Year 6, Day 333: 2 Chronicles 35

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

What a great chapter through which we can look at the faithful followers of God through the lens of obedience.  What I love about this chapter is that it is incredibly real.  It shows us a spiritual and political leader much in the same light as we saw back with David.

For example, look at the first two-thirds of this chapter.  Time and time again we hear that Josiah was obedient to the Law as it was written by Moses.  Josiah knew what to do, how to do it, and even when to do it!  He followed the written word quite literally to the letter!  He was an incredibly obedient leader in the things that were written and clearly dictated by God’s Word.  This is how it should be!

On the other hand, look at the last third of this chapter.  In these verses we hear about Josiah’s stubbornness.  He goes out against Necho, Pharaoh of Egypt.  Necho even gives him a reason to turn around.  Do you hear his reason?  He is doing the will of God, and doing it in a hurry!  Yet, Josiah continues to oppose him.  Josiah clearly makes the wrong choice in a moment of disobedience.  Unfortunately for Josiah, this moment of disobedience also costs him his life.

What can we learn from this chapter about obedience?  We can learn that we should be able to get the things right that are specified in God’s Word.  There isn’t any excuse for getting those things wrong.  But when it comes to the gray areas in life where we are making decisions based on what we think is correct as we apply God’s Word to our life, the reality is that we are going to make mistakes.  We are going to make the incorrect choice and that choice will lead to disobedience.  All of the good leaders did it; we will do it to.  The trick is to live humbly and repent when we find ourselves walking in disobedience.

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Year 6, Day 329: 2 Chronicles 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Hezekiah’s reign, at least from the perspective of the Chronicler, is one of obedience. Hezekiah obeys after a horrible example set by his father.  The Levites and the priests obey when called upon by Hezekiah and pull down the places for false worship. The people obey when they see the example of the king and the priests before them and offer up sacrifices for the temple.  In a single generation, the people of Israel go from being a disobedient people caught up in the world of false gods to a nation getting back on the right track.

This is the simple power of obedience.  One obedient act leads to another.  Several obedient acts lead to a pattern of life.  Several patterns of life lead to a life that is generally devoted to the pursuit of God and His ways.

One obedient man inspires obedience in the lives of those near him.  That obedient group inspires obedience in a larger group.  Soon the whole nation is responding to the obedience set forth by a single man.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not trying to paint an over-glorious portrait here.  I’m sure that there were dissidents.  We know that it won’t take long after Hezekiah is no longer king before the nation falls.  If you read the account of Hezekiah in Kings, you get a glimpse of some of the mistakes that Hezekiah made.  I’m not saying that Hezekiah was perfect and that the nation was perfect in any way.  But what I am saying is that a few obedient acts can have an impact that we cannot foresee.

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Year 6, Day 320: 2 Chronicles 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Jehoram comes into power after Jehoshaphat dies.  As is the custom of the Chronicler, we are told about his reign upfront.  Jehoram was an evil man.  He was not obedient to God.  In fact, he was instead obedient to the was of the kings of Israel.

What is it that brings about this change from the perspective of Jehoram?  After all, Jehoshaphat was a pretty good guy, with only a few flaws for which he seemed genuinely repentant?  What does Jehoram in is his marriage to a foreign princess.  In fact, he marries into the house of the kings of Israel!  When he brings down a wife from Israel, he opens the door for taint to come into his life.  Clearly, this is disobedience in its best.

Furthermore, do you see how he tries to manipulate God’s hand?  Jehoram has all of his brothers killed.  Some might think this is shrewd.  After all, if God has promised that there will always be a descendant of David on the throne, what better way to ensure that your line stays strong than to kill all of the other eligible men!  However, what some may think of as shrewd I find despicable.  In this act we don’t see a humble trust in God.  We don’t see relationship with God.  What we see is a human being trying to manipulate the hand of God.  This is sinfulness at its worst.

However, take a look at how God deals with Jehoram’s disobedience.  As Jehoram had all of his brothers killed, God killed all but one of his sons.  God brings up oppression because of his disobedience in the form of the Philistines.  They plunder the land.

I find it sad to see how the disobedience of one person can cause so much hardship in the lives of the people around him. Jehoram’s disobedience resulted in the death of nearly everyone that was meaningful to him.  It resulted in his people having to fend of rebellions and war.

