Trigger Words: Obedience and Discipline

I’ve spent a lot of time over the last several days studying what God’s Word tells us about obedience. I’ve read tons of scriptures, stories and passages, but some reason, though, there’s one story in particular that God keeps bringing me back to as I’ve been reading, and I think that’s where He’s going to start this message. 

 

There was a comment made to King Saul by Samuel the prophet in the book of 1 Samuel. Many of us from backgrounds in the church have heard it several times:

 

“Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

 

I’ve been thinking about that statement a lot lately, and as I said above, for some reason this is what God keeps bringing me back to as I’ve been trying to understand His desire and will for obedience.

 

The story surrounding this statement comes from 1 Samuel 15. It’s the account of what happened when the favor of God left Saul and He decided to reject Saul as the king of Israel. The reason for God rejecting him as the king? Willful disobedience.

 

Here’s a summary of what happened. God asked Saul to completely destroy the nation of the Amalekites – this even meant killing the cattle and animals they owned. After being told by the prophet Samuel what needed to be done, Saul took an army of around 210,000 men and went to the town of Amalek to wage this battle. Once they finished their battle and killed everyone in town, King Saul decided to keep one person alive – the Amalekite king, Agag. Not only that, but he also allowed his men to keep all of the best sheep and goats and cattle, and anything that appealed to them.

 

The next day Samuel, the prophet who told Saul what he was supposed to do, showed up and confronted Saul on not obeying God’s plan.  When Samuel did this, Saul began to make a bunch of excuses for why he didn’t think there was anything wrong. “We destroyed everyone else,” he said when confronted about keeping Agag alive. He even lied to Samuel by saying he let his men keep the best of the cattle so that they could offer it as a sacrifice to God. That was not their intention. After listening to Saul and hearing his excuses, Samuel finally spilled the beans about the consequences Saul would have to face because he disobeyed…

 

“What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than the offering of fat rams. Rebellion is as sinful as witchcraft, and stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols. So because you have rejected the command of the Lord, He has rejected you as king.” 1 Samuel 15:22-23 NLT

 

Whoa! That’s intense stuff, no? I mean, did God really completely reject him as the king of Israel just because he didn’t do what God asked? Yep, that’s what happened.

 

I was talking with God a little bit about this yesterday, and while we were talking about the “obedience is better than sacrifice” part, I felt Him say to me:

 

 

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Did He just say discipline?

Yep, He sure did. We’ll get into that a little more in a bit.

 

Can you think of a time when God has asked you to do something and you didn’t do it.  Then, you did something else that seemed super sacrificial to try to make up for not obeying Him thinking it might impress Him into forgetting that you didn’t do what He actually asked you to do?  I know I have. I did that with my parents, too, whenI was growing up. But what He told me yesterday is actions like that are nothing more than my arrogance trying to manipulate to gain approval. He’s not fooled by false humility, though.

 

Earlier this morning He and I were talking a little more about this subject, and He took me to the Gospels and reminded me of the story of the rich young ruler.  The man tried to impress Jesus by saying he had kept all of the Law and God’s commands since he was a young boy. But when Jesus told him he needed to sell all of his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, the man’s “face fell” and he left sad because he had many possessions, and that was something he could not be obedient in.

 

Jesus wasn’t impressed by the other sacrifices the young ruler had made. He wanted him to be obedient in all things. In fact, the version of this story told in Mark 10 says Jesus felt “genuine love” for this man. He sincerely wanted him to be able to give it all up and be obedient, and follow Him. Not just in the things the ruler thought would be impressive like keeping the Law. Jesus wanted him to be willing to completely sacrifice “self”. But the young ruler still had so much pride in his self that he couldn’t be completely obedient.

 

Clearly, this message is a bit different from any of my other posts. It’s kind of hard, to a degree, and it’s been hard to write, as well because it’s hitting on some personal nerves and struggles of my own. The word Obedient, alone, is one that causes most of our generation to cringe. We are a people who want what we want when we want it. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it, and we don’t want anyone telling us otherwise. It’s a fault of our time. Even our children are subject to these new golden rules in their entertainment. Have you watched any television lately? You do you, I’ll do me, and everyone should do and be what’s right in THEIR OWN eyes. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise.  

 

I wonder if the fault of this is rooted in a lack of trust?

 

Here’s the thing, though… the even harder part He wants me to write about in this message that my pride doesn’t want to accept. Disobedience results in consequences.  

 

Let’s clarify something quickly in this. I’m not someone who thinks God is sitting on a stool, staring down at earth with a lightning bolt in His hand waiting to chuck it at the first person He sees messing up. That’s not what I have seen the Bible say about Him. He’s a loving father who cares for His children and wants the best for them. But we have to trust Him in order to believe that, and trust isn’t something that our generation gives out easily. When we learn to trust Him, though, by spending time getting to know Him, we will be able to see and understand how much He actually loves us. Something many followers nowadays tend to overlook is that the Word actually tells us in Hebrews that He disciplines those He loves. Just like in anything else in life, there are causes and effects. In other words, there are consequences for our actions.  

