Sorry Repentance

I Samuel 15:24-35

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Alright, uh, we've made our way to the concluding verses of 1 Samuel 15. If you want to be making your way there and you want to follow along, we are in the midst of the discourse where we learn that Saul was rejected by the Lord from being king of Israel. That was ultimately due to Saul's disobedience. He had refused to follow God's specific command. And he's had issues previously. This was not his first problem, but it has come to a fruition now where the Lord had commanded Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites. Instead of obeying God's command, Saul and the troops spared King Agag, and they also spared the best of the animals. Last time we had Saul, Samuel confront Saul, and he reported that because Saul had rejected the Lord and his word, the Lord had rejected Saul as king. And so we'll pick it up in 1 Samuel 15 and verse 24, and I'll read it through the rest of the chapter. Saul answered Samuel, I have sinned, I have transgressed the Lord's command in your words because I was afraid of the people, I obeyed them. Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the Lord. Samuel replied to Saul, I will not return with you, because you rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. When Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the corner of his robe and it tore. Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingship of Israel away from you today, and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. Furthermore, the eternal one of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man who changes his mind. Saul said, I have sinned. Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me so I can bow and worship to the Lord your God. Then Samuel went back, following Saul, and Saul bowed down to the Lord. Samuel said, Bring me King Agag of Amalek Amalek. Agag came to him trembling, for he thought certainly the bitterness of death has come. Samuel declared, As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women. Then he hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal. Samuel went to Ramah. Saul went to up to his home in Gilbah of Saul. Even to this day Samuel never saw, even till the day of his death, Samuel never saw Saul again. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted he may had made Saul king over Israel. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. We pray that you would help us to learn from it. Help us to be drawn closer to you and help us with the difficult parts, perhaps, that we have questions about. And we thank you, Father, that you love us and that uh you do reveal who you are to us through your word. And so we ask now for that clarity as we study together in Jesus' name. Amen. We come first here to what may possibly, or at least appears to be maybe a genuine confession. And so we want to take note of it. Um I've kind of took the sermon as an opportunity to for us to think a little bit about what it means to genuinely confess, or maybe what it means really to not genuinely confess. Um, it may not be immediately obvious here whether this is a genuine confession or not. And whether it is or not, the die may have already been, the die was already cast, it would seem, to quote an old or coin an old phrase, as far as Saul's kingship was concerned. That was over. Now it appears though that Saul kind of comes clean. Guzick says Saul's statement begins like a genuine confession. I think that's true. And I would just say what we'll consider as we go forward, we can only judge it because of what we know of Saul based on what the Bible tells us about him. How the Bible presents him, in other words. I mention that because it just came to my mind as I was going through it. We normally should not be so critical of confessions. I've heard people say things to the effect, well, I don't think they were really sorry. And if they're not really sorry, I'm not gonna forget it. And I'm not gonna forget it. And I would just say, be careful with that approach. Reason being, you may recall that Peter asked Jesus, how many times am I supposed to forgive my brother if he sins against me? And he says, up to seven times, and he probably, you know, understood seven's a number of completion, and he was being magnanimous and saying, you know, I could do it up to seven times. And Jesus kind of rebuffed him and said, Well, no, actually, not seven, but seventy times seven. And by that he didn't mean 490 times. What he was saying is there really is to be no limit to our forgiveness for someone who is repentant. And from that, I think we can extrapolate pretty easily, I would say, that Jesus is further indicating we need not get in the weeds about whether a person is genuinely repentant. Reason being, if you think about it, if you've forgiven someone 10 times and they show up number 11 to ask for forgiveness again, it would naturally cross our minds, I don't think this person is sincere. As a matter of fact, if they came up a second time, if they'd sinned against you once and then they come back with a second one, you'd probably wonder that even on the second attempt, right? But when you think about what Jesus and Peter discussed, that's not in the discourse. Which