Of course, I am not much different.  I may not have a nation underneath me, but that doesn’t mean that my places of sin and disobedience don’t mar the community around me.  It certainly does.

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Year 6, Day 316: 2 Chronicles 16-17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Today we read about the end of Asa’s reign and the beginning of Jehoshaphat’s reign.  Both kings have a good relationship with the Lord and walk in the Lord’s favor.  We saw yesterday how Asa walked.  We hear today that Jehoshaphat continued to walk in the style of relationship with God that reflects the humble repentance that David had.

However, we will notice that even the good kings struggled with obedience.  This is not really a surprise.  David was not perfect, yet he was called a man after God’s own heart.  It shouldn’t surprise us that we can see kings who are good at heart but who are not perfect.  In fact, these stories should inspire us and fill us with hope.

In the chapters for today, we hear about one of Asa’s stumbles.  He sees that the king of Israel has begun fortifying his position against Judah.  The king of Israel can do this because he has a treaty with Aram that allows him to focus on his other borders.  Asa sees this and becomes worried.  Asa goes to the king of Aram and invites him to break his treaty so that the king of Israel will have to divide his focus back onto all of his borders.  The tactic works.  The king of Israel backs off from fortifying his border with Israel.  Asa can then relax and fortify his own position.

All of this sounds very astute.  It feels like Asa was wise and shrewd in this passage.  However, he makes a subtle flaw.  In going to a foreign king, he shows us that he isn’t fully relying upon God.  He isn’t fully obedient.  He is putting his confidence in his ability to manipulate mankind rather than trusting in God’s ability to protect him.  Asa doesn’t consult with the prophets before making his decision.  Asa simply goes out and does what he believes is necessary.

Asa shows us that often the break in obedience comes not in our blatant disobedience but in our subtle forgetfulness.  Asa’s actions weren’t flagrantly against the ways of God.  Asa simply forgot to pause and ask God where God is leading him.  As a result, he shows that he is relying upon his own wisdom rather than instinctually coming before God.

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Year 6, Day 306: 2 Chronicles 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Sometimes prayer is genuine communication with God.  Okay, in truth, all of prayer should be communication with God.  But sometimes prayer serves multiple purposes.  In fact, often when I am teaching a class and I pray, my prayers have multiple purposes.  The prayer is about talking with God.  But the prayer is often setting the tone and mood of the classroom.  The prayer is sometimes about teaching people or reminding them about something.  Sometimes the prayer is about giving caution.  My point is that prayer often serves multiple purposes, especially communal prayer.

When we read through 2 Chronicles 6, there is a clear sense that Solomon’s prayer to God is a prayer of multiple purpose.  Naturally, Solomon is praying to God and communicating with God.  But do you hear that Solomon’s prayer has more to do with the actions of the people and God’s response?  Does God need to be lectured about how humans react and how He should respond to us?  Of course not!  God is God.  He knows how to handle us and He knows what to expect from us.

So what is going on here?  Solomon is praying while reminding the people how to behave.  Solomon is reminding them that if they are unfaithful they need to turn and repent.  Solomon is reminding the people that God will hear them if they repent.  But Solomon is also reminding them that if they go against God’s way, then they shouldn’t be surprised if God pulls His protection and provision over them.  God’s not doing this to be mean-spirited or vengeful; God is doing this to get their attention!

Why would the Chronicler make sure to include this in his work?  The people have just returned from exile.  He wants them to see that God does listen when we repent.  He can restore us.  But he also wants the people to remember to be obedient as it was their fathers’ disobedience that led them into exile in the first place.

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Year 6, Day 294: 1 Chronicles 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

David sets out to acquire the possessions needed to build the temple.  You might recall that a few chapters back that God prohibited David from building the temple.  So how is it that David’s action here can be a model of obedience?

David doesn’t actually plan on building the temple.  What David is doing is providing the means for the temple to be built.  Solomon will build the temple after David in no longer king.  The adult leaders around Solomon will make sure that the temple is built.

What we actually have here is David being supremely obedient.  God told David that he would not build the temple.  He’s obeying god and not building the temple.  God also told David that His Son would build the temple.  David is finding a way to make sure that the task can be properly undertaken by Solomon.  Not only is David being obedient, but David is finding a way to be obedient and demonstrate his love for God and his desire to praise Him.

