What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears? (1 Samuel 15-16, 1 Chronicles 1, Psalm 39, Acts 11)

Samuel had told Saul that he needed to listen to God’s Word (1 Samuel 15:1). To listen to means not just to hear it, but to obey it. God’s Word can be hard to obey, normally because we think we know best. For Saul it was a hard word because it involved wiping out the Amalekites. Perhaps we also see this is shocking, but it’s because we do not see the seriousness of sin, the wages of sin is death, the Amalekites deserved this. The shock really is that God is so patient with so many of us in giving us so long to repent.

Saul didn’t seem to struggle with wiping the people out, but he seemed to have a soft spot for the animals, why waste all the animals, what had they done wrong? Why not benefit a little from the slaughter? So they kept a few, what’s the harm in that, anyone else would do the same.

When Samuel turns up, Saul seems in good spirits, he’s done what God asked, except that he hasn’t! Samuel asks why he can hear the sheep bleating and the cattle lowing?! Well Saul puts a religious spin on it – we kept these animals for sacrificing to the LORD.

It sounds good doesn’t it, but God sees it differently. God says that there is no point in going through religious ceremonies if you have no intention of obeying the Lord. Samuel challenges Saul by saying “to obey is better than to sacrifice.”

You can’t just say, oh well, it doesn’t matter, God will forgive. It is serious to reject God’s Word.

Wonderfully the writer to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus took on a body so that He could live the obedient life for us and die in our place as the perfect pleasing sacrifice (see Hebrews 10:5-7). But Jesus also says “why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not do what I tell you?” (Luke 6:46).

Jesus calls us to obey him in all areas of life and to repent when we fail. We mustn’t try and cover over our sin by putting a religious spin on it as Saul tried to do. We must seek to fully obey God in all areas and sincerely repent when we fail, for our God is a consuming fire.

Saul refused to listen, and he discovered that to reject God’s Word is to reject God himself. Tragically for Saul, this meant he would face God’s rejection.

Lord, please help us to listen to your Word in all areas and to obey. Thank you that Jesus perfectly obeyed you and died for us, but may this truth lead us not to be careless about our sin, but to be all the more eager to obey you.