September 5, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 1 Samuel? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Samuel 15 (NIV)
The Lord Rejects Saul as King
1 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”..........Continue Reading
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
A hard lesson learned by Saul. He still was trying to make himself and men happy at the expense of following God’s instruction. He was given a specific mission with detailed instruction but did not follow the plan. So many times we do part of what God wants for us until it gets difficult or cuts into something we still want to hold on to. We must be willing to follow God completely! His timing, His instruction, and His plan….He knows best!
1 Samuel 13-15
What an important lesson there is for us to learn here….we can do a lot for God in service or sacrifice, but if we do not obey Him then the rest is just for show. It is pretty clear that Saul is more concerned about his reputation then he is about obeying God. He keeps the things the men prize, erects a monument to himself in verse 12 and seems preoccupied with having Samuel come back to worship God with him because if he doesn’t people will know Saul did something wrong. He grieves disobeying God but seems more concerned about public perception.
Another challenging portion of they chapter is the thought that God is grieved about making Saul king. Some translations even say that He repented the He made Saul king. We certainly see I this chapter and in other parts of the Bible that God cannot change HIs mind. When you know everything there is no need to. But what God does say here is that He takes responsibility for making Saul king, because He did make him king, giving Saul the free will to choose his course. Once Saul chooses to follow his own way rather than God’s, God has to express some sentiment about it to show us He is displeased. What’s the strongest way for Him to express that displeasure? It is to say that I wish I never did it. And that is what is being expressed here.
Obedience is better than sacrifice.
These events made me think many things.
How often do we second guess God’s commands thinking that we know better or that certainly He didn’t want us to do x,y, or z. I remember when I was dating an unbeliever and I wouldn’t break up with him because I thought it would not be a good witness if I reject this boy for God. I was a new believer and very ignorant about the level of obedience that God wanted! I did finally ask God to obey for me and the boy broke up with me!
I know that it says: “And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor relent. For He is not a man, that He should relent” and that has been interpreted to mean that God does not change His mind….but there are places where He has changed His mind.
For instance, when He is going to destroy Sodom and Gommorah and Abraham asks Him if He will spare them for 50-40-30-20-10 people and God says He will not destroy them if He finds that many each time. Of course, God knows the heart of every man, but He tells Abraham that He will change His mind and spare them if indeed that is the case. Is God lying when He tells Abraham that he will relent for the sake of 50-40-30-20-10 people? No, He just knows that there aren’t that many, BUT if there were He would change His mind….because He says He will and He doesn’t lie.
Also, in Jonah, God intends to destroy Nineveh and sends Jonah to prophesy to them that that is indeed God’s intent. He doesn’t want to because he is afraid that God will change His mind! God does change His mind.
Jonah 3:7-10 “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?
10 Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it.”
Also, God tells Hezekiah that he is about to die. Hezekiah prays and God gives him another 15 years.
I would not argue that God doesn’t know what is going to happen, but as He interacts with the free-will of man, He may change His plans and “work all things together for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose.”