1 Samuel 15

Rachel was fair to look upon, but being barren said, Give me children or I die. So if knowledge does not bring forth the child of obedience, it will die (1 Samuel 15:22). To obey is better than sacrifice.

Probatio dilectionis est exhibitio operis. The son that loves his father will obey him; obedience pleases God (1 Samuel 15:22): To obey is better than sacrifice. In sacrifice only a dead beast is offered, in obedience a living soul.

He is a mediator only for such as are in covenant. O! how will you be filled with horror and despair, and be as Saul (1 Samuel 15:28): The Philistines make war against me, and the Lord is departed. 2. Till you are in covenant with God, there is no mercy.

God's providences are uncertain, but his promises are the sure mercies of David. (Acts 13:34) God is not a man that he should repent, (1 Samuel 15:29). The word of a prince cannot always be taken, but God's promise is inviolable.

So we are more willing to excuse sin, than confess it. How hardly was Saul brought to confession (1 Samuel 15:20): I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, but the people took of the spoil. He rather excuses his sin, than confesses it.

Eve greatly missed it when she interpreted it to be only [illegible] as if God had only said, lest you died the fall did not barely expose man to the hazard, but brought him under a necessity of dying; it not only made him obnoxious to God's displeasure, if he should see meet to…

Rahab out of Jericho: Joshua 6:22. The Kenites from the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15. And here Noah out of that general destruction.

And (2.) the things that were fit of this sort, were actually to be offered in sacrifice to God. This Saul knew, when he made that his pretence of sparing and bringing away the fat cattle of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:15). And I no way doubt but that these tenths that Abraham g…

See (Isaiah 46:10; Psalms 33:11; Proverbs 19:21; chapter 21:30) and their immutability is a necessary consequent of the immutability of the nature of God, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning (James 1:17). The strength of Israel is not a man that he should repent (…

So it was impossible that Saul and his posterity should be preserved in the kingdom of Israel. It was not contrary to the nature of God, but God had decreed that so it should not be (1 Samuel 15:28, 29). But the decrees of God respecting persons in particular, and not qualificat…

I say [truly righteous] to exclude the hypocrite, who has a form, and slight tincture of piety, but knows not the grace of God in truth (Colossians 1:6). He has nothing of religion but the name (Revelation 3:1), and religion often suffers by him: But he who is really righteous,…

Amalek was guilty of many idolatries and other sins against God; but God charges none of them upon them, but their malicious hindering the Israelites in their march to Canaan. (1 Samuel 15:2) Thus says the Lord of Hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wa…

Hence note: that, however God may forbear to come upon wicked men for their sins for a time, yet God has his time to remember them all; to remember, that is, by his judgments to make it appear to them that he does remember them, when they think that God has forgotten them. 1 Sam…

We will say more about it under the proper names of idols. The LXX. more often retains the word itself, as at Judges 17:5, 18:14, 17; 1 Samuel 15:23. Sometimes they render it as idols, as at Genesis 31:19, 34, 35; and as vain images, as at 1 Samuel 19:13.

First we load his patience, and forbearance, by our continuance in sin; but besides that, we abuse the very gifts of God, as our wealth, and good parts of nature, and our common graces: And (by your leave) the very saving graces of God's spirit, we will not stick to abuse them a…

For his authority is absolute, and what he does say does warrant our faith, and command our practice and obedience. I gather this partly from the word "Hear," which not only signifies attention and belief, but obedience, as (1 Samuel 15:22): "To obey is better than sacrifice, an…

Ans. I answer, that they still keep their order and dignity: but by these of the second, which Christ strictly requires, and upon which he also insists, the hypocrisy of hypocrites is chiefly discovered, so as a man may more plainly discern thereby whether the true fear of God b…

Again, let us note how our life must be ordered, if we desire that God should approve of us; that is, that we do nothing without his commandment: for as he rejects and condemns all outward shows, by which hypocrites would be thought jolly fellows; so he esteems nothing at all of…

For he is silent, not because it could advantage him nothing at all to murmur; but because he willingly submits himself to God's justice. It seems that Saul's silence tends to the same end, when Samuel told him that the kingdom was rent from him (1 Samuel 15:24). But because the…

And we have touched it somewhat before, in Chapter 8. We are here taught in general, that the Lord requires nothing more of us than obedience, which he accepts above all sacrifices: (1 Samuel 15:22). Which eat swine's flesh.] He complained before that God's service was polluted…

The leper was so far from deserving praise for the disorderly exhibition of his regard, that he ought, in my opinion, to be condemned for not obeying Christ's injunction. If he wished to express his gratitude to him to whom he was indebted for his cure, no better method could ha…

For Christ declares them to be mistaken who bring forward, in the room of doctrine, the commandments of men, or who seek to obtain from them the rule for worshipping God. Let it therefore be held as a settled principle, that, since obedience is more highly esteemed by God than s…

“Pource qu’il estime plus obeissance que tous les sacrifices du monde;” — “because he esteems obedience more than all the sacrifices in the world.” (1 Samuel 15:22.) So then, while the Papists are employed in frivolous traditions, let every man who endeavors to regulate his life…

Obedience in the Scriptures, signifies Faith: but the Pope with his Doctorly Schoolmen, and Cloistered Divines, has with their Glosses mangled this word, and wrested it to the maintenance of their lies and trifles, as they have done whatever else is read in the Scriptures concer…

To which purpose the Rabbins have a proverb in Jalkut. Fol. 265. [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩], he that eats of the pot knows the taste of the meat that is in it. Thus when Agag thought he should escape a violent death by the sword, he expresses his joy by [⟨in non-Latin alphabet⟩]…

