1 Samuel 15, What Do You Regret?, Dr. John B. Carpenter

1 Samuel 15 and the Meaning of Regret

First Samuel chapter 15. Be reading the entire chapter. Hear the word of the Lord. And 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.

Thus 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. Now 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. So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in.

Talayim.

200 ,000 men on foot and 10 ,000 men from Judah and Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay and wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites Go depart go down from among the Amalekites lest I destroy you with them for you show kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.

So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites and Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as sure Which is east of Egypt and he took a gag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword but Saul and the people spared a gag 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 the word of the Lord came to Samuel 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 and Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning and it was told Samuel Saul came to Carmel and behold he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal and Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him blessed be you to the Lord.

I have performed the commandment of the Lord and Samuel said what then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear. Saul said they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God and The rest we have devoted to destruction.

Then Samuel said to Saul stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night and he said to him speak and Samuel said though you are little in your own eyes Are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

The Lord anointed you king over Israel and the Lord sent you on a mission and said go devote to destruction the sinners the Amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?

Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil at the sight of the Lord? Saul said to Samuel I Have obeyed. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me.

I have brought Agag the king of Amalek and have devoted the Amalekites to destruction but the people Took of the spoil sheep and oxen the best of the things devoted to destruction to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal and Samuel said Has the Lord is great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as an obeying the voice of the Lord.

Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams for rebellion is a sin of divination and Presumption is as iniquity and idolatry because you have rejected the word of the Lord.

He has rejected you from being King. Saul said to Samuel I have sinned for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words. Because I feared the people and obeyed your voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord.

And Samuel said to Saul I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being King over Israel as Samuel turned to go away. Saul seized the skirt of his robe and he tore.

And Samuel said to him the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you and Also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regret.

Then he said I have sinned. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your.

God.

So Samuel turned back after Saul and Saul bowed before the Lord. Then Samuel said bring here to me a gag the king of the Amalekites and a gag came to him cheerfully. A gag said Surely the bitterness of death has passed and Samuel said as your sword has made women childless so show your mother be childless among women and Samuel hacked a gag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

Then Samuel went to Rama and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul and Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul and the Lord regretted that he had made Saul King over Israel.

Common Regrets at the End of Life

May the Lord bless the reading of his Holy Word. What do you regret? Hopefully not getting up and coming here. We all have lots of little regrets. Regret staying up too late. So it's gonna be hard to stay awake during the sermon.

Regrets ordering the chicken sandwich instead of the hamburger. Regret eating too much. Regret going to see that movie. It was bad regret driving too fast. Because you got a ticket. I'm not talking about those kind of small things.

I'm about the big things like at the end of life. What were you regret that you did or didn't do according to psychology today. Bronnie Ware a palliative caregiver Described the most common regrets her dying patients had and her book the top five regrets of the dying.

First she said it was common at the end of life to regret not living true to oneself. Regret conforming to others expectations and the Bible this is called being conformed to the world. You'll regret that you conformed rather than being transformed and being being bold and standing against the world for what you believe.

But the way psychology today put it was regretful. Quote. Stringently adhering to cultural norms at the expense of your own passions will result in disappointment and bitterness. That's now the dominant wisdom of the age, but it's deceptive.

Sure, sometimes you need to buck against the cultural norms. Sometimes the cultural norms are wrong. Times of racism there were cultural norms that were wrong. They need to be resisted. But that also depends on what your passions are.

We're seeing and we'll see a lot more people who were told that if their passions told them that they were male. When in reality, they're female or vice versa. That they should follow their passions and quote transition.

More and more.

Detransitioners are expressing regret for following their previous passions. Now, they're they're mutilated. They're often infertile and incapable of breastfeeding permanently. Altered voice. Dependent on medications many are in chronic pain.

One attempted trans person in Canada reports to being so much pain because of the surgeries that he is requesting to be killed euthanized. We should have laws that make those who implanted the ideas in kids heads that they could Transition, but you can't so the idea that you can whoever put these ideas of people's heads or those who participated in it Told people that you gave him surgeries gave the medications that you can become the other sex.

