Obedience Is Not Optional
Text: I Sam.15: 22
Intro: We hear a lot these days about options. An option is “the act of choosing; choice; the freedom to choose” (Webster’s New Dictionary and Roget’s Thesaurus: published by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, TN., copyright 1984; pg. 499).
If I have an extensive educational background and varied work experience, my career options may be more numerous than they would be otherwise. Greater preparation means greater opportunity and varied choices.
If I go to purchase a new car, I will have a wide range of options to choose from. I can choose between numerous makes and models, engine sizes and creature comforts. I can choose to drive home in a basic car, or a top of the line luxury car. My options are limited only by my ability to fork over the money to pay for my choices.
Life is full of choices. We make an innumerable amount of decisions every day. Not all of them are necessarily life-changing, but choices nonetheless. However, there are many things in life that should not be considered optional. For instance, I can choose not to eat any food for the next three months; but if I want to remain alive, not eating over an extended period of time is not really an option.
By the same token, I can choose not to pay any more taxes; but if I value my good name and my personal freedom, not paying taxes isn’t an option that I can afford. Some things in life are simply not optional.
Too often in our world, and especially here in the United States, we tend to view almost everything as optional—an either/or situation. But as just stated, there are some things in life that are not optional. Our obedience to God should not be one of those things. Oh, certainly we can choose not to obey God; but that is only an option if one doesn’t place much importance on the will of God, His blessings, and closeness with Him.
I want to consider a man today that lived as though obeying God was optional. That attitude, and the rebellion behind it, was his downfall. The man of whom I wish to speak was the first king of Israel—Saul. We will see in the course of this message, not only the disastrous results of Saul’s lack of obedience, but also some pitfalls for we, as Christians, to avoid.
Theme: An attitude of optional obedience led to:
I. SAUL’S DISOBEDIENCE
A. Samuel’s Godly Edict.
1. A reminder prefaced this command to Saul.
I Sam.15: 1 “Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.”
NOTE: [1] Samuel’s reminder was basically this: “Saul, it was God Who made you king over Israel. Because of that fact, you are obliged to obey His commands.”
[2] The same thing can be said about God’s children today. Just as God did not make Saul king of Israel because his own merits, neither are we God’s children today on the basis of any personal merits of our own. Our sins have been forgiven simply because of the marvelous grace of God (Eph.2: 8-9). The Apostle Paul goes further, and adds, “…Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor.6: 19b, 20).
[3] To state Paul’s conclusion simply: God has a right to expect obedience, honor, and respect from those He has purchased with the blood of His own Son.
[4] Peter T. Forsythe was right when he said, "The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master".
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Integrity Crisis, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1991, p. 22.
2. God’s command to Saul was clear and specific.
I Sam.15: 2 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”
NOTE: [1] Amalek was the grandson of Esau (Gen.36: 12). His descendants, called, Amalekites, were the relentless enemies of Israel. When the children of Israel came out of Egyptian bondage, the Amalekites made a cowardly attack upon the feeble and weary at the rear of Israel’s ranks (Ex.17: 8-16; Deut.25: 18). It was this act that prompted God to command that Israel would have war continually with Amalek until they were eradicated. This was for two reasons:
1a. God knew what the Amalekites would seek to do to His people in the future.
1b. God always repays sin.
Deut.7: 9 “Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.”
[3] A common misconception in our society today is that one can actually get away with his/her sin. God’s Word says differently.
Num.32: 23 “…be sure your sin will find you out.”
Eccl.8: 11 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
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13 But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.”
B. Saul’s Great Error.
1. Saul obeyed God to a point.
I Sam.15: 4 “And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and then thousand men of Judah.
5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley.
6 And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.
7 And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt.”
NOTE: [1] Up to this point Saul had obeyed God. God had said to go fight with Amalek, and Saul had gathered an army and engaged the enemy.
[2] Saul even showed mercy to the Kenites, which was an almost unheard of thing. The common practice of that day was to destroy any group of people who were peacefully coexisting with an enemy, when war broke out. Saul felt obligated to show mercy to the Kenites because they were the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro (Judges 1: 16).
2. Saul’s obedience was only partial.
I Sam.15: 8 “And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.
9 But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.”
NOTE: [1] Saul only obeyed God’s command to the point that it made sense to him.
1a. Saul figured it was unreasonable to destroy the fine livestock. He probably thought that was just an oversight on God’s part.
1b. Saul assumed that God wouldn’t mind if he spared Agag, the king, as a trophy of his great victory. He assumed wrong. God had said to “utterly destroy” everything.
[2] It’s awfully easy at this point to try to vindicate Saul by thinking, “Well, he almost did everything God said to do.” But dear friends, the truth of the matter is, partial obedience is actually complete disobedience. It would seem that some animals have more loyalty to their masters than many of God’s children.
