There was a year, when I was a child, when my mother spent 3 months in California. One week of every month for the entire year, she flew out to California for training for her work. We absolutely hated it at the house, all four of us. Dad had to play Dad and Mom during that period of time every month, so it was always interesting. One of his signature dinner moves was the classic fish sandwich and sweet peas. Delicious of course. A core memory of mine. That said, all things considered, when Mama got back in the kitchen, it was a good day. When she wasn’t home, we had all but this, but when she was home we had all of it.
One of the perks of Mom’s monthly visits to Cali was the interesting cuisine that she brought back with her. I remember one instance in particular when she became enamored with a particular dish called adobo chicken. It was the Asian chicken dish that she had fallen in love with that week, and she wanted us to try it. Now, because my mother is who she is, she likes to experiment with her food sometimes, so, rather than just let us try straight adobo chicken, she decided to add it to a chili of sorts. I remember her sitting the bowls down in front of all of us at the dinner table. We prayed. Dad, my brother, my sister, and I all took bites simultaneously, as Mom watched to gauge our reaction.
My brother starts coughing. My Dad’s face starts turning a weird shade of red. My sister is running to the trash can, trying to spit the concoction out. I don’t know why, but suddenly I was crying and my mouth was on fire. I may be exaggerating a bit, but the point I’m trying to get across is that IT. WAS. SPICY. Mom gets up and goes to get her recipe sheet, all flustered, trying to figure out what went wrong. “Oh”, she says after a minute or two. “The recipe called for ONE chili pepper, I put in ONE CAN of chili peppers!”. Needless to say, none of us finished that adobo chicken chili bowl. All but this was right in the dish. Every other ingredient was added to the chili properly, but missing the mark on that one measurement messed the entire dish up (and hurt our stomachs in the process 😁).
Today we’re going to talk about a king who got everything right except one thing. In all but this he was correct. He followed all the directions but one in the recipe that God gave him, and the consequences were enormous. Let’s read our passage first…
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
4 And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.
5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.
8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
10 Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying,
11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.
12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?
20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.
22 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.
23 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.
1 Samuel 15:2-23
So, as we come upon our subject today, we see that Saul is in active combat with the Amalekite people. The Amalekites were a pagan nation that had forsook God and actively sought to hurt God’s people, and, as such, God had ordered them to be destroyed. Now, we’re not going to dance around the elephant in the room. Many people look at the earlier part of this passage to give evidence of God’s supposed callousness and evil. Yes, verse 3 says that God commanded both woman and child to be slain as well. A couple of things to note before we move on…
- God had said he would destroy the Amalekites in Exodus 17:14 when he told Moses to tell Joshua that he would blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. We see in the Bible how God gives people multiple chances. Indeed, the wicked Ninevites, which were to be destroyed in the book of Jonah, received grace and pardon. Evidently, the Amalekites hadn’t responded to all of the second chances between Exodus 17 and 1 Samuel 15. That was a long time to ignore God between the time of Moses and Saul. Judgment was due!
- In regards to the children,
- it’s important to see that we are ALL born into sin, including children.
- (Psalms 51:5) Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
- Everyone deserves death for their sins.
- {Romans 5:12) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
- We know from Job 1:21 that the Lord giveth and he taketh away. He is sovereign over life and death. Also, we can look at 2 Samuel 12:23 to see that children who die before the age of accountability go to be with the Lord.
- In his omniscient power, the Lord knew that it was better to take those children to be with him in glory, rather than letting them grow to undoubtedly hate and despise and reject him, as their fathers and mothers had done. Since they too would have to answer for sin and death, God saw fit to take them in an act of mercy.
- it’s important to see that we are ALL born into sin, including children.
Trash the bad, stash the good.
So God has ordered the complete annihilation of the Amalekite people, and he has assigned Saul to do it., However, we see Saul drop the ball. In verses 8 and 9, we see that, while he UTTERLY DESTROYED all the people with the edge of the sword, he took Agag the king of the Amelites alive, and the best of all of the livestock.
8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.
