1. Who was the first king of Israel? "And afterward they desired a king; and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years." (Acts 13:21)
2. By whom was he chosen?" (Acts 13:21)
3. How long did he reign?" (Acts 13:21)
4. On one occasion what message came from the Lord to Saul from Samuel? "Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel; now therefore hearken unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (1 Samuel 15:1-3)
5. How did Saul carry out his instructions? "And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until you come to Shur, that is over against Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly." (1 Samuel 15:7-9)
6. What excuse did Saul make for thus disobeying the command the Lord? "And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord your God in Gilgal." (1 Samuel 15:20-21)
7. What did Samuel say the Lord values more than sacrifices? "And Samuel said, Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22)
8. To what was Saul's stubbornness equivalent? "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king." (1 Samuel 15:23)
9. What had he rejected? He had rejected the word of the Lord.
10. Since rebellion is equal to idolatry, had not Saul, in rejecting the word of the Lord, rejected the Lord himself? Certainly the record shows that Saul was virtually an idolater, and thus as wicked as the Amalekites, whom he had been sent to destroy.
11. Because Saul had thus rejected the Lord, what had the Lord done? "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. ... And Samuel said unto 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." (1 Samuel 15:23,26)
12. What had He rent from Saul? "And Samuel said unto him, The Lord has rent the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours, that is better than you." (1 Samuel 15:28)
13. To whom did Samuel say the kingdom was given? (1 Samuel 15:28)
14. What important lesson may we learn from the narrative in this chapter? From the narrative recorded in 1 Samuel 15, we may learn how particular God is in his requirements, and how dangerous it is for us to presume to deviate from the plain letter of his commandments. Saul flattered himself that God would overlook his disobedience in preserving the best of the flocks of the Amalekites because, they were preserved for sacrifice. But God would not accept such a service. Had He accepted Saul's excuse, it would have been the equivalent to admitting that Saul knew what would honor the Lord better than the Lord himself knew, and that was not true.
When God tells us to do a thing in a certain way, we are to understand that to do just as He says, will honor Him more than anything else. We are not at liberty to presume that we can honor Him by different course; that would be setting ourselves above God, and consequently we would be idolaters. From this narrative we can see an illustration of: "He that turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination." (Proverbs 28:9)--Signs of the Times, June 25, 1885--Lesson for the Pacific Coast - July 25--1 Samuel 15:7-28
E.J. Waggoner