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Year 6, Day 289: 1 Chronicles 17

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I’ve mentioned before that I think one of the best attributes of David is his ability to repent.  He lives life according to the passion of his heart. He isn’t afraid to make mistakes, knowing that if God corrects him he can genuinely change and repent of his wrongdoing.  This doesn’t mean that David lives as he pleases and uses God’s forgiveness as a crutch.  It means that David is trying to live a life according to God’s ways and he can do it with passion because when he makes a mistake he knows that God will be with him to correct it.

We see this really clearly in this passage.  As David is setting up Jerusalem, he builds his palace.  But then it dawns on him that his house is better – from a worldly perspective – than the house of the Lord.  He decides that this isn’t right, and he creates a plan to build a house or God.  However, this is where we see David’s repentance.  The last time David had a plan, Uzzah died because David didn’t consult the Lord and the priests regarding how the ark should be moved.  David shows the change in his heart because this time he stops and takes time to consult Nathan, the priest of the Lord, about his plan.

Notice that God ultimately tells David “No.”  But look at David’s response.  David doesn’t pout.  David doesn’t get mad.  Because David’s repentance is genuine, he can accept the will of the Lord and not be offended.  David is concerned more with obedience to God that he is concerned about getting his own way.  That’s what obedience is all about.

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Year 6, Day 286: 1 Chronicles 13-14

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

The story of Uzzah is one of my favorite teaching stories in the whole of the Old Testament.  If you want to read about the rest of 1 Chronicles 13-14, I would recommend clicking on the theological commentary in the link above.  Today, I am going to focus on Uzzah.

Why do I love the story of Uzzah?  I love it because I revel in spiritual paradox.  I love reading a story that is designed to make you feel one way and then realizing that the point of the story is opposite of how I feel!  Jesus teaches using paradox all the time in the New Testament, so I think that this is a dynamic that we are supposed to feel.

Where is the paradox?  Well, when we read about Uzzah, it sounds like Uzzah is just trying to help.  He is following along with the ark.  The oxen stumble.  Uzzah doesn’t want the ark to fall, to he reaches out and braces it to prevent it from falling.  Ecause he touches the ark, he dies.  David gets mad, and it is really easy to sympathize with David.  After all, Uzzah was just trying to care for the ark!

The problem is that to side with David also means that we are angry with God because we feel that He is unjust.  But we know that God is never unjust.  So why we emotionally sympathize with David, we know logically speaking that we are wrong.

Remember that God had already told the Hebrew people how to move the ark.  Levites were supposed to stick poles through the loops on the edges of the ark and carry it on the long poles so that nobody needed to touch it ever.  If people were carrying it, if one of them stumbled, the rest could easily lower their end and rest the ark on the ground!  However, when David moves the cart he is not obedient.  He has a cart pulled by oxen moving the ark.  Uzzah dies not because he has bad motivation but because David isn’t obedient.

What can we learn today?  We need to be obedient.  When God gives an order, we need to humbly submit and follow directions.  Obedience is such a simple concept, yet we find it difficult to put into practice.

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Year 6, Day 283: 1 Chronicles 9-10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

In Chapters 9 and 10, we leave the genealogies behind us and pick up the story of the Hebrew people.  Remember that the Chronicler is writing for the people returning from exile under Persian leadership.  The Chronicler is writing a history of the Hebrew people so that they might be reminded of their greatness.  That’s why the Chronicler starts with the death of Saul.  He can quickly move into the rise of David and the height of the Hebrew people.

That being said, you might be wondering why he doesn’t just start with David.  Why mention Saul at all?  After all, he was the king brought out of rebellion.

The Chronicler starts with Saul so that he can start the history story with one message.  Saul died because of his breach in the faith.  This message would strike home.  The Hebrew people went into exile because of their breach in faith.  They have something in common with this story.  God can take people who have a breach in faith and bring goodness out of it.  David followed Saul.  The Chronicler wants the people to believe that God can do something good with them after their breach of faith, too.

What’s the Chronicler saying?  We must be obedient.  We need to follow his ways.  It is our breaches of faith that make us vulnerable.  Obedience to God keeps us strong in Him. 

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Year 6, Day 269: Zechariah 10

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

This is a very neat chapter through which we can study the concept of obedience.  This chapter starts with a reminder that everything comes from the Lord.  The spring rain comes because the Lord ordains it.  True wisdom comes solely from the Lord.  We know the redemption comes from the Lord.  Everything good comes from the Lord.

