Sunday, April 26, 2009

Obedience in the Details - 1 Samuel 15

This morning I'll have the opportunity to preach at my wife's parents' church. We'll be diving right into a difficult passage of Scripture, 1 Samuel 15. In this passage, God commands Saul, King over Israel, to "devote to destruction," or "utterly destroy" an entire people group, the Amalekites. God Almighty is a God of justice. The Amalekites had thoroughly offended God by attacking Israel long ago when they were being led up out of slavery in Egypt. The Amalekites were to be "blotted out from the very memory of heaven," as we're told in Deuteronomy 25:19.

Today's message, though, won't focus on the difficulty of thinking about God destroying an entire people group. No, it is not because I am "dodging the issue." Rather, it is because that isn't the point the author is trying to make. The point he is, though, trying to make is this: God may give difficult tasks, but he fully expects obedience, and obedience in the details.

Saul thought he could get away with killing only "most" of the Amalekites, but God told Samuel, the ever wise prophet of Israel, that this wasn't going to cut it. Instead, Saul learns the hard lesson that God desires, but also fully expects his followers to exist in a meaningful, faithful, and obedient relationship with HIM.

Grace be on us all in our desire to walk with the LORD.

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