The books of Leviticus and Numbers describe in great detail the many sacrifices and feasts the Lord requires the people to perform. Whenever I read these passages, I am thankful the Lord did not choose for my live to be lived during that time. Aren't you? It seems impossible to remember all of those laws and follow them perfectly!
And guess what? It was. The Israelites could not keep them all 100% of the time, and from what can be read in the bible, it sounds like the majority of the time they weren't really trying to keep the law. Just read the book of Judges and you'll see what I mean. Every 20-40 years the people are abandoning the law and God for lesser gods--gods made by men.
Then in the New Testament, it is easy to see that the Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law have become so extreme, trying to keep this law that their fathers could not, that they're literally oppressing the people with thousands of additional laws to keep them from disobeying God's original law. That's a lot of laws!
All they do all day and night is make sure the people are following the law. We oftentimes criticize them. How could they be so blind to the true purpose of the Law?
Yet when I read all of those laws in the Old Testament, I can see how it would be easy to begin thinking that following the law is what makes us holy. After all, doesn't God say that to know and understand the law is wisdom? That from the law comes righteousness? Well, then let's try to keep the law at all costs! If God told us to keep it, we have to do it perfectly all the time. Otherwise, God will reject us.
Don't you see how that's an easy mistake to make?
I don't know about you, but I think that we are still doing this today. Even though we know that it is by grace we have been saved, not by works so that no man should boast, we can begin to fear making mistakes (Ephesians 2:9-10). We begin to think that our actions are what earn us our salvation. We begin to fear that if we sin, God will be mad at us. Yes, sin is wrong, and we should pray, seek the Lord, and read His word so that we can be vigilante against it--but we should also recognize that it is by the Lord's grace that sin is revealed to us and we are able to overcome it.
And we begin to think that if we don't have external signs of sin--lying, cheating, stealing, murder-then we are "good" on the inside. That's just not true. We have been redeemed, made new in Christ, but the only good that is within us is from God. This is why we needed Jesus. This is why we needed a Savior--because we were like the Israelites and unable to keep the law or love God rightly. We could not be good on our own. It was impossible. But with God, it was possible.
I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me, you probably think that God's will for your life is whatever you don't want to do. Sometime this is true. There are days where we don't want to go to church, serve that homeless person, pray for our unsaved family members, have a conversation with our unsaved coworker, or open God's word--yet we know through His word that all of these things are part of His will for us. Even if we don't want to do those things in the moment, if we love the Lord, He gives us the strength and will to do the things that please Him. But there are other times where you believe that because you do not want to move to Siberia, that must be God's will for you--cause God always calls us to do hard things, right? But what if the harder thing is staying at the boring, commonplace desk job you have right now in the middle of an American city so that you can share the Gospel with the people at your company?
I don't know what God has planned for you, but let me clarify what I'm saying with a story:
A long time ago, there was a king of Israel named Saul. Now Saul had been anointed and chosen by God to be the king of Israel. It was his duty to lead the people according to the commands and the character of the Lord.
Now, the Lord had commanded him to lead the people into battle against the Amalekites and to destroy everything--all of the people and animals--because for centuries these people had failed to follow God despite the wonders they had heard and seen him do through his people Israel. Just like every person, they were sinful and without excuse. It is only by God's mercy that any of us are spared from death since we have all fallen short of the glory of God, choosing to reject His authority over our lives.
Nevertheless, once Saul had defeated the Amalekites, he left the king and the best of the animals alive. When Samuel, the prophet, rebukes him for his disobedience, Saul replies that he kept "the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.” (1 Samuel 15:21).
To this Samuel replies with firmness and clarity:
“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." (1 Samuel 15: 22)
Would you have expected this? Isn't it good that Saul wishes to sacrifice these animals to the Lord? Isn't he doing it as unto the Lord, for His glory? After all, what about all of those chapters about fellowship, burnt, sin, and wave offerings the Lord commanded Israel to perform?
Well, is it truly better to do what we think is a sacrifice as unto the Lord if it goes against what God has commanded us to do? No! All that the Lord commands is good, and it is better to obey what He has told us to do in His word than to do what we think he wants us to do because it seems harder or more like a sacrifice.
Why is it important that we realize these truths? Well, like I said earlier, many of us can fall into the traps of the Israelites--choosing to ignore the law of God completely and relying on the grace we think we deserve--or the traps of the Pharisees--believing our works make us good and earn salvation. But neither are true! God desires our hearts, He alone can make us holy, and He alone can make us good. He desires that we come to Him, asking Him to forgive us of our wickedness and pride so that He might make us new creatures and children in His kingdom. Once we realize who He is, that He is good, and all He says and does is good, then He changes us for His glory. He writes His law on our hearts that we might obey Him as a result of His salvation. Our good works are a result of salvation, and they never earn our salvation.
So now friends, here is what He calls us to do. He calls us to repent of our sins and follow Him. That's all. To come to Him, trust in Him, believe in Him, and lastly, to obey Him. Because obedience is better than sacrifice.
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