Keep Yourselves from Idols

" And Samuel said, 'Has the LORD as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king'" (1 Sam. 15:22-23).

The LORD had given Saul that task of eliminating the Amalekites and devoting all of their things to destruction.  However, Saul has spared their king, Agag, and the choice animals.  When Saul sees Samuel coming, He reports to Samuel that he has obeyed the the LORD.  However, Samuel calls his bluff and asks why there is the bleating and lowing of animals in the camp.  Saul makes it seem like they were going to sacrifice the animals to honor the LORD.  But Samuel, under the leadership of the Spirit, refuses to listen.

Samuel asks,  "Has the LORD as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD?"  The obvious answer is no.  The Lord takes no delight in a sacrifice offered insincerely or as a bribe.  When we give in order to appease our guilt for willfully sinning against the Lord, that is the same as trying to bribe God.  Saul, in essence, was saying that he didn't have to obey God as long as he was willing to "pay off" his debt.

But Samuel says that won't work.  He says, "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry"  (1 Sam. 15:22b-23a).  Rebellion against the Word of the Lord (willful disobedience) is as the sin of divination, because it seeks to predict the future response of God.  It denies God's trustworthiness, because it assumes that he will not act in the way in which he says he will.  Presumption is like idolatry, because it is based on a faulty understanding of God.  It assumes that God will be satisfied with our offer.

Photo by Andreas F. Borchert

Obedience is the only thing that pleases God.  Therein lies our trouble.  We are not capable of the kind of obedience in which God delights.  Therefore a sacrifice not mingled with impure motives or presumption must be offered, and it has been.  Christ alone walked in complete obedience to the Father's will.  When Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice on our behalves, his offering was a pleasing aroma unto the Father.  In Christ, God's wrath is appeased, and through Christ we are given righteousness.

Through faith in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to walk in obedience.  Although we may stumble often, we confess and keep moving forward in faith.  We must seek to rid our hearts of idols and idolatrous understandings of God.  He cannot be bought with our giving, but rather has bought us through his love.  His holiness cannot turn a blind eye to our sin, but his mercy has applied Christ's righteousness to our lives.

Let us put away presumption and disobedience.  Let us stop thinking that we are the exceptions to the rule.  When we think and live in such a way, we demonstrate that we do not know God as we should.  We demonstrate the nature of the idol (or idols) which we follow.  As followers of Christ, we must be flee from idolatry.  That doesn't mean we don't have contact with idolaters, because we would have seal ourselves off from the world.  It does mean that we remove all idols from our lives.  Anything we put before Jesus is an idol.  As the apostle John states, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (1 John 5:21).

How do we keep ourselves from idols?

• We must recognize them for what they are.

• We must reject their presence in our lives.

• We must confess our sins to the Lord.

• We must remember that we have been forgiven and cleansed because of the completed work of Christ.

• We must move forward in faith.