leads me to believe for the person on the wronged end, the person sinned against, we're not to be overly critiquing of what is presented as a repentant confession to us. Now, of course, that doesn't mean we would necessarily believe the other person. It appears the idea that Jesus is getting to is that he wants us to go on without bitterness upon an expression of repentance. And of course, that's not necessarily easy either, like flipping a switch and turning off the hurt if someone has wronged you. Nor does it necessarily mean that the relationship will continue as it was. It certainly didn't hear with Samuel and Saul. All that to say, uh in looking at this passage, we are better to apply what we can learn from Saul more so than from Samuel in this instance. Samuel, in saying what he does to Saul, is God's mouthpiece. And he clearly was given knowledge about Saul and where his heart was. And generally, when we're dealing with people, we there's no way for us to know that. If they've wronged us, we don't know where their heart is when they come back. And if they express thanks, I think we should normally take it sincerely. Now, we do get some clue here that Saul's repentance is less than full-throated. He uses the right words, but he continues to point to others, as we mentioned last time, as the cause for his sin. Yes, I have transgressed the Lord's command and your words, Samuel, but I did so because of the people. I was afraid of them. Verse 25, as I was reading, it struck me as a little bit strange, and that Saul makes his appeal to Samuel really more so than to God. I mean, it's like he's trying to appease Samuel for the sin that he's committed against God. And that seems to be because he wants Samuel to do something for him. So, to whatever extent this was a confession, there's definitely a self-motivated interest in it. It's not like David, if you remember, when he was confronted with that great sin that he had of murder and adultery, and he simply says, I have sinned against the Lord. He doesn't offer any excuse, he doesn't try to blame it or pin it on somebody else. He just simply acknowledges his guilt and his sin. I was thinking, what a lesson this would be if our culture would just hear it. We live with victim culture mentality now. May God keep us from it. Yes, we are all wronged at times, but victim mentality has made it such that me being wronged allows me to do wrong. And the Bible is stridently opposed to that concept. So I want to stress it here. Someone else's wrong does not excuse yours. Now I understand grievous sins against us further aggravate our own sinful tendencies. There's no doubt about that. We even see reference to that in scripture. Passage came to my mind, Jesus said in Matthew 11, Woe to you, Corazin, woe to you, Beth Sadia. For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes long ago. What Jesus is saying there is that had those folks in Tyre and Sidon been in a set of different circumstances, they would have repented. But they weren't, and they didn't, and they were still judged. Now, the thinking about the passage there in Matthew 11, I actually think it holds out hope for that for Tyronsidon's future, but let's not pretend their sin was anything other than what it was. It was their sin. And yes, of course, God knows better than any of us how our culture, our environment, and our upbringing affects us. Um Brian, I was we were talking about something this morning, and she was uh she had talked to this lady yesterday, and they the family had, I think, like seven kids, and she was laughing, saying a couple of them had got in trouble and they had their phones taken from them. That that's a pretty rough punishment now. I'm sure if you take a phone and both kids were begging for it back, and she's like, no, not yet. And um, but we were just remarking on how difficult is it to grow up today. I mean, it's just a different time. And I think we all can recognize that, and we all should pray for our youth because they are just facing things that you know I know I didn't face. Um, but what the Bible makes clear, yes, God understands all that and he considers all of it, and yet we remain accountable and responsible for our own sin. And Saul's efforts here to shift his sin to others is not good, it's not at all condoned by Samuel, and more importantly, it's not condoned by God. But let's do consider his excuse because he's probably being honest about this, about why he disobeyed. He feared the people. How many of us have fallen into sin because we fear the people? Maybe the people in our family, in our little circle we run around with, or fear the people in our office, or fear others, and whatever capacity it might be, and as far as what they might think about us or what they say about us. We we need to be resolved to speak for the Lord as he leads. I was thinking about this. We often say, you know, we live in a more and more godless society. Perhaps that's true. I was thinking it may be better stated to say we live in an increasingly divided society. Yes, part of it's political divide, but really the even bigger part is a moral divide. And it's not that, and I and I'm thinking about the term godless, it's not that all society is bad. It's not. There are upticks in Christianity in