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1 Samuel 15 Bible study: Better than sacrifice
Saul told Samuel, "I have obeyed the LORD’s voice" (15:20), and four verses later, "I feared the people and obeyed their voice" (15:24). In Hebrew it is one verb with one word for voice, and Samuel had already said which voice matters: "to obey is better than sacrifice" (15:22).
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“Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the LORD’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“When Samuel asked about the sheep and cattle, Saul said the people had spared them.”
Is that in 1 Samuel 15, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
"I remember what Amalek did"
Samuel begins with who sent him: "The LORD sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel. Now therefore listen to the voice of the LORD’s words" (15:1) (tap listen). The word looks back a long way: "I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way when he came up out of Egypt" (15:2). Exodus tells it: "Then Amalek came and fought with Israel in Rephidim" (Exodus 17:8), and afterward the LORD said, "I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky" (Exodus 17:14). Moses told Israel, "Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came out of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 25:17), and "You shall not forget" (Deuteronomy 25:19). Then comes the command: "Now go and strike Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and don’t spare them" (15:3) (tap utterly destroy and spare). Before the battle, Saul warns the Kenites to leave, "for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt" (15:6) (tap kindness).
Where it leads to Jesus
"I'm going, sir"
1 Samuel 15:13leads toMatthew 21:31
Saul greets Samuel with "I have performed the commandment of the LORD" (15:13), and Samuel asks, "Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice" (15:19). In the temple, to the chief priests and the elders of the people (Matthew 21:23), Jesus told of a man with two sons. The first said, "I will not," but afterward he changed his mind, and went (Matthew 21:29). The second answered, "I’m going, sir," but he didn’t go (Matthew 21:30). Jesus asked, "Which of the two did the will of his father?" (Matthew 21:31). Jesus doesn't mention Saul, and no New Testament passage cites 1 Samuel 15, so setting the two side by side is a reading: both are about saying yes and not doing it. Others keep the parable to the point Jesus draws from it himself, about those who believed John and those who didn't (Matthew 21:31-32).
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 1 Samuel 15
That was a taste
The rest of 1 Samuel 15 is waiting in Favor
- What Saul spared
- "I have performed the commandment"
- Torn from you today
- Twice at Gilgal
- Better than sacrifice, again and again
- A torn robe, a torn kingdom
- 12 questions as you read
- 13 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 1 Samuel 15 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
שָׁמַעshamasay sha-MA
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "hear". Strong's: "to hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience, etc.; causatively, to tell, etc.)". It runs through the chapter. Samuel opens with "Now therefore listen to the voice of the LORD’s words" (15:1). He asks, "Why then didn’t you obey the LORD’s voice" (15:19); Saul answers, "But I have obeyed the LORD’s voice" (15:20); Samuel says, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice" (15:22); and Saul confesses, "I feared the people and obeyed their voice" (15:24). Listen, obey and obeyed in those verses are all this verb. The chapter uses it eight times; the WEB also gives it as summoned (15:4) and hear (15:14). It is the verb of Samuel's own answer as a boy, "Speak; for your servant hears" (3:10), and of "Hear, Israel" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
For your group
1 Samuel 15 Bible study questions
- 1Saul said, "I have performed the commandment of the LORD" (15:13), while the sheep were bleating. Where is it easiest for you to say yes to God and stop short of doing it?
- 2Samuel said, "to obey is better than sacrifice" (15:22). What do people sometimes offer God in place of doing what he asks?
- 3Saul said he "feared the people and obeyed their voice" (15:24). Whose voice is hardest for you to say no to?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 1 Samuel 15 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home