The question that we are left asking is that if everything good comes from the Lord, then why do we not obey Him?  This chapter takes that question and focuses it in even more deeply.  If everything good comes from the Lord, then why do even His leaders have such a difficult time obeying Him?

Do you hear the critique of the vast middle of this chapter?  The people have illegitimate leadership.  The religious leaders of the Hebrew people are not leading the people in the ways of the Lord.  They are like sheep without a shepherd.  Why do the leaders of the Hebrew people not act like spiritual leaders?  They lack obedience.  The want to lead; but they forget that to lead people in God’s ways often means to forsake the ways of the world and live an entirely different life.

Therefore, the Lord takes over.  He will lead His people. He will collect them.  Although He scattered them, He will bring them together.  We can best be led by the Lord and only the Lord.

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Year 6, Day 258: Haggai 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Haggai opens with a stern warning.  God is unhappy with the people.  He has arranged for them to be able to return to their homeland under the Persian leadership.  He has arranged for them to have some resources with which they can even begin to rebuild their lives.  God is upset with them, however.  The people have returned home and have begun building a reasonably luxurious lifestyle for themselves.  This isn’t so much the problem.  The problem is that they are building luxurious homes and neglecting the temple, God’s home.

The leadership hears Haggai, however.  They repent.  They change their tune.  They commit to doing as the Lord asks.  They have an obedient heart in spite of their natural human disobedience.

The thing that I love about this chapter in Haggai is that it shows how much our obedience means to God.  As soon as the people repent, God sends Haggai with a second message.  We hear Haggai come to the people and tell them that they are forgiven and God is with them.  God knows that we have a streak of human disobedience.  He knows we are selfish and self-centered.  What matters to Him is not our corrupt nature but rather our desire to overcome that nature and obediently listen to Him.

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Year 6, Day 236: 1 John 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

1 John 2 places the initial focus upon Jesus Christ as our redeemer.  Of course, He is.  He came and died so that we might be able to know God and relationship with the Father.  That much is simply understood through the witness of God’s Word.

However, look at the natural conclusion to this passage.  Wat is it that John writes to us immediately after speaking about Christ as our redeemer?  How do we know that we have received Christ?  We obey His commandments.  If we say that we know Christ but do not keep His commandments, we are a liar.  It’s there.  It’s black and white.  If we are in Christ, we will obey.

This is why at the end of the passage we hear John advocate abiding in Christ.  When we are abiding in Him, we are listening to Him.  We are resting in His care.  We are communing with Him.  When we abide in Christ, obedience should be second nature.

What’s interesting is the example that John gives to us about what obedience looks like.  When John speaks about applied obedience, he talks about how we feel in our heart with respect towards our brothers and sisters.  If we are truly in Christ and obedient to Him, we should not find ourselves at odds with other people who are in Christ.  Hatred and anger has no place in the heart of the person who is obedient to Christ.  I don’t know about you, but I find that an incredibly challenging proposal.

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Year 6, Day 233: Jonah 1-2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Do you remember the parable that Jesus gives to us in Matthew 21:28-32?  In that parable we have two sons.  One who seems agreeable but is really disobedient and one that seems disagreeable but who is obedient.  Keep this parable in mind as we study Jonah.

God comes to Jonah.  He tells him that He has a message that needs to be delivered to Nineveh.  Jonah receives the message.  He packs his things and hits the road.  From all outward appearances, Jonah is the dutiful servant of the Lord.

However, Jonah turns a corner and gets on a ship instead.  If you’ve ever seen a map that has Jerusalem and Nineveh upon it, you realize pretty quickly that there isn’t any need to board a boat at all.  Jonah has no intention of obeying.  He’s like that son in Jesus’ parable who says, “Yes, dad.  I’ll go and work.”  But he never does.

I’m not doubting Jonah’s faith.  I’m not doubting Jonah’s belief that God is a great God.  Do you hear his prayer when he is in the rather large fish?  Jonah clearly has respect with God.  From Jonah’s perspective, he values his relationship with God.  But there is no obedience.  His faith is completely one-sided.  There is belief, but there is no obedience.  That’s what is wrong with Jonah.  That’s why he makes the mistake he does.

