The book Every Man's Battle has an interesting chapter entitled �Obedience or Mere Excellence.� Which do you believe to be better; obedience or excellence?
Consider King Saul who was commanded to "Attack Amalek and utterly destroy all they have" ( 1 Samuel 15:3). Instead Saul defeated Amalek and kept the best of their livestock and possessions. When challenged about his disobedience, Saul tried to claim obedience because after all "the best was brought back to be offered as sacrifice to God! Samuel's answer is one of the best known passages in all the Old Testament.
Then Samuel said:
"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 heed than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king. 1 Samuel 15:22-23
The Lord would rather have obedience than sacrifice - but what if the sacrifice was an excellent sacrifice? By God's standard it is only excellent when it is offered through obedience.
Today we offer our life a living sacrifice ( Romans 12:1-2). Do you offer an obedient sacrifice or an excellent sacrifice? What is the difference?
Today in the business world companies strive for excellence, but not perfection. Perfect products would be too expensive. Perfect service would be too costly, but to offer excellent products and service based on a standard created by their competitors becomes affordable. Too often we reason in our worship or moral compass what would be excellent by our standards. "To sacrifice time and expense to provide a full orchestra in worship would be excellent," one might reason. Or another might say, "A top movie with a few racy scenes is acceptable by so many Christians, few would question my dedication to God, so I will go to see it. After all it is far from the hard core pornography that plagues the world. Are these two examples excellent or obedient? God isn't looking for excellence based on man's standard. He is looking for obedience based on His Word.
Josiah was an unusual young man who was appointed King while only 8 years old. Judah had moved into the depths of idolatry far from the Almighty. Josiah purged the nation and obeyed the word of the Lord. He required the Levites to supply priests as the scriptures taught and all to participate in the Passover as God instructed. The result is recorded in 2 Chronicles 35:18 "There had been no Passover kept in Israel like that since the days of Samuel the prophet; and none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as Josiah kept." He reached the highest mark of excellence when he obeyed the Lord. So do we.
Forget excellence, let's obey!