Samuel is concerned that his life will be in mortal danger should Saul learn that he is going to Bethlehem to anoint his replacement. So God tells him to take a heifer and simply say, “I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.”
Many treatments of this zero in on the ethical problem this constitutes, since Yahweh explicitly commands Samuel not to disclose the main truth concerning his visit to Bethlehem. However, as Long points out, following Gordon, this is primarily an instance of irony. For in the previous chapter Saul had spared the Amalekite livestock and twice rationalizes this by saying he spared them “to sacrifice them to the LORD your God” (15:15, 21). Consequently, as Gordon points out, God’s command to Samuel is by way of answering a fool according to his folly and is in accord with the familiar OT patterns of the “deceiver deceived”.
Posted July 19, 2008
Upon clicking 'Buy now' you will be redirected to paypal.com where you can securely and quickly complete your purchase with a few clicks.
Immediately after payment at PayPal you will be redirected to a download page which
provides you instant access to your purchase.
