Consider a lesson that the ancient Israelites as the wilderness congregation never learned. It is a lesson that’s so elemental and essential to God’s way of life that embracing this lesson ensures that the followers of Christ can avoid the failures that ancient Israel made. Simply put the lesson that we are to learn is obedience to God and His way to eternal Life. It is by following God’s principles that we will be able to develop eternal relationships with Him and others of like mind.
From the beginning, God revealed to Israel the promise of being a special treasure to Him: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine” (Exodus 19:4-5).
Obedience was ancient Israel’s duty under the old covenant that they failed to accomplish and maintain. And for which they were eventually divorced by God, an action which He hated. Ultimately, they were sent into captivity. They didn’t have God’s Holy Spirit, but they failed to keep the simple letter of His law. They were overwhelmed by their carnal nature to the point of complete disobedience (Romans 8.7 NIV). And it continues to this day. Just look around at the physical descendants of Israel today and the entire world in general. There is no restraint. There’s no semblance of keeping any law, let alone God’s holy law.
However, even the followers of God can suffer from the pulls of the carnal nature that still resides in each of us. We can become distracted and disconnected from Christ’s mind and subsequently be overwhelmed by Satan’s broadcastings and deceit. We can and do sin from time to time. We become disobedient to God, to His way and to His will.
So, by what mechanism does our being delivered from sin occur? It is through true repentance, and by the faith of Christ that our Father supplies, which leads to Godly love and ultimately to passionate obedience to Him. However, our baptism is not an end point but rather a continuation of the gift of God’s knowledge and thus obedience to Him by our understanding that overcoming sin is a process that we have to be involved in all the days of our lives. This process is fraught many times with trials and sufferings of many different kinds and from many different origins. And we must endure them and grow spiritually from them:
“. . .though [Christ] was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,” (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Our example then is Jesus Christ, who was obedient in all things to His Father. Now as head of the church, He requires our obedience to all His Father’s will even when that entails sufferings and persecutions as we strive for spiritual maturity.
The question for us is this: Is our obedience the kind God desires? Or Is our obedience done simply by rote without thinking about our behavior at all? Or is it done grudgingly out of a sense of duty as the ancient Israelites did when they occasionally chose to obey God? Or is it done from a far deeper and stronger place? Is it from a conviction within, forged from Godly love, from the active working of His Holy Spirit in us?
In true obedience there is not only the inherent obligation, but also, a deep steadfast desire to be doing what is right according to God’s word. It’s not just our mental agreement with God, it is also putting forth the effort to think about and then do what He says. Obedience to Jesus Christ brings and keeps our minds in unity and agreement with the Father’s mind, and in turn, we can walk as Christ walked.
Christ’s every step was in obedience to His Father. And that is the path for performing God’s will in our lives. The love of God will produce in us the desire to be obedient to Him in everything. As we strive more perfectly to do that, God has promised us a peace of mind that passes all understanding.
The journey we began by repenting and accepting Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and our subsequent promise to be obedient, comes with the recognition that what God has involved us in, is not a mission to just save our own lives, but a mission of mercy to help bring all humanity to salvation in God’s masterplan.
In contrast, the ancient Israelite’s lack of faith eventually resulted in their total and complete disobedience to Him. And this led to God at times imploring them to consider their ways, which is good advice for us today. When the Israelites were obedient, they were showered with many physical blessings both individually and nationally. And if they had remained obedient, God would have continually blessed them as an example for the other nations around them. But they failed.
The spiritual lesson for us is to believe God, and to serve Him in active obedience. With the help of the Holy Spirit we can keep His commandments; we can succeed where our physical counterparts did not. We are to be the examples of God’s law in its fullest spiritual intent as an example to others. We are to show the goodness of God and the blessings of living His wonderful way of life.
But, in our journey out of and away from sin, we can become fearful sometimes. We can fall into unbelief when we have a Red Sea trial, or a supremely hard test, or a difficult temptation, thanks to Satan’s constant working. Or do we trust God and in faithful obedience go forward, though it may seem very difficult or even impossible on the narrow path that leads to a life of trusting that God will give us victory over our adversary? As we focus on our obedience to God remember Paul said this:
“Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).
The narrow path we are to travel is obedience to God which leads to righteousness and ultimately to eternal life. God’s masterplan will stand. God the Father and Jesus Christ have shown us the way to overcome sin by obedience through the power of their Holy Spirit. Max Anders, a Christian author said: “Spiritual strength is connected to faithful obedience to God’s command.” We need to think about that.
Jack Rector