Tuesday, January 27, 2009

1 Samuel 15

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"What pleases the Lord more; burnt offerings and sacrifices or obedience to His voice? It is better to obey than to sacrifice. It is better to listen to God than to offer fat of sheep. Disobedience is as bad as the sin of sorcery. Pride is as bad as the sin of worshiping idols. You have rejected the Lord's command. Now He rejects you..." 22-23

Wow.

"Samuel cut Agag to pieces before the Lord at Gilgal." v33

Verses like this never cease to shell shock me. Never sure what to do with them or what to think of them. Surely they show God as the lion and not as the lamb, lest we forget that He is ferocious in the face of evil and tender in the face of a repentant and humble heart.

How sad this relational rift between Saul and Samuel due to Saul's hardness of heart. Samuel was sad for Saul, but at the same time knew there was no point pursuing the heart of someone so bent on his own "rightness" that he wasn't open to the truth, the fact that he was NOT doing these things out of obedience to God but out of a twisted, prideful, and unsurrendered spirit.

I can relate to this relational rift in my own life, and the sadness of heart.

Berry Girl said...

I can only echo your thoughts here - the same passages struck me as did the same thoughts...Samuel's grief over Saul's disobedience, Samuel hacking Agag to pieces - PIECES. wow.