TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK
MEMORY VERSE
To obey is better than sacrifice,
I Samuel 15:22b
Have you ever been left out? Maybe someone didn't want to be your friend. Maybe you didn't win a contest. We all know how it feels to be rejected. Sometimes, however, we deserve it. Have you ever rejected food at a restaurant because they got your order wrong or burned it? There are right and wrong reasons to reject something.
We've been learning about young Samuel and how God chose to speak to him even as a child. Samuel grew up to become a great prophet and the last Judge that Israel ever had. When Samuel had grown old, his sons were going to take over as Judges but, Just like Eli's sons, they were wicked and evil men. The people of Israel rejected
Samuel's sons as Judges. Instead they told Samuel to give them a king like the other nations had. There was nothing wrong with Israel wanting a king but he should have been a man after God's own heart. The other nations had evil kings that didn't even follow God!
Samuel tried to warn the people that a king like the other nations would treat them very badly but they wouldn't listen. Samuel felt like Israel was actually rejecting him. So Samuel went to talk to God about it. God told Samuel not to feel bad because it wasn't it they were rejecting, it was God
Himself! By wanting a king that didn't follow God, they were choosing not to follow Him either. So God decided to give the people what they wanted.
God looked down from Heaven and saw a man names Saul. He was tall and handsome and looked like he would make a good king
but God knew that his heart was not as it should have been. God knew that this was the kind of man that the people said they wanted as king so he led Saul to Samuel. Samuel told Saul that God had chosen him to be the first King of Israel and then anointed his head with oil as a sign.
For a while, Saul was a very good king and a great warrior.
One day, God told Saul through Samuel that He wanted Israel to attack the Amalekites because they had treated Israel so badly years before. God even said to wipe out all the animals as well as the people. Nothing was to be left of the Amalekites.
Saul gathered his army and attacked just like God told him to but he didn't completely obey. He left the King of the Amalekites alive as a prisoner and kept all the sheep and cattle. God then told Samuel that He regretted making Saul king. This didn't mean that God had made a mistake, only that it hurt Him to have to teach Israel a lesson by giving them the kind of king they wanted even though he was bad for them. Saul had proven that he was disobedient to God.
Samuel went to see Saul. When he arrived he saw that Saul
had become so arrogant that he even built a monument to himself! When Saul saw Samuel he said, "The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord's Instructions!" (I Samuel 15:13)
"Really?" Samuel said. "Then
what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle I hear?"
Saul answered, "The soldiers brought back only the best and destroyed the rest so we could sacrifice them to God."
"But God told you to destroy everything! Why didn't you obey Him?" Samuel asked.
"I did obey. I destroyed the Amalekites and we only brought
back the animals to sacrifice to God."
"Do you think God would rather have you make sacrifices than obey what He tells you to do? To obey is better than sacrifice!" Samuel told Saul. "Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has rejected you as King of Israel!"
Samuel then turned to leave but Saul panicked and grabbed Samuel's robe, tearing it. "Just like you have torn my robe," Samuel said, "God will tear the Kingdom from you and give it to another who is better than you. I will never come to see you again." Then Samuel executed the King of the Amalekites like Saul was supposed to do and then went home.
God does not want us to obey some of what He tells us to do. He wants us to obey ALL of it. We do not get to pick and choose which parts of the Bible we want to obey. God loves us and knows what is best even if we don't understand it.
No comments:
Post a Comment