Fat of Rams

After work today, I was listening to the news and the reporter was interviewing three people on the street asking them what they were going to give up for Lent. One lady said she was going to give up candy. A second lady said she was going to give up dessert. And the last person, a man, said he was going to give up alcohol, and just not beer, but all alcohol.

I got to thinking about Saul and Samuel. Saul had been commanded of the Lord to destroy the sinful  Amalekites and all they possessed. Saul disobeyed and kept many of the flocks and other spoils. When the prophet Samuel found out, he told Saul:

“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.” (1 Samuel 15:22)

As stated on the all-knowing Wikipedia, “The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the death and resurrection of Jesus”.

I began to think of these good people “giving up something” they really like, “sacrificing” as it were some item, in preparation for Easter. But then I thought about what they had decided to give up – sweets and booze. Not much really when you think about it.

Then I thought of what Joseph Smith taught: “…a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation; for, from the first existence of man, the faith necessary unto the enjoyment of life and salvation never could be obtained without the sacrifice of all earthly things." (Lectures on Faith, 6th lecture, paragraph 7)

Considering we come into this world with no earthly possession, and we leave it the same way, then what we do or do not have at the end of this life is unimportant. What attachment we put on those material items is important. It is to what our hearts are attached which is important.

And Samuel says that obeying the voice of the Lord and hearkening to His words are more important than sacrifice. When we obey and hearken, we offer (not sacrifice) our will to that of the Lord. That is how we truly prepare for our own Easter, the time when we will stand before the Lord and see His loving face and feel the prints of the nails in his hands and his feet.