I’m reading through 1 Samuel again and the accounts of Saul and David.  As you recall, Saul was the first king of Israel.  He was anointed to be king by Samuel and in the beginning seemed promising.  He appeared to be humble but the humility turned out to be massive insecurity and fear.  His reign was marked by moments of disobedience to God’s clear commands while always rationalizing why he had no options but to violate the commands.

In 1 Samuel 15, a revealing incident takes place. The Lord commands Saul to attack the Amalekites and totally destroy them for what they had done to Israel as they came from Egypt.  We are told that Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed most of them.  However, he took their king Agag prisoner and saved the best of their sheep and cattle. After the battle he encountered Samuel and said, “The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’sinstructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” “Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied.  Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on 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.” (1 Sam. 15:13-21)

Saul’s character is revealed here and, to some degree, his view of God.  Saul seemed to think that if he generally did the will of God, he had done all that God had commanded.  He took the commands of God and then modified them to fit his situation, but then insisted that he had been fully obedient.  How many times do we obey God in some areas, but then find reasons to justify the part where we disobey while convincing ourselves that we are fully surrendered to God?

Over the years, I have known believers who were involved in immoral relationships but somehow decided that since they “loved one another” and were “faithful” to their lover that God was okay with what they were doing.   Others have embezzled money from their  company to “meet the needs of their family” and because the company owed them that money for all the years and hours they had put in without a raise or promotion.  Somehow, they were able to justify themselves because they “had to provide for their family” and because they were correcting their company’s injustice. I know others who have forgiven some, but have assigned others a special status where unforgiveness was justified because of how great the betrayal had been.  I have also known church leaders who excused their porn addictions because their wife wasn’t meeting their sexual needs and they were not having an actual affair. In all these instances, like Saul, they believed that because they were obedient in some things, they were obedient in all things.  Satan can blind us to the realities of our life and our disobedience to God.  If you had asked these individuals if they were submitted Christians who walked in obedience to God, they would have assured you that they were. 

Before we feel smug, I am pretty certain that we all have blind spots like these that we do not count as disobedience because we are obedient in many other areas and we find “reasons” why our disobedience should be acceptable due to “extenuating circumstances.”  Perhaps, we don’t give to the Lord or give to the poor as we should because we have other financial obligations – our boat payment, the big house we just purchased, the top-of-the-line pickup we really needed, the European vacation we had promised our spouse, etc.   Perhaps, we don’t serve at church because we are too busy with career, kid’s sports, our favorite recreational activities, etc.  Often, when we are financially blessed, we give money but not our time and so feel our money makes up for our time we don’t give the Lord because we are busy enjoying all the things money can provide.  None of these things are wrong in themselves except when they keep us from obedience.  Then, when we ignore or rationalize our disobedience, we have become like Saul. We fall into the view that God is pleased with “close enough.

We are all going to fall short in our obedience to God.  But our proper response is confession and repentance rather than rationalization and our insistence that we are submitted followers of Jesus in every area of our life. As we continue to read 1 and 2 Samuel, we see David fall into disobedience as well – the Bathsheba incident.  In many ways, what he did seems to far out rank Saul’s failures as sin.  The difference was that David acknowledged his sin, made no excuses, and threw himself on the mercy of God. Saul consistently denied his disobedience, insisted that circumstances had left him no choice, or blamed others for “forcing” him into his bad decisions.

As a result, God removed the kingdom from Saul and gave it to David.  Samuel declared, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices in as much as obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.”  May we be aware of our failures to obey, but repent rather than rationalize.  And may our prayer be the same as David’s: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”