ye shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people.'
my voice.' Oh, when shall we learn how unspeakably pleasing obedience is in God's sight, and how unspeakable is the reward He bestows upon it! The way to be a blessing to the world is to be men of obedience; known by God and the world by this
ONE MARK — a will utterly given up to God's will. Let all who profess to walk in Abraham's footsteps walk thus. 3. Go on to Moses. At Sinai, God gave him the message to the people (Ex. 19:4), 'If you will obey My voice indeed, ye shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all people.' In the very nature of things it cannot be otherwise. God's holy will is His glory and perfection; it is only by an entrance into His will, by obedience, that it is possible to be His people. 4. Take the building of the sanctuary in which God was to dwell. In the last three chapters of Exodus you have the expression nineteen times, 'According to all the Lord commanded Moses, so did he,' And then, 'The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.' Just so again in Lev. 8 and 9, you have, with reference to the consecration of the priests and the tabernacle, the same expression twelve times. And then, 'The glory of the Lord appeared before all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt-offering.' Words cannot make it plainer, that it is amid what the obedience of His people has wrought that God delights to dwell, that it is the obedient He crowns with His favor and presence. 5. After the forty years wandering in the wilderness, and its terrible revelation of the fruit of disobedience, there was again a new beginning when the people were about to enter Canaan. Read Deuteronomy, with all Moses spoke in sight of the land, and you will find there is no book of the Bible which uses the word 'obey' so frequently, or speaks so much of the blessing obedience will assuredly bring. The whole is summed up in the words (11:27), 'I set before you a blessing if ye obey, a curse in ye will not obey.' Yes, 'A BLESSING IF YE OBEY'! that is the key-note of the blessed life. Canaan, just like Paradise and Heaven, can be the place of blessing as it is the place of obedience. Would God we might take it in! Do beware only of praying only for a blessing. Let us care for the obedience, God will care for the blessing. Let my one thought as a Christian be, how I can obey and please my God perfectly. 6. The next new beginning we have is in the appointment of kings in Israel. In the story of Saul we have the most solemn warning as to the need of exact and entire obedience in a man whom God is to trust as ruler of His people. Samuel had commanded Saul (1 Sam. 10:8) to wait seven days for him to come and sacrifice, and to show him what to do. When Samuel delayed (13:8-14) Saul took it upon himself to sacrifice. When Samuel came he said: 'Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which He commanded thee; thy kingdom shall not continue, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.' God will not honor the man who is not obedient. Saul has a second opportunity given him of showing what is in his heart. He is sent to execute God's judgment against Amelek. He obeys. He gathers an army of two hundred thousand men, undertakes the journey into the wilderness, and destroys Amelek. But while God had commanded him 'utterly to destroy all; and not to spare,' he spared the best of the cattle and Agag. God speaks to Samuel, 'It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he hath not performed My commandment.' When Samuel comes, Saul twice over says, 'I have performed the commandment of the Lord;' 'I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.' And so he had, as many would think, But his obedience had not been entire. God claims exact, full obedience. God had said, 'Utterly destroy all! spare not!' This he had not done. He had spared the best sheep for a sacrifice unto the Lord. And Samuel said. 'To obey is better than any sacrifice. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath rejected thee.' Sad type of so much obedience, which in part performs God's commandment, and yet is not the obedience God asks! God says of all sin and all disobedience: 'Utterly destroy all! spare not!' May God reveal to us whether we are indeed going all lengths with Him, seeking utterly to destroy all and spare nothing that is not in perfect harmony with His will. It is only a whole-hearted obedience, down to the minutest details, that can satisfy God. Let nothing less satisfy you; lest while we say, 'I have obeyed,' God says, 'Thou hast rejected the word of the Lord.' 7. Just one word more from the Old Testament. Next to Deuteronomy Jeremiah is the book most full of the word 'obey,' though alas! mostly in connection with the complaint that the people had not obeyed. God sums up all His dealings with he fathers in the one word, 'I spake not with them concerning sacrifices, but this thing I commanded them, OBEY MY VOICE AND I WILL BE YOUR