Observations:
Talk About Making an Impact (1 Samuel 6)
In an early part of the book, the Philistine army conquers the Israelites and captures the Ark of the Covenant - the holiest of relics for the Jewish people. Over time, the Philistines begin to suffer from a series of maladies and misfortunes that were quickly attributed to the ill-gotten Ark in their presence.
Deciding what to do, the rulers of the Philistines asked their seers. The response of the seers? Send it back, you don't want to make the God of Israel mad. Then they say, in 6:6:
"Do not be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go."
Talk about a long-lasting impact! The mighty things God had done in Egypt were influencing the decisions of people many, many years later. This is why it is important to remember and keep track (perhaps through journalling or blogging) of the things God has done in your life - so that when you face a tough decision, you can look back on those things and allow them to influence you to a wise choice.
Holy Anger
The story of David and Goliath is familiar to almost everyone who has ever set foot in a church. There is part of it, though, that never ceases to speak to me - the reason why David was so eager to go to battle with the Philistine giant. David overheard Goliath taunting not just the Israelite army, but God himself...and David got angry. He began asking questions like, "Who is this Philistine that he gets away with taunting God and his army." Eventually, God used David's holy anger to kill Goliath and remove the taunts and the threats.
We live in a time when holy anger is seen as a bad idea. It is "offensive" and we don't want to "offend" people. But we also live in a time when people are taunting God and God's people mercilessly. There has to be a balance between mercy and the kind of holy anger that David experienced.
Doing What You're Told
Saul - the first king of Israel - went out to war against an army of Amalekites. The word from God was to completely annihilate the Amalekites - all the way down to their sheep, goats, and cattle. When the battle was won, though, they didn't listen. They took the best of the livestock for themselves.
Of course, they got caught. When Samuel - God's prophet - confronted Saul with the misdeed, Saul tried a clever excuse: We only kept the best to offer them as a burnt offering to God. Samuel wasn't impressed, and responded with a pointed reply (1 Samuel 15:22)
"What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams."
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Perhaps another way to say it might be: "Obedience is better than going to church." Or, "Obedience is better than giving 10%." Or, "Obedience is better than any of the other ways we 'sacrifice' for God today."
2 comments:
Going to church and giving 10% are likely included in obedience.
Anon...
Most certainly those things are included in obedience, as sacrifices were included in obedience during the time of Saul.
But in Saul's case, obedience also included killing all the livestock of the Amalekites. Disobeying one command to ostensibly obey another command is still disobedience, isn't it?
In the same way, God commands more of us today than going to church and giving 10%. He commands that we feed the hungry and clothe the naked and take care of the poor and not gossip and a litany of other things taught by the New Testament. How can we call it "obedience" if we're only "obeying" a small part of what we have been instructed to do?
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