Kids imitate their parents. At times we tell them to do one thing but they do something else. Many times they do that work but when we look closely its half complete, they have obeyed but not fully. If you are parent, you will understand what I am saying. Similarly, We read about partial obedience with Saul, God instructed to Saul in dealing with Amalekites, where he did partially obey God’s instructions, it cost Saul his kingship. Many times we are like our children with God. When God asks us to do something, we don’t do it exactly as God asks us to do, instead we do some part of what God asks us to do, some what we desire and say we have obeyed God. We complain God for not heading to our prayers and blessing us on our prayer requests..
Some Background story before we understand what God did to Saul.
Moses & Amalekites
When Moses lead the Israelites from Pharaoh crossing the Red sea, the Israelites were attacked by Amalekites. So Moses prayed to God raising his hand held high to the heaven, God provided victory to Israelites to defeat the Amalekites thru Joshua. We read the entire story of this in Exodus 17
Exodus 17:8-11,13 'The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. '
After the Israelites defeated the Amalekites God promised to Moses that he will blot out the name of Amalek under the heaven (We may read this as Blot them out from earth). Exodus 17:14 'Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.” '
Now the generation of Moses and Joshua passed away, Israelites did not have any king for a period of time. After their repeated request to Samuel, God identified Saul as the king for Israelites to fulfil this promise made to Moses.
Our God full fills any promise that he makes to us from Generations to Generations.
Saul’s Partial Obedience
God instructs Saul to fulfil the promise to Moses - His instructions were clear - 1 Samuel 15:3 'Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ” ‘
Instructions broken down
Step 1 - go, attack the Amalekites
Step 2 - totally destroy all that belongs to them
Step 3 - Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.
This will wipe out the Amalekites, It full fills God promise to Moses that he will blot out the name of Amalek under the heaven (Exodus 17:14)
The Amalekites were ruled by king Agag during the period when Saul attacked them.
But Saul Partially obeyed God, he did not destroy them complete, he killed some and spared some and took some of the best sheep / cattle and fat calfs along with the King and returned back. - 1 Samuel 15:9 'But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.
What was the reason for Saul not to fully obey God’s instructions - he gave into the Satan’s eyes of deceptions
Saul’s deception was - he fell for the fat sheep / Cattle / lambs. Like Saul we also fall trap to our eyes of deceptions that pleases us to say, What we see in front of our eyes is better than what God has planned for us.
In the case of Saul, God wanted to punish Amalekites by using Saul as a tool - 1 Samuel 15:2 'This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt.
Saul was convicted that he obeyed by attacking the eastern border so its ok to take the some of the goodness what he is saw. The promise of God was “totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’ ”
The deceptions is of two folks
Covet our self to yield to self - (here Saul’s coveting was the fat calfs and animals he wanted to take)
Deception of lies - He was convinced that he obeyed God and his instructions..
What happens when we partially Obey
Our eyes are like Saul to justify we have obeyed God. 1 Samuel 15:20-21 '“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.” ‘
We obey partially and we think we have obeyed God and also justify what we did is correct and we are waiting for God to act
Partial obedience is complete disobedience, there is no half truth with God.. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 'But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord , he has rejected you as king.” '
God considers Partial Obedience equal to
Sin of Divination ~ Its like walking with God and asking Satan to help for healing using Divination.
Evil of Idolatry ~ The action is considered evil, the evilness is equivalent of worshipping an Idol.
Our view the obedience is taken in a light way to say we obeyed, but God’s standards are very high.. to see as a Sin of Divination and Idolatry, which we fail to relate or understand..
When we don’t obey God. We violate the 1st command of God’s commandment Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. '. The evilness of our self leads to idolatry which is a worst sin we can commit..
When we partially obey, we show from our action that we are not sincere with God. Someone who's insincere is a little fake or phoney behaviour ~ it’s equated to hypocrite behaviour with God. Matthew 23:33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
After effects of Partial Obedience : Cost of disobedience
God’s wrath unleashed
God’s wrath is unleash on to the one who disobeyed the word, in the case of Saul, God speaks to Samuel on this - 1 Samuel 15:10-11 'Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel: “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions.” Samuel was angry, and he cried out to the Lord all that night. '
Saul was unseated as the King of Israel
When God decides a position, he is firm not like humans to change his stand. 1 Samuel 15:29 'He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”
God accomplish what he planned thru other source (Samuel)
God’s promise to Saul was avenge the Amalekites, since he failed God uses Samuel to accomplish the task by putting the Agag King to death 1 Samuel 15:32-33 'Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him in chains. And he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” But Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so will your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel put Agag to death before the Lord at Gilgal. '
Many times that’s what happens in our lives, we may be ignorant of that immediately, we come to realise that later in our life when God reveals the same..
God will accomplish his plans to some one, he chooses Plan B to make his will accomplished, we miss out on the blessings and see others take what we should have earned.. There is no fault of God, its because of our actions we miss this..
God does not accept our reasons..
Saul begged for God to forgive the sin, Bible does not tell if God forgave the sin or not, knowing God’s character he would have forgiven Saul’s sin, but he did not reverse his decision to unseat Saul from his kingship, he had to pay penalty of the partial obedience. 1 Samuel 15:24-25'Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord ’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord .” '
Our human reasons cannot justify our disobedience to God. 1 Samuel 15:22-23 'But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.
Saul’s reason for disobedience was he wanted to offer God a better sacrifice but God said - To obey is better than sacrifice
For God , Obedience matters the highest honour, for us from an earthly view the sacrifice is better.
How to Obey ~ Life lessons from Jesus : implicit obedience
Hebrews 10:5-10 'Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’ ” First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. '
When Christ came to the world , his sole purpose was to obey the Father. - Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.”
His Obedience was rewarded with Victory over death and he is seated in right hand of God Hebrews 10:12-14 'But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. '
When we obey God’s call, he does not delay any second to answer our prayers. Its immediate. This is something we miss and always blame God for our mistakes.
Self Examination
Examine your life on areas where you are still waiting for the blessing, the prayers to be answered. Analyse to see if there is full obedience or partial obedience in life and fix that.
Are you walking daily with him, when we take eye off Jesus, deceptions hits us. So guard and examine the walk closely with God. Don’t choose to walk with him when you need help alone. He is our saviour, he longs for our company to walk with him so that he can fight the battle for us.
As we walk in the world, we are swagged by the deceptions - Ask God to help on the deceptions to wade it out, he can spot the inner deceptions and false motives our eyes / mind cannot detect. God can help if you walk closely with him.
We miss the perfect will of God due to our obedience. Many times we miss the 1st quality blessing and end up in 3rd grade blessing from God.
Don’t delay any command from God. The implicit obedience will come only if you have the fear of God and love for God.
Fear of God means ~
if I don’t obey I will be condemned for sins
If I don’t obey I will fall from the grace of God
Love for God - Our love for God makes us obey him fully .. Like how a child obeys the father or mother.. out of love..
Our reasons will be like a fools explanation to God when we disobey.. Many times God does not give 2nd Chance on things what he asks us to do.. The word is clear James 1:22 (NIV) Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
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