Moreover, First Samuel chapter 15 gave an account of another error Saul committed. It stated that the Lord sent Saul to attack Amalek, and to utterly destroy the people and all that they have; leaving nothing remaining. Nevertheless, when Saul went to the battle against the Amalekites, he destroyed all the people but spared Agag, their king, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good.

   It happened that Samuel went to Saul when he returned from the battle and pointed out to him his acts of disobedience. Instead of Saul repenting and turning to God from a genuine heart upon hearing the charges against him, he again defended his evil deeds and tried to convince Samuel to agree with him just as he did in the first incident.

   Verse 24 and 30 indicate that King Saul later acknowledged his sins, repented, and pleaded for forgiveness in order to win the favour of Samuel and be honoured in the sight of his elders and in the sight of all Israel. These verses certify that King Saul did not repent nor plead for forgiveness because he came to the realization of how serious his sins were before God and wanted to be reconciled with Him, nevertheless he repented and pleaded for mercy because he wanted to win the favour of Samuel and to maintain his good reputation before the people.

   Finally, First Samuel 24:4 to 21 and chapter 26:17 to 21 have further given us a few record of Saul’s error. These records tell us about how he persecuted David.

   It happened in one of those days when Saul was persecuting David that he went in to a certain cave where David and his men were hiding, to relieve himself. Although that was a perfect opportunity for David to avenge him and do to him whatever pleased him, he spared him and let him go in peace.

   Shortly afterwards, David called out to Saul from a distance and narrated this incident to him. So it was when David had finished speaking that Saul lifted up his voice and wept. Saul then spoke and acted as though he has repented and turned from his jealousy and returned home. However, it did not take much time when Saul went back, persecuting David for the second time.

   This time, Saul’s repentance was issued from his personal gains and benefits. In other words, it was the sorrow over how he nearly lost his life that has pushed him to weep and to behave as though he has genuinely repented; not that he had really changed his mind. This repentance is not genuine; it can be referred to us pausing to commit a certain sin for some time and later resuming it when you deem it necessary.

   From the above illustrations, we discovered the various ways Saul repented when he sinned and transgressed God’s commandments. As regards his first error, we saw that he gave a lot of excuses for his lawlessness and whitewashed his evil deed. In his second error, we learned that he repented just to please Samuel and so also to maintain his reputation before the people of Israel. In the end, we realized that Saul repented from his third error to gain or maintain some personal benefits.

   There are three practical lessons we can learn from King Saul’s incidents. These are: 1. whenever we act as though we have repented from some evil but we still make a lot of excuses and try to whitewash our evil deeds, then we have not genuinely repented. 2. Whenever we have repented either by reason of pleasing man or to maintain our reputation, it proves that our repentance is not genuine. 3. Repentance with the motive to gain or to maintain some personal benefits is not genuine repentance; rather it is being lulled by gains and profits to stop an evil act for a short period.

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