email : Webview : Duane Brooks - Every Day with Jesus

March 22, 2019

1 Samuel 15:22-23

But Samuel replied:
“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
    as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
    and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
    and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
    he has rejected you as king.”

New International Version (NIV)

                How much disobedience is ok? Some religions see their deity weighing good and bad deeds on a scale. In this way of thinking, as long as you do enough good you are allowed a little bad. I suppose it would be similar to feeling free to eat Blue Bell ice cream if you exercised earlier in the day. (I’m not saying I did and I’m not saying I didn’t; and ice cream is not sin.)

                When Saul became King, the Lord gave him clear instructions through Samuel to get rid of all the livestock of the Amalekites. Instead, as Saul won the battle, he spared the King of the Amalekites and the best of the livestock. When Samuel called him to account, Saul blamed the soldiers. Samuel didn’t let him off the hook. So Saul explained that he kept the animals to offer God a sacrifice. “I kept them to give them to God.” Samuel’s response rings through the ages: “To obey is better than sacrifice.” God rejected Saul as King because Saul disobeyed.

                God is never pleased with our disobedience, even if we try to compensate by doing something good. God does not weigh our sins against our good deeds. Instead, he weighs our sin against the standard of his own holiness. God’s answer for our sin was the death of his Son. We cannot do enough good to repay God for our sin. We receive his gift of forgiveness and we turn from our sin back to him.

                God’s kindness leads us to repentance today. Will we turn back to him? In our reading yesterday, we read that God’s grace causes us to turn back to him. Perhaps it is not our prayer which brings about revival, but revival which leads us to pray (Psalm 80:18).

Pray with me:

Father, we do not appeal to our own deeds to try to merit your favor today. “Nothing in our hands we bring. Simply to the cross we cling.” As we look to Jesus we turn to you, not away from you. With the Psalmist we plead, “Revive us God and we will call on your name. Restore us, O God. Restore us, God Almighty. Restore us Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved". In Jesus’ name. Amen.

This year our Every Day with Jesus readings will follow The Bible Project Read Scripture Plan. Copies of this reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download
the app at readscripture.org. Read through the Bible with us in 2019!
Joyfully,
Duane

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