of God Almighty. That's what it was. Saul and Israel were to serve as the sword in the hand of the Lord to bring swift judgment on his enemies and those that had attacked his people. I'm gonna tell you something, folks. There is coming, listen, we preach Christ, we preach grace, we preach mercy, we preach forgiveness. But that's not all God is. He is also a God of wrath and justice. And there is coming a day, and if we love, we'll love enough to tell this, there is coming a day when God will bring judgment on His enemies, on all those who do not obey the gospel. Read 1 Thessalonians and see what it says. God will in flaming fire take vengeance on them that know not God and do not obey the gospel. That's what it says. This act of Israel was an act of judgment on the Amalekites because of their sin and wickedness. They were to utterly wipe them out. It had been, think about this, it had been hundreds of years since the Amalekites initially attacked Israel in the desert of Sinai. but judgment would come. And it was about to come, though it should have come more fully, it was about to come on the Amalekites. As the old preacher says, the wheels of God's justice may turn slowly, but they grind completely. God would bring judgment on the Amalekites and he would do it because it was right and holy and good. You want to get in a theological conversation about those children and whether or not they would fall under the covenant of redemption, have at it. Go figure that out. Go think it out on your own. I'm just trying to tell you God did what was right. God did what was right. Here again in chapter 15, Saul says, all right, we'll go to battle. I've been fighting battles. We'll go out here and get these Amalekites. Saul gathers the people together. He has 200,000 and 10,000 of Judah, verse 4. And then in verse 5, he comes to one of the cities of Amalek. And just so you know this, they will not destroy all the Amalekites. David's going to end up fighting some of them later on. This people group, the Amalekites, We're so Americanized in the way we think, we don't realize just how wicked some of these people groups were. I mean, vile, pagan people. So he gathers his army together. In verse six, Saul warns the Kenites. The Kenites were, best I can understand, we don't have a lot of history, biblical history, we have some secular history. They were a people group who were dwelling with them, though they had shown kindness to Israel. Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, was a descendant of the Kenites. And when Amalek attacked, the Kenites showed mercy. And because of that, God remembered it. Because the Kenites showed mercy and the Malachites attacked, Saul now says, though they're gathered together, Saul says to the Kenites, we're getting ready to make war against these Amalekites. You better get out of there. Now, this is a little bit lighthearted now, but if I'm an Amalekite and here comes this 200,000, 210,000 man army, I'm going to dress up like a Kenite and I'm getting out of town. You understand what I'm saying? But they refused to go. Why? Because they were wicked. They were sinners. They were hark. They were cruel. They thought, we'll fight these Israelites. We beat them before. We'll beat them again. That shows you a little bit about the stubborn rebellion of the human heart. So he says to them, to the Kenites, get out and go, because they showed kindness to the Israelites when they departed, and they did. And what happens in verse 7? In verse 7, And Saul smote the Amalekites, From Havilah until there comes to shore, that is over against Egypt. In other words, that means he whipped him and he whipped him for a long way, a long time, okay? All the way down south to Egypt. And he took Agag. Agag is really a broad title for the king of the Amalekites, just like Pharaoh was for the leader of Egypt. the leader of the Egyptians or Caesar was for the leader of Rome. Agag is just a broad title for the king of the Amalekites. But he goes out and he destroys the people with the edge of the sword. But verse nine, but Saul and the people spared Agag. But it wasn't just Agag. They also spared the best of the sheep, the ox, the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good," and notice these words, "...and would not utterly destroy them." Now, was God not clear? I mean, essentially, God said if it has legs and it breathes, kill it. Just kill it. It's hard, but that's not what they did. It's not what Saul did. It's not what the people did. Ultimately, the accountability falls on the shoulders of the king because he's the king. He has the authority. He's the one that should be commanding them to obey. But they refuse. They do not obey. And we're going to get into next week this back and forth and this back and forth. But I would encourage you right now to write down or underscore in verse number 9, but Saul and the people spared, because pretty soon Saul is going to start the finger-pointing game. He's going to start the blame game, trying to blame others for this. But it wasn't just Saul and it wasn't just the people. It was both of them combined who refused to obey the voice of God. Now listen, I don't want to be overly critical. Let me throw an interjection in here. Because sometimes God is just as clear