Obedience vs. Sacrifice
As we learned in the previous lesson, Saul was commanded to kill all the people and animals of Amalek. Saul killed all but one man, the king, and all the animals, except for some of the best which he held back for the purpose of sacrifice.
Saul felt pretty proud that he had done all that was commanded of him to do. Only he was in rebellion, as he did not do all that he was told to do specifically. Saul told Samuel that he had done what was commanded of him by God.
Samuel saw were Saul was deceived and went to the heart of the matter. Samuel asked, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
Saul answered in 1 Samuel 15:14-15, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord you God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
Here you see a bit of a change in the story. Saul is now saying that “they” did it. THEY were the ones to keep aside animals for sacrifice, but HE was the obedient one. When it was brought to attention that he had not been completely obedient, he tried to take the attention and blame off himself. Many, when caught in disobedience, will try to blame others for their actions, rather then taking responsibility for their own actions.
Adam blamed God and Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. Neither God nor Eve put the fruit in his mouth and force-fed him. He ate of his own choosing. And in the same fashion, although the serpent was deceptive, she still chose to eat and did so of her own free will. Both chose to disobey.
With Saul, he was the one in charge. No one was ruler over him. He was THE ruler. What he said went. So blaming the people was a feeble excuse seeing as he was the boss. He was the ones that the others looked to for learning and guidance.
Here is a tough one for those in leadership positions. “You [I] will give an account for the disobedience you [I] allow in the lives of those entrusted to your [my] care.
We see this in the case of Eli. Eli was the leader over Israel as well as Samuel’s mentor. Eli knew his sons hated the things of God, but he did nothing about it. He did not use his authority and remove or restrain them.
In response, God decreed, “I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them.”
It wasn’t just the sons that were judged, but Eli as well.
The next thing Saul did was try to justify what he did wrong. He said that the animals that they had made an exception with were for sacrifice to God. He figured that the sacrifice would out weigh the fact that he didn’t kill all the animals.
Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.”
“Some take the cross and concentrate on its image of suffering as representing a life of sacrifice. However, in these words of Jesus the cross is not the only or complete focus. You can live a life of self-denial and sacrifice and not fulfill God’s purpose or will! In fact, you could choose self-denial and sacrifice and still be in rebellion to God.”
The focus is obedience. The only way to obey is to take up the cross. With out dieing to our own ways and agendas, (taking up the cross) we will eventually come to a place where it’s a decision between our will or God’s. Does service to God include disobedience? No. If we follow our own desires, we aren’t following God’s will; we are in rebellion.
Samuel put an end to Saul’s thinking of doing right in 1 Sam 15:16-19, “ ‘Be Quiet! And I will tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’ And he [Saul] said to him, ‘Speak on.’ So Samuel said, ‘When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel? Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, “Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?’”
When Samuel first told Saul he was to be king, Saul’s response was, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?” (1 Sam 9:21)
Saul was once a humble man. Knowing his place, in a manner of speaking. In that scripture it’s saying. (Lynn translation) Saul, when you were not so full of yourself, God made you a king. But now, you have come to think you are above absolute obedience.
Anyone agree?
What makes us think we know more then God himself? Yet, how often to we listen to the counsel of men instead of listening to God?
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Behold, to obey is better then sacrifice, And to heed then the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. (1 Sam 15:22-23)
Samuel linked rebellion with witchcraft: “for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.” Notice the words ‘is as’ in this verse. Both the King James and New King James use this but the words ‘is as’ cannot be found in the original text. They were added for clarity. A more accurate translation would only read ‘is’. (Interlinear Bible, vol.2, p 750). So, if this is the case, then the scripture would read, “for rebellion is the sin of witchcraft”. This makes it look totally different doesn’t it?
Now its not saying its about as bad as. It is saying it IS.
Would a Christian knowingly practice witchcraft? No, of course not. But when we are in rebellion we are under the influence of witchcraft, whether we realize it or not.
Usually when we talk of witchcraft, we think of women in black clothes and magic spells. Lets take a quick look at the heart of what witchcraft is.
The Hebrew word for witchcraft is ‘qesem’. Its English counterparts are divination, witchcraft, and sorcery. However, experts tell us the exact meaning of these words in reference to occultism is unknown, which accounts for the variety in translations of this word.(Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, vol. 3 p. 805) The importance lies not in the form or method but in the result or goal of witchcraft.
