If we’re not careful, we see obedience to God’s Word as an arduous, distasteful challenge. In fact, a recurring theme of scripture is that obedience is for our good:

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” (Isaiah 48.17 – 19, ESV)

“If you had paid attention…your peace would have been like a river…”

As I say, a recurring theme. Look at Moses’ near-final words to the Israelites:

But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse.

Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deuteronomy 30.14 – 20, ESV)

“Therefore choose life…” When people today live an undisciplined life, pursuing the pleasures of the moment, I want to say, “How’s that working for you?” In our area, there’s the sad story of a quarterback for the University of Colorado. 23 years old. At first we were told simply, “The young man died…” Then the story came out as reported in the Denver Post:

The Opa-locka, Fla. native was involved in a single-vehicle crash in Boulder early Sunday morning, according to a release from the Colorado State Patrol.

Ponder was driving a 2023 Tesla Model 3 and heading west on Baseline Road when he lost control on a right-hand curve around 3 a.m.

“The Tesla went across the eastbound lane and hit a guardrail,” the release says. “The vehicle continued through the guardrail. The Tesla then struck an electrical line pole and rolled down an embankment, landing on its wheels and catching on fire.”

Ponder was pronounced dead at the scene.

Sometimes you only get one oops. What’s he doing out at 3am? Did his football money enable him to buy a Tesla? We know Teslas are VERY fast. Possibly, he had been drinking, but it’s probably hard to administer a blood-alcohol test on a burned body.

Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. (Ecclesiastes 11.9, ESV)

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12.11, ESV)