our own country. There's upticks in Christianity, certainly in other countries. So it's not that, it's just that unbelievers are becoming increasingly belligerent towards believers. I think there's no denying that. We're used to it, it almost seemed like people were kind of neutral if they didn't necessarily believe. It's not like that as much anymore. Um, and for no small number, what was once considered scandalous is now something it's scandalous if you mention it, because it's somebody's private business. And of course, it may well be their private business, but it's also ours to speak to cultures over all morality at times. I'm definitely not going to go too far in the weeds on this. I don't know if any of you've seen the scandal that has emerged with the New England Patriots football coach. And um he's apparently been having a several years long affair with uh was once an ESPN reporter. She had taken another job, and now she's since resigned as well. And the only reason I bring it up is just to I've been watching some of the coverage on it because it's being covered on a lot of different sports things, and I've just took notice of it, and it's interesting to me. There's a group that basically says, well, we we can talk about it how it might affect the team in some way, but that's where it stops. We can't mention anything else about it. There is another group that pushes back on that and says, Well, no, that's just wrong. And so it's interesting to see how that is really divided there, and that's part of what we see in society. And what I'm getting to is we can't be afraid to speak out about what is right and wrong. I do understand the tricky part in speaking for righteousness is to do so without sounding self-righteous, and all of us need to pray earnestly about that. But I'm not convinced that silence is always the better option, even if it sometimes comes out awkwardly. Unbelievers have insisted for any number of years now that we be silent about sin. We've tried that. And we've seen how that's worked. Maybe we should try something a little different. Now in verse 26, Samuel tells Saul he won't go back with him. He has nothing more to say at this point. Said last time, probably won't remember, but it seemed like Samuel realized he had a confrontation he had to do with Saul, and so he's attended to business and he's done and he's ready to go back. It's not altogether clear why Samuel didn't want to go worship with Saul. It's likely, again, just he was just so upset about everything that had happened. He may have even thought, you know, he kept the best of animals. He may have thought, uh, he's gonna use one of those animals for sacrifice. I definitely don't want to be a part of that. But Saul reaches out to grab his robe, pretty impulsive move on his part. And I will say that real repentance that would reveal itself in godly sorrow would not so quickly ask for that kind of favor. You know, but as the robe tears, it seems it sparked an immediate analogy in Samuel's mind, which made me think of a few little things, and I'd read one too. But you know, Samuel says, Tear my robe, but the Lord has torn away your kingdom. And symbolically, we could say Saul's leadership would be as useless as that torn piece of robe that he held in his hand, because really now he's he's not going to be getting direction from God, not in the ruling sense. And Guzick says, quote, just as the robe tore, because Saul grasped it too tightly, so his tight grip on pride and stubbornness meant the kingdom would be taken away from him. And that is just a sharp contrast with Christ as we think about him. And you read that passage in Philippians. I won't turn there, but you're probably familiar with it, where it says that Jesus, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal. Jesus was willing to let go to follow God's will and purpose. Yet Saul insists on clinging here to what he wanted. He what he wanted to do is just move on quickly from his sin. Now, that's not always bad, right? We we do things unthoughted and we realize they're wrong, and there's no use to dwell in stuff, and we're bouncing around in life. But there are big sins. Some sins are worse than others. It drives me nuts. I hear some Christians say all sins are the same. No, they're not. The Bible makes no qualm about that. Some sins are worse than others. They have, it's, I understand the penalty for any sin is death. There's no question about that. I think that's what they mean, and they get confused about how it comes out. But big sins require deep reflection. And Saul was flippantly disobedient, and now he wants to flippantly repent. I mean, that much we can gather. He's not, he's just like, I'm seeing, yeah, let's go on. Can you go with me? Yeah, I did something wrong, let's go. This is a big one because, again, God made such a direct command, made his will specifically known, and it had to be carried out. And Saul is king, it was his responsibility to do so. So it's a big sin. And sins like that require some deep thought and deep sorrow for just directly and willfully disobeying the Lord. Again, you may remember David when he was called out. We have a couple of Psalms that he wrote just in response to that, just expressing, I have sinned against you, Lord, I've