15:1
It seems to have taken three stages for Saul to be chosen as king, likewise his demise follows three stages. The first was when he did not wait long enough for Samuel at Gilgal (1 Sam 13), the second is here, and the third is his final demise, with the long “battle” with David in between. Samuel knows that Saul is “on the skids”, but he still has a message for him from the Lord.
15:2,3
The Amalekites descended from Esau, and had caused trouble to Israel (Ex 17:8; Num 13:29). God remembered what they had done, and now they would receive their punishment. We might wonder, “why wait so long?”. Part of the reason was maybe to give them time to repent. They had not done so, and now Saul is told to “totally destroy them”. No one and no thing was to be spared. We have problems with this, but there are at least a couple of points to bear in mind. One is that Saul was not executing judgement on his own behalf, but on God’s behalf. He was the agent of God’s judgement. The second is that the Amalekites were not a nice people (1 Sam 15:33), and had carried out their own atrocities.
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