LEARNING DAILY

 

1 Samuel 15:22-23, But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. Listening to Him is much better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you from being king.” (New Living Translation)

 

The prophet Samuel is telling King Saul that God has rejected him and his family lineage from being king in Israel. Here Samuel is telling Saul that he is being set aside as king. Saul had not been obedient to do what God had instructed when God gave him victory over his enemies. Saul “claimed he had performed the Lord’s commandments -- until Samuel confronted him. Then he twice blamed the people for his disobedience. If he had acknowledged his sin immediately, perhaps his punishment would not have been so severe” (DJSB).

 

It is important to know the difference between obeying God’s Word from our heart and outward forms of worship, service, and personal sacrifice. Saul was guilty of doing his own concept of what was right instead of what God had instructed to do. Dr. Lloyd-Jones states. “The story of Saul [in these verses] is the story of someone who rationalizes and explains away his own sin. Saul was chosen king over Israel, yet he disobeyed God and followed his own desires. Saul is a picture of how everyone rationalizes sin and their own rebellion, everyone feigns ignorance of their own wrongdoing and sinful desires.” OUCH! For too long that was me and to come face to face with that hurts; I am so thankful God never gave up on me!

 

Here is the point. “Worship, praise, prayer, spiritual gifts, and service to God are hollow in His sight if not accompanied by explicit obedience to Him and His Word” (LSSB). In other words, you and I need to do what we do out of obedience to what God says in His Bible. Reading and studying without doing does not help us. In his letter, James tells us to “be doers of the Word”. Being a Christian is summed up by Robert Emmitt in this way: “We love God. Read His Word. Do what it says.”

 

Not doing so is disobedience; the verses above state, “Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols.” The sin of witchcraft is trying to manipulate events, people, or anything else through demonic forces. Rebellion against God’s Word is like the sin of witchcraft because both reject God as Lord and attempt to bring about the outcome of something in a way that is different from God’s way.

 

Read a little further and you will see Saul feared the people more than he feared the consequences of sin. Tomorrow, I want to show you how this sin will be central to the final apostasy (falling away) that Jesus said would happen just before He returns. Read God’s Word. Study it. Be obedient to what it says!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible