Obedience is Better than Sacrifice
Last week, I was catching up with a friend and at some point in our conversation, I mentioned our Father “owning the cattle on a thousand hills.” While this is Scripture, I often find myself quoting this as a way of saying, “The God that I serve created everything and everything is His, therefore this thing that I lack/need, He can provide easily.”
Well, this morning, I was getting ready to walk out of the house and I felt led to grab my physical Bible. Usually, if I’m not doing my study at home, I will just use the Bible app on my phone or on my computer, but I followed the leading.
I sat down at my desk and opened my Bible to a random page. My eyes immediately floated to Psalm 50. As I read the following verses, I felt that the Holy Spirit had a specific message that He wanted me to hear today, and I felt led to share it with you as well.
“I have no complaint about your sacrifices or the burnt offerings you constantly offer.
But I do not need the bulls from your barns or the goats from your pens.
For all the animals of the forest are mine and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine.
If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for all the world is mine and everything in it.
Do I eat the meat of bulls? Do I drink the blood of goats?
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God, and keep the vows you made to the Most High.
Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
Psalm 50:8-15
This particular psalm is a rebuke of the children of Israel. God starts off by telling them that He has no complaint about their sacrifices or the burnt offerings that they constantly offer. We know that it was something that He commanded them to do when they left Egypt.
However, He wanted them to know that He didn’t need their sacrifice. He does in fact own the cattle on a thousand hills and all of the animals of the field.
Note: anything we could offer to God as sacrifice, He already owns.
But, His point was that sacrifice had become more of a ritual for them. The point of offering a bull or goat as a sacrifice unto God was the transfer of sin to something that was innocent and the blood shed was offered as a substitute (see: Jesus).
While Jesus was the ultimate and final sacrifice for our sins, we, too, can fall into the trap of putting trust in our performance of religious practices and not in God Himself.
More than their sacrifice, God wanted the children He loved so deeply to have:
A thankful heart
A life of obedience
Trust in Him
In 1 Samuel 15, God spoke to Saul through his prophet Samuel and instructed him to completely destroy the Amalekites and to take no one alive, not even the animals.
So Saul gathered up his army and they went to the town of the Amalekites. They destroyed everyone, but Saul decided to capture and keep their king, Agag. He also kept the best of the animals. The Bible says in verse 9 that they spared “everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.”
God spoke to his prophet, Samuel, that He was sorry that He ever made Saul king because of his disobedience. When Samuel went to speak to Saul, this is what he said.
When Samuel finally found him, Saul greeted him cheerfully. “May the Lord bless you,” he said. “I have carried out the Lord’s command.”
“Then what is all the bleating of sheep and goats and the lowing of cattle I hear?” Samuel demanded.
“It’s true that the army spared the best of the sheep, goats, and cattle,” Saul admitted. “But they are going to sacrifice them to the Lord your God. We have destroyed everything else.”
Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! Listen to what the Lord told me last night!“
“What did he tell you?” Saul asked.
And Samuel told him, “Although you may think little of yourself, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? The Lord has anointed you king of Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and told you, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, until they are all dead.’ Why haven’t you obeyed the Lord? Why did you rush for the plunder and do what was evil in the Lord’s sight?”
“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul insisted. “I carried out the mission he gave me. I brought back King Agag, but I destroyed everyone else. Then my troops brought in the best of the sheep, goats, cattle, and plunder to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
Saul planned to offer as a sacrifice the very thing God told him to destroy.
In his commentary on this chapter, David Guzik writes, “Religious observance without obedience is empty before God…One could make a thousand sacrifices unto God, work a thousand hours for God’s service, or give millions of dollars to His work. But all these sacrifices mean little if there is not a surrendered heart to God, shown by simple obedience.”
So, what’s the result of a thankful heart, a life of obedience, and trusting in God?
God says, “I will rescue you and you will give me the glory.”
What if the answer to your prayer doesn’t come as a result of your sacrifice or how well you can perform for God? What if it doesn’t come from you trying to check off every box and look like a “perfect” Christian?
What if your deliverance will come from you approaching God with thanksgiving in your heart and on your lips, and a heartfelt desire to trust and obey God?
I dare you to test it out.
With grace and glory,
Ashtyn
Very good!