1 Samuel 15:22 “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 listen than the fat of rams.
Psalms 51:16-17 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Proverbs 21:3 To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
Isaiah 1:17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
Jeremiah 7:22-23 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’
Hosea 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Ecclesiastes 5:1 Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
Jeremiah 11:7 For I solemnly warned your fathers when I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, warning them persistently, even to this day, saying, Obey my voice.
God is clear about obedience. Obey My voice, I desire steadfast love and knowledge of God, love justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God, draw near, guard your steps, broken spirit and contrite heart. He says obedience is far and above sacrifice. So how do we know if we are being obedient????? This is a good question to ask and a good question to answer.
To understand how to be obedient we should know how God speaks into our life. He speaks through His word. Hebrews 4:12; “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” He gives the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believe in, trust in, cling to, and rely on Jesus Christ. John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” And He speaks through what He has shown and continues to show us Romans 1:19 “For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
His word brought our heart and mind to the place of knowing sin, repentance, and forgiveness so that may know we have been saved from the judgment of sin and have been given eternal life through Jesus Christ. This is given to all who believe and is rightly called being born again. Born not of flesh and blood but of God. John 1:13 “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
The first step of obedience has 4 parts, first is belief, second confessing sin, third is repentance, fourth is trusting in/relying on/clinging to Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made on the cross. This initial act of obedience led to a new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
A life of obedience is a desire/choice to listen, a desire/choice to follow, a desire/choice to act/obey. There is little chance of obedience when there is little desire for His word in your life. There is little chance of being influenced and directed by the indwelling Holy Spirit when there is little desire for His word in your life. We cannot honor Jesus Christ without desiring to be obedient. Without His word and a deep desire to know, understand, and humbly serve, honor, follow, and obey Him we deceive ourselves into thinking we are obedient. His word is to be the bread of life, living water, and the air that we breathe. I fear our society/culture has influenced us to the point we cannot see that we are starving, dehydrating, suffocating, and either dead or close enough to being dead that the depth of His word has no place in our heart, mind, and soul, and the understanding of obedience has been diluted to non-existence.
An obedient life must have a continual daily desire to be in, listen too, and act on His word for the sole purpose of humbly serving, honoring, glorifying, following, and obeying Jesus Christ. Live obediently. Seek and desire His word each day with a heart seeking to honor Him.
