How Much

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

HOW MUCH

1 Sam 15:16-23

16 "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied. 17 Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' 19 Why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD?" 20 "But I did obey the LORD," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal." 22 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. 23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king."

NIV

Did Saul really blame the soldiers for bringing back the plunder, thinking he obeyed the LORD, but they didn’t? Even in his arrogance of saying that he went on the mission the LORD assigned him, which was to destroy every living creature, men, women, children, donkeys, sheep, cattle, and whatever else had the breath of life in it, yet he brought the king of the Amalekites back alive. Then Saul calls the LORD the God of Samuel. Did Saul think he was not his God? It is just strange. However, our lesson is in the response of Samuel regarding what the LORD delights in. It is not a burnt offering. He does not delight in sacrifices, but he does delight in being obeyed. Because Saul did not obey, even if he thought he did, his disobedience was considered a rejection of the LORD. We understand that we live in the age of grace, that we have been accepted by God because we are in Jesus. Even though that sounds a little Christianese, we are not actually in Jesus, for he is in heaven, and we are not yet there. However, the point is that we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, which means we have been forgiven and will not receive any condemnation from God. Yet, we still are expected to obey rather than just think we obey, then go about doing what we think is best. The question is just how far do we take this, obeying the Lord? Does that mean just regarding religious matters, or church activities? They may be or may not be spiritual, or in obedience to the Lord. How do we do in obeying the Lord in our normal day-to-day living? Do we get too invested in our own feelings, emotions, thoughts, that we lose track of the word of God and the fact that he delights when we obey? We wonder how many choices we have made in life based on our wants or needs, and have not listened to the counsel of the Lord? What about this arrogance, like the evil of idolatry? Have we created or taken on any form of something like an idol? What would that be in our culture or society? We need to examine ourselves regarding what could be an idol in our lives, even idolizing something or a way of life. Do we think more about doing anything based on our thinking, or wait upon the Lord and follow his thinking? How much do we obey the Lord?