1 Samuel 15:8-9
The first thing we need to see here this morning is that Saul trashed the bad and stashed the good. He got rid of the things he considered junk and kept the things that HE considered to be valuable. By keeping Agag and the good livestock, Saul was setting himself up for financial and political success. Good livestock was almost considered another form of currency. A man with much cattle had much wealth. Additionally, having a rival king in your custody showed the rest of the world that you were powerful. By toppling a nation’s king, and holding him in your court, you showed your nation, and the surrounding nations, that you were strong and a force to be reckoned with. You benefitted both at home and abroad in the political scene with this kind of move.
I say all this to say that this was a calculated move by Saul. He didn’t just stumble upon a group of well-groomed livestock and a fallen king. He made a potential effort to preserve and take these things for himself.
The word in verse 9 translated as good means “beauty in the widest sense”. In other words, It was essentially anything that Saul and the people thought was pleasing to their eyes. The reality probably was that there wasn’t a real plan or reason for keeping the livestock and Agag, outside of the fact they saw something they thought was good, they wanted it, so they kept it.
The vile or refuse could be translated as “the worthless and the unwanted”. This was the stuff that held no value in the eyes of the beholders. This was the stuff that didn’t stand to benefit Saul or the people.
Still, we see the command of the Lord was clear. All of it goes. Everything is wiped. However, in Saul’s mind, it was the bad goes and the good stays. How did Saul and the people determine what was good? Well, he looked at it with his earthly sight and he made the wrong call. They kept what they saw as good and destroyed what they thought was bad. They were looking at the situation through their eyes, not the Lord’s.
Cherrypicking with God.
Our first point of application… sometimes we like to do all but this and cherry-pick with God. We don’t mind destroying what WE see as vile, but we hold onto the stuff that WE see as good and blow God off in the process.
I used to despise eating Lucky Charms after my siblings as a child. If the box of Lucky Charms was unopened, I knew I had a shot, but sometimes I wouldn’t even bother with it if I saw that it was opened. Why? Well… I had both a little brother and a little sister who loved marshmallow candy but weren’t always crazy about the boring grain cereal that accompanied it. As a result, sometimes you’d shake the Lucky Charms out of the box into the bowl, and you’d find out real quick you were flat out of luck because the marshmallow charms were gone! All that was left was the vile tasteless grain cereal!
They took what they saw as good, and they left the rest behind in the box. We sometimes do that with God’s laws and commandments.
- I’d say most of us don’t have a problem following God’s command of “thou shalt not murder”. But how are we doing with “thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain”?
- Sometimes it’s easier to put 10% in the offering plate than it is to stop running your mouth about Sister So and So three rows back in the church.
- Some people don’t have a problem with putting 1 John 4:8 (the “God is love” passage) into practice, but they fail to follow the command of 2 Timothy 2:15 and rightfully divide the word of truth and speak out against sin with the Word of the Lord.
This isn’t just out in the world folks. This attitude is right here in “Christian” churches
The United Methodist Church’s General Conference meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina (April 23-May 3, 2024) took action to remove from the Book of Discipline all language that restricts or singles out non-heterosexual people for disparate treatment. Homosexuality is officially allowed now. They cherrypicked and chose to ignore God’s word where he says in Leviticus 20:13 that man should not lie with a man and as with a woman.
13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.
Leviticus 20:13
Burger King had a very popular ad campaign centered around the words “Have it your way”. I’m here to tell you this morning that Heaven isn’t Burger King and God isn’t ringing up anybody’s Number 5 with no pickle at the cash register! You can’t have it your way. When it comes to how you and I relate to Christ, it’s God’s way or no way. All or nothing.
Remember how I said the word in verse 9 translated as good means “beauty in the widest sense”? In our natural state, we will see beauty in (and thus desire things) that are not good for us. Eve saw the beauty in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She desired the fruit more than she desired to stay true and faithful to God’s command to abstain from the fruit. Thus, she and Adam ate and the sin curse entered humanity.
