The truth is that Saul directed his men to save specific items from the Amalakite camp, and he likely reasoned that he could stretch and manipulate the instructive words given through the prophet Samuel if he later gave an offering from the spoils he’d gleaned. In the end, as Saul reasoned away his disobedience, Samuel settled the discussion by stating that the Lord desires obedience rather than sacrifice (1 Sam 15:22).
The obedience God desired from Saul is the same obedience He desires from us: that we be attentive to His instruction because out of it flows His life, His purpose and the fulfillment of His promises! Perhaps Saul’s actions are not far removed from the way we process God’s instructions in our time. Saul chose to deal with the Amalakites with half hearted attentiveness to the Word of God, and he supposed he could fix this error in the end by giving God an offering.
In our daily walk, how distant are we from Saul's mindset? God is specific in His instructions to us about how we’re to handle our finances, operate in self control, treat our bodies…and the list goes on. But we bypass being obedient to the Word and practicing righteousness in these areas; instead we give an offering and expect God to perform a miracle to make up for our lack of obedience to His Word. If I’ve overspent or been careless with my finances I can put some $$ in the offering plate and expect a bountiful return to make up for my disobedience in following God’s Word. But God desires obedience to His Word rather than an offering; He has laid out the way we’re to live and we must be faithful to follow it if we want to see His promises come to pass in our lives. This is not a matter of legalism, but a matter of having a heart after God's own, one that repeatedly rejects the wrong and chooses God's way of living.
An additional tragedy in living in disobedience is that we do not develop the deep and true character of God within ourselves. The character of God consists of holiness which manifests in righteous living. While God is compassionate and forgiving and He pours benefits upon us, there is a higher level of life in Him which does not continually seek for miracles to fix the results of our disobedience. However, this concept is so far removed from our culture that it seems foreign; we are accustomed to living in a certain manner and then seeking God’s miraculous help to support that manner of living.
Perhaps the culture of the Israelites is what brought them to the point where God said to them “These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me. Uselessly do they worship Me, for they teach as doctrines the commands of men” [Matt 15:8-9, Isa. 29:13 AMP]. This was not a statement of disdain or disgust, but a wake-up call to the children of God! God was saying “there is more of me and there is life in me. You have scratched the surface and settled for crumbs when I want you to feast on the bread of life!” In other words, there is a sphere of living which we have not reached, mostly because we have not been willing to travel the road of obedience which leads to that sphere.
This causes me to question the depth of my walk with the Lord. I know of Him and I have knowledge of His word, but have I stepped into the blessed love walk with my Savior? This walk is not about getting God to give me abundance or blessing that I might live a wonderful life on earth, according to my standards. The wonderful life flows out of Christ and His leading – I need not lead Him in the direction I desire, but allow Him to lead me into loving obedience. Jesus said “The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him]” (John 14:21, AMP).
So let us not take as criticism the idea that we have yet to learn obedience. Obedience, in its purest form, is living the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit as a witness of His redeeming grace – it is the true walk of faith. It is a sacred calling to hold and carry out the will of God on this earth and it enables us to rise above living in the flesh. It also relieves us of distracted prayers, the prayers in which we repeatedly ask God to fix the results of our disobedient behavior when we could be focusing on the assignments God’s given us and praying the prayers that enable those assignments and bring God’s will to the earth.
God has already given us the tools to fix our disobedience: we have the Word to guide us, His voice to direct us and the Holy Spirit to enable us. There is a time and a place for an offering, but let us not think that an offering is generally the solution to our ‘needs’ or the answer to our problems. We have a calling to be obedient to the Word and the voice of God, and through this begins the fulfillment of His promises!
“And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we [watchfully] obey His orders [observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us] and [habitually] practice what is pleasing to Him” (1 John 3:22 AMP).
