Obey is better than Sacrifice

[1 Sam. 15:22] And Samuel said, 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.
[27] And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.
The faith response in Israelite religion lacked in rational and moral content. G-d’s words (commandments), whether they are rationally acceptable (explainable) or not, whether they sound moral or amoral must be obeyed. Obedience was thus regarded as the highest virtue in religion!
14-15, 22 the message of the writing of prophets in perfunctory acts of worship and ritual, apart from diligent obedience, were basically worthless to G-d and the individual. What was needed was a whole new heart attitude as the proper preparation for meeting G-d, and then real sacrifices could be offered. Deceptive was the nation’s trust in this hollow worship that G-d had wanted more than sacrifices; He wanted the people to trust Him.
Samuel’s rebuke belongs to the same class of complaints. It was couched in poetry and it also had a proverbial form. Thus its absolute moral truth must be understood comparatively, even though the full form was not always stated that way. The proverb was stated in terms that call for setting priorities. This first and then that, ‘better’ directly point to such a priority.
G-d does approve of sacrificing, but He does not wish to have it at the expense of full obedience to His Word or as a substitute for a personal relationship of love and trust.
What use is performing outward acts of religion with all of its bits and pieces if that religious activity is not grounded in an obedient heart of faith? True religious affection for G-d begins in the heart and not in acts of worship or the accompanying vestments and ritual!
As Samuel turned from pronouncing G-d’s judgment upon Saul, the king grasped at the “skirt of {Samuel’s} mantle, (tattit), and it rent”. A more accurate translation of this statement would aid in its interpretation “…he caught the corner of Samuel’s mantle, and it tore” The word skirt is actually kanaph, which means “wing or corner”. It was the tzitzit that Saul grasped, and in his desperation ripped, from the corner of Samuel’s tallit, or mantle. In this case, the word for mantle is meil, which meant a robe, a garment worn over a tunic by men of rank. Samuel made this prediction on the basis of Saul’s act of ripping the tzitzit from the corner of his mantle: “The L-rd has rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of yours, that is better than you.” Just as Saul had grasped and torn the outward symbol of Samuel’s authority with G-d, so G-d would remove the monarchial dynasty from the house of Saul and give it to another. Just as the very act of ripping the tzitzit from the tallit rendered it ceremonially invalid, so Saul’s leadership of Israel would be invalid.]
it is said that the L-rd repented for making Saul king. The Glory of Israel is one of the titles for Yahweh. That Yahweh is not a man but G-d is an important theme in the OT. It can be affirmed from the start that G-d’s essence and character, His resolute determination to punish sin and to reward virtue are unchanging (Mal. 3:6). This does not mean that all His promises and warnings are unconditional. Many turn on either an expressed or an implied condition.
A classic example of this conditional teaching is Jer. 18:7-10. “If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, than I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, and if it does evil in My sight and does not obey Me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”
Therefore, whenever G-d does not fulfill a promise or execute a threat that He has made, the explanation is obvious: in all of these cases, the change has not come in G-d, but in the individual or nation.
Of course some of G-d’s promises are unconditional for they rest solely on His mercy and grace. These would be His covenant with the seasons after Noah’s flood in Gen. 8:22, His promise of salvation in the oft-repeated covenant to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David; His promise of the New Covenant; and His promise of the New Heaven and the New Earth.
If G-d is unchangeable, why did He repent or grieve over the fact that He had made Saul king? G-d is not a frozen robot that cannot respond to persons; He is a living person who can and does react to others as much, and more genuinely, than we do to each other. Thus the same word repent, is used for two different concepts both in this passage and elsewhere in the Bible. One shows His responsiveness to individuals and the other show His steadfastness to Himself and to His thoughts and designs.
G-d changed His actions toward Saul in order to remain true to His character or essence. Repentance in G-d is not, as it is in us, an evidence of indecisiveness. It is rather a change in His method of responding to another person based on some change in the other individual. The change, then, was in Saul. The problem was in Saul’s partial obedience, his wayward heart and covetousness.
While G-d repented that He had given Saul the kingdom along with its honor and power, He did not repent giving him wisdom and grace or his fear and love; indeed, the gifts and callings of G-d are without repentance.
To assert that G-d is unchanging does not mean He cannot experience regret, grief and repentance. G-d enters into a relationship with mortal beings that demonstrates His willingness to respond to each person’s action within the ethical sphere of their obedience to His will.
When our sin or repentance change our relationship with G-d, His changing responses to us no more affect His essential happiness or blessedness than Messiah’s deity affects His ability genuinely to suffer on the cross for our sins.