Carol's Page

I often think about the disobedient as being like Jonah who faced God’s call and jumped on a boat and went in the other direction, blatantly defying what they know to be God’s voice.  The obedient would be like Abraham who was willing to offer up his son as a sacrifice at God’s command.  I don’t often think about incomplete obedience when in reality that is more often the case for me and for many of God’s chosen.  I Samuel 15 does not show Saul as disobedient – when he was given a charge he responded.  He certainly was not obedient   – he stopped short of fulfilling the plan God laid out for what he thought would be more logical and more profitable.   So with this idea of incomplete obedience many of us respond as Saul did – when it is easy, or even if it is difficult as long as we can see the logic and the ultimate gain in the end result we respond in obedience but we often fall short of fulfilling God’s plan when we see a “better” way or a more logical path.  Although this seems to be a brutal example of God’s perfect justice this is not about the war, or the killing, or the wealth found in the spoils but about one man’s incomplete obedience and the obedience of another called on to fulfill what the first man would not.