“Utterly destroy”

1 Samuel 15:3, “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."'

“Utterly destroy”. Those words have been mulling around in my mind for a few days now since reading a lesson in Kay Arthur’s book, Lord, I Want to Know You. God commanded Saul to utterly destroy Amalek and all they had. If you know the story, Saul only partially obeyed, “He also took Agag 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 unwilling to utterly destroy them.´”(1 Samuel 15:8-9) How could Saul utterly destroy Amalek but keep the king alive? If he kept the king alive, he did not utterly destroy Amalek.

Saul’s partial obedience was not obedience. 1 Samuel 15:20-21, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD
your God in Gilgal." Disobeying for what seems like a good reason is still disobedience.

I think sometimes we rationalize doing things our way because it makes more sense to us; or we think we have a really good reason to do it our way. Stop!

It was that very kind of thinking that resulted in Saul loosing the kingdom. “But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel."” (1 Samuel 15:26)

I have heard the following definition from numerous sources for parents to instill in their children as to what it means to obey. I think the same definition applies to each of us as well: obedience is doing what you are asked ‘right away’, ‘the right way’, ‘all the way’, ‘the happy
way’.

Diane