We should have laws that make those people Regret it. Next the dying often report that they regret working too much time is non-refundable. Once you spend it, it can't Be returned to you on the and didn't you can't use it again on the things you won't regret.

But if people left their families impoverished Because they didn't work enough They may regret that too. So in some cases the problem might be there were we haven't honored work enough that we haven't taught.

The the kids that their fathers usually sometimes their mothers, but their parents are working. So you can be provided for and they need to honor that. Some regretted not staying in touch with friends and family.

You know, I regret That living away from extended family means I haven't been able to see some of them as much as I would have liked to. Although I don't think I regret my choices That made that necessary.

Regretting some of the downsides of a decision doesn't necessarily mean regretting the decision. You know, I regret that coming back to America from Singapore meant that my sons weren't able to be with their Singaporean grandmother Very much or that they didn't learn Mandarin.

But weighing all the pros and cons I'd still come back to America again. Some of you regret that you couldn't have family closer to you here. But I think you would probably still make the same decisions wouldn't you maybe to come here.

Sometimes you just regret that you couldn't have Everything you wanted no downsides No negatives that you could have the income and the opportunities. You've gotten here and also the family the connections the relationships that you had back where you came from.

But you know, that's not possible and so you had to choose the least. Regret the path of least regret. All of us, I think regret not listening to someone do that to some good advice that we were given and didn't heed.

Maybe we regret Not being able to hear someone again in person or you forget listening to the wrong person. Some voices are telling us today live for money-making to chase dollars to get rich. We'll regret it if we give our lives for that.

Other voices are telling us, you know to seize the day. Gather ye rosebuds while you may old time is still a-flying and this same flower that smiles today. Tomorrow will be dying. Sometimes you regret lost opportunities to enjoy life today and Sometimes you regret not sacrificing for tomorrow.

What do you regret. We'd all love to have a life without regrets.

But.

Like the person who got a face tattoo. That was misspelled as no regerts. We've all got some and we see here not how to avoid all regrets because that's impossible. But to have the least painful ones.

We see that here in five parts first the call second the compromise. Third the condemnation then the confession and finally the completion. First the call. Samuel calls Saul to some unfinished business unfinished business of Israel from when Israel was wandering in the desert on their way to the Promised Land.

Many generations previous and he calls Saul to holy war. Samuel says the Lord sent me to anoint you King over his people. Israel and Samuel supported Saul as king. And so now listen to the words. Literally there.

It's the voice. Listen to the voice of the Lord. There's a lot about voices in this chapter. There's a theme you'll miss with the English translations, but here's the first instance of it. Listen to the voice of The Lord.

You'll have regrets if you listen to the wrong voice or if you don't listen to the right voice. Listen to the voice of the Lord. This is what the Lord of hosts. Remember first Samuel is the book that introduces this term.

Lord of hosts. Yahweh of armies the I am who has vast hordes of angels and cherubim and seraphim and saints at its command. This is what he says I have noted or the word to me I have revisited. Otherwise, I've recalled I've been going through old files.

Well, the kind of saying I've been going through my old files. We have some unfinished business with the Amalekites. I've noted what I'm elected to Israel. Yeah, I suppose Israel when they were traveling out of Egypt.

They were they attacked the stragglers. Though the weak and the helpless who's kind of lagging behind the main caravan of Israel. Maybe the Israelites who were just weary or maybe they were caring for the old or the sick.

So they straggle behind and the Amalekites for no real reason because they weren't being threatened. Israel wasn't threatening. I'm Amalekites. So for no real reason they ambushed and killed them. So Israel is told in Deuteronomy chapter 25 verse 19 when you are settled in the land.

Then quote blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven. So here the Lord of hosts calls Saul to use all his armies to finally carry out that.

Holy war.

So here in verse 3 now go Samuel says and strike Amalek and devote to destruction. That's the voice of the Lord. Now it's not a war of choice in which they can take loot for themselves. From from the enemy for whatsoever left over.

