Abigail Adams, who lived from 1744 to 1818, once said, “We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.” The way we would say it now is, “Talk is cheap.”
There are many examples in Scripture where someone said the right words but did the wrong thing. When Samuel went to see King Saul after a battle with the Amalekites, Saul greeted him by saying,
“The Lord bless you! I have carried out the Lord’s instructions.” But Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of sheep in my ears? What is this lowing of cattle that I hear?”
Saul answered, “The soldiers brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but we totally destroyed the rest.”
“Stop!” Samuel said to Saul. “Let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, did you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; make war on them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”
“But I did obey the Lord,” Saul said. “I went on the mission the Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.”
But Samuel replied: “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”
We can be like King Saul. We may be doing what we think is the right thing, but it may not be right in the eyes of the Lord, for, as Solomon said, Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.” It is not good to feel confident that we are correct, because Solomon also warns us, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise.” Can we be so sure that what we think is right that we will not listen to the counsel of others? Not seeking the counsel of the Almighty was the downfall of the Children of Israel over and over again in the book of Judges, and their decision-making method is summarized when it says that “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Disaster was the end result for those who relied on their own judgment during the time of the judges, as it was for the kings who claimed that they were doing the will of God when they were not.
We need to learn lessons from the mistakes of others, for, as Paul said, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God wants us to live in harmony with one another, but to do so we need to be walking together. As Amos asked, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” We may talk the talk, but to walk the walk in harmony together, we need to believe the same things and walk with others who also believe the same things. We certainly cannot be yoked together with Christ if we are trying to go in a different direction than he is going. Many who heard Christ speak in his day gave him lip service but did not do what he said. We need to do the commands of our Lord. We want to join together with others who also seek to obey our Lord and who carefully search the Scriptures so that their decisions are aligned with the Word of God. Only if we are united in our beliefs and obedience to our Lord can we in harmony and with one voice glorify our God.
Christ knows who are his, and soon we will all be standing before him to receive his verdict concerning us. There is no middle ground, we are either going to hear “Well done.” Or “depart from me.” As we sing in one of our hymns, “We make the answer now.”
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One