Daily Devotional for Friday 27th October
Obedience is better than sacrifice
Here we find how God is disappointed and rejects Saul for his actions.
God says to Samuel how sorry He is for making Saul a king. This is not to say God is saying he made a mistake, but that He is saddened in Saul’s behaviour towards Him and the lack of obedience wanted.
When Samuel finds Saul, he is out making a monument for himself! Another reminder of Saul and his lack of faith and honour towards God and more towards honouring and idolising himself. When questioned, Saul admits to Samuel that he has done what was asked of him by God, but Samuel has to remind him exactly of what he hasn’t done.
When questioned further, Saul believes he has in fact done what God had asked, and that he saved the animals to offer as a sacrifice. Even though Saul believed he was doing good by God, he had still gone against God’s wishes. All he was doing was deceiving himself.
Sometimes we may be in a situation where we think we are making the right choice, but we must remember to always pray, have patience and be guided by God.
In vs 22 Samuel says “Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice”.
A sacrifice is a ritual between a person and God – but it will only truly mean something if it is done with love and obedience to God. As Christians, we will attend church and help others, but we must remember that being true and honouring obedience to God is just as important.
At this point Saul had rebelled against God and now God finally rejected him. Saul’s downward spiral came from pride, disobedience, self-love and then finally he was rejected. We see how God gave him more than one chance to prove himself and yet he kept falling further and further.
Rebelling against God causes us to close the door and be pulled further away from Him. Doing things for personal gain will cause barriers to form between us and God. We must humble ourselves and always put God first.
Time to reflect…
1. Have we made decisions that are led by our own self love and pride for ourselves and not for God?
2. Are there things in your life that could be done to enhance your obedience to God? You may attend church weekly, but as shown in Matthew 6, the true reward from God are the actions done in private, without recognition or boasting.
Pause to pray…
Heavenly Father, please help us to remember to have obedience for your voice. Help us to submit to Your word and follow You only. Please forgive us if we have made decisions that are based on self-love and pride and thank you for having such patience with us even though our errors may be made more than once.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
