March 7, Day 66 – Will We Obey Him?
- Dr. Eric Stricker
- Mar 7
- 4 min read
Earlier, we said that one of the most important lessons to be learned from the book of Leviticus is bound up in the question – Will man simply obey God? Will the Israelites carry out all the extremely tedious laws and complex regulations found in this book? That is the test that this book sets forth, and – ultimately – it is God’s test for us all. Will we obey Him? To man, God’s requirements often seem absurd, silly, and even completely unrelated to the subject at hand. Scripture offers many illustrations of this. For example, Naaman (cf., 2 Kings 5) had leprosy and was commanded to dip himself seven times in the muddy Jordan River to be cleansed of his disease. Not a difficult task, though perhaps an embarrassing one. At first, Naaman believed this solution was silly – totally unrelated to his disease. But that’s exactly our dilemma. We don’t believe it. However, God is sovereign, and He can use any means He wants to test us or to treat our condition. His test is simple – will we obey Him? Which is riskier – believing His seemingly absurd, unbelievable, and silly requirements to solve our problem – or continuing to live indefinitely with the besetting problem itself? The test of faith is this: “Will we believe God and trust His solution to treat our problem with sin? This is what Leviticus is all about. Chapter 14 of Leviticus continues the highly detailed regulations (that began in chapter 13) for cleansing infectious skin diseases and for treating mildew. Anyone in the camp who was affected by these problems had to follow these regulations precisely. Why? Because we need to understand what it means to be holy. We cannot come into God’s presence any other way than by holiness – completely pure, cleansed, and set apart – from every tainted condition.
We continue today with Psalm 30, verses 8-12. In this section, we see David crying out to the LORD for mercy – twice (cf., verses 8 and 10). In verse 7, David asserts that “when God favored Him,” He made David’s “mountain stand firm,” but when God hid His face from David, he was dismayed.” We all experience times when we feel closer to the Lord in our walk, and at other times, we feel like He “has hidden His face from us.” Being distant or even removed from God’s presence is truly disheartening which is made worse by the truth that any change in proximity is almost always effected by our cause – we are the wayward ones – the ones who moved. I am encouraged to read that a man like David also shared similar experiences. The Psalms comfort and encourage us because they exemplify how our godly predecessors handled these issues in the past. God wants us to emulate them. David says, “O LORD, be my help,” and upon receiving His help, David responds, “you removed my sackcloth (i.e., a picture of mourning) and clothed me with joy” (verses 10-11). “O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever” (verse 12). May this ever be our own praise before Him.
In Mark 13:1-31, as Jesus was leaving the temple, He pointed out that a time is coming when “not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (verse 2). Later, the disciples asked Him privately to tell them when these events would occur. Jesus said, “Watch out that no one deceives you” (verse 5). We need to recognize how prevalent deception is in our world – opportunities for deception occur at every turn, and we need to guard ourselves against it. In discussing the end of the age, Jesus said that “deceptions, wars, rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines,” etc., would come, but these are only the “beginning of birth pains” (verses 5-8). Again, Jesus warned, “Be on your guard” (verse 9). Sadly today, many of us are no longer “watching out” or “maintaining our guard.” We are living in a deceptive culture that has lulled us into a confusing but placid stupor of convenience, nonsense, and entertainment availability that has minimized, twisted, and negatively influenced our view of truth. The events Jesus described in Mark 13:9-31 are beginning to happen all around us. The sign of the end, according to Jesus, is “the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong” (cf., Daniel 9:27; 11:31; 12:11). At the end, said Jesus, “the days of distress will be unequaled from the beginning when God created the world until now – never to be equaled again” (verse 19). We need to heed Christ’s warnings to “watch out” and to “be on our guard.” Will we obey Him?
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