There are many difficult aspects of following God. It is difficult to trust him when your world is falling apart. It is difficult to hear his voice amidst all the noise of this life. It is also difficult to discern what God wants for us when we are faced with deciding between two equally good options.

But I think the most difficult thing to do is to listen to his clearly spoken word and then to walk in complete obedience to his word. I am sure we all know the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing something or someone, merely acknowledges what we heard. But listening requires action; specifically, in the case of God’s Word, listening is proven in our obedience.

When we disobey God, it is because we have failed to listen to his word. When we merely hear God’s Word, and give it a head-nod, and then excuse our disobedience and sin, we fail to truly listen to God.

This is the sad story of King Saul. One commentator says that “The story of Saul… is a study in leadership failure… [specifically the] leadership of the people of God… Saul’s failure… consisted in this: his disobedience to God’s words to him.”2 In other words, Saul failed to obey God because he failed to truly listen to God; he only heard God’s words and then he only gave those words a passing nod which resulted in disobedience. Look at the text with me…

1And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

4So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So, the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

7And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

10The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the LORD all night.

We already know from our study of 1st Samuel that Saul was a fearful, insecure, cowardly, pride-filled, self-centered, hypocritical leader. He hid in the baggage instead of pursing God’s calling on his life (10:21-22). He did not immediately wage war against God’s enemies as God had instructed him to (13:1-2).

He liked to perform religious disciplines when it suited him best; he appears to be a religious fake (13:8-14, 14:33-46). He continuously excused and blamed his sin on other people and even blamed his failed spiritual life on the people around him as well (13:11-12, 14:37-38, 41-42). He also openly and publicly disobeyed God’s clear commands (13:13, 15:11).

Ultimately, King Saul failed to listen to the clear instructions of the Lord and the poof that he failed to listen is that he failed to obey. Saul merely nodded his head at the clearly spoken commands of God and then he moved forward in direct disobedience to those very words.

It is never easy to obey God’s commands. Satan, Sin, and the World will always make listening and obeying very difficult. But we do not get a pass for our disobedience just because obedience is difficult. Where have you been failing to listen to God’s instructions? Where have you been resisting obedience to God because the cost of obedience seems too difficult to you? Notice the difficult instructions God gave to Saul in our passage today.

#1: GOD GIVES SAUL SOME DIFFICULT INSTRUCTIONS (VV. 1 – 3)

In verses 1 – 3, Samuel comes to Saul on behalf of the Lord with some very difficult instructions. Those instructions, while very simple, may be some of the most difficult instructions in all the Bible because the instructions were to gather Israel, make war against one of her ancient enemies, and to destroy every one of them right down to the last man, woman, child, and beast. God was literally commanding Saul to wipe out an entire group of people.

This is difficult for us to understand. Why would a loving God order the brutal execution of an entire group of people right down to the women and children of that nation? Let us be clear: This is not the case of ethnic cleansing or of genocide as some people have tried to make it out to be.

The reality here is that the Amalekites were an age-old enemy of God and his people, Israel. The Amalekites, who were descendants of a man named Amalek, were now being led by a king named Agag, and they “had a long history of violent oppression against the Israelites” ever since the Exodus from slavery in Egypt (Exod. 17) and God had promised way back then, to “utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exod. 17:14; Deut. 25:17-19).3

In this specific situation, God is revealing himself as the judge of all mankind and he has deemed that the Amalekites are deserving of the death penalty because of their war against God and his people, and Saul is now God’s chosen instrument of judgement against them.4

One commentator notes, that as God’s chosen instrument of judgement, Saul must be a spiritual leader who listens to God, as one who has been chosen by God, who is in full submission to the authority of Samuel, with delegated responsibility for God’s people. The key here is that Saul must listen to God’s difficult commands and then he must follow them to the “t”.

The key verses we need to listen to here are verses 1 – 2 where Samuel says, “listen to the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts”. Obviously, the words of God that followed that command to listen, were very difficult to listen to. I am certain that all of us have heard words from God that are difficult to listen to. We are better at ignoring God’s commands and justifying our disobedience than we are at listening to and obeying those commands.

Just consider one New Testament list of commands found in Ephesians 5:1 – 6 where God says, “be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” This is a very difficult list of commands to listen to and then follow in obedience, isn’t it?

The Bible is full of difficult commands, but God requires that we listen to his commands and then seek to obey them completely as we lean on him for forgiveness when we fail and ask him for the strength to move forward as we grow in holiness. Listening and obeying is the core of walking in personal holiness and oftentimes it is performed in broken, shaky, baby steps. But the key here is that we must listen and then we must seek to obey God with our entire being.

Now as far as Saul is concerned, the next portion of our text appears to be encouraging at first glance because he does leave Samuel’s presence, and then it looks as though he is going to walk in obedience to God’s difficult instructions as he spares the Kenites and begins to destroy the Amalekites.

#2: SAUL SPARES THE KENITES (VV. 4 – 7)

In verses 4 – 7, Saul assembles a massive army and heads out to a valley near the Amalekites where he encounters a different group of people named the Kenites and upon meeting them, he spares them and then begins his destruction of the Amalekites.

In verses 6 – 7, Saul has a conversation with the Kenites where he says, “Go, depart… lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt” and of course, the Kenites are spared, and Saul begins to destroy the Amalekites just as God had commanded him to.

