Have you ever tried reasoning with a child? Maybe you can recall a scenario from your past where you tried explaining to a child that they really shouldn’t do something for their own sake. Let me try to explain this a little simpler. Children seem to LOVE fire. When you go camping in the woods or just burn trash in your back yard, kids want to get close to the red hot flames. We can tell them time and time again to “be careful” around the fire. Why? Because we know the painful experience and harm that comes with getting burned. We will, at all cost, do our best to keep a child from falling into the flame.
The Fighter Verse for this week reminds me of a loving Father telling His children to obey. Why? Because He knows all too well the painful experience and harm that comes from disobedience. He warns us today, just like He warned Israel thousands of years ago, to obey Him and listen to His Word. He desires that we obey Him and tells us that it is for our own good. Take a look at the passage:
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”
Deuteronomy 10:12-13
Many people may read this passage and think, “But I have no desire to obey God. I am enjoying my life right now and don’t want to be tied down to a million rules and regulations.” Well… That’s great if this life is all there is to it. But it’s not, and deep down inside we all know it. One day we will have to stand before the Holy Judge and give an account for all that we’ve done, and if it’s not good enough we will be condemned to hell forever – a never ending fire. Playing PowerBall for the chance that our good works will outweigh the bad just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t work like that.
God desires not partial obedience, not even majority obedience, but total obedience! Friends, not one of us on this globe has a chance of standing before God on judgment day if we’re hoping that we’ve been moral enough. No way! Only one Man was perfect. Only one Man actually accomplished what God calls His people to in Deuteronomy 10 – and that man is Jesus Christ! He’s the only hope I have of entering into God’s rest! If we put our trust in the Son of God, Who came in the form of man to suffer and die, we will be counted as perfect and we will not be burned.
Jesus Christ was the perfect obedient child that took on the full burn of the fire for my disobedience. And after he consumed the wrath of God that was meant for me, He tells me to enter God’s rest as if I never did any wrong. What? How is that possible? Because He said so. And who’s going to argue Him – He’s God.
Now that I am a child of God (and I hope that you are too), we can obey His Word perfectly. We can fear Him. We can walk in His ways. We can love Him. Why? Because He knew all to well the painful experience and harm that comes from disobedience. What a loving God!