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| Evangelist John Bosco |
Generally speaking, when the word Obedience is
mentioned, people understand it in different ways. Obedience in a simple
meaning is following and doing instructions. A child is said to be obedience if
he does what the parent instructed him to do, or an elder tells him to do.
In the story of “cry wolf,” the goatherd was given
clear instructions to take care of the goats on the hillside and alert the villagers
if he sees wolves to be helped. The boy due to desire to making fun of the villagers
could run from the hillside crying wolf wolf wolf wolf, and the villagers would
run to help the boy who would laughed at them and even his own parents because
of having deceived the whole village. This continued for quite long time.
At last when real wolves came, the boy started
crying wolf from the hilltop up to his village without attracting this time
attention from the villagers who believed the boy was just doing his usual fun
yet it was real. The villagers only responded after when the boy was crying
unstoppabbly only to find that dozens of goats were killed by wolves.
In this story, we learnt that the boy disobeyed
instructions and this led to the demise of the parent’s goats. If he had obeyed
what he was told, nothing would have happened to their goats. The boy failed
the parents and the whole community.
In the story of creation Genesis 2-3, man was
created and given instructions to do all that he was supposed to do. His was
just to follow and obey the instructions but he failed and later on was cursed
and sent away from Garden of Eden simply because of disobedient
Relatedly, the Israelite after deliverance from the
hand of Pharaohs were given laws and commandments. There were health laws, law
governing marriage, worship, offertory and ownership of properties among
others. They were instructed to obey at all cost, why?
1. Obedience
to God is very important. It makes us live longer, our life
span on the earth would expand so long as we are obedient to God and His
commands. Vs1 say, ‘you must obey all the commands I give you today, because
then you will LIVE…’to live, we must
obey all the commands God gave us yesterday, today and tomorrow. In Duet
chapter 4:1, Moses said, ‘Now, Israel, listen to the laws and to the commands
that I teach you. OBEY them and you will live.’ This confirms that obedience to
commands or instructions make one lives and vice versa
2.
It makes us multiply in number Vs1. In another
word, we grow to become a great nation.
This verse reminds to understand why Israeli, being the smallest country in
Arabs world is one of the strongest countries to date, simply because of their
obedience to God. Our desire to grow into a great nation must base on the
obedience of God’s command as He said, ‘YOU MUST OBEY ALL THE COMMANDS I GIVE
YOU….’ Duet 8:1. Which commands are
those? Read Exodus 20:1-20, Deuteronomy 5:1-21, 6:1-24, 12,13,14:22-29 etc.
3.
Get possessions Vs1. This same verse
helps us to understand that obedience too makes us to get what we want in our
daily life. ‘ ……….. You will get the land that the Lord promised to your
ancestors.’ To get exactly to the point of our interest means we have to be
obedient to all the rules that govern. Even in the field of play, a football
team succeeds if it follows the instruction of the coach and follows all the
rules needed in the field of play, the same to an athlete to be crown winner.
4.
You will never be a looser Vs4. It won’t be
difficult for you to succeed all the time, you will lack nothing, and all your
properties shall always be in abundance. Sickness will not last in you, you
will never be hungry, and your clothes will never wear out. 40 years, the
Israelites were in the wilderness but didn’t experience hardships, they were
fed, given water, cloud covered them, they fought their enemies at ease, all
this happened due to their obedience, in the contrary where they disobeyed God,
they were defeated, example Judges 6, where the Israelites were defeated by the
Midianites under Gideon because of disobedience Judges 6:1.
5.
It strengthens our relationship with God and Makes
us have place in Heaven. Matthew 7:21. ‘…….the only people who will enter heaven are
those who do what my Father in heaven wants.’ If we obey God, we become
children of God, John 1:12, 13 and only this is possible when we obey God’s
commands Duet 8:6, 11, 17-19.
Yes, obedience is very important for
many reasons that we don’t have enough space for dwelling on. The only concern
here is, how do you make it possible in your life? What do you do to be
obedient?
1.
