1 Samuel 15-16

March 26

1 Samuel 15-16

"But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams." (1 Samuel 15:22, NIV)

You have probably heard the saying; “it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” That does not fit God’s plan for us. God is a god of forgiveness, but what He wants for us is obedience. We do not always understand God’s instructions. God instructed Saul to wipe out the Amalekites and to leave nothing living. We have a hard time with these instructions, but God was using the Israelites to punish the Amalekites for their disobedience. It sounds gruesome and inhumane, but the world was different then. We do not have to understand to see the point of the story.

Saul went in and wiped them out as God instructed him, but he kept the best of the sheep, cattle, fat calves, and lambs. He kept what was good for himself. When Samuel showed up, Saul claimed to have done as God had instructed him, but Samuel knew differently. Saul claimed that he was saving the best to sacrifice to God. But that is not what God asked him to do.

God is not looking for us to make all kinds of sacrifices for Him. He does not ask us to self mutilate, or to take a vow of poverty, or a vow of silence or other means of sacrificing. What He asks of us is obedience. He wants us to walk in obedience to His direction for our lives, because that is what is best for us. He wants us to walk in obedience as He empowers us to live by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

God wants obedience which is far better than any sacrifice we can bring Him.