Complete Obedience
Ezra 7:23 – “Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?”
When putting together furniture or some piece of equipment, the first and most important rule is “Follow the instructions to the letter.” Some people will ignore the instructions all together, look at the picture on the box, and try to put it together based on the picture. After spending hours trying to figure it out, they usually just throw the parts right back into the box and either hire somebody to put it together or return it, claiming that it is just too hard to assemble. Other people follow the instructions partially and somewhere in the middle will skip a few steps that they don’t believe are too critical, only to end up finding out that one of those “non-critical” steps was very important when they end up with a half-finished project. But for the people who follow the instructions, they end up with a beautiful finished product that can then be used and admired for its handiwork. The key difference from the finished desk, chair, or bed or the half-assembled pieces of wood was complete or partial obedience.
Our passage today follows up the passage we looked at yesterday in Ezra, where the people of Israel were told to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem. They had finally finished building the Temple after a long stint of procrastination due to persecution. Ezra, a well-studied scribe of the Word of God, as well as a priest, now arrived in Jerusalem with directions from King Artaxerxes of Persia to help teach and lead the people of Israel and the people living in the area of Israel to follow the law of the Lord. Interestingly enough, King Artaxerxes in his instructions states the verse we are looking at today, “Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heaven, let it be diligently done for the house of the God of heaven: for why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and his sons?” King Artaxerxes wanted to make sure that not only were they obeying the law of God partially but to the letter. The word diligently here means “exactly, carefully,” meaning that they were to follow the Word of God completely and fully and to the letter, making sure that they did not miss a single word. The ESV translates it as, “Whatever is decreed by the God of heave, let it be done in full for the house of God…” This version basically states what we already draw out of the word exactly – Complete obedience must be given to the Word of God.
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to obey our Lord and Savior – to follow all His commands and the ways He asks us to live. We are told by Christ Himself, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Christ did not mean keep my commandments partially. He did not mean pick and choose what you want to obey and what is most convenient for you at the time. He simply meant, “Keep all my commands all the time all the way.” We must be obedient to the Lord completely and not only part of the way, which is usually what we try to do. We will go out and do whatever the Lord tells us to do, but we will do it while grumbling and complaining. That is obeying the Lord’s command partially, for He asks us to do all things without grumbling and complaining. We will follow the Lord’s command to love our neighbors, yet we will not follow the full command of loving them “as ourselves.” That is obeying God partially. We will obey and honor our parents, yet we will do so only when we agree with them. That is obeying God’s Word partially. We will remove some of the sin that so easily besets us and allow a few of the others to continue to burden us. That is obeying God’s Word partially. Way too often, we only obey God’s Word when we want to, when we should obey Him fully and completely. God demands complete obedience for anything less is not obedience at all. Just like with furniture, if we cut the corners, we will find in the end just firewood. But if we decided to follow the instructions to the letter, we can become a beautiful piece of work that acts as a witness to the handiwork of God. Let us disciples of Jesus Christ completely obey our Lord’s Word so that we may be an awesome example of the handiwork of God in a life that is fully devoted and surrendered to Him.
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