April 13, 2025 -Perspective = Obedience or Disobedience

1 SAMUEL 15:1-17:31

Chronological Bible Readings

1 Samuel 15:18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’ 19 Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”

20 “But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. 21 Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”

Did Saul really think that he had obeyed God? I think we do pick and choose what we want to hear. And like Saul when the truth is pointed out we make excuses and try to justify what we have done. It goes all the way back to the garden. "Did God really say..." "The woman you gave to me..."

1 Samuel 15:22 But Samuel replied,

“What is more pleasing to the Lord:

    your burnt offerings and sacrifices

    or your obedience to his voice?

Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,

    and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.

We may even think that we have good reason for the things that we do. Our justification may look good from our human perspective but, our opinions and reasons and justifications are not what is important. We may think that we are doing something for God. It may even be a sacrifice of our time, money or interests but if it goes against what God has told us there is no sacrifice better than obedience.

1 Samuel 16:6 When they arrived, Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the Lord’s anointed!”

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

8 Then Jesse told his son Abinadab to step forward and walk in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “This is not the one the Lord has chosen.” 9 Next Jesse summoned Shimea, but Samuel said, “Neither is this the one the Lord has chosen.” 10 In the same way all seven of Jesse’s sons were presented to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.”

When I read this, I wondered why God didn't tell Samuel right off the bat that none of the sons of Jesse that were present was the one. Why go through the motions and ceremony of bringing each one before Him. Was it to drive home the statement that the Lord doesn't see things the way humans do? We see that Samuel's human perspective was Eliab looked like he would be a good king. But instead of acting on his perspective he listened to God. Over and over again. When the 7th one came before him, he had to be thinking okay this is the one. Imagine his confusion when the answer was not this one either. He didn't say God must have made a mistake and try to fix it. He knew that God knew things that he did not and in obedience he kept looking.

There are going to be times that things don't make sense. Times when from our perspective something should happen a certain way or in a particular time or by a particular person, but it doesn't. Our response to that nonsense should be to look to God and ask for His perspective.