To obey is better than sacrifice

“So Samuel said: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.””

I Samuel 15:22 (New King James Version)

What dictates how we react ? Our circumstances or our faith ? What drives us to do what we do ? Love for God or an obligation to do something ? Let’s turn back a couple of chapters .. we read in chapter 13 that Saul chose for himself three thousand men and Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines. Then the Philistines gathered together to fight Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude ! Whoa .. that’s not a pleasant situation to be in is it ? Now the men of Israel saw that they were in danger and they hid in caves , in pits… some crossed over Jordan. Now there are two people’s outlooks that we will be reading on today. One that of Saul and the other that of Jonathan.

We read in I Samuel 13 : 8 – 12 , “Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering. Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”” He felt compelled (obliged , duty-bound) . he thought that the Philistines would come against him and he had not sought the favor of the Lord and so he forced himself and offered the burnt offering . I encourage you brothers and sisters to read chapters 13 through 15.

Now let’s see how Jonathan saw the same situation . We read in I Samuel 14 : 6 , “Then Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised; it may be that the LORD will work for us. For nothing restrains the LORD from saving by many or by few.”” It’s all about Him. It’s by His strength and not by what we do.

How is our reaction to circumstances and situations around us ? The Lord sees our hearts. It’s not about what we do . It’s about why we do it . Do we seek self ? Or do we truly trust in Him and know that it’s not about us?

In the context of today’s verse we read in Chapter 15 that Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs and all that was good. We read in I Samuel 15: 12, “So when Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, it was told Samuel, saying , “Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself; and he has gone on around, passed by, and gown down to Gilgal.”

I Samuel 15: 18-21 , “Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?” And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal." “

God’s delight is in us obeying His voice. Because if we obey His voice then we are walking in accordance to His leading and not as per our own strength and our own wisdom. Sometimes we think we know better. We think with what we see with our eye ! We read in Luke11: 34 , “”The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” What do we have our eyes focused on ? Things that we deem is good ? things of our strength ? Things of our wisdom ? Or things of God ? Obedience to His voice. We are like vapor in the wind. Imagine that !!! Given the choice between relying on the wisdom of vapor or the wisdom of the great I AM who would you rely on ?

I pray that the Lord will bless us with obedience to His voice. It’s not about doing things which we term good , it’s about doing His things because He knows what is good.

God Bless