“What Then Is This Bleating…?”
“What Then Is This Bleating…?”
Blessings folk!
Saul and the people refused to fully obey the command of the Lord.
They did not utterly destroy all of Amalek and their possessions.
They spared the best of the livestock.
What happened next?
Humorous if not so serious…
1Sa 15:10-14
Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying,
“I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night.
Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul; and it was told Samuel, saying,
“Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, then turned and proceeded on down to Gilgal.”
Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him,
“Blessed are you of the LORD!
I have carried out the command of the LORD.”
But Samuel said,
“What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
The Word of the Lord came to Samuel.
The Lord told Samuel His heart…regret. Interesting. The Lord regretted.
The Lord told Samuel what had happened.
Saul turned his back on the Lord.
Saul did not carry out the command of the Lord.
Samuel’s response
- Distressed
- Cried out to the Lord all night
Samuel went to meet Saul.
What had Saul done?
- Set up a monument for himself
- Proceded to Gilgal
Samuel came to Saul.
Saul’s response
Excited!
“Blessed are you of the Lord!”
“I have carried out the command of the Lord”
Saul was thrilled with what had happened.
He did not see…?
He cared not about…?
What he had done.
Samuel’s response?
One of the best lines in all of Scripture.
After Saul was proclaiming his faithfulness to the commandment of the Lord, Samuel says “what then is this bleating of the seep in my hearts and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
The empirical evidence betrayed Saul’s declaration of faithfulness.
Oops.
May we have eyes to see, hears to hear.