Week 49, Day 4: Obedient in the Details

Today’s Reading:  Numbers 2:1-34

Some thoughts from today’s reading…

One of the themes that resonates throughout the whole Bible is the need to be obedient to the details.  In Numbers chapter 2, God gave the children of Israel instructions pertaining to their camping order.  Surely they would be able to camp in whatever order they desired.  Surely it would not be a big deal for them to decide that they could come up with a better, and more acceptable camping order than what had been revealed to them.  Surely God didn’t mean that they had to camp just as He said;  perhaps it was just a suggestion!  In fact, God demanded that they be obedient right down to this detail.  And, we can see that the children of Israel did just as they were commanded to do.

This is the same mentality that God requires of His people today as well.  He requires that we heed every command that He has given, that we are obedient to Him.  It is not our place to try and decide what must be obeyed, and what are just “suggestions.”  We have no right to decide that we can come up with a better way.  We cannot decide that we can simply do whatever we want, and think that God must accept it.  If we are not obedient, then we are not the children of God, and will not be pleasing to Him.  Far too often, Christians think that they are exempt from these biblical principles.  If they don’t like the command, then they think they can change it.  If they decide something is more important than obedience, then they think God will understand.  God requires submission, which leads to obedience.

Question:  Is there any situation in which it is acceptable to be disobedient?  Does our own desires, or our personal relationships change our obligations to God’s commands?

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