Obey God Rather Than Men

# 324 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 22:16,17, “And the king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's house!" 17 Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me." But the servants of the king would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the LORD. (1 Sam 22:16,17) I know I have been speaking a lot about respecting those who are in authority. I think it is important because I hear far too much Obama bashing in Christian circles. He is our president. He holds that office strictly by the will of God. To disrespect him is to disrespect the One who put him there. But there is another side to the coin of respecting authority. Whenever that authority abuses the privilege given to him by God and issues orders contrary to the Word of God, well, as Peter and the other apostles said when the ruling council forbade them from preaching the gospel: "We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29b) Still another example of this civil disobedience is found in Ex 1:17, when Pharaoh had ordered the slaying of the Hebrew male children, “But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.” In our reading today, these “guards” of Saul in my mind are incredibly brave men. They knew what Saul was capable of. They even knew the murderous mood he was in, and yet they refused to obey him, opting to remember God's command to not kill. They, like Peter and John, obeyed God, rather than men. This civil disobedience isn't easy and sometimes I wonder when it is going to come to this in America. When will the government forbid us from preaching the gospel? When will we be forbidden to proselytize? When will we be ordered to abort our children or put older people to death because they are deemed as a hindrance to society? God, I pray that You will protect us from such tyranny, but if it arrives, give us the strength to obey You rather than men.