That was how ancient armies were paid at least in part. If you win you conquered you get to kind of take whatever is lying around. They could take what they conquered but as a holy war. Everything belonged to the Lord and so it was all to be destroyed.

So they weren't doing this war for what they could get out of it for any profit for themselves. Notice how clear in total Samuel puts it in verse 3. 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.

Total.

Annihilation. Now, there's a lot of hand-wringing over this in our day because it sounds so.

Brutal.

Partly because we imagine ourselves to be morally superior to have evolved. Beyond this to know so much better to be more genteel. The reality though is when pushed Will be just as brutal the Japanese practice a brutal total war in East Asia killing anywhere from 100 to 200 ,000 people in the rape of Nanking alone and similar massacres all over East Asia.

And the Germans were doing something similar in Europe. After the USA dropped an atomic bomb on Japan in August 6 1945. 78 years ago today President Truman released a statement saying quote. If they the Japanese do not now accept our terms.

They may expect a rain of ruin from the air the like of which has never been seen on the earth. Three days later the USA dropped another atomic bomb to prove the point. He said Truman said he never had any regret over the decision that he never lost any sleep over it.

So we haven't evolved our self-righteous illusion that we have Is only a luxury of peace. Also, but critics of this and in Joshua where there's a lot of holy war. Miss is that? This holy war Hebrew it's particularly Hebrew term for a theorem.

There's a particular word for it here translated as devote to destruction. It can only be called by God like it is here. And it was only part of the occupation of the land like in Joshua and here it's kind of its fallout.

It's you know coming out of that occupation. So this isn't a model for war today. Except that it is a model. For our holy war that is our spiritual warfare. We are engaged in a holy war, but our war is not with flesh and blood.

Or the powers of this dark world including the sin in ourselves. The Amalekites tried to stop Israel's salvation. They were attacking them on their pilgrimage on their way out of slavery into the promised land.

We have enemies who are trying to stop our salvation who are attacking us on our Pilgrimage out of slavery to sin and to death into our promised land. With those enemies our enemies the world the flesh and the devil we are like here to be utterly ruthless.

No compromise. No prisoners. No quarter. It's kill or be killed. We either kill the sin in our lives or it will kill us. We have to utterly wipe it out. Our spiritual warfare is a holy war. So don't listen to the voices of those telling you don't be so serious about it.

Don't be so serious about your religion, whatever they call it. That's our serious about sin. So offended by sin. Why are you so uptight about it? Be mild. Little false doctrine a little differences opinion about something, you know, whatever let it slide.

What are you so uptight about it for? Give a little compromise a little. Little porn is not gonna hurt a little greed little putting money-making first. No big deal. Little compromises with the church.

I'm sure the Bible says, you know practice church discipline or sing psalms. But whatever it's not a big deal. Let it slide. Let it go. The voices say give a little. Don't listen if you do. You'll regret it.

So that's the call holy war for us total war in our spiritual war. Then there's the compromise second compromise. Saul gathers his troops in a town in the southern part of Israel near the border with Amalekites.

He has 210 ,000. Then they march out to the city of the Amalekites or laying in wait nearby now first they have a problem. Mixed in with Amalekites is an ethnic group called the Kenites. Moses his father-in-law was a Kenite and they had been friends to Israel.

They hadn't attacked Israel on their way to the promised land. They hadn't done participated in any of that. They were friendly with Israel and now they're living with the Amalekites if Israel attacks and kills everyone in the Amalekites city.

They'll kill them too and Saul doesn't want to do that. So he issues a warning in verse 6 go depart go down from among the Amalekites lest I destroy you with them.

Explains.

For you show kindness Hebrew word there one of the most important words in all the Bible. Kindness is Hebrew words chesed Steadfast love. Everybody see in the Old Testament the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases at the same word here you showed steadfast love loyalty to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt and.

Loyalty.

Should be repaid with loyalty. So the Amalekites took the warning seriously and got out of there. Now is that compromise? You know Saul was told to attack the Amalekites he could reason well the Kenites is the Kenites fault for living with them.

