Obedience or Convenience

 

Daily Reading:  Judges 2

                    “ye have not obeyed my voice:  why have ye done this?”

                                                         Judges 2:2

            What a statement!  What a question!  What an indictment!  God’s Word to Israel had been clear and simple.  They were to drive out ALL the inhabitants of the land.  He even promised them that He had delivered the land into their hand.  The promise was not enough. 

How often could that exact statement and question be God’s message to you?  Is God’s Word sufficient for you?  Do you submit to His authority, or do you openly defy the King of kings and Lord of lords?  And for what?  Israel’s defiance was because the enemy was well equipped or even better equipped (Judges 1:19).  They did it because they saw a benefit to having these people as forced labor (Judges 1:30, 33, 35).  What they saw as choices of convenience turned them from simple obedience.  Do we ever defy the simple commands of God’s Word because of personal convenience.

In life we will all face ups and downs.  Many of those peaks and valleys are through no fault of our own.  We live in a corrupt and fallen world where our lives are impacted.  We experience loss and hardship.  However, how often are difficulties the consequences of personally not obeying God’s Word?  Titus 2:14 tells us God desires a, “peculiar people zealous of good works.”  For us to be that people, we must individually make God’s Word the authority.  His Word must be completely sufficient for every decision.  May it never be said of us, “Ye have not obeyed my voice.  Why have ye done this?”