OBEDIENCE IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE

 

(Deut. 28:2)  “And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God”.

I Samuel 15:22b – “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice”.

(Acts 5:29) “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men”.

      Reflecting back when my kids were in their toddler ages, I began teaching them the word “No”! Don’t touch the stove, it’s Hot! It will burn you. Of course, curiosity (they say) killed the cat and the results they received were burns! It’s something about human nature that urges us to do what we want to do and not what’s been asked of us to do. Sadly to say, you don’t have to teach anyone to do wrong- it’s automatic. Trying to get them to do the right thing seems to be a tedious task.

      God gave his first created beings a beautiful garden to live in and to dominate. He only asked of them not to eat of the tree planted in the midst of garden. Here is where curiosity first kicked in! They chose to disobey God and obeyed the voice of the serpent - the devil. Their disobedience costed them dearly! Throughout the bible, you will find the people of God time after time failing to obey what God instructed them do. Simply obeying would result in better outcomes. However, the voice of reasoning, pleasing self, doing it their way caused a lot of downfalls, disappointments and curses upon their lives. In the posted video clip, Abraham obeyed God insomuch that he was willing to sacrifice his promised heir - Isaac as God had instructed him to do. This was a huge test of not only Abraham's faith and loyalty to God but his obedience. y his obedience, his son was spared.

        Failure to follow and carry out God’s plan and instructions can cause us to miss the mark many times. Growing up as child, I experienced, (as many of you have), doing my own thing or going against my parent's instructions. It resulted in me getting punished or a good old-fashioned spanking. If I had only obeyed, I could have avoided a lot of pain. God is like our parent. He has given us rules to follow (not to break us, but to make us). If we just obey them, we will reap the benefits of all He has promised to His children. If things are going haywire in your life today, check your obedience status. Ask for forgiveness and start obeying what God has asked of you to do. Then read Deut. Chapter 28 in its entirety and see the benefits you will gain WHEN you obey.