Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

October 18– Evening

by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

[Samuel told King Saul,] “Listen! To obey is better than sacrifice.”

—1 Samuel 15:22

Saul had been commanded to utterly destroy all the Amalekites and their cattle. Instead of doing so, he kept the king alive and told his people to take the best of the oxen and the sheep. When called to account for this, he declared that he did it in order to offer sacrifices to God, but Samuel the prophet met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion.

This statement is worthy to be printed in letters of gold and to be hung up before the eyes of this present, idolatrous generation. There are many who are fond of engaging in worship but utterly neglect the laws of God. May it always be in your mind that it is better to keep strictly within the pathway of your Savior’s command than to outwardly worship him. To listen to his teaching with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams or any other precious thing to lay upon his altar.

If you are failing to keep the least of Christ’s commands to his disciples, then I pray that you will stop your disobedience immediately. All your pretensions to love Jesus and all the religious actions you perform are no compensation for disobedience. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” You can sing songs and be part of religious productions of all sorts, but the first thing God requires of his child is obedience. Even if you give your body to be burned and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not lovingly obey the Lord’s instructions, all your actions will profit you nothing.

It is a blessed thing to be as teachable as a child, but it is a more blessed thing to carry out his teaching in obedience. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests but refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, don’t become familiar with such thinking. [M&E]