BY ISMERAI ORTIZ
Jeremiah obeyed God’s commands, and urged God’s people to also persevere in obedience. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah and the rest of the Bible, God never ceases to remind us that being His people meant obeying His word. But why was obeying God such an essential part of being His people?
Growing up, my faith depended on my parents, following the rules they expected me to follow. Likewise, my relationship with God consisted of knowing the commandments He gave us, and knowing we had to obey them. For me, this was what God consisted of: rules. Not obeying the rules meant consequences would follow, and my attention focused solely on the materialistic rather than the spiritual consequences Because of this, I didn’t understand what it felt like to have a relationship with God; what it meant to feel God’s love and in return what it felt like to show my love for Him.
During my teenage years, I went through a period of spiritual drought. If I didn’t pray or go to church on Sundays, I felt little to no guilt, and when God’s discipline came, instead of fixing my ways, I ignored it and used it as an excuse to go further away from Him. Just as the people of Israel, I “did not respond to correction.” (Jeremiah 2:30 NIV).
It took me a long time to once again walk in God’s path. Throughout a large period of my spiritual journey, I often felt joy from worshiping God, but the guilt I felt from failing to obey God with full submission was crippling. It was a heavy burden, and I didn’t understand why obedience was so necessary. What was this obedience for?
God “gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.” (Jeremiah 7:23 NIV). Here God tells us that to be His people, we must obey Him, and in doing so, it “may go well with” us. As Christians, we choose to obey God’s word. Of course, we’re not in any way perfect, and we always fail, but we still try not to sin. The key part of this is that we are trying, and in doing so, we recognize that the consequence of not obeying God’s word is that we get separated from Him. Obedience helps us keep close to God.
Disobedience and God’s discipline is not a direct cause-and-effect relationship that occurs all the time. Throughout the Bible and in our own lives, we can see how the obedient might face challenges that might seem like punishments from God while the disobedient continue to prosper despite their evil deeds. The former is evident in the Book of Job, where Job, a righteous man, gets robbed of his possessions, stripped of his family, and even develops painful sores all around his body. Likewise, in the present time, we might see people choose disobedience for short term gain all around us, pursuing their own passions over God, yet they continue to prosper.
At the end of each of our lives, however, every single one of us is inevitably subject to God’s perfect judgement. At this time, the righteous will be blessed, while the unrighteous will face their due justice. Thus, not every act of disobedience might be met with discipline in our present lives, but when we don’t live according to God’s word, we feel empty and might feel resentment towards many aspects of our life, including God. And sometimes (sometimes!) we do face God's discipline— but we should be thankful because this is God's display of love for us!
Solomon gives us this instruction: “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.” (Proverbs 3:11-12 NIV). Why should we “not despise the Lord’s discipline”? Solomon tells us that God disciplines us because he loves us, like a parent that disciplines their child. Even in discipline, God’s love for us never changes, and although the pain we suffer from this can make us feel like He doesn’t love us, we need to recognize that discipline is necessary to having a right relationship with Him.
God tells us in Jeremiah: “In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion.”(Jeremiah 2:30 NIV). We see that there is a purpose to the punishment God gave to the people of Israel, he says “in vain” because the punishment did not turn His people back on the correct path. “They did not respond to correction.” In other words, He wants us to “respond to correction,” to recognize what we did wrong and to once again be close to Him.
Apart from bringing us closer to God, our obedience to Him shows the love we have for Him. “If you love me, keep my commands.”(John 14:15 NIV). We are already saved from sin through Jesus, “so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:36 NIV), therefore our obedience is meant to bring us closer to God, and also to free us from our sins.
At first, my understanding of God and obedience consisted of only knowledge, but when I finally felt the love for God in my obedience, I wanted to love God with all of my being. I wanted to have a conversation with Him through prayer, engage in His word for answers and comfort, and look to Him in times of happiness and in times of sadness. “ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV). We must seek him “with all of our heart”, and in doing so, we leave no space for anything that is not Him.