Before battle, ancient Israelites were counseled to offer sacrifices to God, seeking His help and blessing in the coming fight. Those sacrifices were under the direction of men set apart by God to oversee them, as directed by the Lord.
Saul found himself preparing for battle against the Philistines in Gilgal following Jonathan’s attack on their garrison at Geba. The huge army gathered by the Philistines was (vs. 5) was frightening to behold, and Saul’s soldiers began to hunker down in defensive positions or desert all-together (vs. 5-6).
Samuel, the prophet called to express God's will to Saul and all his people, had told Saul to wait 7 full days, and that he (Samuel) would be there to for that rite of sacrifice at the end of that period.
It must have been excruciating for Saul to watch his outnumbered army increase in fear and decrease in numbers as they awaited the arrival of Samuel. Every day he waited made their situation look worse.
So he gave up waiting and went ahead and offered the sacrifices himself. It seems to indicate that for him, paying attention to God and making acting under His direction for timing and place…working with Him and drawing nearer to Him that process, was not what was important. Instead it was simply the ritual of sacrifice, by itself, that He believed would bring God’s blessing upon his effort and solve his mounting challenges.
He was reducing what should have created an experience of divine connection and guidance into an experience that simply went through a ritual in order to get something he felt he desperately needed.
Samuel’s famous sentence, “Obedience is greater than sacrifice” is not so much a lauding of the principle of obedience, as it is a reminder, when we engage in religious rites, to truly engage with God, receiving direction from Him about how, when, where , who etc. and recommitting ourselves to Him and opening our hearts to further connection and instruction as we do so (a foundational principle of holy obedience). The rite (in this case sacrifice, but it could be applied to any other religious rite) itself is not what is most important. It is humility before God and desire to seek Him and learn from Him and follow His counsel that is the vital part of any such outward form of worship or covenant making.
When we reduce God to a hander out of favors that we merit through rites (or ceremonies or rituals or performances) rather than discovering the communing with Him that comes as we seek His will and understanding about those rites and during those rites, and seeking to trust and obey His will in that, and in all other things on an ongoing basis.
“Obedience is greater than sacrifice” is, in essence, “Seeking to do God’s will and working with God as you engage in ordinances and rites and rituals (animal sacrifice in this case) is of far greater importance and value to you, and connects you with God in far more blessedly, than simply participating in or carrying out those ordinances, rites and rituals”.
No comments:
Post a Comment