Obedience is better than sacrifice: A case study on King Saul

I seem to gravitate towards writing about obedience and its because when I read the Bible, obedience stands out the most to me. Also, disobedience seems to be the downfall of most biblical figures and of course, disobedience leads to sin. Obedience is about submitting to God's commandments, His laws and His will. 

It makes sense why obedience is difficult because it requires us to lay down our own wills for God's will. Walking with Christ requires the willingness and ability to lay down your own will for His because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).

Disobedience was the reason for the fall of mankind. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would lead to death (Genesis 2:16-17). Scripture provides a lot of instances that show disobedience and its consequences. This post is dedicated to studying King Saul and how his disobedience led him to being rejected as King by the Lord.

I Samuel 15:22 - 23 (NKJV):

22 So Samuel said:

"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams."

23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also rejected you from being King.

Here is the background. After Samuel anointed Saul as King over Israel, he gave Saul an instruction from the Lord. The Lord wanted to punish Amalek for attacking the Israelites in the wilderness. Saul was instructed to attack Amalek (the Amalekites) and utterly destroy them and all that they had including both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey (I Samuel 15:1-3). 

First and foremost, God does not play about His people. When He says that vengeance is His, He really means it. The Amalekites were destroyed because of their attacks against Israel and God demonstrated that there would be consequences for going against His chosen people. 

Back to Saul, He did not obey God's commandment because he allowed King Agag to live and he kept the best of the sheep, oxen etc (But all that was deemed worthless was destroyed). Partial obedience is still disobedience, and it has its own consequences.

Saul's disobedience:

• Letting King Agag live when he was supposed to kill all the Amalekites
• Saul was supposed to destroy all the animals but he didn't

Saul decided to keep the best animals and use them to sacrifice to the Lord.When I first read the Scriptures, I didn't really understand why the Lord was upset. I was empathising with Saul because he didn't have bad intentions but once again, partial obedience is still disobedience.

His actions had serious consequences that carried over to the next generation. The Amalekite threat wasn’t fully destroyed. In fact, Jewish tradition holds that Haman — the man who tried to wipe out the Jews in the book of Esther — was a descendant of King Agag (Esther 3:1). (Some commentators interpret this descent to be symbolic because of the similarity in personality).

That means Saul’s decision to spare King Agag allowed a future enemy of God’s people to rise. Haman being an Amalekite shows that the same hatred that led Amalek to attack Israel in the wilderness was still alive generations later.

It’s a reminder that disobedience doesn’t always just affect us, it can open doors that affect others after us. This also shows how feelings, patterns, and spiritual issues can be passed down through bloodlines if they’re not dealt with.

The point is, God delights more in our obedience than in sacrifices. Obedience in itself is also an act of sacrifice. Saul thought that sacrifices would bring delight to the Lord, when all he had to do was be obedient in that moment. It's not that God doesn’t delight in sacrifices — Saul just offered the wrong sacrifice. What was required was obedience, not animals.

I have been in Saul's shoes where I have been disobedient despite the nature of my intentions. The good news is, God forgives. However, it doesn't mean that there won't be consequences, but even in those consequences, God loves you.

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