Devotional Guide, Today’s Reading – Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Theme: THE SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE

Text: “And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams”. – 1 Samuel 15:22.

Comment: The text for today was the statement of Samuel the Prophet to King Saul after Saul had flagrantly disobeyed the instruction of God concerning the Amalekites, whom God had declared would be destroyed for attacking the Israelites in the wilderness. (Exodus 17:8-16) In due time, God instructed King Saul through Samuel the prophet to carry out His purpose of destroying the Amalekites. (1 Samuel 15:2,3) King Saul disobeyed this instruction of God. “But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.” (1 Samuel 15:9) Even when this gross act of disobedience was pointed out to him, King Saul justified himself, saying it was his subordinates who brought the best sheep and oxen to make sacrifice to God. (1 Samuel 15:13-15,20, 21) It was at this stage that the Prophet made the statement in the text for today and went ahead to tell Saul that for disobeying the instruction of God, he had been rejected from being king. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry…” (1 Samuel 15:23) We should learn to be obedient to God for it leads to life; disobedience to death. – Romans 6:16.

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