CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
1 Samuel 15:25. “Pardon my sin.” “He offers this prayer to Samuel, not to God.” “Turn again with me.” “According to 1 Samuel 15:30, to show him honour before the elders of the people, and before Israel, that his rejection might not be known.” (Keil.)
1 Samuel 15:29. “The strength of Israel.” A phrase which occurs only here. It means glory, perpetuity, trust. “The Hebrew word, Netsah, signifies what is bright or shines continually, and therefore what may be relied upon—as the sun, or stars.” (Wordsworth.)
1 Samuel 15:31. “So Samuel turned again.” “Not, of course, to yield to his selfish opposition to God’s honour, but to preserve unimpaired in the eyes of the people the position of Saul’s kingdom, which, though theocratically rejected, yet still in fact by God’s will remained, and especially not to be wanting in the sacrifice of the people.” (Erdmann.)
1 Samuel 15:32. “And Agag came unto him delicately.” The phrase is obscure. The last word is derived from a verb, meaning to live daintily, softly. Wordsworth translates, ‘joyfully.’ Can it mean fawningly, flatteringly, with a view of appeasing Samuel?” (Biblical Commentary. “The bitterness of death is passed.” Some commentators see in these words of Agag a heroic contempt of death, and others an assumed courageousness. Most, however, think that Agag, not having been slain by Saul, felt sure that Samuel would spare his life.
1 Samuel 15:33. “As thy sword,” etc. “From these words it is very evident that Agag had carried on his wars with great cruelty, and had therefore forfeited his life according to the lex Talionis.” (Keil.) “Before the Lord,” i.e., before the altar of Jehovah there; for the slaying of Agag, being the execution of a ban, was an act performed for the glory of God.” (Keil.)
1 Samuel 15:35. “And Samuel came no more.” “The Hebrew is, “saw him no more,’ i.e., did not visit him, which does not contradict 1 Samuel 19:24.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Samuel 15:24-35
SAUL’S CONFESSION
I. Saul’s confession of sin was satisfactory as to word. “I have sinned,” is the acknowledgement of responsibility and accountability. “I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord,” is an acknowledgment on the part of man that there is a Being who has a right to lay down laws for the guidance of His creatures. There are men in the world who deny that there is such a thing as sin—who affirm that they are creatures of necessity, and are therefore undeserving of blame for any action. But Saul here admits his personal responsibility, and allows that his negative sin—his non-observance of a plain command—was a positive transgression. True it is that he admits this with reluctance, and that he involves the people in the act of disobedience. But whether he speaks the truth or not in relation to them, he does not now attempt to palliate his sin by laying the blame directly on them. He acknowledges his own personal guilt in the same words as David used to express his deep and heartfelt repentance, and as the prodigal uttered when he came first to himself and then to his father’s home. So far as the language of the confession goes it leaves nothing to be desired.
II. It is possible to use words which express true repentance and yet lack the spirit of it. A dead body is complete so far as the form goes, no limb is wanting, and all the beauty of the most perfect symmetry of form may be there. But it is only a corpse notwithstanding, and because the living spirit is wanting even the form will vanish after a time. So a man may use a “form of sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13) which in language may leave nothing to be desired. He may acknowledge that he is a sinner, and that he merits punishment, and his language may be that of general humility, and yet the spirit of true repentance may be absent. But the wear and tear of human life will soon make apparent whether the outward form is inhabited by a living soul or whether it is only a lifeless body. If it is a true repentance the actions proper to it will follow, but if it is not, the very form will cease to exist, and the man who once had the form of repentance without the power will cease even to possess the form, and become more and more subject to the law of sin and death. Even Pharaoh said, “I have sinned” (Exodus 9:27), but in his mouth the words were not the outcome of a sense of sin, and he soon became too hardened even for such a formal confession. So was it with Saul. We here see him preserving some outward form of godliness although he was “denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5), and later on in his life he repeats this confession (1 Samuel 26:21), but as on neither occasions it was dictated by the spirit of true and godly sorrow for sin, there came a time in his life when even the formal confession vanished from his lips. The words of repentance were not wanting, but there was no correspondence between the language and the deeds—it was left to another to carry into effect the Divine commandment which Saul here confesses he had transgressed, but which it does not appear that he now made any attempt to obey. It was left to Samuel to do the work of Saul, and thus to prove that there was one man in Israel who would carry out to the letter the bidding of Jehovah.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Beware of a Saul’s confession. That you may do this, it is necessary to know two things.
1. What a Saul’s confession is.
2. What a Saul’s confession works.—J. Disselhoff.
He confesseth not till the sin be wrung from his mouth; he seeks his peace out of himself, and relies more upon another’s virtue than upon his own penitence; he would cloak his guiltiness with the holiness of another’s presence; he is more tormented with the danger and damage of the sin than with the offence; he cares to hold in with men, in what terms soever he stands with God.—Bp. Hall.
1 Samuel 15:29. The heathen saw God as a passionate, capricious, changeable Being, who could be angered and appeased by men. The Jewish prophets saw Him as a God whose ways were equal, who was unchangeable, whose decrees were perpetual, who was not to be bought off by sacrifice, but by righteous dealing, and who would remove the punishment when the causes which brought it on were taken away. In their own words, when men repented, God would repent.… A boat rows against the stream, the current punishes it.… The boat turns and goes with the stream, the current assists it.… But the current is the same, it has not changed—only the boat has changed its relationship to the current. Neither does God change. We change, and the same law which executed itself in punishment now expresses itself in reward.—Brooke.
1 Samuel 15:30. If Saul had been really penitent, he would have prayed to be humbled rather than to be honoured.—St. Gregory.
Many men pass (i.e., care) so little for their consciences, yet stand so much upon their credit. As Saul, who using no diligence to regain the favour of God, was yet very solicitous that his honour might be preserved in the opinion of the people.—Bp. Sanderson.