How we admire the obedience a dog shows to its master! Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained to Rutledge how it happened. Because he worked out-of-doors, he often took his dog with him. That morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful friend understood, for that’s exactly what he did. Then a fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. But he didn’t move. He stayed right where he was, in perfect obedience to his master’s word. With tearful eyes, the dog’s owner said, "I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it."
Our Daily Bread.
[3] Saul never completed the task that God gave him to do.
3a. He only killed all the Amalekites in this particular city, excluding Agag, the king. He did not eradicate them as God had commanded him.
3b. The last of the Amalekites were not destroyed until the days of Hezekiah, by a group of Simeonites (I Chron.4: 39-43). This was one of the gravest mistakes that Saul could have made, as we will see later.
II. SAUL’S DENIAL
A. God Relates His Displeasure.
I Sam.15: 10 “Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel saying,
11 It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.”
NOTE: [1] The term “repenteth” is somewhat misleading. This term does not mean that God regretted His action of having permitted Saul to be king. That idea would imply some sort of imperfection on the part of God, which we know is not possible. God knew what was in Saul, and what he would do. So Saul’s rebellion was no surprise to God.
[2] God’s “…promises and threats are often conditional (Jer 18: 8-10)” (Charles F. Pfeiffer and Everett F. Harrison, editors, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary: published by Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois; pg. 285). God would have continued to deal with Saul in mercy, grace, and blessing if he had been obedient. But due to Saul’s disobedience and rebellion, God would now be forced to deal with him differently. That is the basic idea behind the word “repenteth”—God’s plans and purposes toward Saul would now change.
B. Samuel Reproves Saul’s Disobedience.
1. Samuel confronts Saul with his blatant disobedience.
I Sam.15: 13 “And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”
NOTE: Saul was trying just a little too hard to cover his guilty conscience. His opening statement to Samuel seems totally out of place. He says, “…Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord” (v. 13).
2. Saul denies any wrongdoing, but blames the people.
I Sam.15: 15 “And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
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20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.”
NOTE: [1] Denying one’s sin will not change the facts. Even after two millennia, man still operates on the mistaken idea that if he denies something long enough, it will somehow change the obvious. An Indy 500 racecar driver illustrates this idea as follows:
“You don’t go look at where it happened,” said Scott Goodyear, who starts 33rd [speaking of race-car drivers who have been killed in crashes at the Indianapolis 500]. "You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with it. You pretend it never happened." The Speedway operation itself encourages this approach. As soon as the track closes the day of an accident, a crew heads out to paint over the spot where the car hit the wall. Through the years, a driver has never been pronounced dead at the racetrack. A trip to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Racing Museum, located inside the 2.5-mile oval, has no memorial to the 40 drivers who have lost their lives here. Nowhere is there even a mention.
Source Unknown.
[2] Saul started his explanation of this situation with, “They have.” Blame shifting is a typical escape maneuver used when one is knowingly guilty of something.
In Discipleship Journal, Don McCullough wrote: “John Killinger tells about the manager of a minor league baseball team who was so disgusted with his center fielder’s performance that he ordered him to the dugout and assumed the position himself. The first ball that came into center field took a bad hop and hit the manager in the mouth. The next one was a high fly ball, which he lost in the glare of the sun—until it bounced off his forehead. The third was a hard line drive that he charged with outstretched arms; unfortunately, it flew between his hands and smacked his eye. Furious, he ran back to the dugout, grabbed the center fielder by the uniform, and shouted. ’You idiot! You’ve got center field so messed up that even I can’t do a thing with it!’”
Don McCullough, Discipleship Journal.
Saul was the king. He could have prevented the people from taking any of the spoils of the battle, but he didn’t, plain and simple. It was not a matter of inability on Saul’s part, but rebellion, as is accurately stated in verse 9, where we are told, “…and would not utterly destroy them…”
[3] Saul then suggested that he and the people had disobeyed for a higher purpose. In essence he said, “Samuel, you don’t understand. We disobeyed God so that we could offer sacrificial offerings to Him.” This is a lot like some professing Christians of our day, who lamely justify their gambling at the riverboat by promising to tithe on their winnings. Dear child of God, remember this: It is never right to do wrong in order to do right. When God says something, that’s exactly what He means.
[4] The philosophy of “doing evil that good may come of it” is a common practice of today’s society. The liquor industry often puts out ads that state that for every six-pack of Bud Lite sold between such and such dates, they will donate a certain portion of their sales to the Special Olympics, or some other worthy cause. That may be a nice gesture, but it doesn’t make the liquor industry any less despicable and destructive. Actually, it is little more than a ploy to increase sales. It actually encourages more drinking, because now, one can drink and help someone in the process.
[5] Saul’s backpedaling and crawfishing would almost be humorous if it were not so tragic. He begins to talk out of both sides of his mouth at once. One moment he vows that he has obeyed God (“…I have performed the commandment of the Lord” v. 13c), the next he admits that he has not obeyed God (“…the things which should have been utterly destroyed…” v. 21).
