(By Sarah Kincaid) – When I think of obedience the first thing that comes to mind are dogs and obedience school. Why do dogs need to be taught, trained and conditioned to be obedient? Well because they are animals. Even domesticated, a dog’s natural inclination is to be wild. There are more reasons to teach a dog to be obedient than just for the sake of protecting your home from being destroyed. A dog learning obedience is protection from itself, alleviates natural temptations and shanagians they can be prone to get into.
There is a long history in the Bible of disobedience leading to negative or destructive results. The first, and hopefully obvious, example: Adam and Eve’s disobedience to the instructions God gave them in the garden. Genesis 2: 16 says, “But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” The enemy then tempted, lied and convinced Eve to disobey, consequently leading to the fall of man. Another example of disobedience resulting in detrimental outcomes takes place in 20th book of Numbers when Moses strikes the rock. When Moses and the Israelites were in the wilderness of Zin, there was no water for them to drink and the Israelites blamed Moses. Moses and his brother Aaron went before the Lord and the Lord told them in verse 8, “You and Aaron must take the staff and assemble the entire community. As the people watch, speak to the rock over there, and it will pour out its water.” Moses gathered the people around the rock and said in verse 10, “Listen, you rebels! He shouted, “Must we bring you water from this rock?” Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the staff, and water gushed out.” God’s devastating response to Moses not obeying His specific commands, verse 12, “Because you did not trust me enough to demonstrate my holiness to the people of Israel, you will not lead them into the land I am giving them!”
Consequences for disobedience can be severe, long lived, and will always affect more than just you. The same goes for obedience. The consequences for obedience can be severely amazing, blessedly long lived and enrich others around you. In Deuteronomy 30 verse 16 the Lord says, “For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.”
When our family dogs, Tinker and Belle (laugh it up) were young we struggled with teaching them obedience. My mom was trying to teach them to be in the front yard with her without being on leashes and this was a battle. We live on a semi-busy road and the chances of them being hit by a car were good. One morning I woke up to my mom yelling at the dogs as they took off running like maniacs into the street. I scolded my mother (which I don’t recommend) for having them in the front because I didn’t think they were ready. I warned her that they were going to surely get hit by a car. Later that night I got home from work to a very somber household. I saw Belle lying on the floor, she didn’t even react when I walked in, and I immediately knew something was off. My mom then informed me that the dogs ran off again and were both hit by a car. Belle was banged up, but Tinker got the worst of the hit and was at the vet. Well as sad and funny as this will come out, Tinker ended up losing a leg, and is now a three legged dog. You may laugh now, while making the ‘oh how pathetic and sweet’ face. We were attempting to teach our dogs obedience so they wouldn’t get hurt or hurt themselves. We are now proud to say the dogs never run off anymore.
Sometimes we struggle with being obedient. Hopefully no one has to ever lose a limb to learn to obedience, but it is definitely not an easy road. But when we rely on God’s strength to be obedient He is faithful to provide. Philippians 4:13 “For I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.” Although we will struggle to obey and please God we can rest in knowing that we have a Savior who’s grace is sufficient, we just need to accept it. Romans 5:19 “Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.” The disobedience of one devastated humanity, and the obedience of another saved humanity.