People today see beauty in things that aren’t good for us. We desire things that don’t bring us benefit
- Somewhere down the line, we got the idea that it was beautiful for everyone to “live their truth” apart from God. So now people look at men dancing seductively, caked in make-up, wearing dresses at drag shows and we call it good. It’s not good. It’s perverted and disgusting.
- Somewhere down the line, we got the idea that modern-day feminism was beautiful. It is beautiful for women to be completely independent from men. It’s oppressive to be a mother and homemaker. It’s better to shun the idea of the nuclear family and the importance of raising children. And we wonder why kids run wild today.
- Somewhere down the line, we got the idea that it was good to have cultural Christianity pervade our land and our churches. We desire a cultural Christianity more than a relationship with God. If you’re the type that gets all jacked up when you start talking about the government taking prayer out of the schools, or taking “In God We Trust” off the license plates, but you’re going to go home today and binge-watch a filthy TV show, or gossip on Facebook, you’ve fallen prey to cultural Christianity. You like the idea of having God in the culture you live IN, but you don’t live it yourself.
- As a side note, we didn’t start to go wrong when we took prayer out of the schools, we started going wrong when we started expecting the schools to teach kids morals and godly values, rather than fathers and mothers in the home. When we decided to let the culture inform the next generation about who God was, rather than the parents.
So, I need you to identify in your life this morning. What is the thing you call good that God has called bad? What is the command that you are cherrypicking from in how you live your life in relation to Christ?
Maybe you’re like the fella I heard about one time who said, “I don’t smoke, I don’t chew, and I don’t mess with the girls that do”. Yeah.. you know what else doesn’t do any of that? A fence post. You’re no closer to God than a fence post would be if your entire outlook is “let me cherrypick my checkboxes of service to the Lord ” That man was really proud about that, but he had other sinful vices in his life that he took joy and pleasure in. We’re either all in for God, or we are out.
Note that Saul destroyed that which was vile and refuse UTTERLY. Utterly is written there to show us emphasis. The Israelites performed an intense extermination. I need you to get the idea of burning something to a crisp and leaving nothing but ash and smoke. They destroyed with a sense of purpose and determination. Had they taken this vigor all the way, and destroyed ALL that God commanded them to, they would have been alright, but they stopped short. In the battle against the Amalekites, they gave up too soon.
This goes to show me this morning that I can have vigor and determination to follow the Lord’s plan and will, but if I don’t maintain that mindset throughout the ENTIRE trial, or the ENTIRE battle, or the ENTIRE test, then I am not following the Lord as I should. If the vigor only exists in certain parts of my walk with Christ, then I am not walking as close to him as I should be. Many Christians today don’t lack enthusiasm for the Lord. They can get worked up with some good praise reports, some good music, or some animated preaching. What we lack is an enthusiasm that STAYS with us through the battles and trials. We allow the world to seep in and suck it away. We allow vices to slip in and dampen that passion we should have for Christ. I can be passionate in my praise of Christ on Sunday, but do I behave the same way on Monday? I can be passionate for the Lord in my acts of service for others, but am I passionate in my personal prayer life? Don’t make the mistake that Saul and the Israelites did and cherry-pick and stop short. Live every aspect of your life to the fullest for Jesus Christ.
Secondly, I want you to see Saul’s response and reasoning…
A bleating sheep. All but this.
13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?
15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
1 Samuel 15:13-16
Not only did Saul cherrypick from God’s commands, seeing beauty in something that wasn’t good for him. but the reasoning he provided brings about a good point of application for us today.
Notice that as Samuel comes to Saul in verse 13, what does Saul tell him? I have performed the commandment of the Lord. Seems like an odd way to greet someone who’s walking up on you, doesn’t it? It’s almost like he was anticipating Samuel saying something, so he was trying to beat him to the jump. I need you to get the idea of a kid with sticky hands and chocolate syrup on his shirt telling his mama that he wasn’t eating the ice cream she told him not to.
