Obey on God's Terms, Not Ours

     Obeying God is an essential part of our walk with Christ, but it can also be a tricky part of our walk if we don’t have a clear grasp of obedience. We may think to ourselves that obedience is straightforward, but if we further consider it, we can come of with many reasons for disobeying God. On the other hand, we can also come up with many reasons for obeying God, but on our terms and not God’s.

    We see a good example of this in 1 Kings 13 concerning a man of God. The LORD sent him from Judah to the rebellious king of Israel, Jeroboam, who was in Bethel. This event occurred just after the split of the kingdom, under the reign of Rehoboam. Jeroboam was now setting up a false religion to draw the people under his rule from the LORD God. God instructed the man of God to confront Jeroboam about his sin and call out against the altar he has built. The LORD clearly sent His message through the man of God when he confronted Jeroboam. The LORD split the altar open and dried up Jeroboam’s hand when he was giving instructions. By God’s grace Jeroboam’s hand was restored when the man of God entreated the LORD.

     One other instruction the LORD gave to the man of God was, “You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came” (vs. 13). The man of God clearly understood this instruction because he refused to accept Jeroboam’s hospitality when it was extended to him. The LORD’s command became less clear to the man of God when he met an old prophet from Bethel.

     The old prophet extended hospitality to the man of God and again, he refused the offer. He explained to the old prophet what the LORD had commanded him to do. Unfortunately, the old prophet deceived the man of God by telling him, “…an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your home, that he may eat bread and drink water” (vs. 18). The man of God then accepted the old prophet’s offer and disobeyed the clear command of God.

     His disobedience immediately became evident as the LORD spoke through the old prophet and pronounced judgment upon the man of God. Judgment came in the form of being killed by a lion on his way home. This was clearly a judgment from God because the lion did not eat the man or attack the donkey he was riding on. The man of God clearly understood what God had instructed him to do, but chose to obey a lesser authority who told him to act contrary to God’s command.

     This man of God provides a couple important lessons about obeying God. The first lesson is that the man of God really wanted to disobey God and the old prophet provided the excuse. The man of God clearly understood what God had commanded him to do. Twice, he refused hospitality and expressed the reason for saying no. God told him not to eat or drink until he got home. When the old prophet told the man of God that an angel had told him it was ok, he conceded without question. The man of God wanted to eat and drink and the old prophet provided a reason to disobey.

     This same scenario was played out with Adam and Eve. God had clearly told them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they allowed themselves to be deceived by the serpent. It was not simply a matter of confusion on the part of Adam and Eve. There was a desire within them that they wanted to eat the “forbidden” fruit and the serpent gave them the excuse to disobey. This turned into a disaster that has affected the whole world ever since.

     These examples above of looking for an excuse to disobey does not apply only to these two events. We can also just as easily look for excuses to disobey. There are plenty of deceiving influences in the world today. They are found in social media or with false teachers who say it is ok to disobey. One particularly sinister source of deception is found in many laws that govern our society. For example, abortion is legal in various forms throughout our country. Since it is legal, the law can be viewed as an excuse for getting an abortion. What happens is that God’s law becomes subservient to society’s law.

     A second lesson we can learn from the man of God is to look at obedience as the only motivation to obey. This means that obedience operates as merely keeping a checklist of dos and don’ts. The man of God obeyed God’s commands as simply commands and was willing to disobey because an angel said he could do otherwise.

     What God desires for us is to obey out of a love for Him. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (Jn. 14: 15). We should be driven by a desire to please Him, not just simply obedience. In other words, how can we demonstrate our love for God? We obey Him.

     God’s commandments act as guardrails for us. In the moment when we are tempted to disobey, His commandments can keep us “on the road”. As we grow in our love for Him, the guardrails become less important. Our motivation becomes living a life pleasing to Him rather than simply keeping His commands. As we grow in Him, we become less distracted by sin. The guardrails are still there, but we have become more adept (mature) at staying “on the road.” We also want to stay “on the road” because it pleases Him. This is the kind of obedience God desires from us.