Scripture warns us not to put our trust in princes, yet we continue to try to "institutionalize" solutions to the problem our sins, in order to overcome their tragic consequences without true reformation and obedience.
Samuel warned the people of Israel that if they continued in their sin, God would destroy both them and their king.
Perhaps the most tragic failure of Saul took place when God commanded him to wipe out the wicked Amalekites.
Saul gathered his army and attacked the Amalekites, and was victorious, but he did not obey God's commandment to destroy all that they had. Instead, the Amalekite king Agag was taken alive, and the sheep and oxen and other things were kept.
When Samuel confronted Saul about his disobedience, Saul first insisted that he had indeed obeyed the commandment of God. But when the noise of the cattle betrayed his lie, Saul blamed the people for not destroying all the animals, claiming that they had done so to offer them as sacrifices to God.
Thus, Saul assigned the disobedience of Israel as being unto the worship of the Lord!
Even after being rebuked, Saul seemed not to grasp his wildly inappropriate way of thinking, that disobeying God was to be excused, if done for a worthy reason.
Samuel rebuked this attempt at self-justification head on: to obey is better than sacrifice! God would rather you not sacrifice and obey Him, than to disobey Him so you can perform sacrifices.
Thus, Samuel equates a simple act of disobedience with the most wicked sin imaginable – the worship of false gods and idols.
How different is our Lord Jesus!
Rather than shift the blame onto His people, our Lord Jesus shifted our blame, our sin, onto Himself!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...