The Bible doesn’t say for sure, but in my mind, I see Saul biting his fingernails when he sees Samuel walking down the road from far away. He knows he’s messed up, so he’s got to figure out a way really quick to talk himself out of the predicament. The solution he comes up with is to stage the conversation in a positive light the minute Samuel arrives. He’s not going to give Samuel time to come to the wrong assumption. He’ll bless him in the Lord, then he’ll tell him that he’s living right and performing the Lord’s commandments.
Now that Saul has the game plan in place, Samuel arrives and I imagine Saul rushing through his opener, hoping that the rounded-up livestock just over on the other side of the hill would quiet down for a minute.
Of course, we see in verse 14 that Samuel cuts through all the nonsense without skipping a beat. He pauses for a second, then asks Saul plainly why he hears sheep and oxen bleating.
Note the first word out of Saul’s mouth in verse 15. It’s highlighted above.
THEY. Saul has failed to deflect and distract Samuel from his error, so he goes with the next best option… blame. Notice that the word “me” and the word “I” is never used in verse 15. They brought them from the Amalekites. The people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. The only time Saul includes himself in the we is when he’s talking about following the Lord’s commands to destroy something.
Now… I’m not a theologian, nor would I consider myself an expert on all of the Bible, but I’m pretty sure that, in the Bible, the kings had authority over their people. They carried responsibility for the actions of their people. They led and directed their people. This means that Saul had the say-so to say no, but he didn’t. HE kept the things that he considered to be valuable remember?
I need you to see that Saul has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He is a deer in headlights. He knows full well what Samuel wants from the question, but, rather than own up to his shortcomings, Saul passes the blame onto the people who God has entrusted him to lead.
What’s the point Sam?
The point is that whatever sheep you hear bleating in your life right now is your responsibility, and no one else’s.
We get asked the same question by the Holy Spirit today that Samuel asked Saul. Have you ever gotten that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach when you know you’ve done something wrong? Have you ever felt that twinge of shame or disgust? That’s called conviction, and it comes through the Lord calling you to task, asking you to get right. Jesus is asking you why you haven’t obeyed fully. You’re on the right track by being in God’s house and sitting under God’s preaching. You’re obeying partially. But some of you know deep down that you haven’t done all that God has asked of you.
In fact, I’d wager to say there are people right here reading this who are feeling that itch. You’ve got it in your chest right now. It’s that bleating sound. You hear that sheep making a noise in your head. It’s loud. It’s trying to drown out that conviction. It’s trying to drown out your will to make a change in your life today and follow Christ fully. It’s that attitude that the Lord told you to get rid of but you wanted to keep. It’s that thing that you worship that God calls evil. It’s that idol that you see as valuable but God wants to be destroyed.
- Maybe it’s an idol of pride. You’re a Pharisee, and you look down on people who you view as less than. The unclean and the impure. You don’t want those types around. You’ve forgotten that Jesus ate with the sinners and the publicans. You’ve forgotten how Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery in John 8, healed the demonic man among the tombs in Mark 5, and had his feet washed by the tears of a woman of ill reputation in Luke 7.
- Maybe it’s an idol of self-reliance. You don’t need anybody or anything. You get yours, whether you have to lie, cheat, or steal. You know you can’t depend on anyone because you look at all the failed relationships in your past as proof. You may deflect, but the reality is you’re number one in your world, and you watch out for yourself first at the expense of your friends, your partner, your parents, your kids, your coworkers, and everyone else. You put yourself and your wants over the will of the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. How’s that working out?
- Maybe it’s an idol of bitterness and anger. Something happened in your past. Maybe you played a part in what caused it or maybe it was something that was out of your control. But you’ve held onto the angst and the hurt so long you’re afraid to let go of it because you don’t know what would fill that space that it has taken up in your heart.
- Maybe it’s an idol of laziness and lukewarmness. Revelation 3:15-18 has something to say about that…
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Revelation 3:15-18
You’re no longer seeking to grow in the Lord. You’re stagnant. He is asking you to go further, but you’re refusing to obey fully. You’re content to sit where you’ve always sat, sing what you’ve always sung, and run the same circles you’ve always run. God wants more of us folks.
