To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

I was watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Jude the other day when a scene resonated with something I had read in I Samuel. In the scene, two children were told to stay hidden in the cellar by a woman as she left to find food for them. She had told them to stay hidden because if they were seen, they could be captured and put in prison by an evil ruler. After she left, an agent of the ruler came by disguised as a ice cream and sweets dealer who was offering everything for free today. One kid began heading for the door immediately, but the other one reminded him that they were told to stay inside. The boy turned around and said that they would get her some as well.

They were quickly captured, even though they were going to get some for the woman.

King Saul did the same. King Saul was told to totally destroy the Amelekites, but he kept the best of the sheep and cattle, as well as sparing King Agag's life. When he was rebuked by Samuel, he made the excuse that he was going to sacrifice the sheep and cattle to God. Samuel replied,

"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.

23 For rebellion is like 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."

The phrase, "To obey is better than sacrifice," used to confuse me because part of obedience was adhering to the sacrificial system, right? I mean how can you say obeying this command of God is better than obeying that command of God?

The problem is in how I interpreted "to obey". I thought of obedience as an isolated act of carrying out a command. For instance, if Sarah asks me to carry out the trash and I do it, then I have obeyed my wife.

However, the Hebrew there means, "to hearken to the voice of". There are two different ways of saying that someone heard the voice of someone. "Shema et qol David" means, "He heard David's voice." This is used when Saul is hunting for David in the wilderness and David comes out to address Saul. "Saul Shema et qol David" Saul heard the voice of David.

The other way is "Shema beqol ADONAI"or "he hearkened to the voice of the LORD." This is not just the ears picking up the sound waves, nor is it just doing what is requested, it means following the voice of Yahweh. Just as a sheep follows the voice of the shepherd, or a child listens for and follows the voice of his mother, so when somone hearkens to the voice the LORD, he seeks to follow in His footsteps for fear of losing his way, and out of trust that the LORD knows what is best for him. There is a vast difference between an act of obedience and a life of seeking the ways of God. My prayer for myself and for you, is that we will choose the latter.

The children in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang didn't understand this.

Saul didn't understand this.

Understand this!
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.

9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.

11 By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Change

Life is change. Like the slowly shifting surface of the earth, we are all subject to change. Some changes are obvious and dramatic like the forming of Reelfoot Lake. Other changes take thousands of years of imperceptible alterations, like the forming of the Grand Canyon.

In my life I have seen evidence of both. I remember the first big change in my life. We lived in Abilene and attended Hillcrest Church of Christ on the north side of town. I remember my best friend Bethany Bell, who lived down the street and was the preacher's daughter. Then we moved to the country about 10 miles south of Abilene and began attending Southern Hills. We had to say goodbye to our home, our church, and my closest friends. I grew to be very thankful of that move, but it wasn't that way at first.

The next big move was when I transferred from Jim Ned Elementary, to the school district of Wylie, where my mom had begun teaching. Again, I had serious reservations about going to a new school, but again, I grew to become very thankful for the change. Life was stable for several years before the next big move to ACU. Granted it was only across town, but it was a huge change in lifestyle. Then came graduation, marriage, Korea, Troy, and having Jude.

Each of these changes brought with it a certain amount of stress. But each of those changes have contributed to making me into the man I am today. ACU changed me from a dependent child into an independant adult. Korea forced me to confront some predjudices I wasn't aware that I had. Marriage and parenthood have taught me to love deeper than I would have thought possible, and how to serve sacrificially and joyfully. While the past 5 years at Troy have been somewhat calm and stable, I can look back and see that my time here has changed me more than I could have hoped for. I can also look back and see that my life has been slowly shifting into a new course, and a new change has been brewing under the surface.

I had a conversation with my brother several years back about why I wanted to be a youth minister. I told him that it was largely because of what my youth ministers had done for me. My teenage years were largely shaped by our youth group. I attended every youth event that was available adn my closest friends were those I worshiped with and studied the Bible with. In my upper classman years, I was especially close with Scott Meyer. He didn't just teach us, he walked with us. He struggled with us and encouraged us. His influence meant so much to me that I wanted to imitate him. I wanted to honor him by being to others what he was to me. There were several other factors as well, but Scott was perhaps one of the biggest influences. My brother noted that there were several positive influences in his life, but he couldn't imitate them all. I had a few great teachers in high school, but I don't think I will ever teach at school, I had a great youth minister, but I will never be Scott Meyer, I have wonderful parents, but I will never be just like either of them.

