Obeying the Word of the Lord

The other day I continued my reading through the Old Testament, and I came across Deuteronomy 4:5-9, which says,

Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons.

Moses is here speaking to the people of Israel, but I also see it as a direct message to the Church, the people of God in this dispensation. As I read, I also read it as a personal message to myself.

We are believers. We are God's people. Perhaps, as I, you have been taught "statutes and judgments" of God by various people throughout your life. Were we taught the precious commands of the Lord in vain? Certainly not. What must we do? "...the Lord [our] God commanded [us], that [we] should do so..." We were taught the Word of God to obey it! We are not to simply let it pass through one ear and out the other, so to speak. As James put it, "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." We must hear God's Word, and do it. Loving children will gladly obey their loving father.

So, as God has shown us the epitome of His love with the work of His Son, we should gladly obey our Father. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins...We love Him, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:10,19) In Colossians 3:23 we read, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men." Also, Ephesians 6:5-6 says, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart."

God is not up in heaven, ready to zap us when we do not obey His commands. He is patient with us, and waits for us to obey Him out of love. When we think of all that Christ has done for us, we should be compelled to love the Lord the most we can, and we do that by being obedient.

Keeping and doing the Lord's statutes and judgments is our "wisdom" and our "understanding." Wise people, and people with understanding will obey the Lord. They will gladly serve Him.

What is wisdom? We may look to many verses in the Bible:

"The fear of the Lord is wisdom," (Job 28:28) "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments," (Psalm 111:10) and what better book of the Bible to look for wisdom than the book of Proverbs. It is full of wisdom, and words about wisdom. Let's look at just a few of the many verses:

Proverbs 1:7 ~ "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 2:1-6 ~ "My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding."

I could go on and on, but I'll let you read the rest of the book of Proverbs for yourself. Over and over again the Lord tells us the wisdom is obeying God's Word, and obeying God's Word is wisdom. I have heard it said that wisdom is knowledge in action. It is when you take what you know, and put it into practice, in this case, with the Word of God.

Continuing in Deuteronomy 4, in verse 6:

"Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'"

The world is watching. We must be ever mindful of this fact. We are Christians, little Christs. We bear His name and we represent Him in this world. As 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, "We are ambassadors for Christ..." In this age, we speak for Jesus. The way the world is going to hear about Him is through us. Not just by our words, but by our actions. John 13:35 says, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." People are watching us. If we are different from them, as we should be, they are going to notice. If we are obeying the statutes and the judgments of the Lord, people are going to say, either out loud or in their heads, "Surely this [person] is a wise and understanding [person]." They're going to begin to ask why we're different. And what better opportunity to share the Gospel with them!

"For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" (Deuteronomy 4:7)

Who, besides us believers, have God so near us? No one! The LORD, Jehovah, the creator of the universe, is above us (Joshua 2:11), around us (Psalm 34:7), before us (Exodus 13:21), behind us (Exodus 14:19), beneath us (Deuteronomy 33:27), with us (Isaiah 41:10), and within us (John 14:16-17). Our Lord has promised, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5) No one else in the world, apart from believers, has this blessing. Even Israel, although the LORD was with them at all times, did not have the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

"In all things that we call upon Him for," God is always right there with us, and right there for us. No matter what the case, when we call upon the Lord, He is there, ready to listen and ready to act. But notice, God doesn't just throw out blessings all over the earth. We must call upon Him. In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." James tells us in chapter 1 verse 6, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering..." We have a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us. He guides us, protects us, and provides all of our needs. Sometimes we think we know what we need. But we really don't. Who is wiser? An infinite, omniscient God who inhabits eternity, or a puny, finite, simple human being? I think the answer is quite clear. He knows our needs. And as we can read in Matthew 7, what loving Father will not care for his child and give good gifts? The Lord will always provide for His children. If any of us lack anything, we must simply ask Him in faith.

Prayer is a crucial element in our spiritual life. It is our breath. When spiritual decline begins, the first thing to go is our prayer life. We become distant from God, we don't feel like talking to Him, and that creates more distance. It is necessary to maintain our relationship with Him. He's our Father, our Friend. Thinking of the love that He has for us, the precious gift of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ, how can we not love Him and desire to strengthen our relationship with Him? We must maintain communication with Him.