Sam, what does any of that have to do with Saul blaming people?
Because, right now, you’re at risk of doing the same thing. Sitting here reading this, you’re THIS CLOSE to doing the SAME. THING. It’s easier to shift the blame to others than it is to handle your own problems, isn’t it?
I know firsthand. I’ll openly admit it now because the statute of limitations has run out, but I was the oldest of three. I knew all about blaming my younger siblings for things. In my youth, I masterminded many dumb plans that I then tried to get out of when they backfired. Turns out that jumping out of a swing when You’re swinging fast and don’t weigh a lot doesn’t let you fly. And doing belly flops into a pool won’t magically toughen up your core and give you six-pack abs 😆.
In all seriousness though, it’s easy to blame others for the bleating sheep in our own lives.
- Our Pharisaical views don’t come from the fact that WE aren’t properly exhibiting the love of Christ. It’s simply us believing ourselves to hold to a higher standard because THEY (the other people) aren’t living for Christ as they should.
- Our self-reliance view doesn’t stem from the fact that WE aren’t properly trusting and relying on God. Rather, we have to be self-reliant because we believe THEY (a parent, a friend, an ex, a boss, a fellow believer) wronged us.
- Our bitterness and anger aren’t the results of OUR refusal to forgive and exhibit grace and take our problems to the Lord in prayer. No, it’s because THEY (the person we feel hurt us) damaged the relationship and took something away from us that we didn’t want to lose.
Do you see how this mindset continues to perpetuate? We blame others (and sometimes we may even blame the Lord!) because many of us simply choose to stick our heads in the sand, as Saul did, and refuse to admit that we played a part in creating the problem.
Sent on a new journey
16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on.
17 And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?
18 And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.
19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?
1 Samuel 15:16-19
Here we see that God elevated Saul. He blessed Saul. God brought Saul from a little to a lot, God sent Saul on a journey to glorify GOD, not Saul, by destroying the wicked Amalekites.
What did Saul do with his elevated position as king, what did he do with the blessing of God on his life? He flew upon the spoil and did evil in the sight of the Lord. He came upon all that wealth and he just HAD TO HAVE IT FOR HIMSELF.
We do the same thing today. Matthew 5:45 tells us that God rains down blessings on both the just and the unjust, but it seems sometimes that the just act just like the unjust and ignore God when those blessings materialize. They don’t give him the glory for it.
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
Matthew 5:45
God is elevating some of you today. He’s sending some of you on new journeys. Maybe you’re building new relationships with people, rebuilding damaged ones, or maybe your careers are taking positive turns. Maybe you’ve gotten a good report from the doctor, or that new medicine is working, or you’re closing in on accomplishing your next big dream. When those blessings materialize, are you going to take them for yourself as Saul did, or are you going to take the blessings the Lord gives you and use them to return praise to Him?
Will you obey the voice of the Lord in your life? How will you handle the bleating sheep in your life?
That vice in your life is your responsibility to address. God will not force you to drop it. God didn’t strike the sheep and oxen dead when Saul and the people decided to keep them instead of following God’s commands. He let them hold onto it. But, looking at this Scripture, I think you know as well as I do that God wanted their obedience more than their sheep. I tell you today… once you’ve identified the bleating sheep in your life. Get. Rid. Of. It. Don’t stay in a state of giving Him all but this. Own the fact that you made a mistake, ask God for forgiveness, get rid of the sheep, and move past it. As long as you’re still breathing, the decision is yours to reject your flesh and follow the Lord. Let the new journey that God is sending you on be one that glorifies Him and not you. Don’t make the mistake that Saul and the Israelite people made.
This brings us to the third and final point…
Inward heart more than outward action
22 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.
23 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.
1 Samuel 15:22-23
Thirdly, we need to see that God delights more in the inward heart than the outward action. You see, there were two ways to get rid of those oxen and sheep. Saul could have done it the right way and killed them in the battle as the Lord had commanded, or he could have sacrificed all of them to the Lord after the fact.
