YeI believe that one of the greatest models of (dis)obedience in the Bible is King Saul (1st & 2nd Samuel). Granted, his life and kingship did not turn out great due to some of the choices that he ultimately made in direct opposition to God’s instruction. But after reading about him in the Bible, I think that there is some level of empathy that can be extended to him, initially, because he was conventional in his obedience at the beginning. He said yes to God, but he backed many of those yeses on logic.
God once asked Saul to destroy the Amalekites – in other words, to kill the infants, children, women, men, and all their cattle (1 Samuel 15:3). Just reading that is cringeworthy. It is one thing to fight against warriors who can fight back, and a completely different thing to clean out an entire nation, especially when that includes children. Saul went ahead with the instruction. Well, his own version of it: he spared the king of the Amalekites and all the goodly things. He kept the fat cattle, claiming that he wanted to offer them as sacrifices to God.
In my opinion, it was quite a conventional and logical move on Saul’s part. Even when Samuel, a priest, asked him why he did so, he continued to say that he had only done what the Lord had commanded (1 Samuel 15:20). In his logic, Saul figured that his sacrifice would still be acceptable, as long as he showed up to battle and destroyed the Amalekites. But that was not what God had said – God’s interest was in the complete destruction of the Amalekites, as punishment for their previous deeds and to preserve the Israelites for generations to come. Later, Saul tells the priest that he was afraid of what the people might say or think, so he did what they demanded (1 Samuel 15:24). Simply put, his decision made sense to him, and was ultimately, to remain in good standing with the people around him, but it was not what God asked of him.
Have you ever had to say yes to something that is not the God’s standard of good or right? It has taken me a while to figure out that good and right to God is not the same as good and right in society. They can look the same sometimes, but they are dissimilar.
What do you do when God requires you to learn to submit as a woman, even though the entire world seems to be geared toward toxic feminism? What if you must choose to tune off certain music and movies because they do not champion kingdom lifestyle? What if you have to cut ties with some of the friends you have known all your life, simply because God said so? What do you do when God requires you to raise your children in church when society emphasizes the freedom of religion? What do you do when God asks you to get a job in an extremely secular company so you can gain kingdom territory?
The right answer is that you say yes to God, always and immediately. However, the right answer isn’t always the easy answer. The true challenge is when God begins to call you to unconventional paths that require unconventional obedience. Instead of quitting your job to become a full-time minister, God may ask you to get a job and make it ministry. When you think a full-time career can help your husband provide for your family is the call, God may just be asking you to be a housewife. These are not the typically agreeable choices in today’s society. But when God initiates such commands, it is because He can see the big picture.
Perhaps your friends are not drug addicts that will negatively influence your life. It could just be that God wants you all to grow into new versions of yourselves. Just recently, I had to do something unconventional and difficult to keep my heart in check. Sometimes, the prompt is solely so that God can make you a better person in and through Him, to strengthen you for the journey. Sometimes, God’s agenda seems small and meaningless, when in actuality, it is training you to be obedient. This way, when your destiny depends on it, you will not bargain on or make decisions based upon your own understanding, but you will lean upon His (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Instead of standing out solely because you profess to be a Christian, you have to start standing out because the kind of Christian you are – one that is obedient to God.
If you have truly allowed Jesus to be Lord and King, then you need to let Him reign in your life. Sometimes you are going to have to look crazy (to the world) in your yeses to God – they won’t all make sense to you and they don’t have to because we know it is all working together for our good (Romans 8:28). If you must become the person God created you to be, you must master the courage to say yes to the unconventional leadings of God.
I know it’s not easy, so Godspeed to you and me both. May we mature in our understanding of Jesus’ Lordship and Kingship, as we appreciate the role of obedience in our becoming.
