Good, Best, Despised or Worthless

1st Samuel 15:9

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the Best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good and were not willing to destroy them utterly, but everything despised and worthless that they utterly destroyed.

To appreciate this verse and gain new insight from it you must read the first 14 chapters but especially the first 9 verses of chapter 15.

God told Saul through His prophet & priest Samuel to utterly destroy Amalek and all that he had, do not spare anyone or anything. Destroy it all. As you read the rest of the 8 verses you will see Saul prepared his soldiers and came to the city of Amalek. He let another people group go because of their kindness to Israel and the verse says, Saul defeated the Amalekites, but wait, in verses 8 & 9 we see He captures King Agag and destroys all the people, but He and the people spared the king and what they deemed the best and the good they were unwilling to utterly destroy, but what they deemed to be despised and worthless they utterly destroyed! Yet, God said to utterly destroy it all!

I couldn't get past this verse. So I looked up the words good, best, despised and worthless. Good means: bountiful, fertile, suitable, free from injury or disease, profitable or advantageous. Best: offering or producing greatest advantage, most productive of good. Despised: to look down on with contempt (like the weak), to regard as negligible, worthless or distasteful. Worthless: lacking worth, useless, contemptable, despicable (a worthless criminal).

After pondering these eight verses I learned a lesson or two. We like King Saul think we know better than God what is good, best, despised or worthless. Even when God commands us to exterminate or walk away from something in our life that will eventually destroy us;we listen, but we don't heed His instructions to utterly destroy that which He says is despised or worthless. Another lesson learned is that what God deems to be best and good, we so often see as worthless or despised. We like Saul think we are in a position to judge whether something is good, best, despised or worthless.

I thought about this on a larger scale. Think about Adolf Hitler, he thought he knew what was "good & best" and who should be exterminated. He saw the Jewish people as a people group to be despised and considered worthless. He convinced many to follow his ideology and almost pulled it off. But GOD would never allow His chosen people to be exterminated.

How about the decision to expell prayer from public schools? We as a people thought we knew better than Almighty God that we could decide what was good, best and worth keeping and what was despised and worthless and should be utterly destroyed. We are now paying the consequences of that decision.

I then began to think about the aborted babies, mentaly ill, elderly and terminally ill. People who society might consider "weak", useless, not the best for the "common good." Of course you can't get away from God's word without it coming right back around to you personally. I asked myself why do I think I am in a position to judge what is good, best, despised and worthless apart from God's word? Who or what do I see as despised or worthless, is it a certain race, religion, a certain people group? Do I see criminals as someone to be despised and worthless? How about the homeless people all around me, do I think they are to be despised and worthless?

Oh how far we have come as a nation, not for the BEST or for the GOOD, but for the worst. We have decided that what God says is good and best is the very thing we see as despised and worthless. Our philosophies of life, our ideologies and our worldview has been poisoned and perverted. Our nation must turn back to God in true repentance. Especially His people who have been saved by the Son of the Living God must turn back to His word. We must read and know our instruction manual.

It is through hearing and heeding His word that we will be able to discern the good, best, despised and worthless. It is by the principles of His word that our nation was founded and established upon. Apart from His Word, His Instuction, His power & promises in our lives we will continue to be like King Saul, being deceived by our own perception of truth to the point that we no longer think we are wrong and He is right, but replacing His mission and His truth with our own version of it.

Following His Lead,
Renee Peebles