Word of Encouragement (09/21/2023)
Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD.... 30 I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God." (1 Sam. 15:24-25, 30)
This was the petition Saul made to Samuel when Samuel announced to him (for the second time) that the LORD would take the kingdom of Israel away from him for his disobedience (vv. 17-19, 22-23). It is a mixed bag of good and bad, but we can see that even the good is only a thinly veiled evil.
Here, Saul confesses his sin and the reason for it: he disobeyed God’s commandment because he feared the people more than God. But confessing his sin was not the first thing he did when Samuel came to the camp. He greeted Samuel with a gleeful report that he did what the LORD commanded him to do. Samuel would have none of that nonsense. He confronted him about the way he did not fully carry out the command.
When confronted about his partial obedience, the first thing Saul did was to flatly deny it: “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD…” (v. 20). Then, he went on to give the same excuse he gave at the beginning (vv. 15, 21), essentially blaming the people. This was after Samuel laid out everything that was wrong with what he did.
It was only after Samuel rebuked him again (15:22-23) that he finally confessed (v. 24). His confession sounded very much like Adam’s sin. The LORD said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you…” (Gen. 3:17). On account of his sin, the whole of humanity was condemned to “all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever” (WSC, #19). Here, we see what a serious sin it is to listen and obey someone instead of God. But was Saul acknowledging that he committed a grave sin?
Consider what Saul did after this confession: “Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the LORD” (v. 25). Why did he have to ask Samuel to return with him so that he might bow before the LORD? We later learn why: “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God” (v. 30). Saul was not really repenting, was he? He confessed that he sinned because he feared the people and obeyed their voice. Here, his main concern was still what the people thought.
How despicable fake repentance is! May the Lord help us not to sin, especially by listening to someone else, whose words contradict the Word of God! But should we sin, may we be prompt in confessing our sin and decisive in our repentance. And may our repentance be genuine—not to save our face in the sight of people but to be right with God.