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Year 6, Day 217: 1 Peter 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

You may not have realized that Peter wrote so much on obedience.  If we look at the witness of the Gospels, it really makes sense.  When we read through the Gospel stories, Peter is the man who tries everything and seemingly fails at His first attempt.  What does this show us?  He has a heart for obedience.  But it also shows us that he understands that there is a difference between desiring to be obedient and actually succeeding at being obedient.  Then we turn to Acts, where he develops into a strong and mighty tool in the hand of God.  In Acts, Peter has managed to sort out obedience in a very rich and meaningful way.

When we take this into consideration, we find that Peter really has some great thoughts with respect to obedience and its development.  Where I want this to take us in this blog is the “why.”  Why should we obedient?  What purpose does obedience serve except for the accomplishment of someone else’s will?

Do you notice that Peter doesn’t actually mention the accomplishment of God’s will as the answer to the why?  Naturally, I still believe that the accomplishment of God’s will is the primary reason.  After all, God’s hand at work is what we are all about.  But look deeply at why we are to be obedient.  We are to be obedient so that we do good things.  Why do we do good things?  Not for our reward in heaven!  No, we do good things so that when people look at us and accuse us and malign us and mistreat us they will be confronted with our charity and generosity and kindness.  We do good works so that the mean things that people will say about us will not resonate with the visible character that people see.  We are obedient as a protection against slander and mistreatment!

Isn’t that an interesting perspective on obedience.  So often obedience is looked down upon as being subservient and undesirable.  But Peter tells us here that obedience is actually for our own good and our own protection.  Obedience to the will and ways of God is what will keep the falsehoods of the world around us from harming our character and our witness.

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Year 6, Day 216: 1 Peter 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Peter ends this chapter with a reminder that we are purified through our obedience to the truth.  Clearly, the idea of obedience was rather important to Peter.  It is our obedience that leads to our ability to have brotherly love within us.  It is our willingness to submit to God’s will that allows us to love others who are similarly submitted to God’s will.  In the end, our obedience is very important to our community.

How are we to be obedient?  We are to be like children, understanding that our Father knows and sees what is good for us far better than we do.  We are to be called holy, set apart for His work.  We are to work in fear, not phobia, but a fear in awe of the greatness of God and all that He can do beyond our ability to understand.

But why are we to obey Him?  He is the one who brought us into salvation.  He is the one who sent Christ to us.  Christ Himself was obedient to the will of the Father.  He is the one who raised Christ from the dead, why wouldn’t we be obedient to Him?  He is the one who fulfilled His own words.  Again, if He has the ability to speak truth into our future, why wouldn’t we obey Him?

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Year 6, Day 203: Hosea 1

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

This is a very disconcerting chapter.  God comes to Hosea and tells him to take a wife.  Normally, that would be cause for celebration.  However, God tells Hosea to take a prostitute for a wife.  I don’t know too many God-fearing prophets of God who would look to that message and obey without question.  After all, it doesn’t sound like a thing that Go would tell someone to do.  But, Hosea obeys.  He believes and trusts.

Then, Hosea begins to have kids.  God comes to Hosea and tells him to name his children, “Jezreel,” “No Mercy,” and “You are not My People.”  Talk about your bummer names!  There is no joy in these names.  Imagine being looked at by God and realize that He is telling you to name your child “No Mercy” or any of the others.  But again, Hosea obeys.

What we can learn from this passage is that there are going to be times that God tells us to do things that might not make sense in the moment.  There are going to be times that God gives us a message that might seem confusing and maybe even contrary to what we believe His nature to be.  Those times will come because we cannot fully know God.

In those moments, we have to remember the importance of obedience.  We cannot fathom the depths of God.  We cannot know Him fully and truly.  We cannot ever fully hold onto the whole character of God.  In those moments where we are unsure, it is our obedience that will hold us true.

Very few people would have seen Hosea as making righteous decisions in his day.  Yet he was making decisions of obedience.  From God’s perspective, he was doing exactly what he should have been doing.

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Year 6, Day 200: Matthew 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

I am awed by Jesus’ obedience.  He came to die for our sake simply because the Father willed it to happen that way.  That is the very definition of obedience.  The Father asks, the obedient follower obeys.

But the depth of His obedience is truly mind-boggling.  Let’s take a few examples here.

