Samuel replied, “Has the Lord as much pleasure in your burnt offerings and sacrifices as in your obedience? Obedience is far better than sacrifice. He is much more interested in your listening to him than in your offering the fat of rams to him. For rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. And now because you have rejected the word of Jehovah, he has rejected you from being king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23
Yesterday at Sundown Purim began, celebrating the victory of the Jews over the evil Haman. Haman was a modern day Hitler and tried to have the Jews exterminated. But there is an interesting backstory that began with king Saul disobeying God. King Saul was told by God to destroy all the Amalakites and all they owned. They were enemies of Israel and was always trying to destroy them. But Saul refused to listen to God and instead he listened to the people when they wanted to take king Agag captive and keep all the best livestock and riches. Saul felt pretty good with himself until Samuel showed up and questioned him with today’s passage. Then of course he blamed it on the people. Which in a way he could have, but the bottom line was he was the king and the proverbial buck stopped with him.
You may be thinking, was it really necessary to remove Saul as king, was not killing all the Amakekites that bad of a thing? We need to remember God knows the whole story, and because of Saul’s disobedience, there was terrible trouble centuries down the road for the Israelites. That’s correct, the story of Esther would never had happened if Saul would have been obedient. There never would have been a threat to anihilate the Jews, because Haman was a descendant of Agag and just like his ancestors, he hated the Jews also.
So how important is it for us to listen to God when He speaks to us? Apparently very, for not listening almost caused the entire blood line that brought Jesus into this world as our Savior to be wiped off the face of the earth. Of course God would never let that happen and He raised up Esther and Mordecai to stop the massacre, that never should have happened in the first place. So it should make us consider how important following the leading of Holy Spirit is. Tomorrow we will finish this amazing account of how God works all things together for His glory and hnor. We will also see how Esther to had a choice, to listen to God, or walk away.
I encourage you to read the book of Esther it’s only 10 short chapters, but it will impact how you see God the rest of your life.
Not into reading? Tonight at 8 and 10 EST on TBN the story of Esther in the movie, One Night With the King.
Leave a Reply