1 Samuel 15:10

SAMUEL CONFRONTS SAUL AND HIS EXCUSES

"The word of the Lord came to Samuel; "I repent that I have made Saul king; for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments." And Samuel was angry; and he cried to the Lord all night. Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning; and it was told Samuel, "Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself, and turned, and passed on, and went down to Gilgal." And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed be you to the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord." And Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear"? Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed." Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And he said to him, "Say on."

"I repent that I have made Saul king" (1 Samuel 15:10). God's repentance is a far different thing from that of men. God does not change; but when men change, their standing with God is reversed; and that is what is meant here. "And it repented the Lord that he had made man" (Genesis 6:6 KJV). This is an accurate statement because it reflects the location of the change, not in God, but in men.

"And Samuel was angry, and he cried to God all night" (1 Samuel 15:10). The same words for being angry are found in Jonah 4:1; and it is clear that Samuel was not angry with God but with Saul and the ugly situation which Saul's willful rebellion against God's Word had produced. As every man should do when overcome with frustrating anger, Samuel cried to the Lord all night, in all probability praying that God would provide some exit from the shameful situation other than the dethronement of Saul whom Samuel dearly loved. If that is what Samuel prayed for, God could not answer his prayer, because of Saul's lack of repentance.

"Saul came to Carmel ... and set up a monument for himself" (1 Samuel 15:12). "This is not Mount Carmel on the coast of Israel, but a town in the wilderness of Paran in the south of Judah, apparently the modern el-Kurmul, about seven miles south of Hebron."[12]

"Saul said, "Blessed be you to the Lord ... I have performed commandment of the Lord." (1 Samuel 15:13). Saul here employed a double strategy involving (1) flattery and (2) outright falsehood. His warm greeting to Samuel was not sincere but given in the hope of avoiding the condemnation Saul knew that he deserved. His claim that he had obeyed the commandment of the Lord was an outright lie. We cannot agree for one moment with those who speak of Saul's "evident sincerity" here.

"They brought them ... the people spared the best" (1 Samuel 15:15). "There is something thoroughly mean in this effort of Saul to shift the blame from his kingly shoulders to the people. Every word uttered by Saul in this episode seems to indicate the breakdown of his moral character."[13]