That some Amalekites might try to sneak out but the Kenites, you know. He's telling them to leave. Surely some of the Amalekites are gonna hear about that and they'll leave too, which they probably did.

And so he has to spare no one. He that's the way he could reason. Well, I'm you know, I like to spare them. But I can't. Instead he gives notice to spare them. He compromises in a way. Now for some people compromise is always a bad word.

He's the head of the family. I'm not gonna compromise my head of the being head of the family. So everyone will watch what I want to watch because I'm the head of the family. We're always gonna go out to eat where I want to go out to eat because I'm the head of the family.

It's not that he's not a compromiser. He's a jerk. When it comes to compromising my will I want to go here to eat. I want to watch that but I compromise when it's compromising my will. Compromise can be a good thing actually.

Here Saul compromises by not killing everyone in the Amalekite City letting the Canaanites go but he doesn't compromise God's will yet. In verse 7 Saul led Israel to crush the Amalekites. Then in verse 8 is where the real.

Bad.

Compromise begins good and bad. Compromise depends on what is being compromised. Is it your will? Well, maybe that's good sometimes. Not get your will. Is it God's will? Well, that's always bad. He devoted all the other people who didn't escape to destruction.

But he took the king Agag alive and then in verse 9 it gets worse. They spared the best of the livestock all that was good. Was not literally destroyed. Now his instructions had been clear from Samuel.

He had to know what a holy war meant. You destroy everything. But when it came time to actually do it. He thought well, I have a better idea. I got a better idea Than what I was told. So we compromised.

Yeah, okay. Well all the skinny and the lame and the runts and the damaged livestock. Yeah, we'll kill them. But the good stuff. You know, why let it go to waste? Let's let's take it with us and sure we'll we'll sacrifice it.

So eventually it will be killed and destroyed but we can get some advantage out of it that way. Let's get something good out of it. And then we'll do. What God said he compromised. God's command. The compromise leads to the condemnation.

God's Regret, Immutability, and Holy Anger

Third. Condemnation then the Lord speaks to Samuel back up in Israel in verse 11. I regret that I have made Saul King. It's God regret that's. I'm odd to you. God say I regret. Now the easy theological answer is no.

He is the fancy word is immutable. Immutable means unchanging and unchangeable. By being perfect God's perfect. So there's nothing for God to change to if you're perfect. You can't get better. There's nothing to better than perfect and If you change it anyway, so if you're perfect you change it anyway, you're getting worse.

And of course God will never get worse. So he's immutable. Unchangeable now if regret means wishing I hadn't done something if I had to do it all over again. You know if I was in Singapore in the year 2000 and I could see what?

23 years in America would bring maybe I'll stay in Singapore. Maybe I might think that but for God, you know, he knows what everything he does will bring. We could think if I would do it differently well, then I could regret that then God can't regret because he knows What will be the result of everything he does before he does it?

But that doesn't mean that he doesn't have eternal unchanging regret toward some sense God does have a can have seems to me eternal unchanging regret towards some sins and that he grieves and has wrath.

We talked about it the Lord separate his wrath towards sin and sinners and Now they the theologians will say that was God immutable that is unchangeable and changing, but he's also impassable. Means he has no passions.

That he doesn't have feelings and emotions now. I certainly believe in immutability of God. Scripture clearly teaches it several places. I the Lord do not change Malachi chapter 3 verse 6. God has no shadow of turning in James chapter 1 verse 17.

But I'm not sold on Impassibility, maybe I'm missing something. I listen to like a lecture about it from a reformed theologian this past week. I'm still not sold on it that God has no passions and I wonder if the doctrines the triumph of stoic Greek philosophy over the Bible over what Scripture says about God now Theologians I respect insist on it and the 1689 London Baptist Confession says God is without passions.

Although when they get to explaining it and they mean by God being without passions. They often mean that it's the same as immutable. Unchanging they assume that passions or emotions Change you. That you know now you're angry.

When before you were not and then you're gonna calm down and you're not gonna be angry anymore. That's what kind of changed by our emotions. Now if we think of passions like that They're kind of fleeting they come and they go like losing our temper and then we settle down and we think clearly about whatever made us Angry.

