Rebellion Is As The Sin of Divination
Has God ever given you a specific instruction to carry out? You hear it clearly and it’s reinforced, but you decide to disobey? That’s what happens to many of us and what happened to Saul in 1 Samuel 15.
In 1 Samuel 15, God instructs Samuel to tell Saul to destroy the Amalekites and leave nothing- man, woman or child. This is because God in his wisdom knew why he gave this instruction- the Amalekites were an evil people. Saul carries out the instruction, but partially. He decides to spare the king, Agag and the best of the sheep, cattle, and everything that was good. Because of Saul’s partial obedience, God regrets that he made Saul king. This is a stinger. For God, the creator to regret putting you in a position, especially of power. But sadly, I think this happens to many of us.
Let’s continue on.
Samuel approaches Saul as he was going to set up a monument in his own honor. When he meets him, he says to Samuel that he has carried out the Lord’s instructions, but Samuel knows this is not true. When Samuel confronts Saul, Saul immediately shifts blame and puts it on the soldiers saying “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.” How many times do we blame others for our disobedience? How many times do we not take accountability after messing up? Sometimes our pride and arrogance blocks us from seeing that we messed up in God’s eyes and we will try to blame others for why we did. What gets me too, is that Saul tries to make his disobedience honorable to God by saying they were going to use the sheep and cattle as sacrifice.
This enrages Samuel and he tells Saul about himself by reminding him who he once was. “Enough! Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night. Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out. Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” Samuel reminds Saul of who he was- small. Mind you, this is man who is going to construct a monument in his own honor. How many times do we get big headed once we get in a position of power? Saul, like all of us, was only something because of God- because God chose to make him something. Our existence is completely bleak without God. But also, let’s remember, though God anointed him, he did not actually choose him; Saul was chosen by the people. When we forget who once were and where we once came from, it is easy to slip up put God and his instructions on the back-burner.
Saul also thought that partial obedience was obedience, saying “But I did obey the Lord. 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.” But what Saul does not know is that partial obedience is disobedience. Sometimes you can be so blinded by your own sin and missteps that you think you’re still in God’s will. Also, imagine being the soldiers and hearing Saul. How do you even respect your commander when he is blaming you for something he partook it. Sometimes our obedience is also for others to see the power of true surrender.
Samuel responds with “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.”
What is divination? Divination- derived from the Latin "divinare" meaning "to foresee," is the practice of seeking to understand or predict future events or gain insight into the unknown through various rituals, methods, or tools.
What is rebellion? Rebellion is resisting authority, control, or convention, or to go against something.
Rebellion in this case was going against what God had said and this is because Saul thought he knew better. He thought it wasn’t that big of a deal to carry off the best of the plunder. He thought he knew better than God. But God is the only one who knows all and knows the future. When we go against God, we act as if we know a better future for ourselves than God knows.
The result of Saul’s rebellion is that he is rejected as king, he ends spends the rest of his life pursuing his successor, David, he is tormented with an evil spirit, and ultimately dies by the sword.
I see this play out in my own life. God can gave me an instruction and I decided to disobey because I thought that acting in this way would be the only way I got something and because I did not want to disappoint people. When in reality, I saw later that God had a different plan for how it would play out, but by this time it was already too late. When we don’t trust the wisdom of God, we act as diviners- thinking we know better. This can result in unnecessary pain suffering, and altering God’s plan for you.
Sometimes there are direct consequences to our disobedience; A may cause B. Sometimes God is simply testing our obedience because if we can be trusted with little we can be trusted with more. If we can trust God to still deliver on his word without our interference, he is truly Lord over our lives.
God is a God if chances. I often wonder what would have happened had Saul surrendered and took accountability. Maybe he would have not been king, but maybe he wouldn’t have been tormented and ultimately destroyed. Maybe he would have been redeemed.
So today, I ask you: What is God calling you to be obedient in? What is he calling you to surrender for your own good and his will. Know that God knows better than you and wants the absolute best for you, without your interference and just your complete trust.
And that’s the 211!
