Agag, King of the Amalekites, which again called forth the displeasure
and denunciation of Samuel, who regarded the conduct of the King as
direct rebellion against God, since he was commanded to spare none of
that people, they having shown an uncompromising hostility to the
Israelites in their days of weakness, when first entering Canaan. This,
and similar commands laid upon the Israelites at various times, to
"utterly destroy" certain tribes or individuals and all of their
possessions, have been justified on the ground of the bestial grossness
and corruption of those pagan idolaters and the vileness of their
religious rites and social customs, which unfortunately always found a
temptable side on the part of the Israelites, and repeatedly brought to
nought the efforts of Jehovah's prophets to bring up their people in the
fear of the Lord, to recognize Him, only, as God. It was not easy for
that sensual race to stand on the height of Moses, and "endure as seeing
him who is invisible." They too easily fell into idolatry; hence the
necessity of the extermination of some of the nests of iniquity
in Canaan.

Whether Saul spared Agag because of his personal beauty, to grace his
royal triumph, or whatever the motive, it was a direct disobedience; and
when the king attempted to exculpate himself, inasmuch as he had made a
sacrifice of the spoil to the Lord, Samuel replied: "Hath the Lord as
great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying his
voice?... Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than
the fat of rams,--for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness as an iniquity and idolatry." The prophet here sets forth,
as did Isaiah in later times, the great principles of moral obligation
as paramount over all ceremonial observances. He strikes a blow at all
pharisaism and all self-righteousness, and inculcates obedience to
direct commands as the highest duty of man.