Flattery To Hide Disobedience

God demanded Saul: 1Sa 15:3  'Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" 

1Sa 15:13  Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed are you of the LORD! I have carried out the command of the LORD."

This is flattery.

1Sa 15:14  But Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?"

1Sa 15:15  Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God; but the rest we have utterly destroyed."

Claiming to honor God by disobeying Him. This too, is flattery, trying to fool God.

Psa 106:34  They did not destroy the peoples, As the LORD commanded them,

Psa 106:35  But they mingled with the nations And learned their practices,

Psa 106:36  And served their idols, Which became a snare to them.

Psa 106:37  They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,

Psa 106:38  And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood.