What Is This “Bleating” I Hear?

Saul was given precise instructions on what was to be done. “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.” 1 Sam. 15:3

Although Saul spared the best and the second best, he still boldly set up a monument for himself on Mount Carmel. This shows how incredibly quickly we can come out of low thoughts about ourselves and want to establish our own name. When he later met Samuel, he said boldly: “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” V. 13. He knew, of course, that this was not the case, but he still wanted to try to gain a good reputation from the prophet.

“But Samuel said, ‘What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?’” V. 14. Then Saul offered many typical excuses for his disobedience to God. Actually, it was the people’s fault, and the intention was to offer this as a sacrifice to God, and so on. Saul had come out of the lowliness he had when he was anointed king, so that he allowed himself to evaluate God’s command according to his own understanding.

The story of Saul must teach us to walk in the fear of the Lord and to obey the word of God exactly. In the new covenant, it has to do with our inner enemies. In Heb. 12:1 it is written that we should: “. . . lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Here we can clearly see that every victory and all further development is impossible without first walking this “way of obedience” in our own life—a way that Saul did not take seriously. 1 Sam. 15:22 If I allow conscious sins to remain, the sound of oxen and sheep will still be heard in my life. There are many sins that can still “bleat,” sins that should have been destroyed once and for all. Think, for example, of my love of money, my selfish ambitions, my desire for the honor of man, and so on. These are sins that belong to my old man and must be immediately nailed to the cross with nails of faith.

This can happen quite quickly, just as Elias Aslaksen writes in song no. 163 in WotL: “All your sins can now be put off from you. In a moment, cast them all away! Constant vict’ry, constant vict’ry! For such faith let everyone now pray.”

Then I will experience what is written in Rom. 6:22: “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”