This 21st verse does further explain who are the bitter in soul, even such as long for death; when a soul (from natural principles) finds a sweetness in death, that soul is in bitterness; Our affliction and our misery is indeed wormwood and gall, as the Church complains (Lamenta…

First, for the former query: There seems some difficulty in reconciling Scripture to itself in this particular, and in reconciling such a proceeding to justice and equity; for sometimes the Scriptures do expressly mention the punishment of parents' sins to be inflicted upon thei…

Hypocrites have their convictions too (Exodus 10:16): Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Thus was Saul also convicted (1 Samuel 15:24). Does true conviction and compunction work reformation of…

Object 1. The objections against this are but two. The first is, that which is taken from those places of Scripture, where God is said to repent, as, that He repented that he made Saul King (1 Samuel 15:11), and (Genesis 6:6), it grieved him at the heart, that he made man: now t…

You shall see in (Numbers 23:19): He is not as man that he should repent: Therefore I have blessed Israel, and he shall be blessed. The end is, to show that his favor is an unchangeable favor: So he has cursed Saul, and he shall be cursed (1 Samuel 15:29), his decrees are unalte…

Because the banks of his resolution are so weak to hold out against temptations when they assault him, and he gives over because he is not able to resist them. And this ground I take out of (1 Samuel 15:29): the strength of Israel will not repent, for he is not as man that he sh…

Numb. 24:20 His latter end shall be, that he perish for ever: and Deut. 25:19 Moses gives a charge, that after Israel was possessed of his inheritance, that he must blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under Heaven, You shall not forget it. And further, although at the first,…

This was Aaron's folly, who to please the people, erected an idol (Exodus 32:1). And this was Saul's folly, who against God's express prohibition suffered his people to take some of the spoil of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:21). The like may be said of Joash, who listened to his…

A bitter enemy of Israel. The Amalekites shewed their Spight to Israel two ways. 1. They did lye in ambush; and as Israel passed by, fell upon their rear, and cut off the feeble in their army, 1 Samuel 15:2. 2. They did openly give Battel to them, and would have hindred them fro…

God does never repent, and call back his grant, that he has by this act of grace ensured eternal happiness to the saints on such terms. (1 Samuel 15:29) For the strength of Israel will not lie, nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. (Psalm 110:4) I have sworn, a…

7. Consider this: sins of omission are sins which God has severely judged men for in this world, and for which he will judge men in the great day. It is observable how severe God has been to them that have omitted what he commanded them to do, though they have pretended to do it…

And though they thought in putting them to death, they should do God good service, yet God reckons it as their serving the devil (John 16:2, with Revelation 2:10). When Saul excused his sin under the pretense of sacrifice, it was yet called rebellion, and reputed as witchcraft,…

What delight can the Lord take in such praises of himself, where sinful men, or the man of sin has a hand in making the melody? God delights that his will should be obeyed; at least he abhors that his will should be disobeyed, though by sinful men (1 Samuel 15:22, 23). Since God…

This may be called a devilish zeal, for as there is the faith of devils, so there is the zeal of devils, therefore his rage is great, because he knows his time is short (James 1:19; Revelation 12:12). Eighthly, there is a Scriptureless zeal, that is not bounded by the Word, but…

In the things that are doubtful, it is usual, and no more than what conscience and command requires, to debate to see the truth; but when the fault and offence is plain, then to maintain debates and cavils, is indeed to devise ways how to darken the discovery of the truth by con…

Second, a hypocritical mourning; the heart is very deceitful, it can betray as well by a tear as by a kiss. Saul looks like a mourner; as he was sometimes among the prophets (1 Samuel 10:12), so he seemed to be among the penitents (1 Samuel 15:25): And Saul said to Samuel, I hav…

Obedience is the grand precept both of the law and gospel; in this stands a Christian's duty, in this consists his felicity. 1 Samuel 15:22: to obey is better than sacrifice. It is grateful to God, it is graceful to a Christian.

God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arme. It is one of Gods names, The strength of Israel, 1 Samuel 15:19. He was the strength of Davids heart, without him this valiant Worthy (that could, when held up in his…

The widowes two mites surpassed all the rest, Christ himselfe being judge; so in sin, though the internal acts of sin in thoughts and affections seem light upon mans balance if compared with outward acts, yet these may be so circumstanciated that they may exceed the other in God…

And in the New Testament, Matthew 6:27-28, 33, 1 Timothy 4:8, Hebrews 13:5-6, which were nothing if our Heavenly Father provides bread, protection, safety, dwelling in the land, and our houses, to the fathers, but the children had no charter but to beggary, to the sword, to be d…

But 2. Justification by grace does not, in iisdem apicibus, in the same points, have the same adversaries. 1. Moses and the Prophets contend most with ceremonial hypocrites, who sought righteousness much in ceremonies, washings, sacrifices, new moons, and also their own inherent…

Again, to show the nature and quality of it, that it is a most ungracious and wicked art, as appears by the Scriptures. For when Saul had broken the express commandment of God, in sparing Agag, and the best things, Samuel tells him, that rebellion and disobedience is as the sin…

And here upon diligent inquiry, they shall find that their own sins are the true and proper causes of these evils. When Saul was disobedient to the commandment of God, the Lord sent upon him an evil spirit to vex him (1 Samuel 15). Hymeneus and Alexander for their pestilent erro…

Now because in this they place their chief, if not the sole end of the oblation of Christ, I must a little show the falseness and folly of it, which may be done plainly by these following reasons. First the foundation of this whole assertion seems to me to be false and erroneous…

Answer. This helps to keep up their fame. 1 Samuel 15:30. Honor me before the people.