| Christian Life and Doctrine | May 1975 |
The Obedience of Faith
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.” —Hebrews 11:8,9
THERE are many elements which make up a true Christian character. Among the important of these are love, hope, joy, and patience. Paul reminds us of the fundamental importance of love as the motive of all that we do in the service of the Lord and of one another.—I Cor. 13
Obedience to God and his Word is also essential. Indeed, obedience is closely related to all that we do and are as Christians. There is much in the Bible concerning the faith of Abraham and how, through his faith, he became a friend of God. But Abraham was also obedient to God, and it was his obedience that demonstrated his faith.
Abraham’s obedience to God was costly for him in many ways, one of those ways being the necessity of leaving his home and dwelling for the rest of his life in a strange country where he lived chiefly in tents. Abraham’s name is associated with the ancient city of Ur, and it has been generally supposed that this city was his birthplace and his home. But the Scriptures indicate that this may not be true. Ur was in southern Mesopotamia and west of the Euphrates. This river is sometimes referred to in the Bible as “the flood.” Joshua said to the Israelites, “Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor.” (Joshua 24:2) When Abraham sent his servant Eliezer to seek a bride for Isaac, the servant was specifically instructed to go to Abraham’s own people, and he went to Mesopotamia into the city of Nahor.—Gen 24:4,10
It would appear that for some reason Abraham and his father and other relatives had traveled from the vicinity of Nahor in northern Mesopotamia to Ur, and that when they left Ur to go to Canaan, the land which God had promised to Abraham and his posterity, they traveled to Haran first. Haran might well have been Abraham’s home city, and he remained there until the death of his father. Perhaps he wanted to bury his father among his own people.
While the route from Ur to the Promised Land through Haran was a long one, had Abraham and his family attempted to travel the shortest route they would have been forced to cross what is now the Arabian Desert, which no doubt would have been practically impossible, especially since he took his flocks and herds with him. The city of Ur was surrounded by rich grazing land, and it was here that Abraham pursued his occupation as a farmer, while possibly living in the prosperous, well-appointed city of Ur.
We mention these details simply to emphasize what a great sacrifice Abraham made when he obeyed the call of God to go into another country, and how costly that act of obedience was. The point is emphasized that when Abraham heard the call of God “he obeyed.” The Scriptures do not indicate whether or not Abraham considered the hardships to which his obedience would lead him. Whether the land God promised to give him was better than the land surrounding Ur Abraham may or may not have considered. Seemingly, all that concerned Abraham was that his God, the true God of the Bible, had called him to leave his home and to go into a strange country. Certainly it could not have been easy for Abraham to obey this call, for it involved the moving not only of himself and his family, but of all his flocks and herds as well. Imagine traveling hundreds of miles by foot and taking along hundreds, perhaps thousands, of sheep and cattle! When we consider this we begin to realize the depth of meaning in Paul’s statement that when Abraham was called of God to take this journey “he obeyed.”
A Comparison
These interesting narratives are not in the Bible merely to make pleasant reading for us. They are there to illustrate what it means for the Lord’s people, who have dedicated themselves to do his will, to obey him when he reveals his will to them. In considering the will of God for us it is natural to take into account what will be the best course in life economically and otherwise. And sometimes indeed this is the will of God for some of his people. But at other times he may well call upon us to take a more difficult way. In this case it would mean that obedience is more than merely a word. It is something which might well disrupt our whole course in life, as was true with Father Abraham.
Better than Sacrifice
We have another good example of the importance of obedience in serving the Lord in God’s dealings with King Saul. In giving battle to the Amalekites Saul was instructed not to take them prisoners, but to destroy them, including the king and also their flocks and herds. When it came to executing the Lord’s will in this matter Saul spared the life of King Agag, and “the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the Iambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.”—I Sam. 15:9
The Lord reported this to Samuel, saying, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the Lord all night.” (I Sam. 15:11) Samuel realized that, as the one whom the Lord used to anoint Saul as king of Israel, it was mandatory that he take appropriate action in this disobedience by the king; so he contacted Saul. We quote the conversation between them:
“And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. And Samuel said, When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”—I Sam. 15:13-23
Here was a case where the first king of Israel lost his authority as king simply because he did not wholly obey the Lord, although he was committed to do so. We are not to suppose from this, however, that Samuel’s statement, “to obey is better than sacrifice,” implies that the Lord is not necessarily pleased with the sacrifices of his people, for many times sacrifices on the part of those dedicated to the Lord’s will come as a result of obedience. Let us not misconstrue the meaning of this and conclude that whenever we have the opportunity to sacrifice time and strength and means in the service of the Lord this would not be pleasing to him—that he would rather that we obey him. Such reasoning would be a clever misapplication of this important lesson in the Word of God.