Witchcraft directly opens one to the demonic realm. Its goal is to ‘control’ circumstances, situations, or people through various avenues, often without the participant’s understanding of what is happening in the spirit realm. There is a range from total ignorance of what one is doing to complete understanding and awareness of the powers of darkness involved.
In essence witchcraft can be practiced either with total unawareness or with complete knowledge. Its goal is control, but inevitably the controller becomes the controlled due to the involvement with the demonic realm.
When someone is initiated into the coven (a group of people who practice witchcraft), the leaders encourage the person to take drugs, drink, engage in illicit sex, steal, and carry out various other acts that defy God’s laws. They are taught that the more you rebel, the more power you obtain, and what they seek is power. Doesn’t this show that rebellion is witchcraft? It goes right along with their practices.
Truth is, this theory of ‘the more you rebel the more power you gain’, is true, because the more you rebel, the more they give legal access to demonic powers to influence, control, and empower their lives. By rebelling against the order and laws of God and His delegated authority, they knowingly grant legal access to the controlling demonic realm.
John shares, “A few years ago, while changing channels in a hotel room after a service, my wife and I came across a network special on Satanism and witchcraft. I was about to flip the channel, which ordinarily is wise to do, because I believe all we need to know about spiritual warfare should come from the Spirit of God. However, I felt impressed to watch it a moment. The show discussed the satanic bible. The journalist reported the number one commandment: “Do what thou wilt.”
In Psalms 40: 7-8 the writer says, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart.”
Jesus himself said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)
Through study you will see that the Lord is drawn to those who live in obedience to Him. Such as Noah, Moses, David, ect. But the opposite is also true. The spirits of darkness are drawn to those who live in rebellion. The command of ‘Do what thou wilt’ is rebellion. It does not fall within the guidelines of order and structure and rule. Have you also heard, “if it feels good, do it”?
Those who willfully commit themselves to the service of Satan understand this principle, yet others are deceived. The ignorant ones mistake lawlessness for liberty. But there is no freedom in rebellion. The New Testament reveals a clear picture of what actually takes place. They become slaves to depravity. Peter exposed their error this way: “They [those leaders who encourage insubordination] promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you.” (2 Peter 2:19)
The truth is evident. There is no freedom; there are instead bondage and control, which open the soul to demonic oppression and control. Paul reemphasized this point: “Don’t you realize that you can choose your own master? You can choose sin (with death) or else obedience (with acquittal). The one to whom you offer yourself – he will take you and be your master and you will be his slave” (Rom 6:16)
Jesus stressed this principle: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). Remember Cain’s disobedience in his choice of offerings to the Lord? Afterward God made it clear to him his choices would determine his destiny. He could honor God’s will and close the door to sin’s control (witchcraft), or he could rebel and face without divine protection or strength the crouching form of sin that sought to master or control him.
Samuel warned Saul, just as God Himself warned Cain. Rebellion opened his soul to the influence of a controlling spirit that caused him to behave in a manner he never would have if he was in his right mind. Saul did not truly repent, and the Bible indicates in 1 Samuel 16:14 that not long after his rebellion, an evil, tormenting spirit came upon his life and troubled him. The evil spirit had legal access in his life from that point on. There was no rest for Saul because there was no true repentance. Saul became a very different man from the one we first met.
He had gone from an unassuming young man who obeyed authorities, such as his father and the prophet Samuel, and who respected the things of God to one who violated all he held dear. If you had approached him in his early years and foretold him, “Saul, the day will come when you will kill eighty-five innocent priests, their wives, and their children in a fit of rage,” he would have dismissed you as crazy. “Impossible! I could never do that!” he would have reasoned. The sad truth is, he did! (1 Sam. 22)
The evil spirit manipulated him into a life of jealousy, anger, hatred, strife, murder, and deception. It controlled him by way of his unrepentant disobedience. He chased and tried to kill David, one of God’s and his own faithful servants. He believed David a traitor, when in reality he was a man after the heart of God. As a result of the demonic control, Saul saw only fleeting glimpses of truth through a thick cloud of deception. Truth became a lie, and the lies became truth.
When deception moves in we can become a “rebel with a cause” or should I say “a Christian with a mission”? We can be totally right in our motivations, but be so clouded by deception we cant see that what we are pursuing is actually rebellion.
Next study will be on “Bewitched”.