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Morning and Evening

October 18, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." — 1 Samuel 15:22 · KJV

Saul had been commanded to slay all the Amalekites and their cattle utterly. Instead, he preserved the king and let his people take the best of the oxen and sheep. When called to account, he claimed he did it to offer sacrifice to God; but Samuel met him at once with the assurance that sacrifices were no excuse for an act of direct rebellion. The sentence before us is worthy to be printed in letters of gold and hung before the eyes of this idolatrous generation, so fond of the finery of will-worship, yet so utterly neglectful of the laws of God. Keep it ever in mind that to hold strictly to the path of your Savior's command is better than any outward form of religion, and to listen to His precept with an attentive ear is better than to bring the fat of rams, or any other precious thing, to lay on His altar. If you are failing to keep the least of Christ's commands to His disciples, I beg you, be disobedient no longer. All your professions of attachment to your Master, and all the devout acts you may perform, are no compensation for disobedience. "To obey," even in the slightest and smallest thing, "is better than sacrifice," however grand. Talk not of stately chants, sumptuous robes, incense, and banners; the first thing God requires of His child is obedience. Though you should give your body to be burned, and all your goods to feed the poor, yet if you do not listen to the Lord's precepts, all your formalities shall profit you nothing. It is a blessed thing to be teachable as a little child; but it is a far more blessed thing, once the lesson has been taught, to carry it out to the letter. How many adorn their temples and decorate their priests, yet refuse to obey the word of the Lord! My soul, come not into their secret.