Another interesting viewpoint is this connection is presented in Micah 6:6-8. We quote: “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
Here Micah is reminding us of important things in connection with the sacrificial services rendered by the priests of Israel in connection with the tabernacle services—the burnt offerings of young calves, the offerings of rams, and the use of oil. He also mentions one of the ignoble features of the worship of Baal which called upon parents to offer their children in sacrifice to Molech. This latter custom certainly was displeasing to the Lord, but the other items mentioned by Micah were involved in a system of sacrificial service which the Lord commanded. To obey these in the proper spirit is pleasing to God.
True, the Lord did not ask any individual to offer a thousand or more lambs or to contribute ten thousands of rivers of oil. In these two references the Lord’s prophet is merely emphasizing that if the heart is not right even the overdoing of things which the Lord required would be displeasing to him. During the typical Jewish Age the Lord was pleased with burnt offerings and other offerings which he had stipulated, but only if the service represented by these was motivated by the proper spirit. The sacrifices themselves were pleasing to the Lord only when they revealed that his people who offered them were really endeavoring, in the spirit of reverence, to please him.
Micah sums up this explanation by saying, “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” In the age of tabernacle sacrifices, walking humbly with God might well have consisted in doing what the Lord revealed to be his will. Here again, then, we have revealed the fact that there is no real conflict between true obedience to the Lord and the offering of sacrifices as he called for it in his Word.
Jesus’ Commandments
In the New Testament are vital, heart-searching commandments by Jesus himself. One of these is designated “a new commandment”: “A new commandment I give unto you,” he said, “That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) This new commandment was addressed to Jesus’ disciples, those who had become his dedicated followers. Thus it applies directly to us. It is not a commandment to leave home and friends and go into a strange country, although it might well lead to this. It involves everything which may be related to laying down our lives for the brethren, because it is in this manner that Jesus loved us—even unto death.
It is easy to overlook this exacting rule of conduct. We think of the brethren as those whom we naturally love and whom we gladly serve. And this is usually true of at least some of the brethren. According to the flesh we are more or less a clannish sort of people. We are too often prone to love those who admire and praise us and possibly overlook many others who are also worthy of our love but who do not appeal to us as much. In other words, there is a tendency for cliques to form among us, and outside of these our Christian love may not be extended too deeply. Jesus said that there is no profit to us if we love only those who only love us; for, he explained, even the outside Gentile world lived up to this sort of standard.
But even more disturbing is the fact that on occasions those whom we do not particularly love, and upon whom we do not especially shower our affections, are disdained, and because of this we may find ourselves speaking evil of them, thus not only violating the commandment, “Love one another as I have loved you,” but also the commandment, “Speak evil of no man.”
In Comparison
We look back into the Old Testament and note the tragic manner in which some of the Lord’s people then, even the prominent among them, violated the law of God. They did things contrary to his law almost as though they did not believe he existed. The basic reason for this was their lack of faith in their God.
Today we will have little difficulty along this line if our faith in God and in his plan is strong. A strong faith will help us to realize that God is present when we are speaking evil of our brethren and condemning them. If we can commit these sins with no compunction of conscience, it would indicate that our faith in our Creator is very weak; that we are, at best, merely professing to be his people. May we not be like these! May we be among those, rather, who tremble at his Word and whose slightest infraction of his commandments gives us a guilty conscience. These may be, to start with, faults that are mentioned by David; but if we allow them to continue, they may lead to presumptuous sins and even to the “great transgression.”—Ps. 19:12-14
May the great desire of our hearts always be to know and really to do God’s will. We know he wants us to bear witness to the truth. That comes under another commandment. We know there are various aspects of his will; but let us remember, and with hearts pure toward him and his people, that he wants us to love all his people, to serve them, to encourage them, to defend them. May our prayers be to this end, and may the Lord give us the courage and the strength to obey his commandments whatever they may be; for this will be one of the best evidences of our true faith in him in his great plan of the ages.