"And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?" (Deuteronomy 4:8)

The Israelites were blessed to have the law given to them directly from the Lord. How much more blessed are we, having the full canon of scripture, "given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16)?

The Word of God should be our most prized possession. As prayer is our spiritual breath, the Word is our spiritual food that we must have daily, or else we will starve for certain. Perhaps the greatest chapter in God's Word, about God's Word, is Psalm 119. With the exception of 2 verses, every verse mentions the Word of the Lord in some form. Let us look at a few verses:

Verse 11: Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Verse 16: I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy Word.

Verse 28: My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy Word.

Verse 47: I will delight myself in thy Commandments, which I have loved.

Verse 59: I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies.

Verse 89: For ever, O LORD, thy Word is settled in Heaven.

Verse 97: O how love I thy Law! It is my meditation all the day.

Verse 105: Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Verse 133: Order my steps in thy Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

Verse 140: Thy Word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.

Verse 160: Thy Word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

Verse 165: Great peace have they which love thy Law: and nothing shall offend them.

Verse 172: My tongue shall speak of thy Word: for all thy commandments are righteousness.

This is just a small portion of scripture, and we can see the God's Word is many things. It is our shield, our strength, a lamp to guide us, it is pure, true, everlasting, righteous, and our source of true peace. As children need proper nutrition to grow, so must we feed ourselves spiritually to grow spiritually.

The last verse of the passage we are examining in Deuteronomy chapter 4 is verse 9:

"Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons."

We must always examine ourselves, and guard ourselves, 'lest we forget.' We must constantly be in the Word, filling our mind with the things of God, reminding ourselves of the things which we have been taught. We've got to keep what we have learned fresh in our minds. When we neglect our time studying God's Word, we distance ourselves greatly from our Lord. If we are not careful, we will forget what we've learned, and they will 'depart from thy heart all the days of thy life.'

Lastly, it is not only important to 'take heed' to ourselves 'lest we forget,' but we have a responsibility to teach God's Word to our children, and our grandchildren. This is a command! "Teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." We are the example for our children to follow, and we must give them a good example. There is no guarantee that our children will not depart from the ways of the Lord, but we must do our part.

Proverbs 4:1-7

"Hear, ye children the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding..."

We see here the very process of teaching that must go on. Solomon speaks to his children the things that his father, David, taught him. Now we know that David had a few sons that didn't turn out too well, but Solomon was a bit different from them. Perhaps David taught all his sons the same, perhaps not. But he taught Solomon and Solomon remembered. Not only did Solomon keep that wisdom for himself, he taught it to his children. So David was obedient to the command, "Teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons." He taught his son Solomon, and through Solomon he taught his grandchildren.

The responsibility starts with you, at home. You can't just think, oh I'll just send my kids to Sunday school and youth group and they'll get their Bible teaching there. No! It doesn't work that way! YOU are the example. Children look to adults for their example, and more specifically, their parents! If they do not see their own parents following the Lord, why should they follow the Lord? If you truly love your children, be a godly example, and teach them the Word of God!

"My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee." (Proverbs 3:1-2)

My parents have always been a godly example for me. Did I always follow that example? No, but it was and is their influence that guided me to the right path. I desire nothing more than to serve God with my life, and if I didn't have the example of my parents, who knows where I might be?

We have a great God! The only God. He is the Creator of all things, and yet He loves us. He loves us so much that before He even created the earth, He planned to send His Son, Christ Jesus, to save us from sin. (Revelation 13:8) He knew we would sin, but He still created us, knowing what lies in eternity for those who love Him, and who seek Him with all their heart.

Therefore, let us keep His commandments, out of LOVE for Him. Commune with Him, talk with Him, for that is our spiritual breath. Rejoice and give Him thanks that He has given us His written Word, for it is our spiritual food, and in it, we have eternal life. It is our shield, our strength, a lamp to guide us, it is pure, true, everlasting, righteous, and our source of true peace. Let us learn from it, to gain wisdom and understanding, and let us keep what we have learned fresh in our hearts and in our minds, lest we forget. And let us share that wisdom and understanding, teaching our children, and our grandchildren, that it may go well with them all the days of their lives.