Do you think much of Saul from the Old Testament? I usually don’t, and if I do, it is usually with thoughts of condemnation because he screwed up, royally (hah! couldn’t resist). If you trace his character development through the book of Samuel, it is not pretty. If I were writing a screenplay, Saul would start out as the handsome, ruddy guy as described in 1 Samuel 9, but by the end he would be this shriveled, ugly guy, his outward appearance reflecting to the audience the inner wickedness that enveloped him. But, I found myself sympathizing with Saul this week as I read through 1 Samuel. I sympathized with him because I recognized myself in his actions. I wish it were not so…
Check out this rebuke when Samuel laid into Saul:
Has 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 listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.
– 1 Sam 15:22-3
Now, what would the Lord have against sacrifices and burnt offerings?? Weren’t these required for the Israelites? Seems that Saul was being righteous in doing these…except that prior to this rebuke, Samuel delivered these instructions to Saul from the Lord:
Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
– 1 Sam 15:3
So what went wrong?
But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them.
– 1 Sam 15:9a
Saul’s response? “Hey, I did the mission given me, but the people took some of that stuff that should have been destroyed. But it’s okay, we’re gonna sacrifice it to the Lord 
“
Do you ever find yourself “obeying” the Lord, at least the parts of His instruction that you want to do, then making some “righteous” effort to hide the rest? I do. And you know what, this is still DISOBEDIENCE…even when it looks quite righteous!
O Lord, in your mercy and grace, transform our hearts to carry out fully your instructions.
