And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22
I had a handyman working for me for several weeks
He didn’t seem quite right and things went along okay,
but his good seemed to outweigh his bad, at first
He did some things well
The problem was he did not like to be told what to do
He liked to do things his own way
When I asked him to do certain things, he still chose to do things his way
He dismissed the instructions I gave him and did what he wanted
On his last day, he stacked metal sheets on the roof of an outbuilding
when I had asked him to put the sheets of metal inside the building
I reminded him that we get very strong wind gusts
He refused to take them down and told me he had tied them down
and they weren’t going anywhere
We had a wind storm the next day and the ties that he had made came loose and all the sheet metal flew around
If someone had been near, they could have been impaled with the metal
One of the sheets had embedded deeply into a small hill
and would have caused severe damage to a human or animal
He argued a lot
About many things
He liked to do things his own way
and was not interested in following any instructions
Reminded me of what Jesus asks of us
He tells us how to please Him and He gives us specific directions
If we do things our own way
It can cause damage, maybe even hurt ourselves or someone else
When we work for someone else,
we are obligated to do things the way they want us to do them
It is the same way with God,
He has specific requirements,
we can’t just do what we want and call it good
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. John 15:14