sinned against you. And he was just thinking about what he had done and wanting to get back close to him. And then we get to verse 29. I think I mentioned this verse earlier. I want to just read it again. Verse 29. Furthermore, the eternal one of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not a man who changes his mind. This speaks to what we discussed earlier in the series where we read about God regretting making Saul king. That comes in verse 11, I believe it is, and then it comes again. We read it again at the end of the chapter. And some will say verse 29 here makes clear for us that God doesn't actually regret, as it says he does in verses 11 and 35, because it's clear here he doesn't change his mind. Well, it could mean that, I suppose, and some scholars would agree with that assertion. But I I definitely think it's more nuanced than that, and I think most scholars think it is either. You have verses 11 and 35. The Bible doesn't present it in any tension with verse 29. The question again, as we mentioned earlier, the the real question is, does regret mean what we normally think of as regret? In the sense of not only do I feel bad about this, but I wish that happened, happened, hadn't happened, or I wish I hadn't done that. Because obviously then we see, uh, or is God saying you wish he hadn't done something? The the CSB translates the reference to God as the eternal one of Israel. Other translations say the glory of Israel. I think the best one, and I don't know which what you're reading from, I think the best one translates it the strength of Israel, from what I can gather. I think that's probably it. And I think Samuel is reminding Saul that the Lord is determined once he's decided something, he will make it happen. He is strong in his will. He is not going to change. There will be no change from what has been decreed. But again, everything is not decreed. So I tend to agree with, and you may not remember this term, but I tend to agree with the dynamic omniscience folks here that say that all these verses can just be taken at face value. God doesn't change his mind. It means his overall character is unchanging. The fact that he regrets at least indicates he is reacting in real time. Otherwise, there would be, appear to be some tension in the immediate text. Now, as I said earlier, I'm not sure I want to sign off on the idea that God was. Sad that he had put Saul as king and that he regretted it in the sense he wished he hadn't done it, and because he doesn't know everything, because he has left some things that are real contingent possibilities, even to him. I'm not sure about that. But I don't believe verse 29 would upend the idea. The point again is that Samuel is speaking of God's finalized decisions in verse 29. And here the decision is the kingdom is going to be taken from Saul. And of course, ultimately handed to David. And that makes sense. You know, you may remember we started studying Samuel, God didn't want to have a king in the first place. And basically what he's saying now is okay, you decide you want a king, we're not going to start off with a bad one. Saul's a bad one, we're going to put a good one in his place. So this doesn't mean, and I'm y'all probably realize this, I hope so, but it doesn't mean that Saul was beyond personal recovery. This is what happens a lot of times, frankly, with ministers and uh ministry leaders, is they fall into some sin that would basically require their removal per biblical standards. And especially, and I've mentioned this too in the charismatic movement, what's been happening is that they're refusing to remove them. They will take them out a little bit, but they go, Well, God forgives everything. Well, that's true, but there's a distinction between what God will allow and service and salvation. And thank God God still saves, even if you've done messed up really bad. And this is like we were talking about earlier with the relationship thing. Basically, God and Saul's relationship has been affected from the standpoint of him being king. It doesn't mean that he can't be saved. Um, Woodhouse says of this Saul's soul could have found a remedy if he had bowed beneath God's judgment of rejection. That very judgment of God and rejecting him was a mercy, and his meaning was a mercy for his soul. If he could have only seen it. Now, I'm not going to get into whether I think he's seen it or not. Uh, Lord willing, when we get to study it more next year, we'll consider it then. But as far as God regretting and not changing his mind, we know this. God is completely in control. He's completely trustworthy. He is consistent in his dealings with us. He's also sorrowful at times in his responses. There's no indication when the Bible tells us that God is grieved or that he regrets, that it's just an act. Or to be honest, which is what I hear so much, that it's just an accommodation for our understanding. If I may put it like this, God really feels, and we're made in his image. So I don't know why that's um so contentious. Uh, we have a God whom is grieved by our disobedience. We have a God whom delights when we worship him. He's perfectly consistent. Verse 30, Saul confesses again. He says, I have sinned, again, following up quickly by requesting that Samuel come with him