Initially, when we read these words, we feel good about Saul. It seems like he is finally listening to God and obeying his difficult instructions. He has assembled an army, he spares a group of people that God did not instruct him to destroy, and then he begins to destroy the enemy. We want to give Saul a pat on the back and an “attaboy”!

Now, there is a back story that clarifies what is going on here. In Exodus 17 we find the details of the Amalekite aggression that has led to this day of judgement, but immediately after that, in Exodus 18, we find a story of how the Kenites helped Israel; so, Saul’s attention to not going beyond God’s commands as well as his initial destruction of the Amalekites seems very commendable.5

But here is the problem, initial obedience, just like any of our good works, will never make up for our future disobedience. Our failure to listen to and to obey God cannot be justified or made right with any of our instances of obedience. All our obedience is tainted with disobedience. This truth – that our obedience is tainted with disobedience – is alarmingly clear in the next section of our text where Saul spares Agag, the king of the Amalekites.

#3: SAUL SPARES AGAG (VV. 8 – 9)

Regarding verses 8 – 9, one commentator notes, “Saul appears to be obedient and careful in verses 4 – 7, but the story takes an awful and alarming downturn in verses 8 – 9 when Saul, followed by the people of Israel, wind up in absolute disobedience as they spare what God has commanded them to destroy.”6

Verse 9 tells us that “Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of… all that was good… [while] all that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction”. Here is the reality, half obedience is still disobedience with cheap lipstick masquerading as personal holiness and all it proves is that we failed to listen.

Further down in the second half of this episode, in verses 22 – 23, Samuel confronts Saul for his failure to listen to God and obey his word completely and the consequences are full rejection from the kingdom of God. Once again, hearing and nodding your head is the precursor to future disobedience.

Listening to God’s commands results in faith-filled and wholehearted obedience. Anything less than full obedience grieves the heart of God as we can see in the final portion of our text where God regrets making Saul the king of Israel.

#4: GOD REGRETS MAKING SAUL THE KING (VV. 10 – 11)

In verses 10 – 11, God comes to Samuel, and he says, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned his back from following me and has not performed my commandments.”The reality here is this, our sin grieves the heart of God because he alone is holy, and he has called us to be holy as he is holy.

Another layer for thinking about the grief and regret that God feels here is to think about the days of Noah where God chose to flood the earth and to utterly destroy everyone and everything except Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark.

In that instance, in Genesis 6:5 – 6, where we see the only other time in all of scripture where God is said to “regret” something, God’s grief and regret  over mankind moves him to flood the earth because “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and… every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously”.7

Does it shock you to think about the fact that God grieves over your sinfulness like we grieve when someone dies? Does it stop you in your tracks to think about how your failure to listen to God and to obey him grieves the heart of God deeper than the grief you feel over not having what you want on this earth? What do you think would have happened in Saul’s life if he could have caught a glimpse of the grief God felt over Saul’s sin?

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, when I think about the way my sin causes God to regret and grieve over me, I am reminded of the cross of Jesus. The reality as one commentator states, is that “Saul, the king who failed, [is meant to point] us to the King who did not fail”.8

In Jesus, we have not only a Savior who offers a full and complete pardon for our rebellion and disobedience – for all the times we fail to listen and obey – but we also have the promise of complete and full justice that will be served upon all who reject Christ as he will come “to judge the living and the dead” (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1).9

It is difficult for us to comprehend this, but when we look at the failure of Saul to be the perfect instrument of judgement against God’s enemies, we are supposed to lift our eyes to a much better King, Jesus, who will be God’s perfect instrument of righteous judgement in the future for all who refuse to listen to God and walk in obedience to him because “the gospel both warns [us] of the coming judgement and also calls us to trust in the Savior”who paid the price for our rebellion against him so that we can escape and be spared from the judgement that is to come (Acts 17:31; Rev. 11:15; 2 Thess. 1:5, 8; 1 Thess. 1:10).10

Jesus is the Righteous Judge for the wicked and the unrepentant as well as the Savior and redeemer of those who rightly grasp the grief of the Father over their sin and turn to him in true repentance. The cross of Christ is where your rebellion goes to die. The empty of Jesus is where you hold onto a new repentant life. The promise of heaven is what gives you hope in the difficulty of the here and now.

With that in mind, I want to leave you with these questions and a closing passage. Where are you resisting God’s difficult instructions today? In what ways are you trying to hold up your halfhearted obedience as justification for not fully obeying God? Where do you need to listen to God’s commands and fully surrender in repentance and faith today? Until your sin grieves your own heart as it does your Father in Heaven, you will fail to listen to God and walk in obedience to him.

Listen to these words from Hebrews 3:12 – 14 with fresh ears as the author says, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”

Today is the day to listen, brothers and sisters. Do not listen to an evil and unbelieving heart my friends. Do not fall away from the living God after getting a taste of his goodness in the gospel of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior. Do not let the deceitfulness or deception of sin cause your heart to harden against the One True King.

If you have come to share in Christ – his death, his resurrection, and his promised return – then hold fast to that confession of faith as you confess your sins, and receive complete forgiveness for those sins, and are reminded of the assurance of your salvation, and are strengthened to move forward in obedience to God as you listen to the voice of his Spirit calling out for you to take shelter in the presence of your crucified, risen, and returning Savior. I pray you listen to God this morning and that move forward in obedience as long as it is called today. – Let’s pray.

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 258.

3 Ibid., 260.

4 Ibid., 261.

5 Ibid., 262 – 263.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid., 263 – 264.

8 Ibid., 264 – 265.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid.