Saul and his men spared Agag's life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs—everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality. Then the LORD said to Samuel, "I am sorry that I ever made Saul king, for he has not been loyal to Me and has refused to obey My command." Samuel was so deeply moved when he heard this that he cried out to the LORD all night. Early the next morning Samuel went to find Saul. Someone told him, "Saul went to the town of Carmel to set up a monument to himself; then he went on to Gilgal." 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 as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the LORD, He has rejected you as king."
(1 Samuel 15:9-23 NLT)
I believe Saul did believe he was obedient to God’s command; the problem is he listened to God’s prophet without hearing. The scripture tells us Saul greeted Samuel cheerfully saying, “May the Lord bless you, I have carried out the LORD’s command!” God’s prophets were not to be deceived, for everyone knew the cost would be great and therefore the position demanded reverence. The problem is Saul had a preconceived idea of what victory looked like and though he listened to God’s prophet the words was not given the opportunity to soak into his heart because Saul’s will repelled them as oil repels water. When the battle was over his lie was so convincing even Saul himself believed it, how surprised he must have been at Samuel’s reply. This is important because there are many people who sit in churches today and “listen” as they sit under godly teaching but all along have their own ideas of what a successful life looks like and on Monday they enter the battlefield assured they are doing as God planned. They only succeed in deceiving themselves because what they do is not God’s will but their own and when things don’t turn out the way they expected guess what they do – they sacrifice to the Lord but like Samuel told Saul, “Obedience is better than sacrifice” yet they do it anyway having nothing else to offer and then they start the cycle all over again. This happens repeatedly until it is impossible for them to hear God’s Word, still they go through the motions and it is these people Jesus tells us about in Matthew chapter 7.
"Not everyone who calls out to Me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to Me, 'Lord! Lord! We prophesied in Your name and cast out demons in Your name and performed many miracles in Your name.' But I will reply, 'I never knew you. Get away from Me, you who break God's laws.'
(Matthew 7:21-23 NLT)
You see they only way for these people to relate to God is through deeds but God says it’s not as much what you do but whether or not you know Him and because they have caused themselves to go deaf through self-indulgence they are cut off from God. To the Christian nothing is more important than their personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. It is our responsibility to chase hard after Him and to hunger and thirst for righteousness, yes faith without works is dead but works without a relationship with Jesus Christ is not living! We know Him by spending time with Him in the same way I can hear my wife’s voice in a crowd we are to know God so intimately that we recognize Him in our daily lives even though there are many things going on around us. We know the character of God by reading His Word and He leads us by our hearts but our hearts must be conditioned to hear His small still voice, as a gentle breeze arouses the hair on my arm my heart is to be sensitive enough to know when Jesus is passing by, this is how we listen with our hearts.
