God is not pleased with pragmatism. He never has been and He never will be. Here are three biblical examples:

1. King Saul spares Agag

Text from 1 Samuel 15: "But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction."

And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord?

"...the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.”

"Saul said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.'"

Commentary: Saul was primarily concerned here with pragmatism. He feared the people and worked within the confines of the political realities set before him instead of trusting God. His excuse was that the animals they spared were set aside for sacrifice, to which Samuel replies, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?" Obedience is what truly matters here, and a heart for obedience. God is not delighted by disobedient sacrifice. He delights in faithfulness, and He blesses it against all odds. He glorifies Himself by displaying His divine power in the simple obedience of His people.

2. Israel seeks refuge in the shadow of Egypt.

Context: Israel is threatened by Assyria. Instead of fighting their battles in the fear of the Lord and faithfully trusting Him to deliver them, they seek aid from the king of Egypt. One wicked king seeks their destruction, and the other may be a help to them, so they seek after the less wicked king who enslaved their ancestors.

Text from Isaiah 30 and 31:
“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord,
“who carry out a plan, but not mine,
and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit,
that they may add sin to sin;
who set out to go down to Egypt,
without asking for my direction,
to take refuge in the protection of Pharaoh
and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the protection of Pharaoh turn to your shame,
and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt to your humiliation.
For though his officials are at Zoan and his envoys reach Hanes,
everyone comes to shame
through a people that cannot profit them,
that brings neither help nor profit,
but shame and disgrace.”

"Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and rely on horses,
who trust in chariots because they are many
and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord!"

Commentary: God had demonstrated His power to Israel time and again, and yet still their trust was not in God but in man. Their fathers had seen God rout foreign armies by Moses holding a staff in the air, they had seen the parting of the Red Sea, and they had seen the plagues of Egypt. The next generation saw the toppling of Jericho, victory in battle against giants, and destruction of armies superior in number to their own. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But their trust was still not in this God who delivered them, but in the wicked who God despised. We read in Isaiah that, "'In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.' But you were unwilling."

The path was clear. Trust God and turn to Him in faith, or face the destruction He Himself will bring by foreign invaders. The people of Israel chose protection in the shadow of Egypt to their own destruction.

3. Ten faithless spies and two faithful.

Context: God promised the people a land flowing with milk and honey. He promised to destroy the current wicked population who practiced all manner of evil, and the time of His wrath had come to them for their wickedness. Twelve men were sent into the land to spy it out, bring back the fruit of the land, and give a report on the strength of the people there.

Text from Numbers 13: "But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, "'Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.' Then the men who had gone up with him said, 'We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.' So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, 'The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'"

Commentary: Because of this act of faithlessness in the wake of God downing the armies of the Egyptians and sending down pillars of fire from the sky, God cursed this generation to stay in the desert for 40 years until all the faithless were dead. By human calculation, their enemies were powerful, and they chose to believe they would fail to conquer instead of believing that God fought their battles for them. He was not pleased by their pragmatism. The glory of their God that they would have demonstrated to the nations was by their weakness, but they used it as an excuse instead. So is the case with all men who trust in men, instead of trust in God.

Thousands of examples could be multiplied, but as the author of Hebrews says, "And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—  who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."

This is the heritage that Christians have through faith. This is the path forward to justice and righteousness reigning in the land. The pragmatic calculations and schemes of men will come to ruin because God is not pleased with them. He takes no delight in the victory of men who win by their own devices but rather is glorified through the faithful obedience of His people. That is why we must reject pragmatism in all of its ugly and sinister forms. We must fight as God will have us fight, and we must not go with the multitude to do evil.