In our continuing story from the first book of Samuel that we've been hearing
for over a week, we hear Samuel today confront Israel's King Saul for having
disobeyed God's orders in attacking the Amalekites. If we remember, it was Samuel who was guided by God to pick Saul in the first
place as the King of Ancient Israel. According to God’s command, Saul was to utterly destroy the Amalekites, not
sparing anything, but Saul and his men took King Agag hostage and saved the
best of the spoils for themselves, including sheep and cattle. Saul used the excuse that they wanted to use the best animals to make a
sacrifice to the Lord, rationalizing that they had a good reason to disobey the
Lord's orders. Their reasoning does not make a lot of sense – disobeying the Lord in order to
give offerings to the Lord - but this is how Saul explains their actions. Samuel tells Saul that his actions show that he has rejected God, so God, in
turn, will reject Saul as king of Israel.
In some ways, in reflecting upon today's reading from the first book of Samuel,
we might be felt to examine our own hearts, to look at ways that we have
disobeyed not only God's commandments, but at the ways we have rejected what
God is calling us to do in our lives. We may think of many reasons to justify our actions, but we need to ask
ourselves if we are blindly disobeying God in our lives and not listening to
what he is calling us to do. As followers of Christ, God holds us accountable when we directly disobey
him. We are never going to be perfect, but we are called to strive toward
perfection. On our journey of faith, we are called to practice virtue in our lives, to grow
in the cultivation of holiness, and to try to live the faith that we
profess. May we thank God for the many blessings he has given us in our lives. May we look for ways to discern the will of God for us. May we pray for the courage to implement his will.
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