The King Who Kept the Best for Himself

Saul had been king for years now, and no one had to drag him out from behind the baggage anymore.

One day the prophet Samuel came with a message. "The LORD made you king, so listen to the LORD. He has not forgotten what the Amalekites did to his people on the road out of Egypt. Go and fight them. Destroy them and everything they own. Keep nothing."

(The Amalekites had sneaked up behind God's people in the desert and attacked the tired ones straggling at the back.)

This was God's judgment, not a raid for treasure. Everything the Amalekites owned was to be given up to God and destroyed, not carried home.

Saul's army won, and they killed the Amalekites. But Saul and his men kept Agag, the Amalekite king, alive. They kept the best sheep, the fattest calves and lambs, and the finest cattle. Then Saul rode to a town called Carmel and set up a monument there, in honor of himself.

(That is like handing yourself a trophy.)

That night the LORD spoke to Samuel. "I am sorry that I made Saul king. He has turned away from me and has not done what I said."

Samuel was upset and cried out to the LORD all night long.

In the morning Samuel went to find Saul, who came striding up, all smiles. "The LORD bless you! I have done everything the LORD said!"

Samuel tilted his head. "Then what is this baaing in my ears? And what is all this mooing?"

Baa. Moo. Baaaa.

(Sheep are good at many things, but keeping secrets is not one of them.)

"Oh, those," said Saul. "The soldiers brought them. They saved the best to offer to the LORD your God. Everything else we destroyed."

"Stop!" said Samuel. "Once you were small in your own eyes, and the LORD made you king over all Israel. Why didn't you obey him? Why did you grab the best for yourselves?"

"But I did obey!" said Saul. "I went where he sent me. I brought back King Agag. The soldiers took the animals for God!"

"Does the LORD love offerings," said Samuel, "as much as he loves to be obeyed? To obey is better than sacrifice. You have said no to the word of the LORD, so he has said no to you as king."

At last Saul said, "I have sinned. I was afraid of the people, so I did what they wanted."

Samuel turned to go. Saul grabbed the edge of his robe, and it ripped. RRRIP.

"The LORD has torn the kingdom away from you today," said Samuel, "and given it to someone better than you."

Even then Saul begged, "Please, honor me in front of the leaders. Come back with me."

So Samuel went back with him. Then he had King Agag brought out, and Samuel killed him there, because Agag's sword had killed many mothers' sons. Afterward Samuel went home and never saw Saul again, but he grieved for him.

All the fat sheep in Israel could not buy what God wanted, which was a king who would listen. Saul would not be that king. Years went by, and king after king held some piece of his heart back from God.

Long after Saul, a King came who never set up a single monument to himself. The night before he died, he knelt in a garden and prayed to his Father, "Not my will, but yours." The next day people laughed at him and nailed him to a cross. He obeyed all the way to the cross, and he was the offering too, God's own Son, given away and not kept.

On the third day God raised him from the dead. Jesus wears the crown Saul lost, and no one will ever tear it from him.