There are a number of stark reminders in the Bible of those who ignored God’s specific instructions when they were given to certain individuals and the consequences were very serious. All of these should be handy lessons for those of us who have been called in this age that disobedience to God consistently results in serious consequences, ranging from immediate personal struggles and broken relationships to spiritual separation and ultimate judgment.
Obedience is often viewed today as a “bad” or outdated concept in modern society. It can often be equated with forced submission, authoritarianism, and a lack of free will. Obedience can be viewed negatively because it may limit freedom or be used manipulatively, plus the fact that so many don’t like any restrictions in their lives.
However, there are many areas where obedience is vital. Without a base level of obedience to laws and authority, chaos could ensue. It is essential for social order and safety, such as following road traffic rules to ensure safety, to maintain social order, and across multiple other facets of life.
Obedience to honour the true God is for Christians of paramount importance and must supersede man’s requirements if there is any conflict. It is required as per biblical instruction for man’s own well-being. We must always obey God rather than man in any situation and under any circumstances.
As God the Father created all things through Jesus Christ (compare Colossians 1:16-17), He knows better than any man, however great they may be, what is best for His creation and, therefore, He has our best interests at heart. Obedience to God and His Way of Life is essential for the best results possible.
Some of these examples that we will look at will be well-known; others not quite so.
Adam & Eve
What a story this is!
Right at the dawn of civilisation, after God had re-created the earth, we read in Genesis 1:31:
“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
In the following chapter, we read about the Garden of Eden, an idyllic physical creation if ever there was one. Verses 8-9 describe the situation:
“The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Probably most people around the world know the story of Adam and Eve. There they were at the dawn of civilization, given the Garden of Eden to live in, and God commanded Adam what he could and couldn’t do.
God said that of every tree of the garden they could eat from except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (compare Genesis 2:16:17) but the serpent (Satan) was there to spoil the party. Eve was encouraged and tempted to eat of the tree that God had said they should not, and Adam did likewise, even though he was not deceived, but he just followed the lead of his wife, which resulted in the first act of man’s disobedience to God taking place.
This broke the one single instruction that God had given them that they shouldn’t do, by just ignoring it, albeit through the subtlety of the serpent. The consequences were that they were banished from the Garden of Eden, life became difficult in living off the land, women would suffer pain in childbirth, and they would eventually die. This brought about a separation from God because they trusted the serpent more than they trusted the clear instruction from God. Instead of relying on God’s perfect wisdom, they chose to take matters into their own hands and make their own wrong decision.
As it is with human nature, it was someone else’s fault; Adam blamed Eve (and in the final analysis, God, who had given Eve to him) and Eve blamed the serpent. That so often happens today when people play the blame game; it is so often someone else’s fault and we see this behaviour playing out with the two original human beings.
It could be said that Eve was tempted on three levels: physical (good for food), emotional (pleasant to the eyes) and spiritual (desire for wisdom). This is not dissimilar to what we read in 1 John 2:16:
“For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.”
They made the choice to disobey God which was clearly an act of rebellion!
In a sermon entitled “What If Adam Hadn’t Sinned?,” given onJune 13, 1981, Mr Herbert W Armstrong said the following:
“When Adam made that choice, he cut himself off from God! And most humans have cut themselves off from God through sin ever since. Your sins have cut you off from God. And man is on Satan’s wavelength, and ALL have sinned and been cut off from God. But when Adam made that choice and instead of taking the Holy Spirit, which he would have had from God that would have first given him knowledge of the SPIRITUAL LAW — the way of Life: love toward God and love out-going out-flowing towards neighbor … In other words, I help my neighbor. My neighbor helps me. We kind of help one another mutually. And, if we get into trouble, we go to God.”
Disobeying God’s instructions were life-changing for Adam and Eve, and disobeying God’s instructions have continued apace during the last 6,000 years.
Lot’s Wife
The story of Lot’s wife in the book of Genesis (19:1–26), when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, clearly illustrates the consequences of disobeying divine commands and longing for a sinful past.
