"It Is Better to Obey..."

   I have been trying to read the Bible starting with Genesis.  I was reading I Samuel 15 this morning and started writing down my thoughts.

   Please read the whole chapter of I Samuel 15.  Do you find yourself there? 

   Saul had a way of doing what he wanted even though God commanded otherwise.  He was told to utterly and completely destroy the Amalekites.  Notice verse 3:  "Now go, attack the Amalekites and destroy everything they own as an offering to the LORD. Don’t let anything live. Put to death men and women, children and small babies, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”  Seems a pretty clear statement, does it not?

   God was with Saul and he defeated the Amalekites.  BUT, Saul allowed the king, Agag, to live.  Look at verse 9: "Saul and the army let Agag live, along with the best sheep, fat cattle, and lambs. They let every good animal live, because they did not want to destroy them."  In the chapter before this, the people told Saul to "do whatever seems good to you".  They followed Saul, their king, not God.  Saul said he obeyed God, BUT kept all these mentioned in verse nine to sacrifice to God.  That was not in God's command.  (I still wonder why Saul allowed Agag to live:  What was his reasoning concerning him?)

   How many of us today are like Saul.  Obeying God's command up to a point that pleases us.  We may live that way all the time we are here on this earth.  But the time will come when we have to answer for our sins.  Like Saul, will we try to "pass the buck" and blame someone else for our own mistakes.  It will be too late then.  We need to know exactly what God's command is and follow it.  The only way we can know God's commands is to read AND study God's Word.  If you diligently seek, you will find.  May God bless you all. 

-Ann Wolfe

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