“Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22).
Such were the historic words spoken by the prophet Samuel to King Saul long years ago.
The reason for this utterance is very significant, and the lesson to be gathered very salutary.
Saul was bidden by Samuel as the mouthpiece of God to utterly destroy Amalek, who was the implacable enemy of God’s people. Man, woman, infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel, ass, all had to be utterly destroyed. We may not call in question God’s decrees. They are altogether justified. The circumstances call for them.
Saul’s duty was to carry out God’s clear instructions to the very letter.
But Saul evidently thought otherwise. He spared “Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly” (v. 9). In other words, Saul acted as if he knew better than God.
This action cost Saul his kingdom. He might and did plead with Samuel that he had spared the best of Amalek’s flocks in order to sacrifice them to the Lord God. Surely this reason was very praiseworthy. He was not enriching himself by his action, but honouring God, so he would urge.
God thought otherwise. A principle was at stake. How could Saul rule a kingdom if he did not obey God. How could he expect to be obeyed if he himself did not obey. If his subjects could improve on Saul’s decrees, where would be his authority? Saul’s action in thinking he could improve on God’s decree was unpardonable. In one blow he destroyed his kingdom.
Samuel used some strong words to Saul in describing the seriousness of his action. Rebellion, witchcraft, stubbornness, iniquity, idolatry, form a pretty stinging array of epithets. “For rebellion,” said Samuel, “is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected thee from being king” (v. 23).
The stripling David is anointed king, and then follows the struggle between Saul and David—Saul with all the resources of the kingdom behind him, David with God behind him. In the despised cave of Adullam was found God’s anointed king, and with him the anointed priest and the anointed prophet.
And then the final phase in the sad story. Amid the shoals of spiritism, forsaken of God, in utter despair Saul commits suicide, falls upon his own sword and thus ends an ignoble career.
And what voice has all this today? We stand in difficult times for the Christians whether we view things from a world-wide aspect, nationally, politically, financially, or above all, religiously.
The Christian’s faithfulness today may and will involve him in difficulties in his church associations or in his business, financially, or in his relations to the state.
The question is, Am I, are you, prepared to obey God at all costs? Christians everywhere today are disturbed by the condition of things. Take Modernism in the churches. How can a faithful Christian go on with that? Think of the new Prayer Book, traitorous to the principles of the Reformation, opening up the way for Popish practices—prayers for the dead, the mass, etc. How can faithful Christians go on with that?
What then is the course open to the Christian? It is to obey God at all costs—to follow His word, to be obedient to God’s Will. This may involve his changing his ecclesiastical associations. So much the better. It may create difficulties in his business associations. God will honour faithfulness. David said, “Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Ps. 37:25). The time will come when the Christian is called to stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Will my opinions or expediency form a good excuse for not carrying out the will of God as expressed in His word?
To begin with, if this were done by all Christians, there would be cleared out every sect, denomination and division in Christendom. We may not expect that, but we may put Christendom right by ONE man.
It is said that when J.N.Darby was a young man, he was speaking to his father about the abuses in the Christian profession. Said his father, “John, you cannot put everybody right, but you can put yourself right.” And if every Christian, young and old, were to be absolutely loyal at all costs to God’s truth, there would be a big change. But here and now we plead that the individual reader should seek to obey rather than to sacrifice, and to hearken than to offer what answers to the fat of rams.
When J.N.Darby put himself right, as God revealed His will to him, he proved to be the instrument in God’s hand of a mighty revival, the effects of which are continuing to this day.