GOD REWARDS OBEDIENCE.

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 28, 2021..

SUBJECT : GOD REWARDS OBEDIENCE.

Memory verse: "If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures." (Job 36 vs 11.)

READ: FIRST SAMUEL 15 vs 17 - 23:

15:17: So Samuel said, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the LORD anoint you king over Israel?

18: Now the LORD sent you on a mission, and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.'

19: Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop down on the spoil, and do evil in the sight of the LORD?"

20: And Saul said to Samuel, "But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and brought back Agag king of Amalek; I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

21: But the people took of the plunder, sheep and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal."

22: So Samuel said: "Has the LORD 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.

23: For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also have rejected you from being king."

INTIMATION:

Being obedient is submission to authority; to comply with orders; the practice of doing what one is told. Obedience is of the conduct and may be observed. When a man obeys God he gives the only possible evidence that in his heart he believes God. He demands obedience from us.

Disobedience is, rebellion and stubbornness to God, and they are serious sins. Scriptures equates them with divination (witchcraft) and idolatry, sins worthy of death. Rebellion against God is perhaps the most serious sin of all because as long as a person rebels, he or she closes the door of forgiveness and restoration with God.

In the passage we read, Saul didn't obey God's instruction to completely destroy all the Amalekites and their belongings, but spared King Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good. It showed disrespect and disregard for God because it directly violated His commands. When we gloss over sin in order to protect what we have or our material gain, we aren't being shrewd, we are disobeying God's law.

All of God's command are for our own good, and obedience comes with reward. We should obey God in every respect because of who He is—the only One with the power to meet our every need. Obedience is key to the lives of notable personalities in the Bible, like Abel, Noah, and Abraham. Abel was the second child born into the world, but the first one to obey God. The Bible doesn't tell us why God liked Abel's gifts and disliked Cain's, but both of them knew what God expected. Only Abel obeyed. Throughout history, Abel is remembered for his obedience and faith, and it was counted to him as righteousness  (Hebrews 11 vs 4).

Noah was obedient to construct a graphic illustration of a huge boat on dry land from God. There has been no rain on earth and no such boat has ever been constructed at the time. Noah was obedient to the instruction for 120years before the coming of the flood. Noah's obedience meant a long-term commitment to a project. It is very interesting that the length of Noah's obedience is greater than the lifespan of people today. The only comparable long-term  project is our very lives. Noah and the household became the only people saved in the whole earth at the time of the flood because he obeyed. 

Abraham obeyed God while he had the choice to make, either setting out with his family and belongings to an unknown destination, or staying right where he was. He had to decide between the security and comfort of what he already had and the uncertainty of traveling under God's direction with only God's promise to guide and bless him. Abraham could hardly have been expected to visualize how much of the future was resting on his decision of whether to go or stay, but his obedience affected the history of the world. 

His decision to follow God set in motion the development of the nation that God would eventually use as His own when He visited earth Himself. When Jesus Christ came to earth, God's promise was fulfilled; through Abraham the entire world was blessed. 

The sin of disobedience has great consequences. In Genesis 3, Adam And Eve disobeyed God and chose their course of action and God chose His. As a Holy God, He could respond only in a way consistent with His perfect moral nature. He could not allow sin to go unpunished. Their sin set in motion the world's tendency toward disobeying God. That is why we sin today. Every human being ever born, with the exception of Jesus, has inherited the sinful nature of Adam and Eve (Romans 5 vs 12-21).

Obeying God is a way to true freedom because it is subjecting yourself to God's Will for your life. Disobedience leads to self-exaltation, and subsequently to rebellion against God. As soon as we begin to leave God out of our plans, we are placing ourselves above Him. The greatest task of the enemy of our soul is constantly working on us to disobey God because he knows the consequences, and is his major tool to achieve his set goals of stealing, destroying, and killing (John 10 vs 10). 

Christians today always make rituals (sacrifices and offerings) of going to church, serving in committees or units, taking communion, or paying tithes. But these activities are empty if our reasons for doing them are selfish. God doesn't want these rituals without an attitude of devotion (obedience) to Him. The prophet Samuel told Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice." All we should do is to give God the obedience and lifelong service He desires from us, and "You shall eat the good of the land" ( Isaiah 1 vs 19). Sacrifices and offerings are not bribes to make God overlook our character faults. All God wants is our sincere faith and devotion. 

The Christian rituals are to be outward sign of an inward faith in God. Many today have come to place more faith in the rituals of their religion than in God they worship. God does not take pleasure in your outward expressions if your inward faith is missing. Though religious rituals can help people understand God and nourish their relationship with Him, but they are helpful only if it is carried out with an attitude of love and obedience to God.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with spirit of complete obedience to You, that I may submit to You in all things in love, and spend my days in prosperity and my years in pleasures, at the end receive the crown of eternal life, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!