And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?" Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction." Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night." And he said to him, "Speak."
1 Samuel 15:13-16 (ESV)
Liar. Saul is a blatant liar, or he is deceived.
Either way, he loses. Saul thought he had a better plan than God had. In his mind, Saul had taken over the leadership of the people from God. Saul must have thought that God would be impressed that he went above and beyond what God asked him to do.
God is never impressed when we attempt to do more than we are asked to do. It is the same as doing less than we are asked to do. Those who love and obey God are genuinely brokenhearted for those who disobey.
Helen Plumptre wrote this: "It is the distinguishing mark of God's children that they sigh and cry for the offences and affronts committed against their God. One prophet wished that his head were waters, add his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night (Jer. 9:1) Another declared, his tears ran like rivers, because men kept not God's laws (Ps. 119:136). Another said, he had continual sorrow in his heart for his unconverted brethren (Rom 9:2). And when God would point out the grand mark by which his own were to be known, he says, "Go through the midst of the city, the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof" (Ez. 9:4). When wickedness is going on in the streets, or in the secret chambers, do you shut your door about you, and cry unto the Lord all night? or do you look on with something like interest, and smile when you ought to sigh, and laugh when you ought to weep? A school, mistress was once telling me of something that a girl had done wrong; and while she was describing the fault in a very lively manner, several of the children smiled, and scarcely suppressed a laugh. She immediately turned to them with a solemnity and concern which I can never forget, and said, "Now, girls, you have made her sin your own, those who could laugh at it could do it." The girls looked alarmed, and I hope they would not again so thoughtlessly make a mock at sin."
You can tell much about someone by what amuses them or saddens them.
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