To Obey is Better than Sacrifice

Reading the first fifteen chapters of 1 Samuel again today I came across an important lesson. Unfortunately for Saul, it was an expensive lesson. It cost him the kingdom, his children the opportunity to succeed him and his relationship with Samuel.

The point comes as God commands Saul to take revenge on the Amalekites for their treatment of Israel when they fled Egypt. God instructs Saul to kill every living thing in the country and return home with nothing. Saul decides to disobey God and spare the king and bring home some of the best livestock. When Samuel confronts Saul he backtracks, says that the people wanted to bring God some offerings and that he feared the people. Samuel rings out in detest of this explanation leaving us with one of the most memorable quotes of the Old Testament:

            “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.

                  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.”

We may struggle to find meaning for our lives in this tongue lashing being that we do not offer sacrifices to God anymore. However, the point is not the sacrifice at all. I believe that Saul was full of bologna when he gave his answer to Samuel. I believe that he intended to take the prizes for himself and to appease the people. I do not suppose that he ever planned to offer them to God. Samuel’s rebuke then is not only about the proper place of sacrifice and obedience. (Although God would have asked them to bring home animals to sacrifice if that were His desire.) I feel that Samuel’s reprimand was based on an earlier insight. When Saul was impatient and offered sacrifices himself instead of waiting on Samuel as God had commanded, Samuel’s reproof was that God was rejecting Saul and “the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people.” (Which is what was said of David by God) Saul’s struggle was not telling the truth, nor was it fearing people instead of God, nor was it placing the value of offerings over the value of obedience. Saul’s failing was placing his own interests above God’s desires.

There is only one stumbling block when it comes to obeying God; selfish desires. Saul wanted things his way as do we. The lesson here is not only about fearing God and rejecting legalism, it is learning to put God’s requirements above our wishes. Let us keep in step with the Spirit by being David and not Saul.