Scripture Daily

Context No. 144 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 15:12-16: in context

12Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and Samuel was told, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, turned, passed on, and went down to Gilgal.” 13Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, “You are blessed by the LORD! I have performed the commandment of the LORD.” 14Samuel said, “Then what does this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the cattle which I hear mean?” 15Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the cattle, to sacrifice to the LORD your God. We have utterly destroyed the rest.” 16Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”

Saul has been sent to destroy the Amalekites and everything they own. He has won the battle and kept the best livestock and the enemy king alive. Samuel comes to find him, and this passage is their meeting.

Before Samuel arrives, the report reaches him: Saul went to Carmel and set up a monument for himself, then turned and went down to Gilgal. A man who has just been told to leave nothing standing has erected something with his own name on it. Then Saul greets Samuel first, warmly, and gets his claim in before any question is asked: blessed are you to the LORD, I have carried out the command of the LORD.

Samuel's answer is one of the great lines in the Old Testament, and it is not an argument. What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of cattle that I hear? He does not debate the claim. He points at the noise coming from behind it. Saul's reply shifts the subject to the people, they brought them, and shifts the purpose to worship, to sacrifice to the LORD your God. Note the your. What am I saying about myself right now that is being contradicted by a sound anyone standing near me can hear?

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