Do You Have Hostages?

Back in the day, there was this man of God named Samuel, God told him to annoint Saul the King of Israel, and this he did.

Later on, God told Samuel to tell Saul that he wanted him to kill ALL the Amalekites, and spare none, including the women, childen, babies, sheep, oxen, camel, and ass (donkey), and to spare none (1Samuel 15:3). God hated the Amalekites. Why? Glad you asked. Way back in the day (like 500 hundred years before even this story), when God was delivering the Israelites from Egypt, ALL 3 million of them marched out, with the soldiers (able bodied men) in the front, and the women, children, and elderly in the back. Well they had to march through the Amalekites land, but what the Amalekites didn't tell the Israelites was that they didn't want them to. So what the Amalekites did was wait until the strong men passed, and killed ALL of the people in the back, and when the soldiers finally noticed what they had done, the Amalekites had fleed. The Amalekites were trying to stop the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah from coming true, and God did not like that at all. So he wanted them destroyed. You can find that story in the book of Exodus.

Ok so Saul gathered all his folks up, and went and did what God told them...............or did they?

They did not. What happend was, Saul, instead of killing everyone, including Agag (not real name but political title equivilent to king), he and his people took the Agag HOSTAGE. Also instead of killing ALL the sheep, ox, lambs, fatlings, and all that was good, they kept it for themselves. Not what God told them to do.

So God came to Samuel and said that he was sorry he ever made Saul king of Israel. Now you know that he must of done something bad to make God repent and say he's sorry, for who does God have to repent to.............NO ONE. But he had done it, he made God sorry he put him in charge.

So Samuel went unto Saul, but Saul wasn't where he was supposed to be. He was building a new place. Where did he learn that from? His HOSTAGE. You have to understand that when Samuel had found Saul and told him that he was to be King of Israel, he was a donkey farmer. He had nothing. He meek and mild, and thats essentially why God chose him, because he was humble. You have to remember something, always stay humble, and small in your eyes, no matter how big you get, God can't work with big headedness (sorry thats not a word but its true), he said that he who thinks he is something, is nothing to me. Thats what God said. So basically he was taking lessons from a king that was leading a nation that God hated, and taking lessons from a king that God wanted to be dead. Not a good idea. God expected him to be humble throughout, God called him to be King of a nation, but that word King didn't mean that he had to palace on top of palace, riches on top of riches. God called him to be different, and come out from them and be seperate, so why would he take advice from his HOSTAGE?

So when Samuel found Saul, Saul tell him he has done the Lord's work, and Samuel asks why he hears sheep, and oxen? Then Saul does something that only a bad leader does, and blames it on his people. He said that the people wanted to give the good livestock up for God as an offering. But Samuel tells him that rebellion is as bad as witchcraft, and that rebellion is as bad as iniquity and idoltry. Basically God tells us here that obedience is better than sacrifice, that if we before anything else obey him and keep his commandments, everything will be fine.

So Saul admits that he was so scared of the people and what they might think of him, that he disobeyed God. Take notes from Saul and never do that. Samuel also told him that he was no longer the King of Israel.

After that, Saul asks for them to bring out the HOSTAGE Agag, and on the spot, he slices him up to pieces.


Call me gruesome, but I love this story. It was told to me today by my Pator, Bishop Mathew Williams, Pastor of Brown's Memorial Church of God in Christ. This story reminds me of those things we keep hostage and never let go. We're afraid to kill them because its good to our flesh. But today I challenge you to KILL YOUR HOSTAGE! Not literally in the flesh but in the spirit, kick all those bad habbits and the things you keep hidden. Becasue I'm sure that if you keep it hidden, and you want no one to no about it because of your image or something, ITS A HOSTAGE. Colossians Ch.3: v.5(Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry) tells us what our hostages our, but its up to us to kill them, and make sure they're dead. Once we have done that, Colossians Ch. 3: v.10 (And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him) tells us that we are new creatures in Christ, and we are a new man (man meaning human). So have you become a spiritual murderer yet?

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This story came from 1Samuel Ch. 15

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~Brandon