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MAY 6
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king over Israel? Now the LORD sent you on a 33 But Samuel said, “As your sword has made
mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the women childless, so shall your mother be
sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against childless among women.” And Samuel hacked
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them until they are consumed.’ Why then did Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did 34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul
you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in went up to his house at Gibeah of Saul. And
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the sight of the LORD?” Samuel went no more to see Saul until the day
20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned
the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had
on which the LORD sent me, and brought back made Saul king over Israel.
Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed Psalm 57:1–3
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the Amalekites. But the people took of the
plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the To the Chief Musician. Set to “Do Not Destroy.”
things which should have been utterly A Michtam of David when he fled from Saul
destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in into the cave.
Gilgal.” e merciful to me, O God,
22 So Samuel said: B be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices, And in the shadow of Your wings I will
As in obeying the voice of the LORD? make my refuge,
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, Until these calamities have passed by.
And to heed than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
And stubbornness is as iniquity and
idolatry. 57:1 the shadow of Your wings. Meta-
Because you have rejected the word of phorically, God cares for His own as a mother
the LORD, bird protects its young. Symbolically, there
He also has rejected you from being may be a reference here to the cherubim
king.” wings on the ark of the covenant where God
was specifically present (see Ex. 37:1–16; Pss.
24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, 17:8; 36:7; 61:4; 63:7; 91:1,4). I will make my
for I have transgressed the commandment of refuge. When life becomes bizarre, only one’s
the LORD and your words, because I feared the relationship with his God calms the soul.
people and obeyed their voice. Now there-
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fore, please pardon my sin, and return with
me, that I may worship the LORD.” 2 I will cry out to God Most High,
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return To God who performs all things for me.
with you, for you have rejected the word of the 3 He shall send from heaven and save me;
LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from He reproaches the one who would
being king over Israel.” swallow me up. Selah
27 And as Samuel turned around to go away,
Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. God shall send forth His mercy and
His truth.
28 So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn
the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has Proverbs 15:24–25
given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better 24 The way of life winds upward for the
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than you. And also the Strength of Israel will wise,
not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He That he may turn away from hell below.
should relent.”
30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me 25 The LORD will destroy the house of the
now, please, before the elders of my people and proud,
before Israel, and return with me, that I may But He will establish the boundary of
worship the LORD your God.” So Samuel turned the widow.
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back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD. Luke 23:1–25
32 Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag king of the
Amalekites here to me.” So Agag came to him Then the whole multitude of them
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cautiously. 23 arose and led Him to Pilate. And they
And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this
death is past.” fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to

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