April 9, 2026

Hey guys, 

this week’s Thought comes from 1 Samuel 15. If you've been in church for any period of time, especially as a kid, you probably have heard stories of King Saul and King David. Maybe, if you're as old as I am, you even saw the two on flannel graph (if you know, you know!). We’ve always heard how bad King Saul was because he was seen in such contrast to King David — God's chosen man to lead His people. What we forget sometimes is that Saul was God's chosen man to lead God's chosen people before David!

Let’s look at Chapter 15 and see where things went wrong. In verse three, God gives Saul very specific instructions. They are about to go into battle against the Amalekites, and God wants to punish the Amalekites for what they've done to His people. These are the instructions given in verse three, “Now go and completely destroy the entire Amalekite nation– men, women, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys.” Kill them all, destroy it all. Brutal, but very specific instructions.

Yet, we see in verse nine that Saul and his men not only spared the life of King Agag of the Amalekites, but they also kept the best of the sheep and the goats, the cattle and the lambs, and everything, in fact, that appealed to them! They only destroyed what was worthless and of poor quality. 

So, here we see disobedience resulting from selfishness. They saw all the good stuff the Amalekites had and probably thought, “Well, that doesn't make sense. Why waste all of this? We should keep this for our benefit. I’m sure this is what God would have wanted.” They began to justify their disobedience. 

Then, Samuel called Saul out in verse 10. Saul apologized, but it felt like he was just sorry he got caught, not really sorry for what he had done. What makes me think that? In verse 12, Saul went to the town of Carmel to set up a monument to himself…He set up a monument to himself after God had given them the victory!

We see Saul’s selfishness lead to disobedience, which then led to justification of his disobedience. Verse 15, “but they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God.” That is WHY we didn’t destroy everything.

So, in just a short amount of time, Saul goes from being God's chosen man to lead God's chosen people, to letting his selfishness lead to disobedience, to justifying that disobedience. Pride resulted, which then distanced Saul from the Father. Again, in verse 15, Saul told Samuel “we're going to sacrifice these to the Lord your God.”

What is it in your life that might be steps down this path? Saul didn't all of a sudden become evil. Selfishness led to disobedience, which led to pride, which led to distance from God where Saul ultimately referred to Him as Samuel’s God, not his! What are the things in your life that are keeping you from stepping toward God and maybe even moving you away from the Lord?

Love you guys,

John