To Obey is Better - Trinity Fellowship

TO OBEY IS BETTER

Rick Trice

5/6/07

Trinity Fellowship, Raton, NM

I SAMUEL 12:14-15; 15:1-23

ROMANS 6:16-19

(READ I SAM. 15:10-23) What was Saul’s sin? He had disobeyed God. Back in the beginning of chapter 15, God had instructed Saul to take his army and utterly destroy the Amalekites for what they had done to Israel (they had ambushed Israel when they came out of Egypt). When God said “utterly destroy,” he said every living thing: man, woman, child, infant, nursing babies, and every donkey, ox, cow, camel, dog, cat…everything was to go under the sword! And Saul did this…to a point. He partially obeyed. He killed everybody and everything…except for king Agag, and the choicest, fattest animals…which they kept as plunder.

See, it’s normal in a battle, when you destroy the enemy, to take their stuff. This is called the “spoils of war,” and in many armies throughout history, it’s what many soldiers looked forward to, to supplement their income. God had ordered Saul not to do it…not to take anything, but destroy it all.

WHAT WAS REALLY THE SIN?

So, was the sin that he showed mercy to the enemy king by letting him live? What’s wrong with that?

Was it that Saul and his army took things that didn’t belong to them? I mean, Saul told Samuel he brought these animals back to offer them as a burnt sacrifice to God, in thanks for the victory! Isn’t that the same thing? They were going to be destroyed?

If you look at the phrase in verse 19, you’ll get a clue as to part of the problem. Samuel asks Saul, “…why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?” This phrase “swoop down,” is translated from a Hebrew phrase that means like a bird of prey would drop suddenly from the sky, and fly down to hungrily attack something. It was a heart problem! They weren’t at all interested in “bringing a sacrifice back to God!” It was an excuse to plunder and pillage. It was a horrible, consuming lust that Saul allowed to overpower himself and his people.

So when Saul is confronted by God’s prophet, Samuel, he’s like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. What does the child do? He offers you some, so you will be implicated in the crime! Then when that doesn’t work, he shifts the blame. (v 21) “The people took of the plunder!” It wasn’t me! It was them. I couldn’t control them.

TO OBEY AND TO HEED

V.22 says God delights more when we obey and heed him. We’ve seen where Saul disobeyed God’s direct order. Where did he not heed him?

(Read 1 Sam 12:14-15) God had asked Israel do several things:

Fear him

Serve him

Obey his voice

Do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord

And just as with everything the Lord promises, there are results to our actions. If Israel would do the above things, then God’s promise is that both Israel and the king would continue following the Lord. In other words, He would lead them into victory in their lives! But if they failed to do these things, there would be a consequence: “the hand of the Lord will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

You see, God wasn’t crazy about this entire king thing. He had set Israel apart from the other nations. The other nations all had kings, but He wanted Israel to be different…God wanted to be their king. But when Israel cried and prayed and moaned for a king like the others, He relented and said, “Okay, here is your king, whom you have chosen and whom you have desired.”

But that’s when he warned them, “…you and your king better follow Me, if you still want to be set apart among the nations.” In verse 12:25, He sums it up by saying, “…if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”

SAUL REJECTED

And so Israel and Saul rebelled against God, and God fulfilled his promise in 15:23…”because you rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.”

We know the rest of the story: Saul continues to rule for a time longer, but God moves quickly and anoints a young boy named David, the youngest of eight sons of Jesse. By law, the eldest would inherit the father’s blessing and name, and the youngest would inherit whatever was left over after all the other brothers. But God passed over the seven older brothers and chose a poor, rugged, rough looking shepherd boy, used to living in the hills day and night with the animals; tough, resourceful, and a boy after God’s own heart.

So Samuel anointed him with oil, and God’s plan was put in motion. Saul’s disobedience drives him further and further away from God, until he treats David like an enemy, and chases him in the wilderness, murders God’s priests, commits all sorts of other sin and atrocities.

God has simply turned Saul over to his sins. Until finally, years later, Saul is killed and his body put on display by his enemies.

OBEDIENCE FROM THE HEART

Well, preacher (you say) “we aren’t under that old covenant any longer; we’re saved through grace.”

So let’s look at the new covenant

“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.” (Romans 6:16-19)

Paul ends this speech with a very famous promise:

FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH, BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

Don’t be fooled; God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and is still acting on his promises. Don’t play games with him. Obey him; heed him; honor him and what he has asked you to do, do it completely.