Today's reading tells the story of Saul's incomplete obedience and the rejection of Saul as king, by both God and Samuel. In the process Samuel says some of the most important statements in Scripture, which I will underline here:
Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft,
and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
A second quote:
He who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”
Before reading Psalm 99, “take off your sandals, because this ground is holy!” Enjoy this psalm proclaiming God’s majesty and holiness.
Mankind can at best only hope for the kind of partial obedience we see in Saul. We can't just 'try harder' to please God. We always ‘fall short’ of ‘God's glorious standard’, as we have heard before in chapter 3. The only hope for us is for God to recreate us. This is done by a our understanding and applying a spiritual reality we cannot see, which we will begin to hear about in chapter 6.
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