Obedience Over Intentions

A battlefield victory with a hidden loss—Saul beats the Amalekites but keeps what God said to surrender, then tries to spin it as worship. We walk through 1 Samuel 15 and confront a hard truth: partial obedience makes a lot of noise, and Samuel can still hear the sheep. That single moment opens a bigger conversation about why our good intentions, traditions, and desire to do things “the way we always have” often collide with what God actually said.

We share candid stories about learning this lesson the slow way—mistakes, course corrections, and the wake-up call of “to obey is better than sacrifice.” You’ll hear why listening is not passive, how precision matters when you think you’ve heard God, and why compassion becomes compromise when it overrides a clear command. We get practical: pray with focus, write what you sense, check it against Scripture, fast when you’re unsure, and invite accountability that cuts through excuses. This is spiritual formation with a seatbelt—steady, honest, and built for real life.

If you’ve ever justified “almost” doing what you knew was right, this conversation offers a path back to clarity. We explore the cost of adding words God never spoke and the freedom that comes from simply doing what he asked, no more and no less. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s responsiveness. Own the miss, make it right, and move forward lighter. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s wrestling with next steps, and leave a review with one question you’re taking back to prayer—what instruction do you need to obey fully today?

Transcript

Setup And Scripture Context

Saul’s Partial Obedience Exposed

Samuel Confronts The Excuses

To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice

Tradition And Good Intentions Tested

SPEAKER_01 0:16

Hey everybody, welcome to another Woke Folio Short. This is C Dub. In my daily Bible reading, this is over in First Samuel. Here's the backdrop. God gives through Samuel, he gives Saul, who is king, an order to go and do battle against the Amalekites. The order is scorched earth. Nothing remains. That's it. No women, no children, no livestock, no nothing. This is a very old testament story. But it has some very new testament principles. As we get into the word for ourselves, 1 Samuel 15, verse 7. Then Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah, going toward Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured Agag, king of the Amalekites, alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the more valuable animals, the lambs, and everything that was good, and were unwilling to destroy them completely. But everything despicable and weak that they completely destroyed. So right after this, God talks to Samuel. He says, I have regretted that I have made Saul king. Samuel's interceding, and he's trying to get things right, trying to have some mercy shown toward Saul, and he goes down. In verse 13, he's down in Gigal. So Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have carried out the command of the Lord. But Samuel said, What then is this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the bellowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have completely destroyed. Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop, and let me inform you of what the Lord said to me last night. And he said to him, Speak. Verse 17. So Samuel said, Is it not true that though you were insignificant in your own eyes, that you became the head of the tribes of Israel? For the Lord anointed you as king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated. Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Instead you loudly rushed upon the spoils and did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Verse 20. Then Saul said to Samuel, I did obey the voice of the Lord, for I went on the mission which the Lord sent me, and I have brought Agag, king of Amalek, and have completely destroyed the Amalekites, but the people took some of the spoils and the sheep and the oxen, the choices of the things designated for destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal. Samuel said, Does the Lord have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams, for rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of divination, King James says witchcraft, and insubordination as rehensible as false religion and idolatry. Since you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. And this is one of the things that sets in motion Samuel going to anoint David in the next chapter as king. If you've been a believer and if you have any scriptural literacy, and I'm not saying that in a demeaning way, but this is not an unknown story. This is a story that gets talked about and quoted quite often. And I've read this story, I don't know how many times, a lot, but there was a few things that just jumped out. Might be because I'm reading a different translation than the two or three I usually read.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

But the idea that Saul disobeys.

Practical Steps To Hear God

SPEAKER_01 5:39

And Samuel's going, No, because that wasn't the instructions. And I don't want to get too long-winded in this, but one of the lessons that I've had to learn. This is not something me telling you what to do, because it's a good theory and good theology. This is C dub has messed up enough where I've learned this lesson. I have found out that truly to obey is better than burnt offerings or sacrifice. And paying attention is better than the fat of rams. A lot of times we thought we did the right thing, but we didn't do the right thing. We didn't listen and we didn't obey, and then we get all bent out of shape because, well, why didn't this happen? Well, the results are what the results are. But there's a lot of times that due to our traditions, we don't listen. And due to the fact that this is the way we've always done it, that isn't the way the Lord said to do it this time. So that can hamstring you, that can get you in a pickle.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

The other thing that I see here is I didn't sin. My intentions were good.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

And I see this a lot in the modern church as well. Listen to what the Lord told you. And this was a hard lesson for me to learn. The more I matured, uh the older I got, and the more wisdom uh I acquired, a lot of times the hard way, the more I found out that what God told you was right. He can see things down the road. And the command of God in doing what is right is way beyond your feelings. And I was of the mindset that, man, because I care, because I want the right thing to happen, even though the Lord said, Don't do it, don't do it while I go, go and do something the Lord told me not to do, even though I thought I was exercising compassion, because again, this is the way we do it. So those two things, you know, the way we've always done it, and my intentions are good. This is kind of what happens with Saul here. And the Lord said, that is not what I commanded. And sometimes he will give you instructions that might seem a little bit radical and they might seem just totally untraditional. Doesn't mean they're wrong. Pray about it. Heck, if you don't know, double check, pray. Do some fasting, make sure you're hearing God. But when once you know what the instructions are, I'm telling you, it's no amount, no amount of good intentions, no amount of, well, I'm just acting in love, no amount of that, or no amount of, well, brother, this is just the way we do it, is going to excuse when things get foobar because you were disobedient or I was disobedient.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

So I just wanted to encourage you, as always, pray, listen for what God's saying to you.

Final Challenge And Resources

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Have your pen and pad nearby, write it down, read it. If you were maybe in the car and you had to hit the notes feature on your phone so you could say what you felt the Lord was saying. I prefer writing because that's something concrete in the way that I learn and remember. But a lot of times we like to add these words in. Go back and see what the Lord said, see what he didn't say, and don't read your own intent, your own desire, your own soulish desire, sometimes even your own carnality, into that, because the devil will use that as a blind spot. But make sure you know exactly what the Lord said and don't make excuses. Just do it. And if you mess up on that, admit you did the wrong and then get it right. Woo FOYO. Hey everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at woofoyo.org or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Audible, or even check us out on YouTube. For both of myself, this is a C dub, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you gotta Woe FOYO. Get in the work for yourself.