If you love Me, keep My commandments. (John 14:15 NKJV)

When God asks you to do something, do you do it? And when you do, do you do it the way He said to do it? Or do you add to or change His instructions? God wants us to obey Him. After all, He is God, and we are not. We should always do things His way.

We see an example of someone changing God’s instructions in the Bible. When Saul – the first king of Israel – went to war against the Amalekites, God’s instructions were clear. God told Saul to “go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Samuel 15:3 NKJV).

That may sound harsh. But the Amalekites had “ambushed” Israel when Israel “came up from Egypt” (1 Samuel 15:2 NKJV). The Amalekites attacked the stragglers at the back when they were “tired and weary,” and they “did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:18 NKJV). As Jon Courson explains in his commentary on 1 Samuel 15, “the Amalekites were so corrupt and so polluted that they were actually destroying themselves in their perversity and sin,” so “it was actually an act of mercy for [God] to take them out of their misery.”

In the end, Saul didn’t do all that God commanded him to do. And partial obedience equals disobedience. Instead of utterly destroying all of the oxen and sheep, Saul kept the “best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, [and] the lambs” (1 Samuel 15:9 NKJV).

When Samuel went to confront him, Saul lied. He welcomed Samuel by saying, “Blessed are you of the Lord! I have performed the commandment of the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:13 NKJV).

What followed is almost funny. It was like a child denying that he ate the cookie when his mom could see the cookie crumbs around his mouth. In response, Samuel asked, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?” (1 Samuel 15:14 NKJV).

Saul was busted. But instead of admitting it, he tried to rationalize it. He told Samuel that they “spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the Lord your God” (1 Samuel 15:15 NKJV).

Even if that were true, that’s not what God wanted. So, what did God tell Saul through Samuel? He said that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22 NKJV).

Not only did Saul keep some of the sheep and oxen, but he also spared the life of Agag, the king of the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:20). In the Book of Esther, we meet a man named Haman, a descendant of King Agag (Esther 3:1). And what did Haman do? He “sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus” (Esther 3:6 NKJV).

Remember Saul’s example the next time you think about diverting from God’s instructions. Of course, in the age of grace ushered in by Jesus, God won’t be asking you to destroy people. Instead, He’s commanded you to love them whether they’re your enemy or not (Matthew 5:44, 22:39).

Instead of doing things your way, trust God and obey Him. It’s that simple. Then you’ll be able to draw close to God as you walk by faith with Him.

Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash (the obedient plant)