Selective Obedience

Obedience seems to be a vital part of the Old Testament and I would venture to say that it should remain a vital part of our lives today.

I am in the book of 1 Samuel.  Let me set the scene a little bit.  The Israelites were truckin' along and doing life.  Samuel appointed his sons as elders, but apparently there were some not so great parenting skills again because Samuel's sons did not walk in the ways of the Lord.  The people saw this and demanded that Samuel give them a king.  Samuel prayed to God and God spoke very clearly that He would give them a king, but it wouldn't be good.  Samuel went and told the people what would happen if they got a king.  He lists how life would be if there was a king and it pretty much means that the king would rule over them instead of supporting them.  It says in 1 Samuel 8:19 "But the people refused to listen to Samuel.  'No!' they said.  'We want a king over us.  Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.'"  This is where we first see some disobedience to God.  They wanted a physical being to rule over them instead of God.

Moving on.  Saul gets appointed as king and in the beginning of his kingship he actually does good and honors the Lord.  This doesn't last long.  He gets very greedy with his earthly power and God rejects Saul for his disobedience.  The part that I found very interesting today is in regards to his son Jonathan.  I believe Jonathan had a good heart and wanted to do right despite how his dad was acting.  We pick up the story of Jonathan in verse 14.  Jonathan takes his armor bearer to a cliff overlooking the Philistines and they trusted God.  They went to attack the Philistines; just the two of them.  They knew that the number of people in their army of 2 was nothing for God and that if it was His will that He would give the Philistines into their hands.  While everyone else in the army was busy being afraid, they trusted God.  Jonathan and his armor bearer killed 20 men with the help of the Lord.

When the army of Israel heard this, the Bible says "panic struck the whole army".  In the midst of the chaos Saul makes some pretty rash decisions.  He tells the priest to "withdraw his hand" meaning to pull out the Urim or Thummim and to see what God's plan was.  He was still trying to go about the formality of the religion, but he was doing it rather harshly.  He gets his answer and they go to war with the Philistines and defeat them.

Once all of this was over, the men were even more exhausted and worn out because Saul had made some pretty ridiculous requests of his army in the beginning (as God said would happen).  One was that they were not supposed to eat anything till sunset.  His son Jonathan, for whatever reason, didn't get this info.  He saw some honey and he ate it.  What was even worse is the army decided to take some cattle from the Philistines and because they were so hungry they just ate it.  It was against Israelite law to eat food with blood in it because blood represents life and death.  Saul didn't like this and is very harsh with the army.  He makes an altar for the first time since he was named king and they start following the law.  Saul then inquired of the Lord and asked God if he would go after the rest of the Philistines, but the Lord did not answer him.  Saul called all the leaders together to inquire of whatever sin had been committed in the camp and they found out it had been Saul's son Jonathan who committed the crime.  Saul asked him what he had done and was ready to kill him for eating the honey when he had forbidden it.  The people didn't think it was right though and so they pleaded for him and saved his life.  And they did.

It's interesting to me to think through this, though, because it's as if Saul wants to obey God, but only in the ways that HE wants to.  Selective obedience as I am calling it.  How often do I have selective obedience?  I know as a child my mom used to always say that we had selective hearing and I believe it is similar.  We want to do what we want, but we are willing to listen to God when it's good and when we feel like it.

Lord, teach me to have complete obedience to You all the time.  Not just when it feels good or when I want to, but always.  I need Your grace and Your hand in my life to help me and guide me!  Lord teach me Your ways that I might walk in Your truth.  Amen.