THE REWARDS OF OBEDIENCE

 

‘If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them… then I will…look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.’  (Leviticus 26:3, 4a, 13)

Traffic laws are a nuisance.  I despise them.  You are in a hurry, but stop signs and red lights make you wait.  I do not understand why you can’t drive as fast as your car will go. We could be so much more productive with our time than just sitting in a car poking along.  I wonder why if you are stuck in traffic behind two semis doing the speed limit, why not cut across the median into the other lane if traffic is thinner.  The most irritating thing is the cops, who are just waiting for you to whiz by, so they can stop you—a needless delay and a hefty fine.  Imagine how horrible the carnage would be, if every driver did whatever they wanted.  The laws are for our benefit.  That is true of God’s laws as well.

There is the reward of PROVISION (Lev.26:4-5, 9-10).  God tells them He will bless them with His bounty, if they will walk in His ways.  If Israel served God, God would open up the windows of heaven and send the right amount of sun and showers.  America has enjoyed such bounty.  We were founded on the principles of God’s laws and have been a light to the nations for sharing the Gospel.  Now, we are turning from the truth—and that is a fearful thing.  It has been rightly said that, “America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”  God’s willingness to bless us is only limited by our willingness to obey Him. 

There is the reward of PEACE (v.5c-6).  Peace with God is unconditionally extended through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (Rom.5:1).  To know the peace of God, however, demands our devotion to Him (Phil.4:6-9).  If I am at war with the will of God, I cannot know peace.  I must unconditionally surrender.  I must cease my striving against His plans and purpose for me.  We live in a land that is increasingly marked by strife.  We are divided along major fault lines of race, politics, age, gender, economics—and many, many more.  An earthquake of social upheaval is looming that threatens to break us apart.  Unless we are, “under God,” we will not be, “indivisible.”

There is the reward of POWER (v.7-8, 13).  God promises power for those who obey.  We can put our enemies to flight and live in victory.  God wants His people to walk in victory over our foes: the world, the flesh and the devil.  Yet, so many Christians are living in defeat, made impotent by disobedience.  In the past, America has risen to overcome every challenge to our existence that has come from other shores.  We had become the world’s super power, but that power seems to be fading fast—corresponding to our moral freefall.

There is the reward of PRESENCE (v.11-12).  This is the best promise!  If we have God’s presence with us, then we can be sure of the other rewards.  A Christian cannot lose God’s presence, but we can lose the manifestation of it.  You cannot walk with God unless you are going the same direction!  God wants us to be His special people—a beacon to the world!  May we not only declare the rewards of obedience, but demonstrate them today!