Active obedience versus active disobedience
I want to look briefly now at some biblical examples of disobedience. Since I'm talking about doing the right thing, I want to look at the life of King Saul. I hope to demonstrate through part of His story how we may be well-intended, how we may think that what we are doing is right. Still, if we delude ourselves and take our eyes off God and look to something that distracts us, we can easily fall into disobedience. First lets look at a couple of verses that will set the stage for what i want to talk about.
' Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs and tries the hearts. [Prov. 24:12; Luke 16:15.] To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. [I Sam. 15:22; Prov. 15:8; Isa. 1:11; Hos. 6:6; Mic. 6:7, 8.]'
Proverbs 21:2-3 Amplified Bible Classic
To "do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord". Again, here is the Word teaching that it is the Doer that pleases God, but not just doing, but it's doing with a heart that is motivated to please Him, to obey Him. Our hearts are dark, even the regenerate heart is apt to deceive, and we must rid ourselves of falsehoods, of lying and self-deception. It's a deep pit to fall into when we practice self-deception, and live in our own lies. People who lie to themselves, or begin to believe their own lies, are blinded by them. But no one can hide from God, who weighs and tries the heart to discern what is really going on in a person, and why they choose to do the things they do!
Now, let's look at the life of King Saul and His grand departure from obedience, and His fall from grace.
'And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord ?” “But I did obey the Lord ,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 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.” '
1 Samuel 15:18-23 Amplified Bible Classic
Saul was sent to destroy the Amalekites, and so he did. He started in triumph, and with the help of God, he accomplished all that he set out to do. This demonstrates an important lesson. God is faithful, and our victories and our triumphs in life are enabled because He gives us the victories. But as is often the case, riches, the spoils of our triumphs, become a test of our obedience. When we get success, we are frequently tested by the prosperity and the abundance that comes by the Hand of God. Do we set our hearts on them, and become self-sufficient, and abandon God because we love wealth more than God? We do well for ourselves not to allow prosperity, wealth, and materialism dull our hearts, delude our minds, and take our focus off of the God that provides in place of the high wall in our minds that we think that material wealth insures us! The bible clearly warns us not to set our hearts on riches when they increase!
This can lead us out of active obedience and into disobedience rather quickly!
Now Saul thought that by saving some of the plunder from the victory, to be used in sacrifice to the Lord, Saul did this very thing. His heart told Him this would be a good thing, and he took his eyes off the obedience that he started in. He saw the abundance of the herds and thought this was His to take. God commanded Him not to spare the lives of even their heards, but Saul saw the spoils as His, and quickly turned from obeying what God had told him, and plunged headlong into the sin that cost him the kingdom! The sacrifice that Saul thought the bulls and heards would be, the offering to God, in his mind, would be pleasing to God. Instead, God and the word remind us that what pleases God is obedience, to obey, by doing what He tells us, and not what we think, is the path to the abundant life of obedience.
So in summary, let's purpose to obey, to do the right things, to seek to follow what we know is right from what the Word tells us, and not what we think is right in our own eyes! Flee from evil, seek peace and pursue it, and adore and reject evil in all its forms. This is active obedience! This is what pleases God, and this is a pathway to being blessed!
I want to look briefly now at some biblical examples of disobedience. Since I'm talking about doing the right thing, I want to look at the life of King Saul. I hope to demonstrate through part of His story how we may be well-intended, how we may think that what we are doing is right. Still, if we delude ourselves and take our eyes off God and look to something that distracts us, we can easily fall into disobedience. First lets look at a couple of verses that will set the stage for what i want to talk about.
' Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs and tries the hearts. [Prov. 24:12; Luke 16:15.] To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. [I Sam. 15:22; Prov. 15:8; Isa. 1:11; Hos. 6:6; Mic. 6:7, 8.]'
Proverbs 21:2-3 Amplified Bible Classic
To "do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord". Again, here is the Word teaching that it is the Doer that pleases God, but not just doing, but it's doing with a heart that is motivated to please Him, to obey Him. Our hearts are dark, even the regenerate heart is apt to deceive, and we must rid ourselves of falsehoods, of lying and self-deception. It's a deep pit to fall into when we practice self-deception, and live in our own lies. People who lie to themselves, or begin to believe their own lies, are blinded by them. But no one can hide from God, who weighs and tries the heart to discern what is really going on in a person, and why they choose to do the things they do!
Now, let's look at the life of King Saul and His grand departure from obedience, and His fall from grace.
'And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord ? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord ?” “But I did obey the Lord ,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” 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.” '
1 Samuel 15:18-23 Amplified Bible Classic
Saul was sent to destroy the Amalekites, and so he did. He started in triumph, and with the help of God, he accomplished all that he set out to do. This demonstrates an important lesson. God is faithful, and our victories and our triumphs in life are enabled because He gives us the victories. But as is often the case, riches, the spoils of our triumphs, become a test of our obedience. When we get success, we are frequently tested by the prosperity and the abundance that comes by the Hand of God. Do we set our hearts on them, and become self-sufficient, and abandon God because we love wealth more than God? We do well for ourselves not to allow prosperity, wealth, and materialism dull our hearts, delude our minds, and take our focus off of the God that provides in place of the high wall in our minds that we think that material wealth insures us! The bible clearly warns us not to set our hearts on riches when they increase!
This can lead us out of active obedience and into disobedience rather quickly!
Now Saul thought that by saving some of the plunder from the victory, to be used in sacrifice to the Lord, Saul did this very thing. His heart told Him this would be a good thing, and he took his eyes off the obedience that he started in. He saw the abundance of the herds and thought this was His to take. God commanded Him not to spare the lives of even their heards, but Saul saw the spoils as His, and quickly turned from obeying what God had told him, and plunged headlong into the sin that cost him the kingdom! The sacrifice that Saul thought the bulls and heards would be, the offering to God, in his mind, would be pleasing to God. Instead, God and the word remind us that what pleases God is obedience, to obey, by doing what He tells us, and not what we think, is the path to the abundant life of obedience.
So in summary, let's purpose to obey, to do the right things, to seek to follow what we know is right from what the Word tells us, and not what we think is right in our own eyes! Flee from evil, seek peace and pursue it, and adore and reject evil in all its forms. This is active obedience! This is what pleases God, and this is a pathway to being blessed!
