Lesson 7: Obedience 79
under God’s authority and directives. Samuel was God’s prophet, the
one who voiced God’s commands.
15:2. Samuel prefaced the command to Saul with the words, “Thus says
the Lord of hosts” (nasb). This introductory formula, first used here,
occurs seventy-six times in the Former and Latter Prophets to emphasize
that the message which follows comes directly from God. The prophet
merely served as God’s mouthpiece. God’s title, “Lord of hosts,” refers
to God’s power as the commander of armies.
God was going to punish the Amalekites for their attack against the
people of Israel as they were wandering in the wilderness. The attack
came at a particularly weak point for the Israelites who had been suf-
fering from widespread dissention due to a lack of water (cf. Exodus
17:8–13). Deuteronomy 25:18 describes the cowardly method of the
Amalekite attack: “When you were weary and worn out, they met you
on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no
fear of God.”
15:3. At the end of the battle against the Amalekites, God revealed to
Moses that he (God) would destroy the Amalekites (Exodus 17:14; cf.
Numbers 24:20). Now that the people of Israel had established themselves
within the Promised Land and had a noteworthy military leader-king;
Samuel commanded Saul to serve as God’s instrument in fulfilling the
prophetic destruction of the Amalekites. The people of Amalek and all
of their possessions were placed under a “holy ban,” meaning that Saul
and his soldiers must not take anything for themselves; rather, everyone
and everything had to be destroyed. At times in the Old Testament, this
type of severe judgment came through impersonal means such as the
epic f lood described in Genesis 6–8 or the earthquake in Numbers 16.
At other times, God worked through a divine representative—in this
case, Saul—to mete out punishment.
Saul’s Disobedience and Its Consequences (15:4–11)
15:4 –5. Saul initially responded in obedience to God’s command to
destroy the Amalekites and their possessions. He gathered an enormous
army at Telaim which was probably located southwest of Judah. He then
prepared to launch an attack on the city of Amalek to carry out God’s