Bless
His Name vs10. We have to bless the name of the Lord for all provisions in our
life. It is Him worthy of praises and should be our character. But in most
cases, we don’t give Him praise for any blessing, we tend to glorify ourselves
or our relatives for having succeeded in a business. We forget that it is God
who makes everything possible. Duet 8:18 say, ‘Remember the Lord your God is the one who gives you power to do these
things. He does this because He wants to keep the agreement that He made with
your ancestors as He is doing today.’ It is therefore wrong not bless the
Name of the Lord
2.
Remember
God always (Don’t forget Him). As a
child of God, you must think always about God. In Duet 8: 11, it says, ‘Be careful, don’t forget the Lord your God!’
in all that we do, when sleeping, in our
work places, during a journey, tour, eating, partying, we must not
forget God. If we do this, means we are obedient
3.
Keeps
God’s commands. In verse 1, 6 and 11, Moses repeatedly called the Israelites to
obey all the commands as instructed by God. This, if they do shall be well with
them always until they acquired the Promised Land. However, all the Israelites
who disobeyed God’s commands didn’t reach the Promised Land including Moses.
The same to us, sometimes we aimed higher but failed simply because of not
being obedient enough as seen currently.
4.
Be
humble/don’t be proud. The bible says, ‘Don’t ever say to yourself, ‘I got all
this wealth by my own power and ability.’ Duet 8: 17. Obedience does not need
priding, doesn’t need us to take God’s position in our life and activities. We
have to trust in the Lord for all wisdom and blessing. Proverbs 3:7 says, ‘Don’t trust in your own
wisdom, but fear and respect the Lord and stay away from
evil.’ It continues, ‘if you do this, it will be like a refreshing drink and
medicine for your body.’ Proverbs 3:8. BE HUMBLE AND BECOME OBEDIENT!
5.
Stay
away from evil. Another point to note here is to stay away from doing evil
things. The bible says, ‘…….. Stay away from evil.’ Proverbs 3:7. Any one keeps
and obey God’s commands does not involved in sinning and consent with sinners.
Be obedient and be blessed by staying away from evil! Don’t defend lies in the
name of human right, because someone is your brother, because you want to gain
popularity or gains, don’t please!
Whether a president, pope, pastor,
bishop, human right activist, lawyer, disobeying God’s commands has negative
consequence to your life and that is a total death. It does not consider the
best part of your contributions in the community or your personal life or your
trial to be good.
What happened to Adam and Eve during
their early stay in the Garden of Eden? Genesis 2:15-17, 3
After God
created Adam, he put him in the Garden of Eden to take care of and not to eat
fruit from the tree that gives knowledge about good and evil. He was told, ‘you
may eat from any tree in the garden. But you must not eat from the tree that
gives knowledge about good and evil. If you eat fruit from that tree, on that
day you certainly die!’ Genesis 2:16, 17.
From this
analysis, the only result for disobedient is death. The Israelites were also
told, they would surely perish if they stop keeping the commands of God. Duet
8:20 comparing them with other nations that disobeyed God.
Our conditions
are not far from the Israelites, and above all, we who believed in Christ are
children of Israel because we became the descendants of Abraham.
When I look
around, there is a lot of chaos and failures, I simply realized that we disobey
God’s commands. There is a high spirit of hatred, killings, corruption,
robbery, sexual immorality of all sorts, cheating God in offertory and tithes,
drugs abuse, abortion, deceits and lies, cult practices, taking position of
God, hunger, wars and many more are all results of disobedience.
To be honest, it
is difficult to realize peace in South Sudan for example, just because the
people’s relationship with God is too wide. It’s going to take years of
struggle to grow great unless the people realized their disobedience and turn
to God, 2 Chronicles 7:14
This too,
applies in our families, ministries and business. You try very hard always but
failed, you don’t study the root cause, and you only blame your neighbor, your
workmate, your boss, your pastor or your leader. The word of God is plain, obey
all the commands of God that you know from Genesis to Revelations.
© Evangelist John Bosco
Twitter:
ayella_john
Skype:
ayella.johnbosco1
Tel:
0955133983/0928150660
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