These thoughts, and some other circumstances, led to a conversation I had with Sarah about 18 months ago. I never felt called to be a youth minister; meaning, I never thought that this career was perfect for me. There were always misgivings. The thing that kept me in paid youth ministry for this long, was the fact that I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I couldn't think of any career that I wanted to pursue. So Sarah and I talked about the possibilities. We talked about my gifts, my goals, and what would be best for our family. While I love small group Bible studies, I am horrible at reaching out to teens I don't know. While I love taking the youth group on trips and activities, I am horrible at delegating and including others. While I don't mind being the leader, I would much rather have a task delegated to me.

While considering my strengths and weaknesses, it became apparent that I was best suited for teaching at the college level while volunteering to help minister to a local youth group. In order to do that, I would have to pursue and MDIV (84 hours) and then a PhD. This is not a pursuit that can be done well while living in Troy, where the nearest available school is 2 hours away.

So with much prayerful consideration, Sarah and I have decided to move back to Abilene at the end of the summer so that I can pursue graduate school full time while having the support of mine and Sarah's families nearby.



This decision was not made lightly, nor is it without a great amount of pain that we will be leaving Troy. The church here has been an invaluable blessing in our lives and we will always be grateful for the time we got to spend with you, but we still have 6 months before the move, and we want to make the best of it.

New Wine

There is a verse in Luke 5 that reads:

No one pours new wine into old wineskins.
If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.
No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins, and no one after drinking the old wine wants the new, for he says,

"The Old is better."

I don't know about you, but this is the interpretation I was taught as a Bible class student:

Jesus is the new wine and the Pharisees keep trying to make him fit into their old laws or wineskins, but Jesus cannot be contained by the old ways. He breaks the old skins and runs out, leaving the skins in ruins.

While that interpretation explained the conflict between the Pharisees and Jesus, in every other way, it is inconsistent with Luke's presentation of Jesus' ministry.

What if Jesus is the old wine? This already makes more sense just in the how Jesus claims the old is better and no one wants the new. But look at Jesus' claims about himself and his ministry. In Luke 4 he describes his ministry as preaching good news to the poor, proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, releasing the opressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then when John sent his disciples to verify the validity of Jesus' Messiah-ship, Jesus affirms John by saying that the things listed in Isaiah are in fact being done by him.

Jesus is the continuation and fulfillment of what God has always been throughout history. God's original intent for his followers is that we would look after the orphans and widows, that we would give to those in need. This is nothing new. Throughout the gospels, the writers are constantly tying him to the old ways of God. His stance on divorce, his priority for the poor, his affinity for the outcasts, his spite for the haughty, and his relentless sacrificial love for his people all point to God's original intent. In John, Jesus puts it bluntly by saying, "Before Abraham was born, I AM" Not I was, but I AM. He uses the covenant name of God as revealed to Moses to describe himself and his ministry.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end. Jesus is definitely the old wine. The religion of the Pharisees was the new. They tried to fit their priority for appearances and legalistic pseudo-righteousness into the wineskins of God's original intent for his people, and it was tearing it to pieces. Jesus, being the old wine was a perfect fit.

In our denomination (yes I will call the churches of Christ a denomination so long as we keep using distinctive practices to distinguish and separate us from other Christians), we are often guilty of "seeking the old paths" which are not old at all, but fairly new innovations. Most of what is considered our heritage and tradition only dates back 50-200 years. What if instead of seeking to restore the church of the 1950's, we sought to restore God's original intentions for his people, the old wine that dates back to the creation of the world?

