by Harry Osborne
What does it mean to "obey" the law? Suppose a man refrains from murder, but he is a thief. As he continues in such behavior, does he "obey" the law? What if he refrains from every criminal offense against his fellow man, but fails to pay his taxes? Does a man so acting "obey" the law? In both cases, though a person may do many things the law approves, the one violation makes it clear that the individual so doing cannot correctly be said to "obey" the law.
The Bible clearly states the strict demands of obedience in every age wherein God has dealt with man. While preparing to enter the land of Canaan, Israel received this admonition regarding obedience to the commands of God:
Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged (Deut. 6:1-2).
In commissioning His apostles to go into all the world preaching the gospel, Jesus emphasized the same need for total obedience to His truth. Regarding the teaching of men in this age, Jesus charged:
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen (Matt. 28:18-20).
Failure to comply with all divine requirements has always brought one into condemnation as "disobedient" to the Lord. We must respect all of God's commands and obey them.
God's response to this action is recorded when He said to the prophet Samuel, "I greatly regret that I have set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments" (v. 11). God's instruction had been plain, but Saul had failed to comply.
Saul looked at the situation differently. This is made clear when Saul saw Samuel coming and exclaimed, "Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord" (v. 13). As far as Saul was concerned, he had obeyed God despite his failure to do everything God commanded. Samuel's reply cut to the heart of the matter when he asked, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" (v. 14). It was obvious that Saul had not killed all of the animals of the Amalekites as God had instructed.
Saul rationalized this slight departure from God's charge by saying, "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed" (v. 15). Saul wanted to shift the blame to the people for doing anything that might have been wrong even though he had commanded them. In bringing up the prospect that the animals were to be sacrificed to God, the king showed that he thought the animals could be put to better use than that commanded by God.
Samuel reminded Saul of God's demand saying, "Now the Lord sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.' Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the Lord?" (vs. 18-19). Then Saul responded, "But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal" (vs. 20-21).
Saul made every effort to escape the fact of his disobedience. But Samuel's words show God's disgust for disobedience however small and rationalized:
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 heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king (vs. 22-23).
This story should remind us that God takes His commands seriously. He intends for us to obey them -- completely and without exception! Failure to do so will cause us to be rejected from His favor as was Saul.
Obedience demands that one submit his will to that of another. By definition, the two wills are in conflict. Harmony can only be achieved by one will being subordinated to the other through submission. The obedience of our children is not tested and proved when we instruct them to eat a candy bar. They will gladly eat the candy bar, not because they respect us, but because they like candy bars. Their obedience is tested and proved when we require something of them that they do not want to do (like eating cleaning their rooms or keeping quiet when they would like to talk back). In our spiritual responsibility, obedience will demand things of us which we will not desire. The obedience of Jesus is an example of such to us as it was said:
Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Heb. 5:7-9).
Let us be sure we obey God, not just do those things we happen to agree with doing. Obedience requires self-denial in subordination to all commands of God. The intensity of our desires to do something does not justify us acting to satisfy those desires. In fact, when our desires are greatest, it is often an indication that we need to deny selfish desires in favor of obedience to God. In this age of self-gratification, many have been spoiled by receiving everything they want. Obedience can be achieved only by those who will deny self.