Obedience, above Sacrifice

I feel compelled to begin a study on obedience in what the Lord calls us to do. Also with a special emphasis on being holy and pure, as He is Holy.

Let’s start with scripture. (Always a good place to begin)

I Samuel 15

Verse 1 : " Samuel said to Saul. ‘I am the one the Lord sent to annoint you king over His people Israel: so listen now to the message from the LORD’.

Samuel tells Saul, that he better listen up, because the Lord has an important message and instructions for him. Now if an undisputed prophet from the Lord came to you and told you that you he had a message from the Almighty God specifically for you, you would be jotting down notes and breaking out the tape recorder!

Verse 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 everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them, put to death men, and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’

Let’s take a look at what the Amalekites did to tick the Lord off.

Exodus 17: 8-14 While the Israelites had just escaped Egypt, the Amalekites sent an army of men to attack the Israelites. Joshua chose some men and went out to fight them. As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites were winning, but if he lowered his arms, the Amalekites were winning. You remember the story, he had Aaron and Hur stand beside him, holding up his arms, and Israel was victorious.

Verse 14: "Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven’. Verse 15, Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is My Banner. He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord, The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.

Also in Deuteronomy 25: 17-18 we get a clearer picture of what the Lord promised to Moses, and what he intended to do about it. "Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; They had no fear of GOD"

And here is the prophesy that is to be fulfilled in Samuel 15…verse 19: "When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to posses as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Do not forget!"

Okay, back to Samuel 15. Verses 4 – 9…Saul gathers up an army of men and goes to attack the Amalekites. But he did not follow the Lords instructions to a tee. He took the King of the Amalekites , Agag, alive. He killed everyone else, but spared the best of the sheep and cattle and lambs, everything that was good, he kept.

God told him to destroy everything! He specifically told him to kill all the cattle ect. But I’m sure Saul, when he saw all those beefy looking animals, was thinking what a waste it would be to destroy perfectly good sheep and cattle. How many times do we reason our way out of obedience? We can use logic to talk our way into just being half obedient.

To be continued….