Obey

by Linda Hammond

(Scriptures are from the K.J.V. Bible. Definitions are quoted from The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible by James Strong LL.D., S.T.D.)

Why am I writing about obedience? If you read through to the end, you’ll better understand. I hope.

Disobedience brings negative consequences; be it disobedience to parents, God, or the laws of the land.

Let’s start at the beginning. God told Adam he could eat of every tree in the Garden of Eden, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam relayed this to Eve, adding the caveat to not even touch the forbidden tree. God told Adam the consequences if they disobeyed:

Genesis 2:17 For in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Come on now, y’all! One rule! And one consequence – death – for breaking that one rule. How difficult is that! But Adam chose to believe that GOD - who created him, made a wife to help him, walked and talked with him every day, provided for all his needs, and who loved him - was lying to him. Instead, Adam believed the serpent (Satan) when he said they would surely NOT die. But . . . do we do any differently today? Really!

First, let’s look at us as children.

Colossians 3:20

Children, OBEY (S.C. 5210 – listen attentively, implying to heed and conform) your parent in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

Why is it important to obey our parents? As children, we see our parents daily. They provide all our needs and love and support us as God did for Adam and Eve. If we can’t/don’t learn obedience from our parents who we see every day, how will we ever learn to obey God, whom we cannot see? I’ve heard it said that our parents are the first “gods” we know. They are bigger than we are; and they seem to know everything, be able to do everything, and provide everything we need, right? But they also teach us consequences: positive and negative. Did you ever disobey them? (Oh, you did, too!) Even though you knew it could end in discipline!

On a personal note, when my mom would catch me doing something wrong, she would give me a warning: “If I ever catch you doing that again, I’m going to whup (whip) you!” or “Don’t let me catch you doing that again!” So, the message I heard was, “Don’t get caught!", right? Children are very literal. So, I started out my life with seeing how much I could get away with. I wasn’t very good at “getting away with it” so I had to pay the consequences a lot. Did that deter me? Nope!

Stay with me. There’s a point to it all. And a surprise ending!

Next, let’s look at the Israelites! God brought them out of slavery in Egypt with His power and might. They witnessed the ten plagues, saw the parting of the Red Sea, crossed over on dry land, and saw the waters return and drown the Egyptians who followed them. However, just three days later, they began complaining about having no fresh water to drink. So, God provided it for them. About six weeks later, they began complaining again and accused Moses of bringing them into the wilderness to kill them with hunger. So, God provided them manna to eat every morning and quail to eat every evening. (Exodus 16: 1-8). Later, on Mt. Sinai - God told Moses to tell the Israelites:

Exodus 19:4-7

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now, if you will OBEY (S.C. 8085 – hear intelligently with the implication of attention and obedience) my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people: for the earth is mine.

Notice he immediately gives the Law . . . what they must obey to keep the covenant and receive the blessings. Then, He goes into the details of the good consequences for obedience and the bad consequences for disobedience.

The book of Leviticus continues with describing the numerous laws concerning every part of life along with the offerings and sacrifices required for disobedience (sin) of those laws. It serves as a manual for the priests to know what offerings are acceptable for which sins. Did the Israelites stay true to God? Nope. Not even close. The rest of the Old Testament, history, and prophecy testifies of the negative consequences they suffered because they Did. Not. Obey. They experienced famine, pestilences, plagues, being servants to their enemies, captivity, death, and destruction. Humm? Are we, today, any better at obeying? Umm. Nope!

We’ve established that children are instructed to obey their parents. This is how we learn right and wrong, good, and bad, and positive and negative consequences. When we obey, we learn to live our lives seeking the good and right ways to gain positive consequences. Obedience helps us “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God which is well pleasing to him.” (Romans 12:2)

Hebrews 13:17

Obey (S.C. 3892 agree, believe, trust, yield, to assent) them that have rule over you: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you”.

This refers to the pastors and leaders of the church. They are representatives of God to the assembly and are responsible for our spiritual growth. If they must report that we have been disobedient, we stand to lose rewards – not that rewards are taken away, but that we didn’t do anything to gain what God had in store for our obedience.

I am not going to pursue politics here. However, we do need to remember Acts 5:25–32 with a focus on verse 29: “then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We are to obey God rather than man”.

A key verse to me, is 1 Samuel 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.

OK! Have I made my point? Maybe belabored it? Just hang on a little longer. I’m going to talk about . . . driving a car. What? Bear with me. I chose this for several reasons. One, because I’m 99.999% sure everyone who has a driver’s license has broken at least one of the myriad of laws at one time or another. You say no? Humm… You’ve never exceeded the speed limit by even 1 mph? Rolled through a stop sign? Forgotten to use your turn signal? Sped up when the traffic light turned yellow? Eased through a red light late at night when you could plainly see there was no other traffic around? I confess, I’ve often tried to see how much I could get away with. So, my story continues . . .

Not so long ago I was on my way to church, running late as I often am. As I reached Lawton city limits, where the speed limit changes from 60 mph to 45 mph, I came up behind a truck going 45 mph. In my mind, I said to the truck driver as I started to pass him, “Yeah, yeah, I know the speed limit is 45, but I know I can get away with 55”. (I mean is it really a sin to speed so I can get to church on time, to sing God’s praises, worship Him, and study his word? Humm. It sounds bad when I say it that way, but I digress!) But then I heard a very distinct, calm, matter-of-fact voice in my mind say, “It’s not about what you can get away with, it’s about the law”.

Oh my! I hope I didn’t lose you there. I know some people won’t believe this, but I can tell you it wasn’t just my own thought. I’ve lived with my thoughts for 75 years and they never spoke words that I heard in my mind. Was it my conscience? My conscience has made me feel guilty before but has never spoken distinct words to me. And I’ve never felt guilty about breaking a few driving rules, so why would I now? I also don’t believe I have a mental disorder (though some might disagree with that. LOL) Was it God? Was it the Holy Spirit? I believe it was The Spirit, but I’m just gonna leave that right there and let you decide for yourself.

After hearing that voice, my first thought was, "How much of my life have I wasted seeing how much I could get away with?" followed by "How many others have done the same thing?" My next thought was recalling the Bible verse about obeying the laws of the land.

Titus 3:1

Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work.

Whether a government is Christian, non-Christian, or even anti-Christian, it has been ordained of God (Romans 13:1). This verse teaches civil obedience. Unless the civil laws go against God’s laws of course.

Other scriptures concerning civil obedience are:

Ezra 7:26

Whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king (a king, royal), let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.

1 Peter 2:13-15

Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

There are many other scripture verses that speak to civil obedience but hopefully this will suffice.

So, should I, we, obey even the seemingly insignificant laws (such as traffic laws) that we’re pretty sure we can get away with it disobeying? Yes, even those! And yes, I have slowed my speed down and now watch for speed signs instead of police cars.

Moral of the story: It's not about what or how much we can get away with (because with God, we can't); it's about the law - ALL laws - both God's and man's: significant and (seemingly) insignificant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrSCxfnN2B8