1 Samuel — Chapter 15

The Lord sent me to anoint thee king over his people Israel; now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the Lord. Lapide: as God exalted Saul to the kingdom, so Saul owes obedience to God his benefactor. The anointing creates an obligation, not merely a privilege. Bernard: \"He who disdains subjection renders himself unworthy of prelacy.\"

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the herds...and would not destroy them. Lapide: Saul's second disobedience arose from avarice and cupidity. He preserved the best for himself and destroyed only the vile and worthless — like Cain who offered the worse to God and kept the better for himself (Gen. 4), and hence was rejected along with his gifts. Avarice blinded his judgment so that he preferred his own opinion to God's command.

It repenteth me that I have made Saul king. Anthropopathic language: in God, who is immutable, omniscient, and most blessed, there is properly no pain or repentance. Lapide: God \"repents\" when he changes his decrees because of men's guilt; when he withdraws his benefits from the ungrateful and unworthy. Augustine: \"Thou lovest and dost not burn; thou art jealous and art secure; thou repentest and grievest not; thou art angry and art tranquil.\"

When thou wast little in thine own eyes, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? Lapide: note the fruit of humility — God exalted Saul because of it. Gregory: \"When thou didst look upon thyself as little, I made thee great before others; now that thou lookest upon thyself as great, thou art accounted little by me.\" \"He who gathers virtues without humility carries dust in the wind.\"

Why then didst thou not hearken to the voice of the Lord, but didst turn to the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? The root of Saul's fall: too tenacious of his own judgment, he would not submit it to God's judgment and will. Chrysostom: Saul fell because he did not give his whole heart to God but kept part for himself and his own affections — whereas David gave his whole heart to God and was a man according to God's heart.

And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices: and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Lapide: obedience is more necessary and practically prior to religion; free acts (sacrifices) must yield to the necessary (obedience to God's command). Gregory: \"Through victims the flesh of another is slain; through obedience the proper will is slaughtered.\" Bernard: \"Through obedience the will is made a living and perpetual sacrifice to God.\" Thomas Aquinas: the religious state is a holocaust, because in it all things are offered to the Creator. \"Christ lost his life rather than lose obedience: being made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross\" (Bernard).

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as the iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. Lapide: rebellion = the sin of divination, because both reject God's authority. Stubbornness in one's own judgment against God's command is a form of spiritual idolatry — worshipping one's own will in place of God's.

The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thee. The hem of Samuel's garment torn by Saul = sign of the kingdom torn from him. Lapide: Saul's rejection was absolute and irrevocable because his second disobedience was so manifest that no excuse or evasion was possible.

The triumphant one in Israel will not spare, and will not be moved to repentance; for he is not a man that he should repent. God's absolute and irrevocable decrees. Contrast with the anthropopathic \"repentance\" of v. 11 and v. 35.

As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Galgal. Samuel executed the divine anathema on Agag which Saul had refused to carry out. Lapide: the ban (cherem) was a total destruction decreed by God, like Jericho's. Agag himself is an instrument of the fulfilment of Balaam's prophecy (Num. 24:7).

And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul. Lapide: note the charity of Samuel toward the disobedient Saul — he mourned him, wept for him, prayed for him, hoping his decree was conditional and could be changed by prayer. Gregory: \"What is it that he mourns him whom he deigns not to see, but that holy Doctors, even with the zeal of righteousness, have a great affection of charity?\"