When I was teaching at Glenview Christian School, we had a music teacher who would have the children recite, "Obedience is immediate, complete, and without complaining or it is disobedience" or something to that effect. In todays lesson, we read that Saul only partially obeyed God's command to wipe out the Amalekites. He brought King Agag and the best of the livestock back as trophies for his own glory.  He then fabricated a cover, telling Samuel that he planned to sacrifice the animals to YOUR God.  I emphasize the fact that Saul referred to the Lord as Samuel's God rather than "our God" or "my God."  Saul was again seeking to appease a God he didn't worship as his own rather than to please God out of love and awe of Him.  Saul's sin was disobeying God's direct orders and then trying to pin the blame on others.

Obedience is more important to God than sacrifice.  Sacrifice atones for disobedience, sin.  Obedience pleases the Lord.  Of course the only way we can truly please God is through faith in Jesus.
      "...the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself 
       to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh
       cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, 
       if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you..." (Romans 8:7-9a) 
Then God replaces our heart of stone with a heart more yielded to His will. Then we have the ability to obey Him. He uses the rest of our lives to continue that process of "conforming us to the image of Christ." (Romans 8:29)

The last statement in today's lesson is "Samuel learned that sometimes obedience is the sacrifice."  I am reminded of the famous statement by missionary Jim Elliot who wrote in his journal, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose."  Not long after that he was killed by the people he was trying to bring the message of Christ.  Obedience does not mean the ultimate sacrifice for many of us, but we may need to sacrifice our pride, self-reliance, and arrogance daily.  As King David would later write:

"For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it: Thou art not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou will not despise." (Psalm 51:16-17)

I have the word "broken" underlined in my Bible, and in the margin, I have written "smashed".  Am I willing to allow God to smash my pride that I might bring Him glory?  I remember the night of my graduation with my bachelor's degree.  I was feeling a great deal of satisfaction and pride with myself.  Then I had an overwhelming sense of my smallness in the sight of the God of the Universe.  I sat down and wrote the following prayer that night.

Lord, please keep me on my knees
because from that position I can see
that You are truly all I have, yet You are all I need. 
Lord, please keep me on my knees.

May that still be my daily prayer, O Creator and Sustainer of the universe, my Lord and Master.