Saul's offerings - 1 Sam 15:15

The original Korean text: http://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025357189

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When Israel got out of Egypt, they, led by God, moved from place to place in the wilderness. And the weak and sick people fell behind. At that time, the Amalekites attacked and killed them. After Israel had conquered the land of Canaan, Saul became king. Then God commanded Saul through Samuel the prophet. "Exterminate all the Amalekites. Kill men and women of all ages. Kill all their livestock, too."

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At the command of God Saul went on an expedition and struck down all the Amalekites. But Saul failed to carry out the command to kill all of Amalek's livestock, because his men furtively threatened him into taking the healthy and fat animals to Israel instead of killing them all. Saul succumbed to his men's implicit threat and brought the chubby, healthy cattle for booty without killing them.

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Samuel went to Saul who was coming back from victory. But he heard the noise of the Amalekites' livestock which should have been killed and burned. Samuel asked Saul, "O king, what is the sound of those cattle?" Saul said. "Those are what we have brought to sacrifice to God who gave us victory." Samuel replied, "Obedience is better than sacrifice. You didn't obey God's command and forsook him, so God will forsake you and hand over the throne to other man."

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Why did God reject Saul's sacrifice so flatly and make up his mind to take the throne away from him? God saw that Saul lacked the qualities of a king over God's people. The king of Israel who should have obeyed God more than any other men ignored God's command and failed to be a good model.

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The reason why God commanded Israel to kill and burn all the people and cattle of Amalek was that Amalekites refused to be humans by living a life worse than animal life, committing homosexuality, bestiality, incest, adultery, human sacrifice, etc. At that time it was a kind of religious ritual to destroy and burn all the people and their livestock in a certain area. All of them who are worse than animals should be offered to God as burnt offering together with all their possessions. The king of Israel, Saul, must have known such religious meaning of God' command. Saul and his men showed an unsound attitude. They set apart good healthy ones for themselves from the cattle, but all of them, good ones and bad ones, should have been killed and burned to God.

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There was another reason why God was extremely reluctant to accept the livestock that Saul had brought. The livestock are already sexually defiled by the Amalekites. The plump ewes were a tool for sex for the men of Amalek. Of course, the Amalek women perhaps secretly had sex with the males of the livestock. The Bible gave a strong warning to Israel that they should not imitate such dirty customs of the Canaanites. What an abominable and unclean food it is when humans eat livestock that had sex with them? How devastated is the spiritual state of human beings who eat such food? Can Israel, who serve God, eat such abominable food and be holy? Can we eat such detestable food and give God a holy and perfect worship? And what a detestable offering it will be if people sacrifice such defiled livestock to God? How they make little of God!

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God forbids you something because it has a just reason. If you disregard God's commands because you don't understand them, you are a serious sinner.