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Sunday, 10 May 2009 22:21 |
"to obey is better than sacrifice." 1 Samuel 15:22For king Saul these words marked the beginning of his end. King Saul had become more connected to people than to God. Sure he believed in God; yes, he knew how to sacrifice to God; he prayed; But the result was he trembled and then he fell apart in total panic.
Saul is all of us apart from an active connection to the living God. Saul is all of us who have ever felt like "I have to do something or else.... ". The reality for anyone who walks with God is that we should never act from compulsion. No one should be able to force us into action except for God. The source of Saul's distress, and his solution to it were worldly, temporal, and disconnected from God.
Samuel spent a night in prayer and ended up "troubled" at the word of the LORD, "I am grieved that I have made Saul king because he turned away from me....". While Saul was negotiating with God's enemies, and rationalizing his spiritual rebellion, Samuel also experienced distress. Samuel was disturbed in prayer..... Samuel's connection to God had become had become a source of distress not peace. What we have here in 1 Samuel 15:22 is the story of two men under a great deal of personal distress. One of them was distressed by his wandering from God, and the other was distressed in his moving closer to God.
Obedience to God does not grant us a life of ease. Pressing into God might bring us to a place where God shares the distress of His heart. This is not a popular kind of prayer. This is not the kind of closeness to God that a lot of people will want. We might find it easier to be like Saul, take control of our destiny and move on ignoring the "bleating of the sheep" all around us. Honestly, much of what is called Christianity nowadays is more like Saul than Samuel.
The evidence of our disconnection from God is all around us, giving us away. We are more interested in winning elections than souls. We seek to"impact our culture" rather than "shine as stars" among a fallen generation (phil 2:15). Rather than being satisfied having the Lord as our portion, we have the Lord as a means to our ends. It is more popular to "cast our cares upon Him" than it is for Him to share his burdens with us.
We have no peace in casting our care upon a total stranger. Perhaps we have little peace in casting our cares on him, because we do not have a real intimacy with Him. The risk of being intimate with God is that he might ask you to be there for Him. It is much easier to live like Saul invisibly disconnected from God. Religious devotion can be fake, obedience cannot. To Obey God is far better than the pretense of sacrifice, but the price of reality is sharing God's pain, walking God's path and reaching for God's goals. Christ's yoke may be easy, but it is still a yoke. He seeks us for works of service that are in His interest, part of His plan, for His kingdom. Do not be fooled, contrary to popular opinion, Christianity is not a free ride.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 15 July 2010 19:25 |
Old Testament 
