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These words of the Lord through Samuel the prophet to King Saul, the first chosen King of Israel, were in response to events that shows us one of the greatest warnings in our lives today. The King had wished to go to battle against Amalek and had enquired of the Lord through the prophet. The Lord gave the commandment that the King should go against them but had to destroy everything that they had, even all that nation, including all the animals. We can read how the King and his army were disobedient to the Lord’s command, which in itself was bad enough. We know he could have confessed his wrong-doing and called on the Love and Mercy of God for forgiveness, but he did not and in fact, took the next step, the step that lost him his kingdom. He tried to Justify what he had done, by trying to make it appear good, and declared to Samuel, that the animals had only been kept so that a sacrifice could be made to God. This prompted the reply in our text, which shows clearly that God is more pleased with obedience to His word, than a sacrifice to Him.

The next words of Samuel to the King are some of the strongest and most powerful warnings in the Bible. “For Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and Stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being King.” Saul lost that natural kingdom on that day, by trying to Justify himself and his actions. We too, have been promised a kingdom, and this also is at risk if we too, make that same mistake as King Saul.

This is shown clearly in the Book of Revelation chapter 21:8, that there is no place in the New Jerusalem for sorcerers and idolaters. Sorcery is witchcraft and according to God, in His sight rebellion against His word is as witchcraft, stubbornness against His word is as idolatry. We have already seen these come about when we try to justify the things we do which are against God’s word.

With such a grave warning, we should turn over the coin and see the correct way, which is given to us by Christ Himself when He promised “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” Justification, Rebellion, and Stubbornness are foreign to becoming poor in spirit, the two can never mix.