Obedience Honors God
“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….’”
1 Samuel 15:22 (NLT)
First Samuel 15 records the story of King Saul’s “partial obedience” to a direct command that God gave to him. Perhaps the best-known verse from this entire book is found in verse 22, where Samuel rebukes the King and tells him, “Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice….”
If you read the story in this chapter, you’ll find the King making excuses as to why he didn’t completely obey the Lord. He was supposed to destroy everything in the battle, and yet he spared the enemy King and the best of all the animals. In verses 13 to 15, the Bible says, “When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. ‘May the LORD bless you,’ he said. ‘I have carried out the LORD’s command!’ ‘Then what is all the bleating of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle I hear?’ Samuel demanded. ‘It’s true that the army spared the best of the sheep, goats, and cattle,’ Saul admitted. ‘But they are going to sacrifice them to the LORD your God. We have destroyed everything else.’”
In verse 22, Samuel replies, “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.” He goes on to compare Saul’s rebellion to the sin of witchcraft and his stubbornness as bad as worshipping idols. Samuel tells him in verse 23, “So because you have rejected the command of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”
I find Saul’s response all too common. He makes excuses and blames his troops and the people for his failure. In verse 24, King Saul tells Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the LORD’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.” Nowhere do you read that the King repented. He was too proud. Finally, in verse 35, you read the sad conclusion, “Samuel never went to meet with Saul again, but he mourned constantly for him. And the LORD was sorry he had ever made Saul king of Israel.”
If obedience honors God, disobedience dishonors Him, and partial obedience is really disobedience. Often, like King Saul, we try to justify our actions or inactions with excuses and blame. God isn’t interested in our excuses. In Psalm 51:17 (NLT), the bible says, “The sacrifice You desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.”
Because Saul dishonored God, God dishonored him and withdrew from his proud heart, leaving him troubled and alone. There is no record that Saul ever repented. It didn’t have to end this way.
What is it in your own life that you have disobeyed or only partially obeyed? The reason obedience honors God is because obedience is motivated by love, not constraint. In John 14:21 (NKJV), Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." In verse 15, He said, “If you love Me, obey My commandments.” This is the highest expression of honor. When we obey what God tells us in His Word, we are expressing our love to Him. It elevates Him above us and creates a deeper intimacy with God that goes beyond rituals and religion to a personal relationship that honors and pleases Him.