 

Check this out:

 

Hebrews 12:5-7 AMP

“and you have forgotten the divine word of encouragement which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not make light of the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart and give up when you are corrected by Him; for the Lord disciplines and corrects those whom He loves, and He punishes every son whom he receives and welcomes [to His heart].” You must submit to [correction for the purpose of] discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 

 

Proverbs 3:11-12 AMP

“My son, do not reject or take lightly the discipline of the Lord [learn from your mistakes and the testing that comes from His correction through discipline]; Nor despise His rebuke, For those whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”

 

Some of you may still be cringing at this because the thought of discipline and correction rubs you the wrong way. I know… I’m one of you. I don’t like to be told that I’m wrong. Not just that, though. I also don’t like to face consequences for being wrong. The thing about it though, like I said above, is consequences are actually a fact of life. Faith aside, if I do something wrong, consequences are often times inevitable. If I repeatedly show up late for work, I’m likely to get fired. If I refuse to study for a test at school, I’m probably going to fail the test. If I steal something from someone and get caught, I may go to jail.  

 

I think when many of us think about the word “obedience” it triggers something inside of us – a reaction. We get puffed up because we don’t like the idea of someone else telling us what to do. That’s our pride talking. Then, when we think of words like discipline, consequences, punishment, correction etc., we associate them with other words like: harsh, unloving, uncaring, pain, anger, shame, etc.  My flesh would want to agree with you for a moment, but my spirit tells me otherwise. The truth is that discipline, when done correctly, is an act of love that brings about change and corrects a wrong action. Discipline and correction are necessary for teaching and instruction. We won’t learn if we don’t fall and face the consequences of the fall.

 

You see, I don’t think being disciplined means being shut out. It doesn’t mean being unloved. It doesn’t mean being rejected as sons and daughters, which is something I think has wrongly been placed in many of our minds and hearts. It’s not a shaming process, or something that should be reactive and out of anger.  Discipline is actually an act of love.

 

While Saul messed up and his correction was losing the throne, I have never read anywhere in the Bible that his disobedience caused the loss of God’s love. In fact, I know that God still loved Saul tremendously, and wanted what was best for him.  Saul was given a kingdom, and to whom much is given much is required. Even Spider-Man teaches us that – “with great power comes great responsibility.” Saul being a king under the authority of God made him responsible for a lot, and his obedience to God not only affected him, it affected an entire nation. So when the cause and effect process had to come into play, his consequence was losing his right to the throne because he was too prideful to handle it. When I think of it that way, it doesn’t seem like that bad of a consequence. Saul probably could have kept his position had he allowed himself to be humble and admit to his error.  We’ll never know, though. When I continue reading through the books of Samuel, though, I see that King David also made a lot of mistakes and was disobedient at times, and he was able to keep the throne. The difference, though, is that David was humble and admitted to his errors, and his heart’s desire was to love and listen to God, and to do what He asked. He trusted God.

 

When I was growing up, if I did something wrong like… like refusing to clean my room when I was asked to clean it, there were consequences for actions like that. Sometimes it meant not being able to go out with my friends the following weekend. Sometimes it meant not being able to watch TV for a certain amount of time. Sometimes there were other consequences. But just because there was a, for lack of a better term right now, punishment, it never meant my parents didn’t love me.  In fact, it was quite the opposite.  They disciplined me because they loved me. Because they wanted me to learn. They didn’t kick me out of their home (Saul was not kicked out of Israel), they didn’t kick me out of the family. Nothing like that. They were just trying to teach me the importance of obedience.

 

It’s hard enough sometimes to trust the intents of people around us who we can see, so I get that it may be hard to trust in a God we cannot see.  He truly is looking out for our best interest, though, and He loves us so much He died to pay the price for our sins.  Like… He really loves us, y’all!  He’s working all things together for the good of those who love Him.  He’s faithful and just and honest and “He’s not a man that He should lie.”  So when He says He loves us, He means it.

 

Several weeks ago I was really struggling with something and making stupid life choices in the midst of it.  I was struggling with anger and depression, and feeling lonely and abandoned by people I love, and all of the related emotions were controlling my actions. I did a lot of stupid things. My heart’s desire was to figure things out and overcome my struggle, but I didn’t know how, so I asked God. What He told me to do is going to sound weird to some, but it’s the truth.  He told me that I needed to write about it and post a public confessional blog.  He wasn’t sitting on a stool throwing lightning bolts at me and telling me I was going to Hell… He was telling me what I needed to do to overcome because He loves me and has my best interests in mind.  I just had to be obedient and confess.  

 

First, He said this was going to be the discipline for my actions (it hurts my pride to tell people when I mess up), and second, He said it would be the thing that would help me get rid of the struggle.  I know it sounds crazy and weird.  How can writing a blog help overcome an intense struggle?  Trust me, I know how it sounds.  But I had to trust Him in it.  It took a while for me to finally give in, and during that time of avoiding, the weight of my disobedience got pretty heavy.  I did even stupider things and felt angry, and probably hurt some people I love all because I didn’t want to listen and be obedient., but finally, I decided to give in and trust Him.  

 

The awesome thing about it is ever since then something has changed.  I’ve found my joy again, and I’m pretty sure the switch flipped when I decided to humble myself and be obedient.  Yeah, there was a consequence, and the world may know about my mistakes, now, but I’m okay with that for the sake of the freedom it brought.  You see, God knows our needs.  He knows them before we even ask, actually.  He knows our wants, too, but sometimes our wants and needs don’t match up.  That’s what makes it difficult to be obedient at times.  We don’t believe that what God is saying is best because we think our ideas and wants are better.  That’s where we’re wrong.  I’m convinced that if we listen and obey Him, we will get much more out of this life than if we don’t… because He’s a good father who wants what’s best for us.