Spoken With Love: Week 1 Day 2

1 Samuel 15:19-23

19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. 21 The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

22 But Samuel replied:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

    as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

23 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 are starting today’s Scripture in the middle of a conversation. One of the things we should take note of here is that Samuel’s correction of Saul gave him the chance to repent. Saul continuously blamed his soldiers and went so far as referring to God as “Samuel’s God.”

1 Samuel 15:21

The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”

This appears to be the final straw with the Lord’s Prophet Samuel. Samuel replies with an indictment of Saul. One of the more fascinating things we see in his indictment is that the sins King Saul was guilty of were rebellion and arrogance, which the Lord compares to divination (fortune telling) and idolatry; these were the same sins the Amalekites were destroyed for. Because he would not repent, King Saul was informed he was no better than the wicked people he had just warred against. We must be sure not to have selective hearing of God’s Word, but to listen to all of the commandments of Christ.

Do you feel that you obey the Word of God completely or selectively?