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Amalekite who fell into their hands was destroyed,^144 with the notable exception,
however, of Agag,^145 their king. And as they spared him, so also "the best of the
sheep, and of the oxen, and of those of the second sort,^146 and the (wilderness-) fed
lambs, and all that was good."
The motives for the latter are, of course, easily understood; not so that for sparing
Agag. Did they wish to have in his person a sort of material guarantee for the future
conduct of Amalek, - or did it flatter the national as well as the royal vanity to carry
with them such a captive as Agag, - or did they really wish a sort of alliance and
fraternity with what remained of Amalek? All these motives may have operated. But
of the character of the act as one of rebellion and disobedience there could be no
doubt, in view of the direct Divine command (15:3).
If in the case of Saul's first failure it was difficult to withhold sympathy, however
clearly his sin and unfitness for the theocratic kingdom appeared, it is not easy even
to frame an excuse for his utterly causeless disregard of so solemn a command as
that of "the ban." All Jewish history, from Achan downwards, rose in testimony
against him; nay, remembering his proposal to kill even Jonathan, when he had
unwittingly infringed his father's rash vow, Saul stood convicted out of his own
mouth! Nor was there any tangible motive for his conduct, nor anything noble or
generous either about it, or about his after-bearing towards Samuel. Rather, quite the
contrary. What now follows in the sacred narrative is tragic, grand, and even awful.
The first scene is laid at night in Samuel's house at Ramah. It is God Who speaketh
to the aged seer. "It repenteth Me that I have made Saul king, for he has returned
from after Me, and My Word he has not executed" (literally, set up). "And it kindled
in Samuel" (intense feeling, wrath), "and he cried unto Jehovah the whole night."
It is one of the most solemn, even awful thoughts - that of the Divine repentance,
which we should approach with worshipful reverence. God's repentance is not like
ours, for, "the Strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent; for He is not a man that He
should repent." Man's repentance implies a change of mind, God's a change of
circumstances and relations. He has not changed, but is ever the same; it is man who
has changed in his position relatively to God. The Saul whom God had made king
was not the same Saul whom God repented to have thus exalted; the essential
conditions of their relationship were changed. God's repentance is the unmovedness
of Himself, while others move and change. The Divine finger ever points to the same
spot; but man has moved from it to the opposite pole. But as in all repentance there
is sorrow, so, reverently be it said, in that of God. It is God's sorrow of love, as,
Himself unchanged and unchanging, He looks at the sinner who has turned from
Him. But, although not wholly unexpected, the announcement of this change on the
part of Saul, and of his consequent rejection, swept like a terrible tempest over
Samuel, shaking him in his innermost being. The greatness of the sin, the
(^)