Kingdom Thinking

I have been blessed this week to listen to and even get to talk one on one with some incredible Christian leaders. The unstated question that they all seem to be addressing is, "How do we form a kingdom mindset?" For most of us, we grew up equating the Kingdom of God with the Church. We have been brought up viewing time as clearly divided into 3 segments. There was the time before Christ (the Old Testament), there was the time of Christ (the gospels), and then there is the time of the church which began at the beginning of Acts and continues today. Since we find ourselves in the 3rd segment, we study the scriptures of that time period more than any others. On the whole, we can quote Paul much easier than we can quote Moses, David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or even, tragically, Jesus. There is so much to be learned from Paul, Peter, James, John, and other NT authors about how to follow Jesus. But if we want to be serious about following Jesus, we have to have as our first priority the life and teachings of Jesus Christ who is not only the head of the church, but the Lord of the Kingdom of God.

This is where I have to point out a difference between the church and the kingdom of God. Like I said earlier, most of us grew up viewing the two as synonymous. While the church is the primary instrument used by God to fulfill his purposes in the Kingdom, the Kingdom of God is much larger than the church. The Kingdom of God transcends the walls of our buildings, denominational lines, Political party lines, national boundaries, and even time. Jesus lived to proclaim the coming of the kingdom, he prayed "thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." The words of this prayer are rarely prayed in our denomination (even though we were commanded to do so). Subsequently, the concept carried by this prayer has been largely forgotten. We wait for heaven, and we go to church in the meantime, but what are we doing to join in God's work of bringing about the Kingdom of God ON EARTH?

The kingdom mindset was not lost on the early Jews. It has been suggested by some scholars that the book of Psalms can best be summed up as a declaration that the Lord Reigns. The role of the king was best summed up as restoring "shalom" to the people. Shalom is most often translated, "Peace". A better translation would be "Completeness".

The king's job was to bring completeness or wholeness to the broken world.

If we are to be about the work of the Kingdom, if we are to fulfill Jesus' mission, then we must be about the work of bringing completeness or wholeness to the broken world around us. When Jesus was asked by John's messengers about whether or not he was the Christ or not, he replied, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor." In short, "I am restoring Shalom, I am bringing wholeness to the world, I am fulfilling the role of the anointed King."

Our mission is not to fill pews. Our mission is to see that the naked are clothed, the hungry are fed, the lonely are listened to, the sick are made well, and the estranged from God are reunited with their creator. As Christ has done, go and do likewise.

In a world screaming, "Where is God!" We must respond, "Here am I, send me!" This video will hopefully explain better what I am talking about.

God Will Provide

This phrase was spoken by Abraham to his increasingly worried son, Isaac, when they were headed up the mountain for the famous sacrifice. Two things about this statement intrigue me. First is that Abraham trusted that somehow, GOd would work in this situation to where it would not be as tragic as it appeared at the moment. Second is the specific prophecy that God would provide a lamb, fullfilled when God gave his own son for a sacrifice.

This phrase is equally relevant when Joshua leads the people across the Jordan into the promised land. Joshua was convinced of what God's will for him was. He knew that he was appointed by God to lead his people in conquest. What he was completely ignorant of, was strategy. He had led them across the Jordan, he had all the men circumcised, and then the manna stopped appearing. He had followed God right up to the doorstep of the most fortified city in Canaan, and the most tangible sign of God's providence ceased to exist. Only after Joshua had placed them all in a very vulnerable situation that only God could bring them out of, did God reveal how he was going to hand Jericho into their hands.

I waste too much time worrying about details instead of trusting that God has a plan and that he will provide. If I was truly confident of God's plan for me, and that he would provide the means, my life would be completely different than the life I lead now.

Be Strong and Courageous

As the torch was passed from Moses to Joshua, we get some great insight into what Joshua was feeling. It was an exciting time, a time of transition, a time of fulfillment, a time of great expectations...expectations that were now going to be asked of Joshua. For most of his life, Joshua had seen Moses as the brave leader of a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Now he was gone, and all eyes were on him.

God talks to Joshua in chapter 1.

"As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you." vs 5

"Be strong and courageous" vs 6

"Be strong and very courageous." vs 7

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord you God will be with you wherever you go." vs 9

After that, Joshua turns to the people and gives them some simple instructions. They reply as follows:

"Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous."

Joshua needed some serious encouragement at this crucial moment. And God provided encouragement personally and through the people.

As we face a new year, there are limitless possibilities. Last year saw some incredibly difficult financial situations, as well as numberless personal trials. God only knows what is in store for us this year. But God gives us the strength and courage to weather the storms ahead.

Be Strong and Courageous