The Consequence of Partial Obedience

Anyone who has children knows what partial obedience is. We can send our children to clean their rooms and they come out after a couple of minutes and say it’s all done. When we check, we find they’ve taken all their things lying on the floor and thrown them into their cupboard. That’s their idea of cleaning.

My thoughts were directed to King Saul this week. He was the first King of Israel and he reigned for 42 years (I Sam. 13:1).

What a Man! He was called of God, anointed with the holy oil, given another heart and numbered among the prophets. But Saul lost it all due to partial obedience.

In I Samuel 15, Prophet Samuel was sent to King Saul with an assignment from the LORD. The iniquity of the Amalekites was complete and the Lord commanded Saul to execute His sentence against the Amalekites. He was to go and utterly destroy them. (I Sam. 15:2,3) 

So Saul mustered his army and went against the city of Amalek. And then he destroyed the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, east of Egypt.

But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and of all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; all that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed.

The Lord saw this and was utterly displeased. The Lord said to Samuel “I regret that I have made Saul King” (Vs 11)

When Saul met Samuel, he said “I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” (Vs 13)

Then Samuel asks “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?” (Vs 14)

Saul conveniently blames it on his soldiers: "They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep to sacrifice it to the Lord." (Vs 15)

But God didn't want his sacrifice, he wanted obedience. 

I Samuel 15:22 “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

God rejected Saul as King because he failed to obey the Lord.

But, why did Saul obey the people instead of God?

-       Because he feared the people instead of God.

-       He feared the human consequences of obedience more than he feared the divine consequences of sin.

-       He feared the displeasure of the people more than the displeasure of God. And that is a great insult to God. 

Sometimes we, Christians tend to partially obey the Lord. We tend to follow what is convenient to us. Or like Saul, we fear the people more than the Lord.

Partial obedience will cause us NOT to have total victory in our Christian walk.  The Lord delights far more in our obedience to Him and His Word rather than our religiosity, our prayer, our worship or even our acts of human kindness.

“Total Obedience brings Total Blessings

And Partial Obedience is still Disobedience.”