The command was simple enough as we read in Genesis 19:15-17 when the two angels were trying to extricate Lot and his family out of an area that was to be razed to the ground. They knew that the place was to be completely destroyed, leaving nothing standing:
“When the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, ‘Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.’ And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, ‘Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.’”
However, Lot’s wife whose name is not mentioned in the Bible, ignored this instruction and looked back at where she had lived her life for a number of years. As a direct consequence of this disobedience, she was instantly transformed into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26).
It shows that she valued her life-style that she enjoyed, and the worldly possessions she may have had, over obedience to God.
In Luke 17:28-32, Jesus was speaking about the end times just before His Second Coming and the action His followers at that time must take:
“Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife.”
Lot’s wife is remembered for her disobedience to God’s instructions through the two angels, and her death, upon her disobedience, was immediate!
King Uzziah
Uzziah’s father, King Amaziah and the three previous kings had all been assassinated. It was a position with not a lot of job security! However, in 2 Chronicles 26:1-5, it appears that he started his reign well:
“Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah. He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king rested with his fathers. Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.”
In verse 5 above, we see twelve important words: “…and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.” It was conditional. Although Amaziah, his father, had initially done well, we read that he “turned away from following the LORD” (see 2 Chronicles 25:27). His son was, unfortunately, to follow suit. In 2 Chronicles 26:16 we read the penalty for his pride.
God had blessed him with great power and military success. Uzziah grew arrogant, which caused his downfall. 2 Chronicles 26:16-21 gives the account of his dreadful demise:
“But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the LORD his God by entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. So Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the LORD—valiant men. And they withstood King Uzziah, and said to him, ‘It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed! You shall have no honor from the LORD God.’ Then Uzziah became furious; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense. And while he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, before the priests in the house of the LORD, beside the incense altar. And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there, on his forehead, he was leprous; so they thrust him out of that place. Indeed he also hurried to get out, because the LORD had struck him. King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house, because he was a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. Then Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.”
Instead of repenting when confronted by the priests, he became furious. After all of his success, arrogance was the cause of his fall from grace and disobeying God’s instructions brought about his downfall. He had reigned for 52 years. The principle of cause and effect was shown to be still in operation…
He made a good start and did well for a long time but we must remember that it’s not so much how we start, but how we finish. Disobeying God’s instructions was life-changing for King Uzziah!
Gehazi
In 2 Kings 5, we read about Naaman’s leprosy being healed. In verse 1, we read:
“Now Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was also a mighty man of valor, but a leper.”
The story moves on and is told in 19 verses, and there is a lot that happens. A young Israelite girl who waited on Naaman’s wife told her that Elisha, her master, would be able to heal him. Naaman mentions this to the King of Syria who wrote a letter to the King of Israel (Jehoram) to help in this matter and he sent “ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing” (verse 5). The king tore his clothes, fearing the worst and when Elisha heard of this he said: “Please let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.” That happened, and Naaman was told to wash in the Jordan 7 times which sent Naaman into a rage as he said: “‘Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?’ So, he turned and went away in a rage” (verse 12). However, he was persuaded to do this and was subsequently healed. Naaman offered gifts for this healing but Elisha refused them, which showed that God’s healing cannot be bought.
Now we come to Gehazi, Elisha’s servant. In verses 20-27 is the story of Gehazi’s greed and how it played out for him. He was unhappy that Elisha had turned down, quite categorically, receiving any gifts from Naaman and so he saw an opportunity to acquire gifts for himself. He ran after Naaman and told lies to extort from a willing giver, silver and garments. What he asked for was doubled by Naaman, as he was appreciative of his healing and Gehazi hid them away when he returned. However, Elisha asked him where he had been and Gehazi lied again by saying that he had not been anywhere, but by spiritual discernment, Elisha was aware of the deception. Gehazi lied to both Naaman and Elisha, and in verse 27, the concluding verse in the chapter, sums up his punishment:
“Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.” And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow.”
His disobedience was life-changing!
(To be continued)
Lead Writer: Brian Gale (United Kingdom)