Samuel is old, and God has instructed Samuel to anoint Saul as king of Israel. So far so good. Samuel tells Saul that God said that God will destroy the people of Amalek, so Samuel tells Saul to go do so. Saul is to destroy every living thing. Saul heads off, and destroys nearly every living thing, keeping the best sheep and cattle. He returns and Samuel is upset, because Saul defied the word of the Lord. Meanwhile, Saul explains that he was actually doing what the Lord had told him, because he’d saved the best sheep and cattle for sacrifice to the Lord, as the Lord had instructed Saul. Samuel is duly ticked off that he says that because Saul rejected the Lord, the Lord will reject Saul as king.
I must admit that all the back story and lineage is a little weak for me at this point, but this section highlights something about the word of the Lord that makes me very nervous. In this brief passage, we have both Saul and Samuel doing what they do precisely because they were doing what the word of the Lord instructed them to do. Samuel’s version – kill everything. Saul’s version – kill everything except things to offer sacrifice to God. That there are disagreements between men is not surprising. What is, however is that God would deliver contradicting messages to these two men about the same plotline.
Maybe one got the message wrong. Maybe one made it up. In any case, they can’t both be acting pursuant to God’s direction, if they’re in utter conflict. To me, this is the beauty of Jesus’ message. Love God. Love your neighbor. That’s it. No exceptions. No conditions. If that was their direction, there wouldn’t be big disagreement about whether to spare the sheep and cattle; slaughtering all of the Amalekites would have been a non-starter.
If Christians everywhere really believed the message was that simple – Love God. Love your neighbor – would we be having all of these conflicts? Even if the conflicts were with non-Christians. Love God. Love your neighbor. Don’t argue about whether the sheep should have been slaughtered or kept for sacrifice. Love your neighbor would have nipped that whole argument in the bud.
Maybe it’s not that simple. Maybe that’s naïve. But it genuinely feels to me as if we really did that – love God and love our neighbor – all would be well. Maybe the disagreements come when we each think we’re hearing what the Lord told us, like Saul and Samuel. Maybe that’s the beauty of the second commandment.
This morning, I’m thinking about that second commandment. Love your neighbor. As mortals we risk mishearing God’s voice and direction. Love the Lord your God could look different to different people. In any given circumstance, two humans could believe they’re doing God’s will, because the Lord spoke to them – just like Saul and Samuel. But as mortals, loving our neighbor looks the same. Every human is someone’s neighbor. We need to love them all. I believe that second commandment is the safeguard against Saul- and Samuel-like disagreements. We can get that wrong and believe we’re doing God’s will. But I’m not sure there can be genuine disagreement if we all genuinely loved our neighbor.
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