UTTERLY OBEY GOD

Greetings -

Scriptures are from the King James Bible. 

Sometime ago, I heard a pastor say relative to GOD, "Partial obedience is disobedience."

Recently, our Lord again stressed to me the importance of utterly obeying what He instructs.  The New Oxford American Dictionary defines utter as - complete; absolute.

In Joshua 6:18, GOD's people were told, "And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it."

What happened?  Foolish Achan took of the accursed thing and as a result GOD'S people were defeated - Joshua 7:5.  When questioned by Joshua, Achan responded in Joshua 7:21, "When I saw among the spoils...then I coveted them, and took them; and behold they are hid in the earth..."

Now we know that nothing is hidden from our Lord but there are times that we deceive ourselves into believing that GOD is not on watch.  The truth of the matter is that GOD is always on watch and absolutely nothing escapes His view.  But we can be deceived or reckless - sometimes both - in the dark chambers of our hearts.  Then there is the matter of our Lord not always rendering swift justice so we foolishly go into modes of "we have escaped" the consequences.  We may be in those modes for "seasons" but most of us have lived to learn that the consequences of our wrong deeds do manifest - on GOD's schedule.  Typically, He doesn't provide detailed advance notices when He is closing in with His "hammer."  Truly, it is in our best interest to quickly repent and make rapid turns from our wicked ways because none of us enjoys "hammer time."

Now back to Achan - he not only brought judgment on himself but on his entire family.  They all perished because Achan didn't utterly obey GOD.  After GOD's judgment upon Achan and his family, GOD allowed Joshua and company to utterly destroy their enemies - Joshua 8:26.  Prior to that victory, our Lord had informed Joshua that, in that instance, they could have the spoil whereas in the Achan episode, they were forbidden to partake of the spoils for themselves.  They were told in Joshua 6:24, "And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein; only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord."  

Joshua 8:2 says, "And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves:..." 

If only Achan had waited, he could have received
GOD-approved spoils without jeopardy that fatally affected him and his family.  Proverbs 10:22 says, "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it."  

Sometimes, our Lord's answer is not no, but wait.  Not only are we to wait but we are instructed by our Lord to wait right - without murmuring and complaining.  It has been said, "Praise pays."  I have learned that it absolutely does pay to praise GOD in the midst of storms, and mountaintop experiences.  His Word says in Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."

Here are other "utterly" scriptures from Joshua:

Joshua 11:11,12
And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe:...

And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded.

Joshua 11:15
As the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.

Joshua 11:20, 21
For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favour, but that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

...Joshua destroyed them utterly...

From Joshua, we go to King Saul who didn't fare so well with GOD'S "utterly" commands.  In 1 Samuel 15:3 our Lord instructs Saul, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."

What did Saul do?  He partially obeyed GOD which amounted to full disobedience from the perspective of our Lord.  1 Samuel 15:8 states, "And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people..."  1 Samuel 15:9 states, "But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly."

That is NOT what GOD told Saul to do.  Samuel confronted Saul about his failure to utterly obey GOD.  Saul answers in 1 Samuel 15:21, "But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal."

Samuel comes back at Saul with 1 Samuel 15:22, 23, "...Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.  Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king."         

Saul answers in 1 Samuel 15:24, "...I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice."

Saul lost his kingly position because he did NOT utterly obey GOD.  Achan lost his life, and his family perished with him.

It is no trivial matter to our Lord when we fail to utterly obey Him.  When He tells us to utterly obey Him, that is precisely, completely and absolutely what He means.  When we fail to do as instructed by the only wise GOD, He utterly makes it clear to us that He is certainly angry.  Only He knows how His judgments manifest and when.    

May we steadfastly utterly DO according to the guidance of our Lord for the advancement of His kingdom, and for our profit - to be partakers of His holiness - Hebrews 12:10.

Sandra

Written Sunday April 3, 2011

Copyright 2011 

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