Obedience

¹⁹ So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”

²⁰ “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction.

²¹ The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

²² But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams.

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

²² Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

²³ For anyone who hears the word but does not carry it out is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror,

²⁴ and after observing himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

²⁵ But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom, and continues to do so—not being a forgetful hearer, but an effective doer—he will be blessed in what he does.

³ And keep the charge of the LORD your God to walk in His ways and to keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances, and decrees, as is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you turn,

⁴ and so that the LORD may fulfill His promise to me: ‘If your descendants take heed to walk faithfully before Me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.’

So let your heart be fully devoted to the LORD our God, as it is this day, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments.”

³¹ So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book.

³² Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin take a stand in agreement to it. So all the people of Jerusalem carried out the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.

³³ And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands belonging to the Israelites, and he required everyone in Israel to serve the LORD their God. Throughout his reign they did not turn aside from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry, saying, “I thought that he would surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the spot to cure my leprosy.

¹² Are not the Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not have washed in them and been cleansed?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

¹³ Naaman’s servants, however, approached him and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, ‘Wash and be cleansed’?”

¹⁴ So Naaman went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored and became like that of a little child, and he was clean.

So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

¹ If a prophet or dreamer of dreams arises among you and proclaims a sign or wonder to you,

² and if the sign or wonder he has spoken to you comes about, but he says, “Let us follow other gods (which you have not known) and let us worship them,”

³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

⁴ You are to follow the LORD your God and fear Him. Keep His commandments and listen to His voice; serve Him and hold fast to Him.

When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

³¹ So My people come to you as usual, sit before you, and hear your words; but they do not put them into practice. Although they express love with their mouths, their hearts pursue dishonest gain.

³² Indeed, you are to them like a singer of love songs with a beautiful voice, who skillfully plays an instrument. They hear your words but do not put them into practice.

So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.

So Abram departed, as the LORD had directed him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

¹ Some time later God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered.

² “Take your son,” God said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

³ So Abraham got up early the next morning, saddled his donkey, and took along two of his servants and his son Isaac. He split the wood for a burnt offering and set out for the place God had designated.

⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.

⁵ “Stay here with the donkey,” Abraham told his servants. “The boy and I will go over there to worship, and then we will return to you.”

²² For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices,

²³ but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

⁷ Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

⁸ This Book of the Law must not depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in all you do.

⁶ Be very strong, then, so that you can keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left.

⁷ So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them.

⁸ Instead, you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.

⁶⁰ I hurried without hesitating to keep Your commandments.

⁶¹ Though the ropes of the wicked bind me, I do not forget Your law.

²¹ Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

²² Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’

²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’

²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

²⁵ The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.

²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

¹³ So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance,

¹⁴ and he failed to inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.

² “Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message that I give you.”

³ This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and embraced Mary as his wife.

But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.

And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

⁴ I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed,

⁵ because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”

¹ Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

² and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?

⁶ “We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.

⁷ Nor are you ever to build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Instead, you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live a long time in the land where you wander.’

⁸ And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.

⁹ Nor have we built houses in which to live, and we have not owned any vineyards or fields or crops.

¹⁰ But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done exactly as our forefather Jonadab commanded us.

Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured up all these things in her heart.

⁴ When Jesus had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

⁵ “Master,” Simon replied, “we have worked hard all night without catching anything. But because You say so, I will let down the nets.”

But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed!

⁸ But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your possessions, I still would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹ For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’”

¹⁰ So the man of God went another way and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

¹³ Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

¹⁴ When he would not be dissuaded, we fell silent and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

²³ On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money—every male among the members of Abraham’s household—and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.

²⁴ So Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,

²⁵ and his son Ishmael was thirteen;

²⁶ Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the same day.

²⁷ And all the men of Abraham’s household—both servants born in his household and those purchased from foreigners—were circumcised with him.

⁹ When they arrived at the place God had designated, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar, atop the wood.

¹⁰ Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,

¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”