Obedience > Sacrifice

Have you ever had one of those moments where in hindsight you realized you prioritized the wrong thing, placed the importance on A when it should have been on B? Sometimes, in hindsight, these moments are easy to recognize. My freshman year of college, starting roughly halfway through the first semester all the way through the end of the second, a couple of friends and I were spending 3-4 nights a week fishing and lakes throughout west and central Texas. We would haul off as soon as we got out of class, load up Coy’s truck with an assortment of rods, bait buckets, and tackle boxes, and haul off to Lakes Brownwood, Coleman, Ft. Phantom, Possum Kingdom, Kirby, or any number of other lakes and fishing holes and see what we could pull out of the water. And, given that all three of us in the fishing trio were bible majors and shared several courses together, we told ourselves that we could study for those classes together while we were fishing. This absolutely NEVER happened. As soon as we got to where we were going, its was all about fishing. Its probably unsurprising for me to tell you that my grades were not where they needed to be those semesters- that second one especially. That’s not to say my grades were bad, but given how those were some of the easiest courses I had during my undergrad degree, its telling that it was also one of my worst semesters in schools grade-wise. I consistently picked fishing and fun over what should have been my priority- grades and education. Ultimately, it didn’t doom me. But while I feel I have still turned out alright, that isn’t always the case for people who mix up their priorities. Sometimes when we mix up priorities, there are much more significant consequences- just as Saul

As we move forward in our study of 1 Samuel, we find ourselves this morning in chapters 13-15. Now I will definitely not be reading all of these three chapters to you from the pulpit, so don’t worry. I will, however, encourage you to take some time this afternoon or evening and read through them to help fill out this sermon a little bit. We left off last week with the people of Israel asking for a King as a leader instead of a prophet/judge. In the chapters between there and where we dive into the text today, we have the story of the selection of Saul as that king. Saul comes across in the text as a passionate but reluctant warrior king. He experiences success in battle after battle and yet even after he is anointed by Samuel and told he will be king, he still hides whenever it comes time for him to take on that roll officially. And Saul’s time as king in the early days is a mixed bag. There is never a time that the people aren’t at war during his kingship, and while those battles are almost always victories, it is clear throughout the text that those victories are the work of the LORD and not because of Saul’s amazing leadership. At one point he orders his soldiers not to eat anything until the battle is won. His son Jonathan misses that order and in the midst of the fighting he dips his hand into some honey from a busted hive and eats. When he’s informed of his father’s order, he replies, essentially, “what a dumb idea! We could have won quickly if we were strengthened by food instead of weakened by fasting.” And Jonathan is right! But we also have to realize that Saul’s in a bad spot. He’s the first king. There’s no model for how this is supposed to go among those people. And some of the trouble Saul gets into is because he chooses to act like the leaders before- as a religious leader. It should be unsurprising to us that when Samuel doesn’t arrive in a timely fashion to offer sacrifices, Saul takes it upon himself to lead the people in the worship rites by offering that sacrifice. He isn’t doing anything that the leaders of the people haven’t done before, certainly doing the same thing that Samuel, his mentor, has been doing. When you don’t have a pattern, you work with what you have. And yet it wasn’t Saul’s job to offer those sacrifices. In fact, those sacrifices appear to have been offered, not as an act of worship, but as an act of desperation in order to hold together his dwindling army. Because of that rashness, Samuel tells Saul that his line will eventually end. His family will not hold on to the kingship. And all of that leads up to our text today in chapter 15.

I’ve always admired women and men who choose not to advance their careers, turn down promotions or job opportunities elsewhere that, while they would pay more money and come with added prestige, would also cause them to spend more time away from their families. In a culture that often defines our value as people by what we possess, this sort of rejection of that standard is refreshing.

The New Revised Standard Version Saul Defeats the Amalekites but Spares Their King

15 Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. 2 Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did in opposing the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ”

4 So Saul summoned the people, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers, and ten thousand soldiers of Judah. 5 Saul came to the city of the Amalekites and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Saul said to the Kenites, “Go! Leave! Withdraw from among the Amalekites, or I will destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites withdrew from the Amalekites. 7 Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He took King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the cattle and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was valuable, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed.

Once again, Saul receives instructions via Samuel from the Lord and once again Saul chooses to do things his own way. He destroys some of what he’s supposed to, but saves the other- he spares the life of their king and the best of their livestock and possessions.

The New Revised Standard Version Saul Rejected as King

10 The word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my commands.” Samuel was angry; and he cried out to the LORD all night. 12 Samuel rose early in the morning to meet Saul, and Samuel was told, “Saul went to Carmel, where he set up a monument for himself, and on returning he passed on down to Gilgal.” 13 When Samuel came to Saul, Saul said to him, “May you be blessed by the LORD; I have carried out the command of the LORD.” 14 But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears, and the lowing of cattle that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the cattle, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” He replied, “Speak.”

17 Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?” 20 Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But from the spoil the people took sheep and cattle, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,

“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,

as in obedience to the voice of the LORD?

Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed than the fat of rams.

23 For rebellion is no less a sin than divination,

and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,

he has also rejected you from being king.”

And in those last couple of verses we see the words that unlock the real struggle at the heart of Saul’s failure. For all of his personal weakness, not understanding his own role, deferring to the people that he’s supposed to be leading, passing blame to others for his own mistakes, all of that is problematic but ultimately not at the heart of his demise. Instead we find the answer in the words “as the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the LORD? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” Saul’s complete understanding of God was tied to the worship rites and rituals. In Saul’s head, his moral, ethical, and religious responsibility was simply to offer burnt offerings. Saul didn’t understand that a transformation from selfishness to compassion is at the heart of turning to God. Instead, Saul uses worship as a way to corral and pacify people as opposed to honoring God. While it is clear that acts of worship are important in both the old and new testament, it is also clear in passage after passage like this one worship is not THE thing, but a part of what transforms us into the followers of God that we are supposed to be. Saul thought it was about sacrifice. Samuel reminds him that its about obedience.

In what ways do you need to be transformed? That’s ultimately what passages like this are about- reminding people that they are called to more than participate in worship- they are to be transformed by the God they worship.

as in obedience to the voice of the LORD?

Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed than the fat of rams.