Obedience

In my father's study at church, there hung a framed saying from scripture: "To obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams." Artful calligraphy, gold frame, central place in the room.

I can remember looking at it and wondering what its full meaning might be...and why so important to my father.

And today, I reached that place again in my devotional reading of scripture.

It is I Samuel 15.

A quick summary:
1. The Lord had given his directions to King Saul to deal entirely and finally with the wickedness that was represented by Amalek. Because of their evil before the Lord, they were entirely "devoted to destruction."

So a battle was joined, Saul leading 210,000 soldiers. And they won the battle - and then dealt with the spoils. In doing that, they disobeyed the specific instructions God had given.

They made a decision to utterly destroy the despised and worthless things, but to keep the best of their conquest, including the king, for their own purposes.

Why this disobedience? In this chapter, some things stand out.
1. Self concept:
Saul "was little in his own eyes" - our sense of littleness, can make us squirm in disobedience, especially when God calls for valiant faith.
2. Focus:
not thinking clearly about who he was - the king, the leader - can make us think, what we do will not affect that many
3. Specifics:
Saul did not keep the specifics of God's voice to him in clear focus -the dazzle of success can make us rethink the "fairness" of God's will
4. Logic:
Saul traded off "what makes sense" obedience, for true and entire obedience
5. Popularity:
Saul "feared the people and obeyed their voice"

When the prophet Samuel heard what Saul had done and not done - both forms of disobedience: "he was angry and cried to the Lord all night."

It was to be the end of a lot of things for Saul:
his visits with Samuel the prophet,
the favor of the Lord
instead: "the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king...and rejected him from being king."

Is there an obedience that the Lord is calling for in our lives?
Are we fudging on the edges?
Are we covering up? Are we bowing to the pressures around us?
Is the favor of the Lord on us? Is the prophetic alive and positive around us?

To obey - is better than sacrifice.
To listen (to God) - than to try to make up for not doing so, with religious observance.

May we listen well, and do entirely what God is calling for us to do.


Oh God, strengthen us and have mercy upon us in the doing of Your will.

David