3. Samuel pointed out to Saul that God prefers obedience to offerings.
I Sam.15: 22 “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
NOTE: [1] There are two erroneous ideas brought out in Saul’s explanation for his disobedience. The first we have already spoken of—“I’ll do evil that good may come of it.” A second idea is summed up as follows: “If I do good in one area, then God will overlook my evil in another area.” Saul’s thinking seemed to be that since he was going to make offerings and sacrifices to God with some of the spoils, God should overlook his disobedience.
1a. Some folks will send their tithe to church, but they won’t come with it.
1b. Others will attend church regularly, but live like the devil himself through the week.
[2] Samuel sort of boiled this whole situation down to one major truth—rebellion. Samuel asked Saul, “Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord” (v. 19)?
III. SAUL’S DOWNFALL
A. Saul’s Disobedience Brought About His Disgrace.
I Sam.15: 23 “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
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28 And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, that is better than thou.”
NOTE: Notice the league in which God places self-will and rebellion. God says it is comparable to witchcraft—devil worship. God says it is comparable to idolatry. Why? It’s because rebellion and self-will is basically the worship of self. It is placing one’s own self and will ahead of God.
B. Saul’s Disobedience Brought About His Death.
II Sam.1: 6 “And the young man that told him (David) said, As I happened by chance upon mount Gilboa, behold, Saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him.
7 And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called unto me. And I answered, Here am I.
8 And he said unto me, Who art thou? And I answered him, I am an Amalekite.
9 He said unto me again, Stand, I pray thee, upon me, and slay me: for anguish is come upon me, because my life is yet whole in me.
10a So I stood upon him, and slew him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he had fallen…”
NOTE: [1] In I Sam.31: 1-6 we are given the general details of Saul’s demise. Seeing the predicament that he was in, he tried to commit suicide. However, his attempt was unsuccessful due to the fact that his coat of mail had prevented a complete dispatching of his life (II Sam.1: 9 [Margin]). Many assume that II Sam.1: 6-10 is in contradiction to I Sam.31: 1-6. Actually, it is a supplement to it. There is nothing to indicate that the Amalekite lied. To the contrary, David took him at his word and executed him for having touched God’s anointed (II Sam.1: 13-16).
[2] Folks, don’t miss the lesson taught by this seemingly insignificant detail. In disobedience to God, Saul spared one Amalekite—Agag. Almost like a ghost from the past, one Amalekite snuffs out Saul’s life, albeit at his own request. In the same way, the sin that we spare in our life may be the one that carries out our death sentence—if not physically, certainly spiritually. Harboring sin in the heart definitely harms the saint. We must obey the admonition of the writer of Hebrews, who said, “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us…” (Heb.12: 1b). Obedience is not optional.
[3] Saul lived what could be called a trivial life. He lived only for the moment—only for himself. Tim Hansel once said, “One of the greatest tragedies of our modern civilization is that you and I can live a trivial life and get away with it” (Taken from Sermon Illustrations.com/A-Z). I agree that it is a tragedy to live a trivial, frivolous life. But the truth of the matter is that one seldom gets away with it. The sad thing is that a trivial life often leads to tragedy for the one living it, as well as those they love.
C. Saul’s Disobedience Almost Brought About Future Disaster.
Esther 3: 1 “After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.
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8 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people (the Jews) scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.
9a If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed…”
NOTE: [1] We never know what lasting effects our sins will have on the future. Saul did not eradicate the Amalekites as God had told him to do. Years later the Israelites would suffer the results of Saul’s sin. Haman is said to be the “…son of Hammedatha the Agagite” (Esther 3: 1). In other words, he was a descendant of Agag the Amalekite. Had not God intervened, Haman would have single-handedly exterminated the nation of Israel.
[2] Sin that is not put to death in our heart is likely to destroy us, and possibly others as well. God told Israel many years before Saul’s reign, “…I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (Ex.20: 5b).
Radio personality Paul Harvey tells the story of how an Eskimo kills a wolf. The account is grisly, yet it offers fresh insight into the consuming, self-destructive nature of sin. "First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood. He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly now, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the arctic night.
So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor-sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue, nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his OWN warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more—until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!"
It is a fearful thing that people can be "consumed by their own lusts." Only God’s grace keeps us from the wolf’s fate.
Chris T. Zwingelberg.
[3] Sin is serious to God. Sin caused the death of His Son in order to purchase our salvation and forgiveness. Sin should be no less serious to the saints, for obedience is not optional.
Theme: An attitude of optional obedience led to:
I. SAUL’S DISOBEDIENCE
II. SAUL’S DENIAL
III. SAUL’S DOWNFALL
Check out the author’s book, "Meditations of the Heart: Thoughts on the Christian Life" at:
http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Heart-Thoughts-Christian-Life/dp/1453739238
