God Wants What He Asks For
Nov 16, 2008
Anyone who has ever had a task to do knows that replacements are not acceptable. It’s such a simple concept that it’s almost kind of silly to even imagine doing otherwise. Imagine that a farmer told his hired hand to go milk the cows. The hired hand came back and said, “I didn’t milk them, but they were all muddy so I gave them baths.” That probably wouldn’t go over too well. If a mechanic was hired to fix a transmission but he decided to fix the headlights instead, that probably wouldn’t go over too well either. Imagine that you sent your kid to the grocery store for a loaf of bread and he came back with a box of cookies. None of those scenarios would probably end too well for the person who ignored his or her instructions and did whatever he or she thought best instead.
We can see how ridiculous this is in work relationships, but it seems like people often try to pull this trick on God. God says to be baptized for salvation (Mark 16:16, 1st Peter 3:21), but many people replace that with just believing in God (James 2:18+19). God says not to commit fornication (Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5+6), but many people replace that with just being kind and tolerant of others. Of course, believing in God and being kind and tolerant of others are not bad things. A mechanic fixing a car’s headlights is not a bad thing either; it’s just not an acceptable replacement for fixing the transmission.
Under the Old Law, sacrifices and burnt offerings were a good thing (Ezekiel 20:40), but they could not replace obedience to God’s law. In fact, they were not even acceptable to God when offered by people who were not obedient (Jeremiah 6:19+20). King Saul was told to utterly destroy an enemy of God’s people, along with all of their livestock and possessions (1st Samuel 15:1-3). Instead of doing it, he defeated them and kept some of their livestock to offer to God as a sacrifice (1st Samuel 15:15). Because he did not obey God, King Saul was rejected from being king (1st Samuel 15:22+23).
Jesus came across a similar attitude during his time as a man on earth. The Pharisees of that time placed a great importance on the traditions of their elders. They were even critical of Jesus’ followers for not heeding those traditions (Mark 7:1-5). The Pharisees were carefully following, and even teaching, those man-made traditions at the expense of instructions from God (Mark 7:6-13). Jesus taught differently. He taught that the ones to enter the kingdom of heaven would be the ones who obey God’s words (Matthew 7:21-23).
Let’s be careful not to fall into this bad attitude. It can be easy to justify in our own minds not following the Bible entirely. We do it by replacing the instructions that we don’t like with something else. But it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way for a farm hand, a mechanic, or a kid sent on an errand. And it doesn’t work that way for a Christian.
We can see how ridiculous this is in work relationships, but it seems like people often try to pull this trick on God. God says to be baptized for salvation (Mark 16:16, 1st Peter 3:21), but many people replace that with just believing in God (James 2:18+19). God says not to commit fornication (Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5+6), but many people replace that with just being kind and tolerant of others. Of course, believing in God and being kind and tolerant of others are not bad things. A mechanic fixing a car’s headlights is not a bad thing either; it’s just not an acceptable replacement for fixing the transmission.
Under the Old Law, sacrifices and burnt offerings were a good thing (Ezekiel 20:40), but they could not replace obedience to God’s law. In fact, they were not even acceptable to God when offered by people who were not obedient (Jeremiah 6:19+20). King Saul was told to utterly destroy an enemy of God’s people, along with all of their livestock and possessions (1st Samuel 15:1-3). Instead of doing it, he defeated them and kept some of their livestock to offer to God as a sacrifice (1st Samuel 15:15). Because he did not obey God, King Saul was rejected from being king (1st Samuel 15:22+23).
Jesus came across a similar attitude during his time as a man on earth. The Pharisees of that time placed a great importance on the traditions of their elders. They were even critical of Jesus’ followers for not heeding those traditions (Mark 7:1-5). The Pharisees were carefully following, and even teaching, those man-made traditions at the expense of instructions from God (Mark 7:6-13). Jesus taught differently. He taught that the ones to enter the kingdom of heaven would be the ones who obey God’s words (Matthew 7:21-23).
Let’s be careful not to fall into this bad attitude. It can be easy to justify in our own minds not following the Bible entirely. We do it by replacing the instructions that we don’t like with something else. But it doesn’t work that way. It doesn’t work that way for a farm hand, a mechanic, or a kid sent on an errand. And it doesn’t work that way for a Christian.