pramsay posted on November 08, 2007 03:17 1927 views

When Our Sacrifices Are Worthless

Christians have debated for ages where King Saul ended up in eternity – Heaven or Hell. Not everyone who has dealings with God ends up in Heaven! There are many episodes in King Saul’s life worth considering but one is a classic. No one should overlook the timeless principle underlying this story.

Centuries earlier the nomadic Amalekites had ambushed God’s people and brutally assaulted them. God pronounced judgment on that tribe – all would die. The time had come for God’s sentence on the Amalekites to be executed. King Saul was clearly told to put an end to everything associated with the Amalekites that breathed. All was to be destroyed. It was the commandment of the Lord.

King Saul trounced the Amalekites and won the battle. But the story takes a turn. Saul had a bad habit of redefining the Lord’s commandments. He was good at putting his own spin on what the Lord’s will was. He filtered the directions from God through his own mind and what he thought would be acceptable.

Saul decides to keep Agag the leader of the Amalekites alive – perhaps to gloat over his victory and to strut his stuff around. “Surely the Lord wouldn’t mind keeping just one person of the Amalekites alive. Oh yes, and don’t kill the livestock. Their cattle and sheep are so robust and well maintained. We’ll take them home too but destroy everything else.”

The victory party climaxed when King Saul stopped in Carmel to pick up some stones. Can you believe it? He built a monument for himself to celebrate his victory.

God immediately informed the prophet Samuel of Saul’s failures. The very disturbed prophet went to meet King Saul. When Samuel was within speaking distance, the King kickstarted the conversation: “Look who’s here. God bless you Samuel. You’ll be happy to know that I fulfilled God’s battle plan right to the ‘t’. It was a sharp and clean operation. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

I wonder if Samuel cleared his throat when he said: “Hmmmm… you fulfilled the commandment of the Lord? Really? What is all the bahing, bleating and mooing about? There’s a great deal of animal-like noise behind you?”

“Oh Samuel, not to worry!! My men saved a few of the best sheep, rams and cattle so we could sacrifice them to the Lord. But everything else is history!”

Samuel sternly told him that he had not obeyed the Lord. The King shot back: “I have so obeyed the Lord. I only spared Agag and the best of their stock and everything else was destroyed. Those rams and oxen you hear are the best and they are to be sacrificed to ‘your’ God, Samuel!”

That’s when the classic verse, so relevant to people of all times enters the story:

And Samuel said,

Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

(1Samuel 15:22-23)

God values obedience in my life more than any other thing. I can’t disobey Him in one sphere of my life and then try to buy Him or trick Him by doing a lot of good things in another sphere of my life. Sinners try that – they swear like a trooper or sin like the dickens and then run off to church to make themselves feel better.

I could give 15% of every paycheck to the Lord; I could open my home to entertain the Christians and neighbors; I could stay up late at night preparing for a Bible study; I could fly to a hurricane-ravaged island to help – I could make many sacrifices but God is not wowed by our sacrifices. To obey is better than sacrifice.

Sacrifices can’t bridge the gap between obedience and disobedience.   

Someone said it well: All that God expects from you dear child of God can be written on your thumbnail: O-B-E-D-I-E-N-C-E.

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