1st Samuel 15:22 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.
This passage of scripture records for us the sad history of the blatant and determined disobedience of king Saul, who was duly appointed by God to the throne of Israel, to follow all of God's instructions as they came to Him from time to time. On this particular occasion God had given him instructions to destroy the Amalekites, whose cup of iniquity was then full, and the instruction was to deliver everything to the sword, with no regard to what seemed good, or to what seemed like garbage. But Saul, as so many of us tend to do, chose to insert his own opinions into the stated commands of God, and he chose what seemed to him as the best of the sheep and oxen with the feeble excuse that they were to be used in sacrifices. Let's read:
1st Samuel 15:9 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".
When Samuel Approached Saul on the issue, he locked himself into a fatal cycle of self justification, insisting that he had followed the commands of God, to which Samuel then remonstrated by making one of the most profound statements in scripture. Samuel stated that the sin of rebellion is equivalent to Voo-doo, and stubbornness is equal to bowing down to graven images, and because of Saul's failure to carry out God's instructions to the letter, he was forever debarred from being king, even though he was allowed to stay in office for some time after that, during which The Lord prepared David to take over from where Saul had left off. Let's read:
1st Samuel 16:1 And the Lord said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
What is worthy of note in this whole episode is that Saul followed most of God's instructions, and by so doing he thought that his obedience in some things was enough to offset the seemingly little disobedience that was indulged in other areas. The disposition to render partial obedience to God will cause many Christians to forfeit eternal life, if repentance and a change in our attitudes do not take place urgently. Every word of God to us is important and they are never to be subdivided into categories of "Must dos" or "Discretionary", for this attitude sets us up to be faithful in some things and unfaithful in others. When The word of God comes to us with clarity it must be received as an indivisible whole, to be carried out to the letter, and to be performed in the right spirit, for this is all that God requires of us.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture which reiterates the importance of obeying all of the commands of God, and it is His will that we now begin to discipline our minds to receive His words in their fulness. Let's read:
Job 36:5 Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any" .... 7 He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous: but with kings are they on the throne; yea, he doth establish them for ever, and they are exalted. 8 And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; 9 Then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions that they have exceeded. 10 He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity. 11 If they obey and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. 12 But if they obey not, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what The Spirit says to the churches. God bless!