God did not wish his people to possess anything which belonged to the Amalekites, for his curse rested upon them and their possessions. He designed that they should have an end, and that his people should not preserve anything for themselves which he had cursed. He also wished the nations to see the end of that people who had defied him, and to mark that they were destroyed by the very people they had despised. They were not to destroy them to add to their own possessions, or to get glory to themselves, but to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken in regard to Amalek. (4aSG 75.1) MC VC

The Lord had said unto Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindermost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary. And he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Thou shalt not forget it.” (4aSG 75.2) MC VC

And yet Saul had ventured to disobey God, and reserve that which he had cursed, and appointed unto death, to offer before God as a sacrifice for sin. (4aSG 75.3) MC VC

Samuel presented before Saul his wicked course, and then inquired, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?” It would have been better had he obeyed God, than to make such provisions for sacrifices and offerings for their sins of disobedience. (4aSG 75.4) MC VC

God did not have as great delight in their shedding the blood of beasts as in obedience to his commandments. The offerings were divinely appointed to remind sinful man that sin brought death, and that the blood of the innocent beast could atone for the guilt of the transgressor, by virtue of the great sacrifice yet to be offered. God required of his people obedience rather than sacrifice. All the riches of the earth were his. The cattle upon a thousand hills belonged to him. He did not require the spoil of a corrupt people, upon whom his curse rested, even to their utter extinction, to be presented to him to prefigure the holy Saviour, as a lamb without blemish. (4aSG 75.5) MC VC