Text: 1 Samuel 15:12-23
Memory Verse: “So Samuel said: ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams’” (1 Samuel 15:22).
Disobedience is failure or refusal to obey rules or someone in authority. It is a lack of regard for authority or rulership. The dangerous nature of disobedience can be seen in the stories of people who lost out in the scriptures due to their disobedience to God’s instructions.
The young Prophet died a terrible death because he disobeyed the word of God and harkened to the words of the old prophet, who deliberately set out to deceive him. “Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, ‘It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him'” (1 Kings 13:26).
King Saul lost his kingship after forty years of reigning because he disobeyed the word of God (Acts 13:21). Solomon, the wisest king and God’s favourite, after 20 years of his reign, went against God’s instructions and lost out of God’s covenant “…So now the LORD said to him, ‘Since you have not kept my covenant and have disobeyed my laws, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants’” (1 Kings 11:9-11, NLT). Uzziah lost his throne to pride and arrogance after about 50 years. Beware of disobedience to God’s word! Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Prayer Points:
1. Father, please forgive me for every disobedience to Your word.
2. Lord, please help me to live in obedience to Your word always.