OBEDIENCE
Christians obey God (1 John 2:3)
People who obey God’s Word will be blessed (Luke 11:28). This fact was displayed by our Lord Jesus when as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd called out, “God bless your mother—the womb from which you came, and the breasts that nursed you!” He replied, “But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”
Blessings for Obedience
…. “If you keep my laws and are careful to obey my commands, I will send the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees will produce their fruit. Your threshing season will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will extend until it is time to plant grain again. You will eat your fill and live securely in your land. “I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep without fear. I will remove the wild animals from your land and protect you from your enemies. In fact, you will chase down all your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath the blows of your weapons. “I will look favorably upon you and multiply your people and fulfill my covenant with you. You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to get rid of the leftovers from the previous year to make room for each new harvest. I will live among you, and I will not despise you. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I have lifted the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk free with your heads held high. (Lev. 26:1-13)
“If you fully obey the Lord your God by keeping all the commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will exalt you above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God:
You will be blessed in your towns and in the country.
You will be blessed with many children and productive fields.
You will be blessed with fertile herds and flocks.
You will be blessed with baskets overflowing with fruit, and with kneading bowls filled with bread.
You will be blessed wherever you go, both in coming and in going.
“The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven! “The Lord will bless everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. “If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he solemnly promised to do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you. “The Lord will give you an abundance of good things in the land he swore to give your ancestors—many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens to bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God and carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always have the upper hand. You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today to follow after other gods and worship them.
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? He requires you to fear him, to live according to his will, to love and worship him with all your heart and soul, and to obey the Lord’s commands and laws that I am giving you today for your own good. The highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God. Yet the Lord chose your ancestors as the objects of his love. And he chose you, their descendants, above every other nation, as is evident today. Therefore, cleanse your sinful hearts and stop being stubborn. “The Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords. He is the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and takes no bribes. He gives justice to orphans and widows. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. You, too, must show love to foreigners, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land ofEgypt. You must fear the Lord your God and worship him and cling to him. Your oaths must be in his name alone. He is your God, the one who is worthy of your praise, the one who has done mighty miracles that you yourselves have seen. When your ancestors went down intoEgypt, there were only seventy of them. But now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky! (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)
Obedience to the King
Obey the king because you have vowed before God to do this. Don’t try to avoid doing your duty, and don’t take a stand with those who plot evil. For the king will punish those who disobey him. The king’s command is backed by great power. No one can resist or question it. Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right. Yes, there is a time and a way for everything, even as people’s troubles lie heavily upon them. Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen? None of us can hold back our spirit from departing. None of us has the power to prevent the day of our death. There is no escaping that obligation, that dark battle. And in the face of death, wickedness will certainly not rescue those who practice it. (Eccl. 8:2-8)
Obedience to God’s Call
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people obeyed the message from the Lord their God. It had been delivered by the prophet Haggai, whom the Lord their God had sent, and the people worshiped the Lord in earnest. Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave the people this message from the Lord: “I am with you, says the Lord!” So the Lord sparked the enthusiasm of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of God’s people. They came and began their work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God. This was on September 21 of the second year of King Darius’s reign. (Haggai 12:1-15)
Blessings Promised for Obedience
On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: “This is what the Lord Almighty says! Ask the priests this question about the law: If one of you is carrying a holy sacrifice in his robes and happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?” The priests replied, “No.”
Then Haggai asked, “But if someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then brushes against any of the things mentioned, will it be defiled?”
And the priests answered, “Yes.”
Then Haggai said, “That is how it is with this people and this nation, says the Lord. Everything they do and everything they offer is defiled. So think about this from now on—consider how things were going for you before you began to lay the foundation of the Lord’sTemple. When you hoped for a twenty-bushel crop, you harvested only ten. When you expected to draw fifty gallons from the winepress, you found only twenty. I sent blight and mildew and hail to destroy all the produce of your labor. Yet, even so, you refused to return to me, says the Lord. “On this eighteenth day of December—the day when the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid—carefully consider this: I am giving you a promise now while the seed is still in the barn, before you have harvested your grain and before the grapevine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have produced their crops. From this day onward I will bless you.”(Haggai 2:10-19)
King Jotham became powerful because he was careful to live in obedience to the Lord his God. (2 Chronicles 27:6) For Moses wrote that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.
And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to live in obedience to him. Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. Don’t let anyone lead you astray with empty philosophy and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the evil powers of this world, and not from Christ. For in Christ the fullness of God lives in a human body, and you are complete through your union with Christ. He is the Lord over every ruler and authority in the universe.
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could deliver him out of death. And God heard his prayers because of his reverence for God. So even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.
“Today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. You will receive a curse if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn from his way by worshiping foreign gods.
Remember, to obey is better than sacrifice.
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