We need to simply obey God’s Word

Sometimes we need to simply obey God’s Word, even in details that may seem unimportant to us. After all, the Scriptures tell us in Isa 55:8 that God’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are different from ours – He knows best. Isaiah 55:8 (NIV) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. King Saul was someone who obeyed God only to a point. Saul’s obedience was only partial. In 1 Samuel 15:1-3, the prophet Samuel had instructed Saul to destroy everything from the Amalekites. But King Saul figured it was unreasonable to destroy the fine livestock. He probably thought that was just an oversight on God’s part. So he would help God, by re-interpreting the instructions to something more reasonable! Saul assumed that God wouldn’t mind if he spared Agag, the king, as a trophy of his great victory. He assumed wrong. God had said to “utterly destroy” everything. It’s easy at this point to try to vindicate Saul by thinking, “Well, he almost did everything God said to do.” But the truth of the matter is, deliberate partial obedience is actually complete disobedience.