Jim's Devotional - October 12th

October 12th

Exodus 26:30, “And you shall raise up the tabernacle according to its pattern which you were shown on the mountain.” As we read of God’s instruction to Moses concerning the building of the tabernacle it is obvious that God had something in mind. Several times He told Moses “according to the pattern.”

When God tells us to do something He expects to be obeyed. A very interesting and eye-opening event happened in 1st Samuel. God told King Saul, through Samuel the prophet, what he wanted him to do. Saul succumbed to the pressure of others and only partially obeyed. Let’s read what God said to Saul in 1st Samuel 15:17&23, “So Samuel said, “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel? 18 “Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 “Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed the voice of
the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 “But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.” 22 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. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king.”

Wow, God is serious about our obedience.