Substitution=Disobedience

SUBSTITUTION=DISOBEDIENCE

1 Samuel 15:1-23

V. 16: “‘Stop!’ Samuel said to Saul. ‘Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.’”

“But I was going to put the candy back,” six year old Levi—dressed as a dragon caught in the act of stuffing a handful of candy in his dragon pocket—said to Ms. Busby, his first grade teacher. “I was just playing!” he insisted.

“Keep just one, and return the rest, now.” Ms. Busby ordered.

A clown’s smiling-face barrel, filled with candy, marked the return-to-school point for the elementary school’s Halloween two-block parade. Costumed students waved and laughed, walking the parent-lined street.

The students were so pumped up with showing off their costumes during the parade, that many tried disobeying the rule of taking only one piece of candy. Levi got caught.

While everybody must live with rules, some try substituting their own. Humans want to make deals better—or at least better-suited to their own agenda. Levi just wanted to see if he could get more than one piece of candy. Who would see, who would care? The barrel was full of candy. The candy was the kids’ Halloween treat. It was the kids’ parade, after all!

Levi is like most people. His deal swap sounded pretty good in his head, before he carried out the act of taking more candy. Levi thought, if I may have one piece of candy, why not ten?

Since God created people in His own image (Genesis 1:27), He also knew that His kids would eventually disobey. First Adam and Eve sinned. And every person since then has sinned. God’s always been wise to His kids’ pranks.

Whenever God commands something, our first reaction is usually, “I don’t want to.” People hate commands. “You must” or “you have to” rubs people the wrong way. We wonder, is this a suggestion? Did we hear God correctly? We conveniently “forget,” or deny His call. Some people, like Jonah, run away.

The most subtle [SUT-l means delicately sly] refusal to obey is to “appear to obey.” When we do this, we don’t obey totally. We substitute something, changing the command to something we like better. Usually, we don’t even admit disobedience.

How do you respond to God’s commands?

Take Home Nugget

We just finished Master Class devotion series, where we learned to surrender our individual lives to Jesus’ Lordship. Check out the lesson part of this devotion to see how Saul, God’s anointed king of Israel, disobeyed. God stripped Saul’s kingdom away, and gave it to another. Is our disobedience as obvious?

Help me Lord, when I don’t understand
Where You send me as You lead.
In faith, I grip Your outstretched hand;
Help me to trust you for every need.

J.D. Griffith

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