Hear and Obey the Lord…
Children need to know how to hear and obey lawful authority, as pain, sorrow, and death is waiting for the rebel and the disobedient, as per Genesis 3.
But joy, happiness and contentment waits for the wise and obedient, as per Genesis 3.
Note that Adam and Eve did not even consider obeying God, once Satan whispered his delightful poison into their ears.
We need to do better than that. Far better.
…And His Lawful Servants
It is especially true that children need to know how to hear and obey lawful authority — typically their father and mother — due to their ignorance and weakness.
Adults need to do so, too. Even as father and mother recede from their importance in our lives, other lawful – if flawed – representatives with lawful authority over us take some of their powers. The representatives with covenantal authority are the Family (until we are adults), the Church, and the State.
The Wages of Sin
Note that secular States recognize NO permanent limits or restrictions to their authority, only temporary and politically expedient ones. As such, they are in rebellion against God, and assuming no repentance, will be destroyed in due course.
In the meantime, we must continue to fight for what is right, as well as build our post-secularist future. And we must bear our stripes and the contempt of the secularist aristocracy as (in part) our lawful wages, due to our neglect and contempt for Jesus commandment to make the nations His disciples.
When Western Christians turned to hate God’s Law and laugh at His Commission to disciple the nations, we locked up our own cages and put on the heavy chains we must bear today.
But the sooner we repent of our own evil, the sooner we can get out of our cages, and the faster we can be free of our chains.
From Lawless Boys to Lawful Men
Adults are expected to better discern true authority from false authority. False authority is authority taken beyond the bounds God set for that individual or institution.
To know what these bonds are, you should know the Bible well. The Bible’s focus is on righteousness and justice and liberty.
Not piety. Not ritual. Not the temple.
And not the priesthood, excepting our High Priest, Jesus Christ, and the priestly/kingly duties of the adopted sons of God.
In this world, many people refuse to hear and obey God the Father, the actual and genuine Source of the Law. They also ignore Jesus Christ, the lawful elder brother who knows wright from wrong, who is the only way of salvation and escape from hell, the only way to reach God the Father.
From our jealousy, spite, and rebellion — our refusal to follow good instruction, as defined by God — pain, sorrow, and death follows.
Our stupid and evil rebellion also locks us into immaturity, into foolish children… but with the strength and the words and the ideas and the will to kill, and steal, and oppress, and lie.
We must repent, if we are to grow up. If we want to rise from self-centred and powerless boys to godly and powerful men.
A Housewife to Learn From
Reading The Greatest Single Rule of Success in Life, and Why Some People Break It All Their Lives, I am told of an old (but pretty good) movie featuring a housewife who knew how to exactly follow directions, to have her mailed-in entry be accepted so she can win a contest.
Not “P.O. Box”. “Post Office Box”.
And vice-versa, depending on the precise directions.
I have a friend whose son applied to an art college for a scholarship. He had to produce a sample of his work. His dad was in video production. He had taught the boy how to do this. He told his son, “Follow the directions to the letter.” His son did. He won a $25,000 scholarship. He was later told by the committee that his was the only submission that met all of the criteria. The other entrants may have been more creative, but they lost. The judges wanted to see how the entrants could compete. The first step was to follow directions.
When you are a master, you don’t need to be so scrupulous. But to become a master, you must spend time in the trenches. There, your task is to follow directions.
Career Advancement – The Greatest Single Rule of Success in Life, and Why Some People Break It All Their Lives
Gary North
If we are ever to become free men, we need to be able to follow directions.
We need to hear and obey.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams.
1 Samuel 15:22, English Standard Version
1The Biblical Law Code backs a negative law attitude, most of the time: “You must not do this, or be punished. Otherwise, do what you want.” The notable exceptions are the need to set up safety fences on roofs, tightly control known dangerous animals, give assistance to the blind, leave enough food for the poor to glean from, etc.
Secularists, as usual, back positive law: “You must do this, or be punished. Also, you must not do that, or be punished.” With this and that being whatever Our Betters feel like at the moment.
Total Arbitary Control by Our Betters leads to Zero Risk and Total Safety, don’t you know?
But Christians are to live in liberty, free of the domination of Powerful Men (and the bureaucratic masks they hide behind, to get the power while avoiding responsibility), to serve God, first and most.
True in Pharaonic times, true in Roman times, and true today.
Acrosss the Stars 