• First, Jesus knows that He is going to die well before it happens.  It’s one thing to be courageous in the moment.  It is sheer obedience to know you can walk away safely but instead you go headlong into danger just because it is the will of the Father.
• Second, Jesus experiences the bickering of His own disciples because the will of the Father sets a different morality and ethic than the expectations of the world around Him.  In spite of the disciples bickering, Jesus stays obedient to the Father.
• Third, not only does Jesus experiencing some verbal dissension, He also experiences outright betrayal.  One of His own hands Him over to the enemy.  Worse, Jesus knows this ahead of time!  Yet, Jesus remains obedient even though He can foresee the incident.
• Fourth, and perhaps my favorite moment of obedience in this chapter, is the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus is clearly struggling with what is coming.  It is a hard moment.  It is difficult to imagine all of the emotions and pain that Jesus will endure.  He asks if it is possible to go another route.  However, He folds his own will and accepts the will of the Father.

So many of these incidents could have easily taken any of out of obedience to the Father’s will.  There is external pressure and inner angst.  Yet, Jesus remains obedient.

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Year 6, Day 195: Matthew 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

This chapter oozes obedience in almost every section.  What’s even cooler is that some of the stories are great examples and some of the stories are examples of how not to act.  Let’s take a look at what we have.

As for good examples, let’s look at the disciples.  Jesus tells them to make preparations for the Triumphal entry.  Jesus gives them some unusual directions.  However, they don’t complain.  They do what they are told.  Through their obedience, the will of God is done and prophetic passages are fulfilled.

Furthermore, we see Jesus at work in the temple.  God says that His house should be a house of prayer.  However, Jesus sees people getting ripped off by money-changers and the religious elite.  He drives out the sin.  He cleanses the temple.  He draws the wrath of the religious elite.  However, He is obedient to the will of His Father.

As we transition from good to bad examples, we look to the parables of the two sons. One son is disobedient in word but obedient in action.  He is praised.  The other son is obedient in word but disobedient in action.  He is not praised in the least.  What we take from this is that action does speak louder than words.

As for the rest of the examples of disobedience, we don’t have to look too far past the fig tree.  The tree is supposed to bear fruit, but this one doesn’t.  Jesus curses it and it withers.  This is symbolic of the Hebrew people.  They were supposed to be working to bring the world in relationship with God.  But instead they had isolated themselves from the world.  They are disobedient.  For the record, the same thing could be said about the parable of the tenants.  God called Israel to live in the land and produce good fruit.  They have instead lived in disobedience – even looking ahead to killing the Son.

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Year 6, Day 181: Matthew 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

When we look at full chapters of a Gospel, we usually get many compound stories – especially in the middle chapters that cover Jesus’ time in ministry.  However, when we read through Matthew 7, there are a surprising number of teachings that speak towards obedience to the Father.  This shouldn’t really surprise us, though.  Many of the stories since Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount have been about getting us to think about how we live and how God perceives what life should be like.

• Judge not.  In other words, let the Father determine who gets to spend eternity with Him.
• Worry about your own faults before you try and fix other people.
• Ask God for what you truly need.
• Treat other people as you would have them treat you.
• Bear good fruit and consider what it means should find yourself bearing bad fruit.
• Do more than say you believe, live out your faith!
• Build our life upon the Word of God.

If you truly look at that list, ask yourself how hard those teachings are to accomplish.  Then ask yourself what the world would look like if it followed more of those teachings.  I think these two questions help us understand the power of obedience.

When we pursue our own goals, our own dreams, and our own aspirations we lose all the communal benefits that following Jesus’ teaching in this chapter bring.  However, when we are willing to obey Jesus and live according to God’s ways, it is not only us who benefit but also the community around us that benefits.

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Year 6, Day 168: Ezekiel 42

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

If you have been following the commentary that I wrote in my blog three years ago, you understand that I believe this vision from Ezekiel applies to the time between Ezekiel and the coming of Jesus.  What that does is leave us with a little controversy.  After all, when Christ came there is no need for the Holy of Holies anymore.  As Christ dies on the cross, the temple curtain is torn.  He becomes the ultimate and eternal sacrifice; no further sacrifice is needed.

Thus, when we read chapters like this in Ezekiel 42, we still need to appreciate what we are reading – even if it is different than how we live in Christ.  So what can we find here?

We can find obedience.  These Hebrew people lived in a time before Christ.  As they lived before Christ, they did sacrifice.  They did keep their priestly line separate.  They did keep the food left in sacrifice for their priests.  They observed God’s Law as God had prescribed for them.

Even though the customs may have changed because Christ has intervened and fulfilled the Law, we can appreciate the obedience to God that we find here in this chapter.

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