In the darkening events of 1st Samuel 15, Israel’s King Saul did not obey God, and now God declares that Saul is rejected as king. That gets Saul’s attention.
In verse 24, Saul says to the prophet Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”
This sounds very good, very repentant of Saul. But is Saul being genuine? Or is he just caught? You ever experience that dynamic before? Maybe in yourself or maybe you’ve seen it with others, where a person is boldly disobeying, then they get caught and very quickly they do a 180 into sorrow.
“Officer, I know I was speeding, but I was late to my kid’s party. Things have been tough lately. I’m sorry, I promise I will obey the speed limit. I needed this reminder. Thank you for stopping me.” And after the cop gives them a warning, they are now even later to the party, and they immediately start speeding again.
Sometimes I think the person who got caught really believes their sorrow. They feel sad about their behavior, the hurt they caused, but soon enough they’re out there cheating again, lying again.
Does Saul’s repentance convince Samuel?
In verse 26, “Samuel said to him, ‘I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!’ As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Samuel said to him, ‘The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you. He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.’”
Whew, this is an emotional moment. When you reach out and grab someone, you are invading their space. That’s a risky move, especially when the space between you and them has been conflicted. When you invade that space to stop them from turning away, you are imposing your will over theirs. People generally don’t respond well when you invade their space and try to impose your will over theirs.
But Saul not only invades Samuel’s space by grabbing Samuel’s robe, he rips it! Can you imagine the look on Samuel’s face when that happened? I wonder if Samuel is raging at this point. Or maybe he is just cold and calculating as he says, “The Lord has torn the kingdom from you.” Samuel is quick with that comment. It is a prophetic word of judgment that is perfect. You know that feeling when just the right words come to mind and you say them, and it is an awesome moment! Samuel has one of those quick-thinking perfect word moments.
But Saul is not done. Though he seems to be the kind of guy who cowers in front of strong-minded people, he pleads with Samuel. He says in verse 30,
“‘I have sinned. But please honor me before the elders of my people and before Israel; come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord your God.’ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.”
We don’t know exactly what Samuel is thinking here. Does Samuel believe Saul’s apology? Does he think that Saul is truly repentant? It’s unclear. But he does seem to at least give Saul a chance. And furthermore, it’s never wrong to worship the Lord. Maybe God will get through to Saul in the worship service?
We find out in the next post.
Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 