Listening

 

 

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Ephesians 4:30

 

His sheep follow Him because they know His voice.

John 10:4b

 

 

My son, several years ago, “You’re not listening to me!”

Me, “Not true, I heard every word, I just disagree with you.”

My son, “You don’t understand what I’m asking.”

Me, “I get it, the answer is still no!”

How often do we have this interaction with the Lord though we speak no words? If we fail to do what God wants we are saying “no”  to Him in our actions though we have not spoken an audible sound.

This morning I was studying 1 Samuel 15. Samuel starts the chapter in verse 1 telling Saul to listen to the message of the Lord. He tells him that God is sending him to go and to carry out His punishment on the Amalekites. Saul is to take the army of Israel and “totally destroy” them because of what they had done to Israel when God was bringing them out of Egypt.

Samuel was very clear in his instructions to Saul from God. Saul was to kill every living person and animal. Verse 9 reads, “But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs – everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.”

It’s very easy here to turn our attention away from Saul and onto what seems like a harsh punishment from God. The truth is that this is how God will protect His people. A nation or even a person who wants to shed the blood of God’s people or person will have to answer to God. He had patiently waited about 300 years for the Amalekites to repent and they had not. The day of vengeance was upon them.

So, Saul “heard” the instructions from God through the mouth of Samuel. As a human Mom with my own sin nature perhaps my son had to make a case for what he thought I was not “hearing” because I did not agree with him. But this was God speaking to Saul. Should he have been picking and choosing which part of the instructions he would obey and which part he would ignore? The answer is no, God’s way is always the best way. In some things He gives us free will to choose but if His word directly instructs us then we are to be obedient to Him – completely.

Saul “listened” to Samuel but did not do as God instructed. How often are you and I in this position? God clearly leads us in one direction and we go part way and decide things aren’t looking as good as we would like so we turn and head in a different direction? He cannot bless us when we are in clear disobedience. Saul makes excuses to Samuel about why he acted as he did. He said they kept the animals to sacrifice to Yahweh, that they had captured Agag, the King, as if that was following the Lord’s instructions, and he said he was afraid of the people so he did what they wanted. The passage clearly tells us twice that God was grieved by Saul’s unwillingness to comply with His commands. It doesn’t say He was angry – it says God was grieved. (1 Samuel 15:11, 35b).

Our sin grieves God. Our disobedience is rebellion against God. 1 Samuel 15:22 says rebellion is arrogance like idolatry. It is as if we are saying that our way will be better than God’s way, that is arrogance. God removes Saul from his position as King because of his rejection of God’s instruction (1 Samuel 15:23, 26).

Saul reveals his heart when he asks Samuel to come back and honor him before Israel. He admits his sin against God but is more concerned with the people’s response than he is with God’s response. The final verse of this chapter says, “And the Lord was grieved that He had made Saul King over Israel.”

It is a scary thought to think that we can grieve God because of our unwillingness to “listen” to Him, being more interested in pleasing other people than we are of pleasing God. If we’re listening to Him it should be evident in our actions – before God and before other people. In Luke 9:26 Jesus said, “If anyone is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Many of us go to church every week, we attend Bible Studies and go to Christian conferences. We spend a lot of time in the Word of God. What is it that He has been instructing us to do that we have not been willing to do?

We regularly “hear” God’s words. James 1:22, “Do not just listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”