to worship God in front of the Israelites. I didn't read why he's doing that really. Although I did see one reason I'll mention here in a minute. I it seems to me it just feels like he'd clearly be dishonored if Samuel doesn't come with him. Well, one commentator did say that he may have had concern that some of the troops might revolt if God's spiritual leader was no longer supporting him. I don't know. At first glance, the confession appears to be just a continuation of what we've been seeing. You know, after Saul says I've sinned, he then, yeah, honor me and go with me. In that case can be made that Saul is far more concerned about his image than his soul. Arnold says Saul has replaced forgive my sins with honor me before the elders. Maybe that's it. That's probably it. The only thing that gave me pause about it is the fact that Samuel goes back with him. I think what may be happening, and it could be something else that I'll mention just a minute, what may be happening is that there's something in Saul's tone and tenor that acknowledges, oh, you're serious. I've lost my kingship. Um I think he may have asked it more like, will you come back with me so this is not a complete disaster? That would explain why Samuel goes back. I mean, we're not told, I'm not sure it matters that much. Uh, the other reason, if that was the end of it, that would be great, but it's not the end. There's still some inner unfinished business, and maybe that's why Samuel goes back. As spiritual leader of Israel, Samuel decides he's got to do what King Saul would not do. And of course, that will be an implicit rebuke of Saul as well, but Saul had allowed Agag to live, and Samuel, on the other hand, decides he'll have to carry out the public execution. Now, I I thought we were being told what Agag was thinking moments before his death. I'm sure that's what the author intended. And verse 32, I was thinking we're told what Agag is thinking about, but the reality is that's really up in the air. And you may have gathered it depending on what translation you have. Um, translators are all over the board because the word that's used there is so obscure. It was interesting to me. So the CSB I read from it says Agag was trembling. The New King James says that agag was cautious. The revised and English Standard Versions say he was cheerful. So from trembling to cautious to cheerful. Take your pick, I guess. The NIV just gave up on the attitude altogether and said he was in chains. Uh he probably was in chains, but if the chant if the translators can't agree, there's no hope that I'll know. Um whatever is picked there then determines how the rest of that verse plays out. Whether he's saying, whether it's saying he was trembling and he's basically saying, Oh no, I'm a dead man, like the CSB says. Or whether New King James cautiously, he's cautious and he's basically asking the question, has death passed? Or, like the ESV, where it says he was cheerful and he's saying, Oh, surely death has passed. There's no problem. No way to know. We'll just throw it up with the question, the New King James Version, because it's such a question in the text. And if that's it, it's what he was saying. Has death passed? No, it had not. Samuel carried out the execution. It is a terrible sentence. As we said in the first sermon of the series, we're not dealing here with murder. This is righteous judicial judgment of God. Saul had failed to do it. Samuel now steps forward to follow the Lord's command. Before he carries out the sentence, he pronounces the reason for the judgment. He makes clear Agag was no innocent bystander when it came to atrocities and how he had afflicted them on Israel. But hey, I'll grant it's a brutal scene. Samuel was a priest. He had officiated in hundreds, if not thousands, of animal sacrifices, which frankly nowadays that bothers more people than the fact Agag was killed for some animal sacrifices. But the but the point in that is Samuel knew how to kill. He just had never killed a man. At least there's no reason for us to think he had. Um, notably, here it says he did it before the Lord. This was not to upstage Saul, it was not even to reprimand Israel. It was done before the Lord because the Lord had commanded it. That's what that means. It was hard obedience. And I wonder the way Samuel starts to leave and then comes back if it didn't think, oh, that needs to be done. I'm gonna have to do it because he's not gonna do it. I don't know. We're not told, but that could be it. As we said at the outset of this chapter, much of our struggle with this particular situation here and the killing of the Amalekites is because of our culture, our philosophical underpinnings are shaped by the worldviews around us. And and many people in our world will say, Well, I don't like that. Or something to the effect, I don't want a God who would call for something like that. They say that over any number of issues now. Um, not just this, there can be anything. And when you hear that, more importantly, if you feel that, remember it's okay to ask God questions, but also be reminded there is a lot we do know. There's a lot we understand. We wouldn't want to cast it all aside because of what we don't know. There are times we are simply going to have to let God be God. God