as it can be and we still do what's wrong. Now, I don't want to be too hard on Saul here. It's easy to pick his life apart here, you know, 3,000 years later, right? Do you always do what God says you ought to do even though it's as clear as it can be on the page? No. So, we're going to show Saul and Israel a little bit of grace here. We're going to show them a little mercy, a little understanding because they did not obey. But I want you to think about this. Disobedience, I'm gonna find where I have this written here. Disobedience often inflicts unknown and unintended damage. Now they would spare some of the Amalekites. We know that because they'll fight them again later on. And initially they spare Agag. Now I want you to think about something. Get extra points if you've already thought on this. You want to know how vile and wicked these people were? Generations later, there would arise a leader who would do his very best to exterminate Israel. He is a direct descendant of the king Agag. His name? Haman. Haman. From the book of Esther, Haman the Jew-hater is a direct descendant of the Amalekites. Imagine what might have been. Can we for a moment? What may have been had Saul and Israel actually done what they were supposed to and completely eradicate the Amalekites. You realize from the human side of it, Israel was a hair's breadth from being exterminated under Haman's reign. You know, he served up underneath whatever his name was. I don't know what his name was. Yeah, him. King Cyrus. Do you remember which one it is? I don't know. Cyrus is one of them. Anyway, he was the man in the book of Esther. He hatched that plot to exterminate all the Jews. He was a direct descendant of the king here. Disobedience. Hear these words. Disobedience often inflicts unknown and unintended damage. It's like sometimes when something happens around the house, and someone ends up hurt or a mess is made, you say, well, I didn't mean to. Yes, but it still hurts and the damage is still done. Here, Israel's disobedience would cost them in generations that they hadn't even thought of. Folks, in like manner, our own disobedience, our own rebellion, our own stubbornness can affect in ways that we hadn't even thought of down the road. It's just a fact. And we'll get into this a little bit more next week, but listen to this in verse 10. God is not silent at the stubborn rebellion of King Saul. Was he clear? He was very clear. God is not silent. In verse 11 it says, It repenteth me, this is the words of God, I say this and I hope you can handle it, okay? God is not a man that he should repent. Okay? Had the King James translators asked my opinion, I would have said, don't use God repents because I think it's confusing. It is an anthropomorphism. It is a way of saying, of putting human attributes on God to help us understand. I think it's a great way, I think a great way of saying is it grieved God. It grieved God. is saddened God. Numbers 23, 19 says, God is not a man that he should repent. In fact, look at verse 29 of this same chapter. Verse 29 says, And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent. So I think it can be confusing that the word repent is used there, but in other words, it's just as simple. God is not indifferent to our disobedience. It grieves Him. Doesn't the Bible say not to grieve the Holy Spirit? God is not indifferent to our disobedience. Indifference is not a divine attribute. It matters to God whether we obey or disobey. It mattered here. And it grieved God, it repenteth me, he says, it grieved God that I have set up Saul, verse 11, to be king, for he has turned back from following me. It is not the way of the righteous to turn back, is it? But to keep on. We all fall, we all falter, we all stumble. But it says very clearly, verse 11, that God says He has not performed my commandments. But I find verse 11, the close of it, so interesting. It not only grieved God, who else did it grieve? It grieved Samuel. Why? because Samuel loved the Lord. Samuel loved Israel, and he knew that there was a price for disobedience. Does it grieve you when those that you love press on in stubborn rebellion against God? Why? Because you know there is a price to be paid for disobedience. And it grieved Samuel And he cried all night. This is the beginning of the end. This is the beginning of the end. I don't want to get into it because there's that great verse that's coming to obey is better than to sacrifice. We'll look at that in the Lord willing next week. But folks, we've got to take this thing about obeying God seriously. I don't want it to ever be said of someone you love that this is the beginning of the end for them. Oh, that God would give us a heart to hear and obey. There's good news. We, though like Saul, there's both positive and negative that can be said, Though we sometimes disobey when God is as clear as He can be, there is forgiveness to be found in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. There's the good news. There is a coming Messiah for Israel who would purchase their pardon in their rebellion. All right, there's a lot of stuff there and that's just setting it up really for the encounter between Saul and Samuel that's coming. All right, God bless you. I love you. I hope you have a good evening.