Saul had a mandate from the Lord to go and destroy everything in Amalek. On the surface, that would look an arbitrary order. However, there was more than 500 years of history behind that instruction. Amalek was the nation that first launched an unprovoked attack against Israel when they came out of Egypt. They plunged Israel into a sudden war. So, God told Moses to document it, promising to wipe out the memory of that nation at some point. Did Saul carry out the word of the Lord? Yes, but not completely. He destroyed every worthless thing but spared the fatted cows as well as king Agag. That marked the beginning of the end for Saul.

Repeated disobedience was the undoing of Saul…What we need to bear in mind is that disobeying the Lord routinely will short-circuit the ministry of the Holy Spirit in any life.

It will be rewarding to find out why God was so severe over some omissions on the part of Saul. That omission was going to invalidate the extant word of God. We notice that God is jealous over His word, and would do anything to see that it remains inviolable. Really, the assignment to Amalek was not the first act of disobedience by Saul. He had previously refused to wait as Samuel stipulated. He succumbed to pressure from people to dabble into the priest’s office. Repeated disobedience was the undoing of Saul. In our previous meditation, we learned of the need to draw grace from the Spirit of God to man the tongue. We will need the help of the Spirit in other areas of life as well. What we need to bear in mind is that disobeying the Lord routinely will short-circuit the ministry of the Holy Spirit in any life.