The sin of stubbornness and arrogance, which is strengthened by pride, is awful. This is the sin of the devil himself (Genesis 3:5; Isaiah 14:14; Ezekiel 28:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). He will deceive you into believing his lie, then he will entangle you in his punishment, if you let him.
All sin is rebellion against Jesus Christ
King Saul disobeyed God’s instructions to destroy the Amalekites in judgement for their wickedness against Israel. But Samuel rejected his 3 feeble excuses.
And Samuel said, Hath 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 hearken than the fat of rams. 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. (1 Samuel 15:22-23 KJV)
All the prophets are consistent that sacrifice without obedience is an abomination to God (Psalm 50:8., Isaiah 1:11., Isaiah 66:3, Jeremiah 6:20).
The sin of stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry
The prophet rejected all three lies and explained why God couldn’t accept the animals as legitimate sacrifices: The Lord wants living obedience from the heart, not dead animals on the altar. God doesn’t need any donations from us (Ps. 50:7-15), and the sacrifice He desires is a broken and contrite heart (51:16-17). Sacrifice without obedience is only hypocrisy and empty religious ritual (Isa. 1:11-17; Jer. 7:21-26; Ps. 40:6-8). “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (Hos. 6:6). The religious leaders in Jesus’ day didn’t understand this truth (Matt. 9:9-13; 12:1-8), although occasionally somebody in the crowd would see the light (Mark 12:28-34). —Be Successful (1 Samuel): Attaining Wealth That Money Can’t Buy (The BE Series Commentary) by Warren W. Wiersbe
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, … and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry: for a man, when he has committed a sin, to persist in it obstinately, or to vindicate himself in it, and insist on his innocence, which was Saul’s case, is as hateful to God as any iniquity whatever; yea, as bad as idolatry, or making use of the teraphim, as is the word here; of which see Hosea 3:4 than which nothing is more abominable to the Lord: —Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There are six things the LORD hates—
no, seven things he detests:
haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that kill the innocent,
a heart that plots evil,
feet that race to do wrong,
a false witness who pours out lies,
a person who sows discord in a family. (Proverbs 6:16-19 NLT)
The sin of stubbornness is self-idolatry
Just a moment, now, you who say, “We are going to such-and-such a city today or tomorrow. We shall stay there a year doing business and make a profit”! How do you know what will happen even tomorrow? What, after all, is your life? It is like a puff of smoke visible for a little while and then dissolving into thin air. Your remarks should be prefaced with, “If it is the Lord’s will, we shall be alive and will do so-and-so.” As it is, you get a certain pride in yourself in planning your future with such confidence. That sort of pride is all wrong. No doubt you agree with the above in theory. Well, remember that if a man knows what is right and fails to do it, his failure is a real sin. (James 4:13-17 PHILLIPS)
What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (2 Corinthians 6:16 WEB)
Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 WEB)
He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.” He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes, I will give him these things. I will be his God, and he will be my son. But for the cowardly, unbelieving, sinners, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their part is in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. ” (Revelation 21:5-8 WEB)
The sin of stubbornness leads to bondage
All sin leads to bondage, but the sin of stubbornness and arrogance, which is strengthened by pride, is the worst. This is the sin of the devil himself (Genesis 3:5; Isaiah 14:14; Ezekiel 28:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:4). He will deceive you into believing the lie, then he will entangle you in his punishment, if you let him.
- And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: (Luke 22:31 KJV)
- To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18 KJV)
- Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11 KJV)
- In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4 KJV)
- Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9 KJV)
- Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. (James 4:7-8a KJV)
- Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.'” (Matthew 4:10 KJV)
- Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. (Ephesians 6:16 KJV)
But if you reject Jesus Christ and continue in the sin of stubbornness with the devil, it will eventually lead to bondage.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:1-7 WEB)
What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be! Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. (Romans 6:15-19 WEB)
But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God. Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity. ” (Acts 8:20-23 WEB)
These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him. (2 Peter 2:17-19 WEB)
You see the word rebellion in the Hebrew in its root form is marrah. We know from the book of Ruth that Naomi wanted to be called Marrah because she was bitter. Yet bitter may not be our best rendering for that word. It comes from an old Akkadian word for anointing and smearing a healing ointment on a wound. It was the idea of rubbing good ointment on the evil wound. A bitter struggle ensures over the good ointment and evil wound. Hopefully the good ointment wins out and the evil wound disappears. This is how the word became a word for bitter. Naomi wanted to be called bitter or marrah because she was trying to rub healing oil in an old wound with her people caused by running off to Moab during times of trouble. By being called Marrah she was admitting to being wrong and would try to right her wrong.
Eventually the word came to mean rebellion as rebellion is a struggle between two forces. Then we find in I Samuel 15:23 that this struggle is witchcraft. Say what? How can a struggle between two forces be witchcraft? Note it says the sin of witchcraft not just witchcraft is rebellion. Is that to say there might be something about witchcraft that is not sinful? Let’s look at this word for witchcraft which is qesem which is a word used for divination, false prophets and an oracle. Now sometimes an oracle was good if it was from God. Qesem comes from a Canaanite word which means to divide or assign among the deities. In other words gods served specific purposes. One god brought rain, another fertility of the crops, another brought the sunshine etc. Each god had an assignment or qesem. Divination comes from the Latin where we get the word deus or divus which means pertaining to gods. In ancient times it was believed that the gods would impart hidden knowledge of future events if they were amendable to it. So Divination has the idea of seeking the gods to gain secret or hidden knowledge. There was nothing wrong with seeking this knowledge from God, I mean Samuel himself used qesem with God. But what is wrong is when marrah (rebellion) creates a struggle between deciding on God Jehovah or other gods. You seek to divide these forces and seek it not only from God but from other gods.
My study partner suggested that maybe there was some power in this sacrifice. Was King Saul that superstitious that he actually believed there was a power in performing a ritual? I have known people who believe there is power in using the Hebrew names of God. That if you are in trouble you get better results using God’s name. If you need mighty help you say El Shaddai (God Almighty) or if you need healing you say Jehovah Rapha’ (God who heals). If that is the case then King Saul was trying to bring about the victory supernaturally through his own efforts of giving a sacrifice and thinking because he performed the right ritual he would be blessed. Some people believe there is power in the Hebrew words and they will listen to Scripture being read in Hebrew or prayers read in Hebrew believing power is being released from those Hebrew words. If the blessing comes, did God plan to give it all the time or was it because of the ritual?
It is sort of like a husband bringing home flowers for his wife and his wife giving him a big kiss. Was it the flowers that brought about the kiss? Well, maybe the fragrance set the mood, the gesture warranted a kiss, but it was the husband’s love represented by the flowers that produced the kiss. If it was just the flowers then she would have kissed the flowers. Therein is the sin of qesem (witchcraft – assignment) assigning the power in the ritual and not in God. This created marrah (rebellion – struggle). King Saul was giving the kiss to the ritual and not to God. His performance of the ritual was to get something he needed not to express his love and devotion to God.
Stop and consider this for a moment, suppose I was to reveal to you a Hebrew word which has the power to produce a financial miracle. Would you honestly always consult God before invoking that word? Would you be giving the kiss to God or the word? If you had that magic word, I mean why do you need God if you can get all you want from that word? I believe that is when you’ve crossed the line into witchcraft, you kiss the ritual or the words and not God.
I wonder, what if there is a power in those rituals, in Hebrew words. Could that be why God wanted King Saul to destroy all the sheep so he doesn’t use them for a sacrifice to get blessings that God did not intend to give him. How important would God be to you in the mix if you discovered a secret Hebrew word that would produce miracles?
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