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Why obedience is better than sacrifice! How can we please God?
It's natural for us to want to please our parents and similarly we want to please our heavenly Father,'but without faith it is impossible to please Him' (Heb 11:5) So how can we do the will of God and do exactly what He requires of us?
I've seen many people in different ways trying to please God through sacrifice. I've seen documentaries of people in South-East Asian countries voluntarily crucifying themselves for a short period of time as a type of honorary penance.
Penances are not even mentioned in scripture and it isn't what God wants from us! Some people think that if they make a pilgrimage, say enough prayers out of repetition (Jesus said 'when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.' Matt 6:7) and others think if they make themselves suffer enough they'll get God's attention or His approval. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY? '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.' (1 Sam 15:22) Are you hearing this?
'By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.' (Heb 11:8) Abraham was willing to leave the land he was familiar with and prosperous in to a place he had never been. God tested Abraham still further, asking Him to offer his only son (through Sarah) Isaac as a burnt offering unto Him. Abraham prepared the sacrifice and stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son when the Angel of the Lord intervened. There behind Abraham was a ram caught in the thickets which was the intended sacrifice and also a type of God the Father offering His only begotten Son Jesus Christ allowing His Son (the Lamb of God to die in our place and take away the sins of he world!)
Micah stresses the point further and tells us exactly what God wants from us .
'With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?' (Micah 6: 6-8)
It is quite clear then that God didn't want the fruit of Abraham's body (Isaac) as a sacrifice but He does want our obedience. If we are obedient to Him He can use us. If we obey Him our faith will grow. Do we want our faith to increase? If so then we need to lay aside our humanistic value system of pleasing Him by making sacrifices to try and rid ourselves of our guilt and unworthiness and instead obey Him and do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before Him. By obeying Him we will start loving the things He loves and hating the things He hates.
If it is not evident by now it needs saying that God takes great issue with obedience. Why did God reject Saul from being King over Israel? Because God told him to completely wipe out the Amalekites and Saul thought it would be a clever idea to spare King Agag leaving Samuel to finish the job! Samuel said 'For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubborness is as iniquity and idolatry, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king' (1 Sam 15:23)
How can we be obedient to Him and I speak to myself here first? 'But, be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves' (James 1:22) Forget trying to please Him through preconceived ideas of what we think is good but learn to be obedient to His will, since He knows the very number of hairs on our head and knows us better than we know ourselves and knows what's best for us. Also obey Him in everything so that in whatever we do He may be glorified! Amen |
