1 Samuel 15:24

1 Samuel 15:24

No man, surely, should dare depend upon God's temporal favours or upon the friendship of the best of men after reading of the sin and punishment of Saul, who failed so sadly at last, though he was made king of Israel by the especial providence of God, and though he had the constant affection and intercession of so good a man as Samuel. If men will not labour to keep their own hearts in the right place, it is not either in God or man to do them good against their will.

I. It was not for any one act of disobedience that the Almighty rejected Saul; it was on account of the temper and disposition which he showed in acting as he did, and which made him particularly unfit to be king over such a people as the Israelites. Saul's commission was above all things to put down that spirit of mistrust and rebellion which prevailed among his subjects, instead of which he allowed himself to be carried away by mere heathen feelings and to act as a mere heathen prince.

II. Saul's way of excusing himself to Samuel proves his heart to have been in the wrong, to have been, indeed, utterly destitute of the sincere love of God. If he might but have preserved his kingdom, the loss of God's approbation would have made little or no difference to him. The temptation which led him wrong was his regarding the praise and favour of the people more than the praise and favour of God.

Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times,"vol. iv., p. 124.

References: 1 Samuel 15:24. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iii., No. 113; Parker, vol. vii., p. 71 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Sundays after Trinity,Part I., p. 138).

1 Samuel 15:24 , 1 Samuel 15:30

We have here the confession of a backsliding man, going down the slope of sin at the same time that these godly words were on his lips. Saul was on the incline, and these words, spiritless and untrue, only precipitated him further.

It was one of those strange reactions of which the experience of every man is full that he who began in shyness committed his first great recorded sin in presumption.

Saul's confession had not reality. There was no religion in it. It was simply remorse, the child of fear. It curried favour with man, and it sought to appease God for a temporal end. Notice some of the marks of a spurious confession. (1) It does not isolate itself, as true confession always does. (2) It seeks honour from men rather than from God. (3) It gives a religious cloak to sin. "He did it to sacrifice to the Lord."

J. Vaughan, Sermons,7th series, p. 85.

References: 1 Samuel 15:32. J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation,vol. ii., p. 425. 1 Samuel 15:32. G. B. Ryley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 260. 1 Samuel 15:35. R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth,p. 93.