Scripture Daily

Context No. 3170 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 15:30-35: in context

30Then he said, “I have sinned; yet please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship the LORD your God.” 31So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped the LORD. 32Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites here to me!” Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women!” Then Samuel cut Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal. 34Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul. 35Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, but Samuel mourned for Saul. The LORD grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.

Rebuked for his disobedience, Saul pleads with Samuel: I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people, and come back with me. Samuel goes, and Saul worships. Then Samuel executes Agag, king of the Amalekites, whom Saul had spared. And Samuel goes home and never sees Saul again, but mourns for him, while the LORD grieves that he had made Saul king.

Two things stand out in this hard scene. Even in his I have sinned, Saul is more concerned with being honored before the elders than with true repentance; his worship is partly about saving face. And the closing note is heartbreaking: Samuel mourns for Saul, and the LORD grieved that he had made him king. God is not coldly indifferent to Saul's downfall; there is grief in heaven over a life gone wrong. Judgment and grief are not opposites in God. Even as he rejects Saul, he grieves the man Saul might have been.

When someone falls through their own choices, can I hold, like God and Samuel, both the reality of judgment and genuine grief over what was lost?

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