Now (knowing what we know about Saul elsewhere in Scripture) and considering the fact that he just lied in verse 13, I’m not entirely sure of the validity of Saul’s statement when he says that they were going to offer all the livestock as a sacrifice, but let’s assume for the sake of the argument he was being truthful.
One of these choices was God’s command (kill it all in the battle).
The other choice was man’s super-Christian plan (kill it by sacrifice to the Lord).
So… with the second choice, not only do you fulfill God’s command by destroying all the oxen and sheep, but you ALSO get brownie points with God because you’re going above and beyond by killing it all AFTER the battle as sacrifices to God. You’re gonna have sweet-smelling savors going up into heaven from the offering fire all night long. It’s gonna be great right?
No.
God’s command will always supersede man’s plan.
Samuel Howell
God’s command will always supersede man’s plan. God’s thoughts on the matter take precedence over ours. He was clear, and Saul and the people ignored Him and did it their own way, trying to pass it off as being a way to honor the Lord.
Ask yourself, am I living by God’s commands or my plans?
Let’s go back to verse 21 for a minute….
Verse 21 says that the people took that which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord.
Friend, there are things that we are trying to give to God that God doesn’t want. He doesn’t want your spirit of independence apart from him. He doesn’t want the puffed-up pride you walk into church with because you have your suit on and your shiny shoes, or your Sunday dress and nice perfume.
- I know of people who sing praise music because they like being front and center. They sing for the applause and attention of others.
- I know of people who “give testimony” because they just want to spread all the juicy details to everyone else.
- I know of people who tithe because they want to throw their money around in the church to get what they want
- I know of people who read the Bible as an academic exercise. They want to be seen as knowledgeable and holy in the eyes of man. They don’t want to talk to the Lord one-on-one and see what He has to say.
God doesn’t want any of those acts of service. Those “sacrifices” are things made with an attitude that God wants utterly destroyed.
God doesn’t want your religion, he want you to have a relationship with Him. He doesn’t want you to align your words with His, He wants you to align your will with His.
Samuel Howell
Have you done that today?
Remember, to obey is better than to sacrifice.
Have you obeyed the voice of the Lord today, admitting that Jesus alone is Savior and surrendering your life completely to Him, or are you still just offering outward sacrifices? Are you still just making nice gestures? Are you living as the tomb is in Matthew 23:27, just trying to look clean and holy on the outside while the dead men’s bones on the inside stink and rot? Is your heart one with the Lord, or is this just a game to you?
Don’t just read. Apply.
If that sheep in your heart has been steadily bleating as you’ve read this post, I plead with you to handle it today. Jesus asked me as I prepared this, “Sam, what meaneth then this bleating of sheep in my ears”. You see, I had told the Lord, “God, I’m following you, I’m all in”, and through the Holy Spirit, He showed me some areas where I was falling. He showed me some parts of my life that weren’t honoring him, and he asked “Son, how are you going to handle this? To obey is better than to sacrifice. I know you’ve sacrificed in some areas, but both you and I know that this needs to be gotten rid of in your life.”
Verse 22 ends with the phrase and to hearken is better than the fat of rams.
The word hearken there means to hear and give heed to. I’m telling you it’s better to hear these words. Give heed unto the warning God is giving us and get rid of the sheep and the oxen the right way. God is speaking in hearts. He spoke in mine. I have no doubt he is speaking in yours. Are you hearing it? Are you regarding what he is trying to teach you?
If so, then now is the time to do business with the Lord. If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior, but you want to, today is the day. Contact me on socials (links at the bottom 😉). We’ll go through the steps of what it means to be saved, so you can be sure of your salvation in Jesus Christ, ready to live a life of obedience to him.
If you do know Jesus as your Savior today, but the Holy Spirit is convicting you of some sheep that are still bleating in your life, will you take time today and make it right? Take the time to bow your head, confess your sins, and ask the Lord to renew a right spirit within you, so that you may walk closer to Him going forward than you ever have before. Don’t give Jesus all but this. Give Him all of it.
