Better Than Sacrifice

“Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So, he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.”

~Jonah 1:1-3

We all want to hear from the Lord, but what happens when the Lord tells us something we aren’t expecting, or something we really don’t want to do? We want God’s blessings, but we don’t want those blessings to come at a price. In Jonah’s case, he was told to go to Nineveh and tell the people they were going to be destroyed if they didn’t change their ways. I can imagine his panic. He must tell an entire city that God charged him with the task of foretelling their future. He probably thought he’d be ridiculed at the least, and probably stoned to death for being so presumptuous as to say God talked to him. So, he ran. Exodus 3 tells the story of Moses, who was told by God to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go. After 400 years of captivity, an 80-year-old man is told by God to face off with the most powerful man in the land—I’m sure Moses must have been terrified. In verse 11, we read his reply—But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Gideon was another man called by the Lord to rescue the children of Israel, and in Judges 6:15, he replied, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” Yet, Jonah, Moses and Gideon all have one thing in common, they did what God told them to do and they were successful.

“And 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 listen than the fat of rams’ (1 Samuel 15:22).”

We might not always like what the Lord tells us to do but obeying His voice will determine our future. What God says to do, we must do, whether it’s changing jobs, moving to another town or state, or preaching His word. Whatever it might be that God tasks us with can be scary and cause doubt in our hearts, but obeying God despite our fears will bring the greatest blessings.

Read Mark 1-5

© 2018 Marie McGaha