Yes. God does not have those kinds of passions. He's it get carried away by passions that did change him to change who he is or the passions that are changed over time. He's no longer angry at the same things.

He used to be angry at before. But we can we can have even ourselves you think about it we can have passions towards some things That don't change us and there aren't changed. There are permanent parts of our character.

I Saw the movie The Sound of Freedom a couple of weeks ago about a policeman who rescues children being abducted into sex slavery. Now I hope for every one of you here There is a permanent part of your heart that is angry at anyone Who would kidnap a child and force him or her into sex slavery?

That should be part of your character and I thought when watching the movie that I could never be a policeman like that. I thought I was watching this fairly good movie watch again. I thought I could never do that.

I don't I Don't have the capacity to do that going undercover To catch kidnappers and pedophiles, you know, you got to be friendly with them. You got to pretend you share their perversion that you like them and you're not offended but you going along with that at all or trying to even when you arrest one trying to Calmly interrogate them.

I thought I couldn't do that because the first time I Met one I'd want to shoot him in the head. I Might get carried away, but there should be eternal anger in us toward people Who do that those kinds of people because there is eternal anger in God toward them.

Remember what Jesus said warning? But whoever causes one of the least of these Who believe in me to stumble it would be better for him to for a millstone tied around his neck and he'd be thrown into The sea he's saying it would be that would be better than what they're gonna get from God.

Now since God has wrath towards sinners and regret toward the downsides of how sinners respond to him. And he also has delight as we'll see later in his passes. He has delight or good pleasure in Ephesians chapter 1 for saving his people.

He does what he does for his good pleasure. Then he has Whatever you want to call it. Maybe you don't like the word passions. He has feelings motions. What do you call it fiery convictions? If you don't want to call it passions, that's okay, but those passions do not change him and they do not change here.

God's nature toward making Saul King is Regret and it always was from the beginning. He made him King knowing he would turn out like this and he regretted that he turned out like this. It's like you regretting some of the things you lost By coming to Danville, but you'd still do it again Because it fulfills your plan.

God regrets that he made Saul King in verse 11. Now God knew that he would do that. He would do What he did here When he made him King like some of you knew when moving to Danville that that would mean being far from much of your family.

For those of you not raised English speakers that you would your kid end up speaking English, but you'd probably make the same decision again Here God is not surprised that Saul has turned back From following me because God always knew he was gonna do that Saul has not followed God's Word here God knew Saul would compromise and God's response to him doing what God knew that he would do is grief.

Regret.

So there's always.

Wrath.

Regret grief in God.

Towards sin.

Now.

Samuel is angry in verse 11. He cried out to the Lord all night. So Samuel has another Sleepless night after hearing God tell him about judgment on the leader of Israel. It happened when he was a boy and.

Now.

He's an old man near the end of his life. When he was a boy, he didn't know the Lord yet now he does know the Lord and so he spends all night praying for Saul and Israel for the people of God and Then with the sunrise he goes looking for Saul.

Someone tells him well Saul is actually nearby. He's come back already. He's at Gilgal after having set up a monument to himself in Carmel. Okay, there's a big red flag right there. All right. He he compromised the Lord's command and then he sets up a monument to himself Congratulating himself for his job.

Well done Saul he says to himself. Now Samuel meets up with Saul and Saul greets him. Sure it sounds very cheery. Let me boasting blessed be you To the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord totally lacking self-awareness Samuel points out in verse 14 literally in Hebrew.

So what it says in verse 14 in Hebrew then what is this voice of? The flock. The flock of sheep and this voice of the herd of cattle. What's these voices. I hear of the animals you say you follow the Lord's voice.

But I can hear the voice of the animals telling me it's not true. So I'll respond to verse 15. They Was the people notice? It's not we what we did this or not. I did this. No, he's not taking any responsibility.

Responsibility. The people he says in verse 21 did it not me?

They.

What's what's the voice of these animals that are here if you follow those command? He says they brought them. They brought them for sacrifices. Of course, we're gonna kill them individually the rest we killed but these are the sacrifices.

