Knowing God - 1 Samuel 12:14

(from pastor)

fear the Lord

and serve and obey him

and do not rebel against his commands

1 Samuel 12:14

 

If I "fear" -- profoundly respect -- the Lord, then I'm likely to "serve" him and "obey" him. That makes sense. What I'm pondering here, however, is the difference between "obey[ing]" and "not rebel[ing] against [God's] commands."

 

The obvious difference is that one is positive (obeying his commands) and the other is negative (not rebelling against his commands). And if I think about, I'd rather my kids positively obeyed me rather than simply not staging a coup today. Positive service (cleaning the kitchen, for example) is better than just failing to make it worse.

 

But I wonder if there is another difference. Let's state both sides of this positively. One talks about obeying him. That implies knowing God and following him personally. The other talks about obeying commands, and I can follow the rules of our country without ever meeting with my Senator who wrote those laws.

 

Yes, God wants us to follow his commandments, certainly. But even more so, I think he wants us to know and follow him ... personally. And when we do that -- and here's the end of this verse -- "all will be well."

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy who wants to know the author

of fairy tale endings (all is well!)

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I am stubborn. This is sometimes equated with rebellion.  Obeying is not so easy to do, but it is something you want to do when you respect someone.  We are more inclined to obey someone we know.  And I really want all to be well.