Rejection

1st Samuel 15

Rejection is a hard thing to swallow some times. I remember asking a girl to one of our school things and she said no. That was hard because I thought she was going to say yes. The cool thing is that I did not end of going by myself. I went with a group of friends and it was more fun that way. Rejection hurts even more when it caused by our own faults. If you lied to a friend and they were mad at you and asked that you left them alone for a while, that hurts.

In this chapter we see Saul being rejected as king by God. It is not of anything other than Saul was leading the people down a very wrong path. He was doing more harm than good.

The Last Chance

In this chapter God gave Saul specific instruction. He was told to go and destroy the Amalekites. This was also what God said would happen in Exodus 17 upon the Amalekites in going to war with Israel. Saul was told to destroy everything, men, women, child, and animals. All seemed like Saul was listening but then we see that he kept the king alive and also the men took all the good sheep and oxen as spoil.

God wanted Saul to be obedient to his words but instead he was going along with them and adding his own twist on it. Saul was getting out of control and as Samuel was going to talk to him Saul built an altar to himself. We see the leaders of Israel before Saul who built altars but they built them to the Lord. They did out of appreciation for what God has done, but Saul was building himself one as if he was the one who brought victory. Saul’s pride was getting in the way and it was time for God to step in. 

Samuel confronted Saul and said, “You did not listen to God and because of that you are no longer king.” Saul did not take any of the responsibility, he blamed the people and said it was because of them that they kept the good animals alive. Then he tried to say it was because they were going to sacrifice them to the Lord. God said, “It is better to obey than to sacrifice.” To sacrifice is to obey and Saul rejected God’s word so God rejected Saul.

Saul acted like a child and asked for repentance but only because God rejected him. He should have asked for it before the judgment was given. God already had someone else in mind who will lead Israel. And we see from this chapter that Saul would disregard God’s Word. In the last chapter we see that Saul was leading his people into sin. We know leaders are not perfect because of sin. But when a leader who does not follow after the Lord and leads the people into sin is not a good leader. Saul needed to be removed because Israel would be going into a worse state. May you hold dear to the words of the Lord and when you have disobeyed them, return to God and ask for forgiveness. Remember obey is the key.