According to 1 Samuel 15:22, “Samuel said, Does the Lord take pleasure in whole-burnt-offerings and sacrifices, as in hearing the words of the Lord? behold, obedience better than a good sacrifice.” Therefore, the whole story of Jesus’ crucifixion is bogus and God didn’t order Jesus to do it.  Your response?

This statement is riddles with rather obvious holes.  The implication of this statement is that God never asked the Jews to make burnt offerings or sin or guilt offerings, or any other of the offerings which were instituted at Sinai in the Law of Moses.  It is truly absurd to state that God did not want the Jews to make blood sacrifice, given that the Law of Moses, which institutes the sacrifices, is absolutely central to the Jewish religion.  Anyone making this statement either does not know much at all about Judaism, or they are simply trying to make trouble for Christians.  Either way, this statement should be ignored!  What are we supposed to do?  Pretend that the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy do not even exist?

But, let us look at 1 Samuel 15:22, and ask ourselves what God is saying to the Jews through Samuel.  Is he actually saying that he wants them to stop making sacrifices?  Is that a reasonable interpretation of this passage?  Absolutely not!  Just read the passage and look at the context.  In the context, God is telling his people that hearing (and obeying) the Word of God is more important than making ritual sacrifice.  Believing in God is more important that going through the motions of religious observation.  Loving God and listening to his voice is more important that making sacrifices.  If we make sacrifices, but continue in idolatry and do not even try to obey God, this is an offense to the honor and glory of God. God says to get your lives right, and then come to make sacrifices.

This is still true today.  Many go to church, but continue to live completely worldly lives which are it total opposition to what Christ taught.  Does God want his people to go to church?  Yes!  But if we are complete hypocrites and live lives in total disrespect to God, then he would say the same thing today.  Does the Lord delight in church attendance of those who completely reject what Jesus taught?  The answer, clearly, is no!

That this is the meaning of 1 Samuel 15:22 is clear to anyone who actually reads the story.  That the one making this statement is not even trying to correctly understand the passage is also clearly the case.  Why would we listen to such a person who is not even trying to be honest with the Bible?

Let me add this.  Even if the person were correctly handling 1 Samuel 15:22, which is patently not true, but even if it were true, this would not undermine the historicity of the crucifixion of Jesus.  The crucifixion of Jesus is established by multiple sources, even if we could prove that God did not want blood sacrifices (which he does).  Again, the statement above is patently absurd.

By the way, you can assume that this criticism is coming from a Muslim.  The problem for Muslims is that Muhammad said Jesus was not crucified, whereas this is one of the most well-attested events in ancient history.  This is a big problem for Muslims, to say the least.  Muhammad is a false prophet, as shown by his statements about the crucifixion, which is why Muslims are desperate to put forward the lie that he was not crucified. My suggestion: Stop listening to such disingenuous Muslim critics who are blatantly dishonest and who have no interest in truthful and fair discussion of the Bible. Do yourself a favor and stop looking at such materials.

John Oakes