"Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?"

In our Wednesday evening Bible class, we're currently studying from 1 Samuel. One thought that came to mind today was the rebellion of Saul in 1 Samuel 15. Here are a few thoughts:

The command issued by God was not difficult to understand: "Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey" (1 Samuel 15:3). What was difficult to understand about this commandment? God detailed for Saul exactly what he was to do.

Perhaps it is a guilty conscience, but Saul greets Samuel later in the passage by saying, "I have performed the commandment of the Lord" (1 Samuel 15:13). Samuel responds in an epic way, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (1 Samuel 15:14) Essentially, Samuel was saying that the evidence stood against Saul. And yet, Saul persists in his belief that he has completed the word of God (see 1 Samuel 15:20). Additionally, he blames the people (who were involved, of course) for the disobedience (see 1 Samuel 15:15) and even God Himself (see 1 Samuel 15:20).

How often do we do the same things today as Christians? And perhaps even for the same reasons? In 1 Samuel 15:17, Samuel said to Saul, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?" The insinuation here is that Saul was at one point humble ("little in your own eyes") and that he had now changed. This change is indicated in 1 Samuel 15:12, the latter of which reads, "Saul went to Carmel, and indeed, he set up a monument for himself..." Does our own pride keep us from obeying the simple commands of God? Do we seek a way around what God has so plainly commanded? Often, in our pursuit of intellectualism, we seek something "new." Does this not spring from our own pride? As is stated in the passage, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice" (1 Samuel 15:22).

The question that should gain our immediate attention come from Samuel in 1 Samuel 15:19: "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?" Saul had the commandment of God. Was it the fault of God or the people that Saul did not obey? Or was it Saul's own fault? Saul says, "...because I feared the people and obeyed their voice" (1 Samuel 15:24). Sometimes it is all too easy to allow the unpopular positions of the Bible to be trampled because we want to be popular or to be accepted. Rather than giving in, let the question of Samuel resonate in our heads and hearts, "Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?" If we have the commandments of the Lord, then adhere to them and care not whether it pleases men. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 1:10, "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ."