
The key to success for every believer is to do exactly what the Lord instructs us to do. In 1 Samuel 15, God told Saul, through the prophet Samuel, to attack the Amalekites. In the past, they had laid in wait for, and ambushed the Israelites when they were travelling out of Egypt. Saul was to destroy everything in this enemy’s city, he was to spare nothing. Now, it’s important to remember when reading the Old Testament, that it is a shadow and type of the New. We are to view it from the perspective of looking towards, and through the cross of Jesus. For instance, the Israelites coming out of bondage in Egypt, resembles our lives when we were first born again and set free from the bondage of the devil. However, in our new, born-again state, we were still vulnerable to the lies and tactics of our enemy the devil, since we had not yet learnt how to grow our faith in God for victory in life. So the devil set up ambushes to steal our faith, peace and joy, trying to discourage us and bring us back into a place of bondage – just as the Amalekites tried to do to the Israelites. However, after we had learnt to grow in the Word and sharpen our spiritual skills, we become far more resilient to the enemy and were able to stand up and enforce his defeat over our lives, by getting rid of, and utterly destroying every trace of anything that belongs to him in our lives. To the point where he has nothing in common with us any longer. Even though Saul was commanded by God to annihilate the enemy’s city – he disobeyed, keeping the king and the spoil. No matter how he tried to justify his disobedience, by saying the spoil would be used as a sweet sacrifice to the Lord. God was displeased with his rebellion. Saul thought he knew better than God and took matters into his own hands – not realising his direct violation to the will of God would cause him to lose his kingdom. Holding onto things that belong to the enemy’s territory will only keep us in a place of compromise and will set us up for defeat. Which is why Samuel answered Saul’s rebellion, telling him that obedience is better than sacrifice. Decide to obey the Lord in all things, fully trusting in His ageless wisdom, knowing He always has our best interests at heart. Our obedience will consistently lead us from faith to faith, and victory to victory.