What does Obedience require?
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18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
19 If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land;
20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
God’s blessing is contigent on our obedience.
God’s blessing does not just come upon, any individual without any merit. I am talking about the true blessings of God,
Obedience is the thing that unlocks God’s blessing upon our life.
Disobedience on the other hand, bring only perdition and destruction.
When God brough his people out of Egypt the one thing he required of them was obedience. Obedience was the primary thing that God required of them.
20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.
22 For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.
The main thing that was expected of them was to obey his voice and keep his commandments.
Obedience was what God wanted from his people,
The peolple were to offer sacrifice and offering out from an obedient heart.
1 Samuel 15:22 “22 So Samuel said: “Has 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 heed than the fat of rams.”
11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
The true blessing of God, is contigent on your obedience.
His curse upon your disobedience.
How many of us wan’t the favor of God and blessing of God upon our life. We need to be obedient.
What does obedience require
1. Faith
1. Faith
Hebrews 3:16–19 (NKJV)
16 For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses?
17 Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
The people of Israel disobeyed God in the wilderness because of unbelief
Obedience is an act of faith, diobedience is an act of unbelief.
Obedience is the fruit of faith (belief) and disobedience is fruit of unbeleif
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise;
Abraham was obedient to the voice of God by faith.
His obedience was a fruit of his faith.
When he lived in obedience to God’s laws, judgements and statutes it was by faith.
Obedience and faith go together.
Abraham Test
15 Then the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven,
16 and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son—
17 blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
This great blessing that is still working today upon his descendant of whom we are through Christ was bestoyed upon Abraham not because of his sacrifice but because of his obedience.
According to Hebrews this obesience was the fruit of Abraham’s faith.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,”
19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
The enemise plan
31 And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”
33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.”
Satan wants us to be disobedient and rebel againts the word of God, and so he attacks out faith.
Because disobedience is the fruit of unbelief.
Summery, pray for faith, pray that God will help you to belief his word. Because inbelief will lead to disobedience.
2. Courage
2. Courage
2 And Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, for their heads, for their judges, and for their officers, and said to them: “I am old, advanced in age.
3 You have seen all that the Lord your God has done to all these nations because of you, for the Lord your God is He who has fought for you.
4 See, I have divided to you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, as far as the Great Sea westward.
5 And the Lord your God will expel them from before you and drive them out of your sight. So you shall possess their land, as the Lord your God promised you.
6 Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left,
Joshua told the people to be couragious to keep the the written Word of the Lord.
He knew they will be living among nation whose lifestyle is contrary to the law of God.
Therefore there will be a strong pull to sucum to the pressores of fitting in among this nations.
They will be idolated in their belief in comparison to the nations round about them, and they need courage not compromise God’s word in order to be welcomed by neighbouring nations.
You need courage to keep God’s word, because you may be rediculed or called names.
The opposite of Courage, is cowardice (pron cowardirse) which is fearfullness.
Example Of The word of The Lord to His people under the siege of babylonians
8 “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9 He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.
10 For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the Lord. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.” ’
Zedekiah refuse to obey because of fear
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surely surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live.
18 But if you do not surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and you shall not escape from their hand.’ ”
19 And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they abuse me.”
20 But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be well with you, and your soul shall live.
3 Humility
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Christ’s obedience was demostration of his humilty.
The opposite of humilty is pride, pride will lead to disobedience.
Example 2 Kings 5:9-13
9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’
12 Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
13 And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
He was full of pride and ego and hence, going and washing in the Jordan river was too beneath him.
Sometimes God to test our humilty will ask us to do things that will only cost us our ego and pride.
Maybe apologise to somebody that has done you wrong.
Humilty and obedience go together.
3. Knowledge
3. Knowledge
1 Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ ”
2 And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.”
Paharoahs ignorance of God caused him to disobey the command of God.
Lack of the Knowledge of the Lord can lead one to disobedience.
Hosea 6:3–7 (NKJV)
3 Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, And like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 “But like men they transgressed the covenant; There they dealt treacherously with Me.
They lack of Knowelgde of The Lord has led them to transgress the covenant and deal treachrously with God.
Their lack of Knwoeldeg of God has cause to build God in the likeness of a golden calf in samaria and bethel.
The lack of knowledge of God leads people to idolatry, treachery and all froms of diobedience.
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.
16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
Summery
Inorder to live in obedience, may God grant us faith, courage, humilty and knowledge.