Day 20
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The reading for day 20 was 1Samuel 3:1-15:35.

This portion of scripture covers the calling of Samuel, the loss and regaining of the ark, the appointment of Saul as king, and finally the rejection of Saul as king.

In chapter 15 Samuel tells Saul that God wants him to completely destroy the Amalekites, men, women, children, animals, everything. Saul does almost everything he is supposed to, but he keeps some of the livestock. When Samuel comes to meet Saul, Saul tells him that he did everything that God commanded. Why would you lie to a prophet? That was just dumb. Samuel's response is , I think, great "What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is the lowing of cattle that I hear?" Now begins the blame game (does this at all resemble what happened in Eden?). Saul response is "The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites...to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we toally destroyed the rest." Samuel respond with "just shut up dumb-dumb" (paraphrase from the Zachalicious version of the Old Testament). Saul comes back with "but I did do it, it was those soldiers who went with me that screwed up" (ibid). Then we have the famous quote from Samuel "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king" (there's probably a sermon or two in there somewhere). Then Saul says "well now that I know that, I guess I sinned, please take it back" (ibid). Keith Green has a great song called "To obey is better than sacrifice". Find it, listen to it, weep, pray, change. How many of us need to understand that arrogance is idolatry? How often are we worshipping ourselves instead of God Almighty? Will obedience keep us from arrogance? Is obedience worship? If so, I think that we need to rethink our definitions of worship. Let me know what you think.

Look for copies of the Zachalicous version of the Old Testament in stores on the 12th of never .

Currently reading : The Bible in 90 Days: Cover to Cover in 12 Pages a Day (New International Version) By Ted Cooper Jr. Release date: By 01 October, 2005