The Tupelo journal., 1903-07-24

Il. 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 thy God in Gilgal.
y, And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as
great delight in burnt offerings and sacri-
fees, as in obeying the voice OF the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
Is. For rebellion is as the sin OF witch
craft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the
Word of the Lord, He hath also rejected
thee from being king.
GOLDEN TEXT.-TO obey is better
than s~acrifce.-I Sam. 1922.
OUTLINE OF SCRIPTURE SECTION.
Saui's first trespass..........1 SAM, 1923.
Sauis Wariare................l Sam, H:l-52
Saul's Observation-Disclosures SAM, I5:13-16.
SauIs re1ection...............1 Sam, 15:11-23.
SauIs umiiiation ..........1 SAM 5:24-35.
TlME.-Thee exact date is uncertain, pos
sibly about 1865 B. c..
PLACE.-Gilgal and Michmash.
NOTES AND COMMENTS.
When Saul was made king he was
charged to implicitly obey the com
mands of Jehovah. For disobedience
he was twice rejected; first, as to his
house (13:13, AZ, and, second, as to
himself (15). One will have to study
the whole story of Saul's reign in order
to ascertain all the reasons that led to
his rejection.
The news of the union of the scat.
tered clans of Israel under King Saul,
and their victory in Gilead, soon
reached their longtime oppressors,
the Philistines. They Immediately
plan to invade the land, to reassert
their authority and again to t~errorize
the people into subsection. The He
brews flee. some finding refuge in the
mountains, others leaving the coun-
try.
Saul bravely recruits the faithful
ones at Gilgal, where Samuel had in
structed him to wait before strik-
ing the first blow for independence.
After waiting a week. in impatience
at the n%on-arrival of the prophet, the
king prepares to begin the campaign,
and as the initial step, sacrifices burnt
offerings. At this juncture Samuel
appears and severely rebukes Saul for
~dlsobedience, threatening to wrest the
kingdom from him. Saul's sin was not
the mere act of assuming priestly
functions, as has been traditionally
supposed. 1t was his impatient self
assertiveness in failing to wait for
Samuel's advice as to Gods will in this
great national crisis.
Yet Sauls little army succeeds in re-
pulsing the Philistines, through the
personal bravery of his son Jonathan
and the strange panic he causes among
the foe. Saul leads the triumphant
pursuit, with constantly growing
forces. This chapter shows plainly
that Saul's devotion was to the forms
of religion, rather than its spirit.
Some years after this first campaign
with the Philistines, the events of to-
days lesson occurred. Samuel, still
supreme as the adviser of the king,
brought word to Saul that Israel's
ancient foe, the Amalekites, must be
destroyed. Such wholesale slaughter
could not be justified in Christian
times. The Cambridge Bible says:
"Such commands were an accommodate
ton to the moral and religious state
of the nation to which they were
given. Revelation is progressive, and
Gods dealings with the chosen people.
while designed to raise and educate
them, were necessarily conditioned by
their moral state at the given PERIOD
Meeting Samuel awkwardly on his
return, Saul greets him with a pious
expression of welcome, lays upon the
soldiers the blame for his own dis
obedience, and untruthfully claims
that all the animals spared were in
tended for sacrifice.
Jehovah anointed thee:" Saul is
reminded that he is answerable to One
higher than himself; yet he has dis
obeyed Gods prophet. 'Didst fly upon
the spoil:" Descriptive of a wild
carnival of eager, selfish greed. Yet
Samuel had intended the expedition to
be a religious one, to execute what he
believed to be the divine will. ITO
obey is better than sacrifice:" Moral
conduct is more than ritual-one of
the loftiest thoughts of the Old Tesla
ment and the keynote of all prophetic
teaching. "God rejects Saul from be-
ing king owe Israel, since he had re-
jected God from being King over
Saul."-Adams.
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS.
God rejects one only after ones acts
show that he has the disobedient
spirit.
BY disobeying God one misses the
highest career that is open to him.
1t is not so much God who rejects
man as it is man who rejects God.