We'll kill them soon. Samuel says stop. Interrupting him in verse 16. Notice, by the way. In no other culture could anyone get away with talking to a king like this. Only in Israel where the king was supposed to be the administrator of God's law.

One who puts into practice God's commands. Only in Israel could a prophet confront a king, you know. Interrupt him say stop.

And then rebuke him.

Well, so Samuel tells Saul. But the Lord said last night in verse 17 though. You were little in your own eyes. Remember hiding out by the baggage trying to avoid this prominence this responsibility. Are you not the head of the tribes of Israel?

You're the head. He's the head so he's responsible for the members of the body. Here are the members of the body of Israel what they do. He's trying to blame the body. But Saul says you're the head. Samuel recounts that Saul was sent on the mission given clear instructions.

Holy war. Devote to destruction the sinners. But why didn't you obey. Why did you pounce on the spoil in verse 19? Saul is still in denial in verse 20.

Insisting.

He obeyed. This thing. I kept the command. He's not intentionally lying here. He's admitted what's happened. He's not lying. He believes his own excuses. Now sure a gag isn't dead. Yet, and we got the best livestock.

But we're gonna sacrifice them so they will be dead soon. And after all why not kill the animals by sacrificing them? I just butcher them on the ground there in Amalek. Let's bring them here and use them for something useful before we kill them.

Of course, that means conveniently. If you sacrifice them that conveniently means you don't have to sacrifice any of your own animals. You know sacrifices are fungible. You know if I can thinking if I can sacrifice this bull we captured from the Amalekites.

That means I get to keep my own bull. I don't have to sacrifice my animals. And of course you get to eat sacrifices not like the dead animals you're leaving behind in Amalek. It's much better than letting them rot on the ground.

They are back in Amalekite territory plus and here's the kicker after all.

God likes.

Sacrifices and so we bring it here. We get to eat some of it. We get to not sacrifice our own animals and Finally the piece de resistance and how you say it. We get extra points with God. It's win-win.

It's brilliant. And that's what Saul and his men were thinking. That's how compromise works.

It has good excuses.

We're gonna sacrifice to the Lord your God Saul insists. And To that Samuel responds in verses 22 and 23 Trying to break through Saul's self-righteousness. And he asked rhetorically Has the Lord is great delight?

The Lord regrets and he delights. Does he take as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices? As in obeying.

The voice.

There's the voice again isn't obeying the voice of the Lord. I can hear the voice of the animals telling me that you didn't obey the voice of the Lord. The Lord delights most in doing What his voice says.

Behold.

Pay attention to this. It's what behold means. Pay attention to obey is better than sacrifice. As the Keith Green song puts it to obey. It's better than sacrifice. I don't need your money. I.

Want your life?

Samuel says to listen listen to the voice is.

Better.

Than the fat of rams. Then whatever religious rituals you do you think you can buy God off with no listen to what he's saying because listen because Rebellion that is not listening to his voice is. As it's like the sin of divination it's like witchcraft Presumption that is thinking you can pick it.

You have the right you have the Authority you have the capacity to pick and choose which of God's commands to obey and how to obey them. Selective obedience that is as iniquity and idolatry. He will make idols Like out of money to serve themselves To advance their own cause their own will.

The same reason that some people selectively obey God's commands It advances my.

Cause.

Some protest. Why is Saul condemned? You know when David seems to have done much worse things. Remember the David and Bathsheba story. Well, we measure sins by their impact on us by our morality. And you know when we think that David and Bathsheba, that's so horrible and Saul here.

What's this about? Okay, he's gonna kill these animals eventually. Why he just he didn't keep a technical rule of holy war. What are you so upset about? Samuel.

And God.

We measure morality by what offends ourselves. Hurts ourselves defends our morality, but God measures them by sins. By Their willfulness. By whether someone is turning a deaf ear to his commands. Doing their own will.

Like a witch trying to tap into supernatural power to have her will be done. Here Saul's sin is as bad as if he used a medium or a witch to advance his will. Which he will eventually do to talk to Samuel one last time.