Prayer: Father, help me to choose obedience above having to ask for forgiveness. Amen.
Reading: 1 Samuel 15 key: vs. 22-23 “Samuel said: “Does Adonai delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Adonai? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry. Since you have rejected Adonai’s word, He has also rejected you as king.” TLV
Attention: There used be a flippant statement among Christians when I was college age, which declared, “it is easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.” Looking back, it was a very casual attitude about obedience.
Not following God’s commands and commandments is defiant disobedience. Saul knew the animals being sacrificed were “under the ban of destruction” and not to be sacrificed but “utterly destroyed.”
There is a key insight into how Adonai views rebellion found in verse 23, “For rebellion is like the sin of divination and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.” In my rebellious years, I never looked at my rebellion as the “sin of divination”, or stubbornness “like iniquity (sin) and idolatry.” Divination is associated with the occult and is related to everything opposed to God. I never would have thought that I was associating and cooperating with demonic forces when I was acting out my rebellion and stubbornness.
These are not my words; they are God’s words calling my rebelliousness and stubbornness what it is to Him. It is rejecting God pure and simple. It is saying, I will do it my own way. I will make my own choices.
Action: I choose today to be obedient to God and His Word.
Yield: I choose today to submit to God’s counsel and wisdom.
Engage: I choose today to engage with God’s Word in obedience.
Relationship: I choose today to engage in obedient relationship with a holy God.
Prayer: Father, I could not know Your mind without studying this passage. The actions of a king and the people he led, were defiant towards God. May your followers choose obedience over rebellion. Amen.
Memory Verse: 1 Samuel 15:22b “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” TLV
Music Video: Keith Green—To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice https://youtu.be/TzWyZxlwGKI
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”