The Man Who Forgot To Remember

Introduction:

The chapter this week is my favorite in the book…why? I can so easily identify with Saul. All to often, I’m blinded to the reality of my sinfulness and the sinfulness of my agenda. Like Saul, I have lots of confidence in my judgment and often feel that God will appreciate my initiative. Like Saul, I often forget to remember and try to compromise with Amalek (my flesh).

God, however, never blesses that which He has condemned…the flesh never gets better and God never blesses it. Any attempt to cooperate with the flesh will always end in disaster…no matter what it may look like in the short run.

Group Discussion:

How did God punish Israel for rejecting Him as their king?

He gave them what the wanted…a human king! Sometimes the severest penalty that God can inflict upon those who reject what they need is to give them what they want!

In commissioning Saul to be the human representative of Israel’s heavenly King, Samuel warned that it would behoove him to know the will of God and to execute His commands and judgments. What was the first thing God told Saul to do?

Thus says the Lord of hosts, "I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. "Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." (1 Samuel 15:2-3)

What is the relationship between Amalek and Esau and what does Amalek represent spiritually to Christians?

Esau was Amalek’s grandfather (Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz. (Genesis 36:12))

Amalek represents the flesh to Christians.

How did Saul execute God’s judgment against Amalek?

He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. (1 Samuel 15:8-9)

What is the great truth for us in all this?

Don’t compromise with the flesh…one of Satan’s greatest temptations is to try and persuade us that there is something good in what we are; that apart from Christ, we still have value and are salvageable.

How has this played out in your life?

It is comparatively easy to be sorry for what we have done and to recognize the sinfulness of sins committed, but we are by nature loathe to concede the natural depravity of what we are and the total bankruptcy of man without God. We fall again and again into the error of estimating ourselves without due regard to the ultimate origin of righteousness and the ultimate origin of sinfulness.

 

Prayer:

Daddy, You have told us that in our flesh no good thing dwells, but we keep on trying to prove You wrong…thanks for Your patience with us. Lead us out of the wilderness to experience the saving life of Christ as our very own in a more consistent way as we walk by faith…trusting in Jesus alone. Lead us to surrender completely and to depend entirely upon You and to see You as our Daddy. Save us from being independent…show us the areas of our lives where we still resist and hold on to our independence. Thank You for loving and accepting us unconditionally, even when we fail and fall short of the abundant life You have given us, in Jesus Christ. We bring ourselves before You and ask these things in His name, Amen.