In The Master's Service

STRENGTH IN OBEDIENCE

Elder R. K. Blackshear (deceased) From "GOOD WILL" Oct. 1956

"Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you his day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it." Deut. 1:8

This was the commandment of God to Israel, given them before they passed over Jordan into the land of promise. In the verses preceding this one, God had told them that that they were to keep His statutes and commandments, saying, that He spake not with their children which have not known, and which have not seen all the mighty acts of God, but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which He did. This expression qualifies those addressed in the commandments of God, and thus we see that God's commandments to Israel were based upon their knowledge of what He had already done for them, and were not given in order that they be His children, as so many men preach today.

God had already delivered Israel, and they had seen the results of His great works. They were His people, and for this reason He had prepared a place for them that they might be separated from the nations round about them. This was for His glory and for their well being in the world. Many of them did not avail themselves of this opportunity, but were disobedient, and as a result died in the wilderness. This did not keep them from being His children, but it did keep them from enjoying the fruits of the land of Canaan.

He now commands them to keep His commandments in order that they be strong, that they should not only enter the promised land, but that they should also POSSESS it. It was possible for them to enter the land and then not possess it, and in order to possess it they must obey His commandments. Obedience to His commandments would make them strong, and they needed to be strong if they were to possess the land. This makes us to know that there were difficulties to overcome, and in order to overcome these things they needed to be strong.

Even nature teaches us that we must exercise the members of our bodies in order to keep them strong, and the lack of proper exercise weakens us. The same is true in the spiritual sense. Paul said this in his letter to the Hebrews (5:14), "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." We learn in the above quotation of Paul to the Hebrews that the doctrine God taught the Israelites before they entered Canaan was still in force in Paul's day, and we believe it is true today. When Israel of old exercised themselves in the commandments of God they were strong to overcome the difficulties that Jay before them, but when they failed to do these things the enemy overcame them.

We might argue that all of our strength comes from God, and it does, but this does not alter the fact that God told Israel to keep His commandments, that ye may be strong. The inference is that if they did not keep His commandments they WOULD NOT be strong. Does this prove that Israel had strength and righteousness of their own? To the contrary, it proved that they had none, for when they sought to do their own way instead of God's way, they learned that their way was an unrighteous way. They were not righteous enough to know what was best for them, and they were not righteous enough to do right when they went contrary to the commandments of God. The thing that made them righteous in a practical sense was their obedience to God's commands. And who are we to argue that God did not give them strength as they endeavored to obey His statutes? This reasoning, we feel, does not detract from the honor and glory of God, but it rather adds to it. It is when we get to feeling that we are so righteous ourselves that we can ignore the commandments of God that we really do dishonor Him.

But listen to what Paul said again: "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Do we understand what Paul meant? Did he not mean that in the exercise of our senses we are enabled to discern both good and evil? Are we not wiser if we have this discernment? I think many times that we are unable to discern the good in some things and the evil in others because we have not exercised our senses properly. It is good to be humble, meek, and spiritual; it is evil to be haughty, self-willed, and overbearing. It is good to forgive our brother his trespasses, but if we are to do this we must have vision strong enough to see that it will do us no harm, but that it will make us strong and happy.

The confession of our faults and the forgiveness of the faults of others is not a sign of weakness, as the flesh would have us believe, but is a token of that divine strength that comes alone from God, but we must exercise the sense of charity or we will never see this truth. And so we gather from what Paul said that those who do not exercise their senses do not discern between good and evil. I wonder if this isn't what makes us sometimes condemn one brother for a fault for which we gladly overlook and forgive another brother. Maybe this is what causes some of us to follow preachers when they (the preachers) begin to advocate things not in keeping with sound doctrine. This may be what causes some of us to turn a deaf ear to brethren when they have a real cause for grievance and so express it. Maybe we can't see very well when we try to have our own way in the church, and get mad and act ugly when we can't have it.

We have to be strong in order to possess all the blessings in the church, and it is a great blessing to be submissive to the will of God in all things.

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