is a God of love. The Bible makes this clear. It's passages like this that remind us of that truth. We can't remake God in the image our culture may have conjured up for him. Ultimately, God is the author of life and death. He alone has the authority to determine who lives and who dies. Now, thankfully, it's very doubtful. Thankfully, that the Lord was asked any of us to do such a thing as Samuel does here. But he does ask us to do difficult things, at least from our perspective, in obedience to him. And whatever else we learn from this, let's focus on what the text is really focused on, namely Saul's failure to obey. There's really no issue here on Saul's part of not understanding what he was told. There's no issue on Saul's part of why he was told to do what he was told to do. In other words, Saul is not struggling with understanding, he's not struggling with ability. He simply refused to do it. So any application calls us to examine our own lives. Are we holding on to sins that we don't want to deal with because we deem them too difficult to let go of? Whether we find pleasure in them, fear without them, or some perverted pride about them. Is there some reason we're not following God somewhere or in some way because we simply are fearful or don't want to do that, yet he's made it very clear what he wants from us. Let's not justify ourselves for not following the Lord. It says in the text, to obey is better than sacrifice, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. And then that brings us to the concluding verses. I'm gonna read them again. Verses 34 and 35. Samuel went to Rahman, Saul went up to his home in Gilbah of Saul. Even to the day of his death, Samuel never saw Saul again. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the Lord regretted he had made Saul king over Israel. What a tragedy. Right, as the scene closes. Samuel will never go to see Saul again. And what it's indicating there, I think, is that it was Saul's place. He had done the intense wrong. And Samuel was affected by it as God's spiritual leader. So it was Saul's place to go and see Samuel and make amends. Gilba and Rahman were only 10 miles apart. Now, of course, granted, they didn't have motorbikes and or even bicycles, and the thought of walking 10 miles right now sounds pretty daunting to me, but back in that day, it wasn't bad at all, you know. So Saul could have easily went and sought reconciliation. Yes, again, it's clear his kingship line was over, no matter if he truly repented at this point. But he definitely could have regained favor with Samuel and more importantly with God. But the rest of the story in 1 Samuel tells the story. We're told in 1 Samuel 19 that Saul does eventually go to see Samuel, but he's doing so in an effort to kill David. And apparently Samuel never saw him. It's possible Samuel saw him after Samuel's own death. If you remember that story, you recall Saul summons Samuel through a medium after Samuel had died. Most people think that's some demonic apparition. I'm not sure about that. I think there's I'm not sure it wasn't the real Samuel the way it plays out, but we'll leave that for another day. Whatever the case, Saul, it seems, would never fully commit to following God. Or, and this is the key, this is another thing the culture deals with, not only not following him, but accepting his judgments and his decisions. In the concluding words, we see Samuel's hurt for Saul. He he wasn't a cold, dispassionate messenger, you know, Bible thumping preacher that just got on to him. He he mourned for him. I think it's interesting, it doesn't say he prayed for him. I think he probably did. But then there's that statement again. The Lord regretted he had made Saul king over Israel. I I won't rehash that. But let's just say it's clear Samuel is full of sorrow and regret. Even the Lord is full of sorrow and regret, but not Saul. And when we sin against God, and we will, let's not be like Saul. Let's sincerely ask for forgiveness, rededicate our lives, and let's seek to truly follow Him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word. It's uh sobering as we read and consider Saul and how he acted, but we know, Father, the rest of the story, and we know what you have done for us through Christ, and we praise you for that, and thank you for that encouragement. And yet we know, Father, you have called us to follow you, and we love you, and Jesus tells us if we love you, we will obey your commands. And so, Father, we pray that you will help us to do that. We know we fall short in many ways and many times, and we come back, Father, and say, I'm sorry, please forgive me. Um so we I pray for all of us, Father, that we would be brought closer to you, that we would live our lives in following you in obedience and where you want us to go and what you want us to say. And so we pray for each of our members and whether those that are here and those that are not with us today, and we pray also, Father, for the church at large that we would draw closer, we would set a good example, be a bright light, and reflect your love and reflect your purity and your truth and goodness. And we thank you, Father, for loving us and thank you again for calling us. And we pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.