There is a temptation buried deep in the human heart: If what we are doing looks righteous enough on the outside, perhaps God will overlook what is happening underneath.
We know what God has said. We know what obedience requires. But when obedience becomes costly, uncomfortable, or unpopular, we begin searching for alternatives. Then, if we can make those alternatives appear spiritual enough, we persuade ourselves that God must be pleased.
That is precisely what Saul does in 1 Samuel 15.
And if we are willing to look carefully, we may discover that Saul is not nearly as foreign to us as we would like to imagine.
Religious Activity Is Not the Same as Obedience
God gave Saul an unmistakable command.
Through Samuel, the Lord instructed Saul to strike Amalek and devote everything to destruction. Saul went to war, and God gave Israel the victory. Yet Saul spared Agag, king of the Amalekites, along with the best sheep, oxen, calves, and lambs.
Then Saul greeted Samuel with astonishing confidence:
“Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD” (1 Sam. 15:13 ).
Samuel’s response exposed the absurdity of Saul’s claim:
“What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” (v. 14).
Saul had disobeyed, but he had a religious explanation ready. The animals, he claimed, had been spared so they could be sacrificed to God.
It sounded spiritual.
It was in line with one of the ways that Old Testament Israel worshipped God.
It was still disobedience.
Samuel answered with one of the clearest statements in Scripture concerning the relationship between worship and obedience:
“Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams” (v. 22).
Saul attempted to offer God an act of worship that God had not asked of him while refusing to do the very thing God had commanded.
That is not faithfulness. It is self-worship in religious piety.
God Cares How He Is Worshipped
Saul’s mistake was not that sacrifice was inherently evil. God himself had commanded sacrifices in the Old Testament.
The problem was that sacrifice was not what God had commanded Saul to do in this situation.
Saul had decided that his preferred expression of worship could substitute for obedience to God’s revealed will.
Christians can make the same mistake.
We can begin to assume that if something attracts people, produces an emotional response, or appears successful, it must therefore please God. Churches can slowly organize worship around what draws a crowd rather than what God has revealed in his Word.
The pressure is understandable.
Perhaps people will attend if the preaching is shorter.
Perhaps they will stay if difficult doctrines are avoided.
Perhaps a stronger emotional appeal will produce more visible responses.
Perhaps Scripture reading and prayer should be shortened to make room for something more engaging.
But the fundamental question for Christian worship is not, What will people enjoy most?
It is, What has God commanded?
The church has not been commissioned to invent worship. Christ has given his church the Word, prayer, singing, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the fellowship of the saints. Our task is not to improve on Christ’s wisdom but to trust it.
Faithfulness may not always appear spectacular. But obedience is always better than sacrifice.
Fear of Man Produces Man-Made Worship
Later in the chapter, Saul finally admits why he disobeyed:
“I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the LORD and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice” (1 Sam. 15:24).
The issue beneath Saul’s disobedience was fear of man.
He cared more about the approval of the people than the command of God.
That same temptation confronts every Christian and every church.
We may know what Scripture teaches while fearing what obedience will cost us. We fear appearing strange. We fear losing influence. We fear offending people. We fear that biblical faithfulness will prevent the growth or success we want.
And so we begin negotiating with God.
We obey partially.
We alter what he has commanded.
We replace his wisdom with ours.
Then we search for spiritual language to justify the decision.
But God sees beyond the religious explanation. He sees the heart.
Christian freedom does not mean freedom from the fear of God. It means freedom from slavery to every lesser fear. When God becomes the one whose approval matters most, the approval of man loses its power over us. To this end, I would recommend Michael Reeves' book, Rejoice and Tremble.
We All Have a Little Saul in Us
It would be easy to read 1 Samuel 15 and simply condemn Saul.
But Scripture does not permit us to keep the story at arm’s length.
We also know what it is like to rationalize disobedience.
Sometimes the issue is dramatic. Often it is ordinary.
Perhaps your conscience tells you that your relationship with your phone has become unhealthy. You know that another hour scrolling will accomplish little. You know there are better ways to use the time, such as reading Scripture, praying, speaking with your spouse, discipling your children, serving someone else, or simply sleeping so that you can serve God faithfully tomorrow and even in your rest.
Yet the excuses arrive immediately.
I need to know what is happening.
Some of this is educational.
I’m just relaxing.
I’ll send something funny to my spouse.
None of those things is necessarily sinful. Social media itself may be used faithfully. The issue is what happens when we know our conscience is warning us and we manufacture respectable reasons to ignore it.
Romans 14 reminds us that Christians must not violate conscience in matters where Scripture grants liberty. What may be permissible for one person may not be permissible for another if it cannot be done in faith.
The larger principle is the same one Saul ignored: We cannot cover disobedience with religious-sounding motives and assume God will be fooled.
He knows why we are doing what we are doing.
God’s Way Is Better
There is something deeply gracious about God’s commands.
We often treat obedience as though God were withholding something good from us. Scripture presents the opposite picture.
Our Creator knows what human beings were made for.
When God calls us to prayer, Scripture, fellowship, worship, rest, service, and obedience, he is not arbitrarily constraining us. He is leading us toward the life for which we were created.
The Westminster Larger Catechism famously asks,
“What is the chief and highest end of man?” Its answer is that man’s highest end is “to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.”
We were made for God.
That means our attempts to manufacture satisfaction apart from his design will eventually leave us empty. We may believe our way is easier, wiser, or more fulfilling. But the path of obedience is not merely right; it is good.
God’s commands come from a Father who knows his children better than they know themselves.
Saul Was Not the King We Needed
The account of Saul ultimately leaves us looking for a better king.
Saul was given God’s command and disobeyed it. He feared man. He pursued his own glory. He even erected a monument to himself.
He was not the king Israel needed.
And he is not the king we need.
Thankfully, the story of Scripture does not end with Saul.
Jesus Christ is the obedient King Saul could never be. Where Saul rejected the Word of the Lord, Jesus perfectly obeyed his Father. Where Saul pursued his own glory, Christ humbled himself. Where Saul feared the people, Jesus remained obedient even when obedience led him to the cross.
And unlike Saul, Jesus did not merely appear righteous before men.
He was righteous.
He lived the perfect life we have failed to live, died for the sins of all who trust in him, rose from the grave, ascended to his throne, and will return for his bride.
That is why recognizing ourselves in Saul is ultimately good news.
We do not have to be the hero of the story.
Christ already is.
Until he returns, the church does not need to invent a better way to worship him. We need faith to believe that his way is already better.
So let us listen to his Word.
Let us obey what he has commanded.
And let us trust that the King who designed us also knows what is best for us.
