Devotional: Obedience Better Than Sacrifice

1 Samuel 15:10-23 One day I buy a table for my computer. I need to assemble it. I look at the picture on the box. I look at each peace of the table. I do not read the instructions. I assemble the pieces together based on what looks right to me. When I reached the top piece it will not fit. I think to myself, “What is wrong?” I pull out the instructions sheet. Each piece is marked with a letter. The letter on the piece that I am trying to use as the top piece is different from that shown on the instruction sheet. What appears to me to be right is totally wrong. I am trying to use the bottom piece as the top piece. I discover that my work does not lead to success in putting the table together because I have not observed the instruction sheet. In our passage King Saul had received instructions from the Lord to totally destroy Agag the king of Amalek, all the people, and all the animals. Saul does not follow the instructions. He disobeys God because he thinks that he has the right to make choices. He thinks that he is serving God by using some of the sheep and oxen to make sacrifices to the Lord. God does not accept the sacrifices and He rejects Saul because of his disobedience. You and I cannot please God by altering His commands. It is not our choice. We must hear the Lord. We must obey the Lord. We must have faith in His words regardless to how things appear to us. Nothing that we do in disobedience to His words pleases the Lord. Prayer: Father, we thank You for Your word. Create in us a heart of obedience so that we might please you. Amen.