05/08/2026
1 Samuel 15;22-23
"Tell me", Samuel said. "Does the Lord really want sacrifices and offerings? No! He doesn't want your sacrifices. He wants you to obey him. Rebelling against God or disobeying him because you are proud is just as bad as worshiping idols or asking them for advice. You refused to do what God told you, so God has decided that you can't be king.:
In the context before these exchanges the LORD told his prophet at the time Samuel to relay a task for the King of Israel: Saul, to kill all the Amalekites because of the sufferings they have caused when Israel was moving away from Egypt. The instruction are crystal clear: "Kill everything, even the animals. Do not leave anything alive. Wipe them out."
Saul obeyed and God gave them an outstanding victory. A complete wipe out. However, Saul did not complete his mission. He took some cattle and left Amalekites king alive. At first I think why did the Lord felt sorry that He made king Saul king at verse 15 and why did Samuel mourned out in prayer? Saul won and obeyed but left some parts of the instruction. What should matter is he accomplished more than his failures. But I was wrong when I read the verses 22 - 23
PARTIAL OBEDIENCE IS DISOBEDIENCE! The Lord does not any of our vain sacrifices that we think matter. What the Lord wants is for us to OBEY, not delayed, not partially but completely surrender to His will. That's the faith we should aim to achieve. To completely obey Gods instruction and not trust our own instinct and understanding. I was naive when I first read that more accomplishments are pleasing to God because the failures are few but no. God does not work like that. People may gauge our victories as our spiritual growth and accomplishments. Like the army insisted Saul to let the animals live for sacrifice and not kill king Agag. But even they do not understand, some instructions that came from man may be only self serving. Does the army really want the animals for sacrifice or do they want to consume what is after the sacrifice, a feast. Human standard are not we should aim, when we obey what human think much more than God would think we may loose the honor God gave us. In this story king Saul lost the right as Israel's king, now his descendants will be normal people. Human heart is deceiving, we can try to coat our desires with expensive glaze but the clay pot is still cheap. In here, King Saul and the army may argue it is to sacrifice to God but in the end they just wanted the valueable things, and they wanted these things more than God.
I am so in awe of Gods standard, it is so far away with man. So my reflection is simple. Lord please help me to focus only on your voice. Do not let me deceive by any other voices. May it be from man or the enemy himself. In you I trust O God and only you I seek my council. And Lord if I ever fail, I believe in the grace that your Son has died for so please accept my repentance once more. I love you my Lord.
