Does the Lord Delight in Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices as Much as in Obeying the Voice of the Lord?
1 Samuel 15:10-26
' 10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night. Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal." When Samuel reached him, Saul said, "The LORD bless you! I have carried out the LORD's instructions." But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?" Saul answered, "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but we totally destroyed the rest." "Stop!" Samuel said to Saul. "Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night." "Tell me," Saul replied. Samuel said, "Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel. 18 And he sent you on a mission, saying, 'Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.' 19 Why did you not obey the LORD ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the LORD ?" "But I did obey the LORD ," Saul said. "I went on the mission the LORD assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal." But Samuel replied:
"Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD , he has rejected you as king."
Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I violated the LORD's command and your instructions. I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD ." But Samuel said to him, "I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the LORD , and the LORD has rejected you as king over Israel!"
Sing praises and worship the Lord with your heart. If you can't sing then make noise to rejoice his Grace, but obviously not barking like dogs or any other animal noises. Do you sing with the movement of your lips or with the feelings from your heart? This segment about worship is from PD's sermon this sunday which tied in with 1 Samuel 15:10-26 that I was reading on Monday. Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Does He delight in just what comes out of our mouths or from our heart? At times we lose sight of what is necessary, what God really wants from us. By reading more into His Word and discerning from sermons, I find myself understanding more and more about what He desires. I also begin to see what is unacceptable in His eyes but yet those are the things that we still do; either consciously or not. I am far from the perfect believer of Christ, but I see things happening at church which cause me to take a step back. A statement which keeps going through my mind is the prolude from DC Talk's song: What if I stumble.
"The single greatest cause of atheism today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
From time to time, I observe fellow christians who behave 'christian-like' at church and with church friends. Yet when they walk through the doors, they behave otherwise. I've noticed and have heard of christians making loans to other christians and charging them interest, christians lusting after the bf/gf of others; christians or non-christians, christians subjecting oneself to potential vices, etc. Perhaps this is why sometimes it hard to promote Jesus to those who have not heard the Gospel, they see christians who participate in activities that is not desirable in His eyes and they ask themselves; so what is the difference between you and me? As christians, are we not told to be both the light and the salt of the earth? As the light of God, to be His beacon to those who have not heard His Word, we are seen by all and our behaviour depicts how they see christians as. As salt, we show/ contrast how a God centered life tastes much better than a self centered life. If we start to compromise that, we lose that saltiness/ taste.
But going back to worship. That sermon got me thinking about the up coming Praise and Worship event that's hosting with the other chinese churches. The organizers want it to be a 'battle of the bands' style of worship. Now, is that worship or performing? Wouldn't each band want to be better than the other bands? While at the last coffeehouse event, I noticed some bands weren't really playing for the sake of worship but rather for sake of performance. Their style of performing mimicked that of the recording bands. I don't know if this Praise and Worship would be a good idea or if it would accomplish anything that would glorify Him or would it be an exercise of self-glorification. Only God knows and time will tell.
