Obedience is better than sacrifice

[notice]A monthly column by farmer, preacher and writer  for Jesus, Angus Buchan[/notice]

1 Samuel 15:22 (NKJV) “So Samuel said: “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,”

As we commence with the New Year we need to be men and woman who obey The Word of God rather than obey man’s desires, because of the fear of offending man. If we look at the life of King Saul he was a man that was head and shoulders above any other man in Israel, he was a handsome man and he was a God fearing man.

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When he was appointed as the first king of Israel, however once he was established and anointed by the prophet of God, Samuel, he started to be concerned about what people thought of him and eventually he started to listen to man rather than to God, and he disobeyed God because of the fear of man. As a result he lost his anointing and his kingship. The Lord appointed the young shepherd boy David to be the next King of Israel and in fact if you go to Israel today the Jews will still worship King David as the greatest King that has ever lived in Israel apart from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

The reason why Saul lost this honoured position was for one reason only “the fear of man.” He was trying to find favour with man and as a result lost favour with God. He ended up eventually committing suicide. We are not to be concerned about man’s opinion of us, but rather to be more concerned about God’s opinion of us.

The same thing happened when Pontius Pilate was asked to judge Jesus Christ and Pilate said very clearly that he found no fault with this man, Jesus Christ, from Nazareth and no reason for Him to be executed, but the people cried out that they wanted Jesus to be crucified and the amazing incident that took place in Matthew 27:19 (NKJV) where it says very clearly, “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’” So Pilate’s own wife had a dream that Jesus was innocent and that He was to be left alone, and yet because of the fear of man Pontius Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified.

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This year of 2016, let it be a year where you and I will start to ask ourselves the question: “What would Jesus do?” and then rather do that, then please man and lose our inheritance.

God bless you

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Angus Buchan