The land lay in ruins. Yet Pharaoh remained obstinate. Each time he had rebuffed Moses’s demand to release the Israelite slaves, Egypt was pounded by another calamity. His servants, stupefied by his stubbornness, pleaded with him to relent (Exodus 10:7). Still he didn’t budge. The curses intensified until Passover—the night that claimed the lives of all Egypt’s firstborn, including the king’s. At last, Pharaoh gave in (Exodus 12:29-32).
This history allegorically teaches truth about our spiritual lives today. Egypt is sin—Pharaoh is Satan—and we are those slaves.
When Satan has someone in bondage, he doesn’t want to give him up! But God demands that the devil let His son go!
“[W]hen Israel took the blood of the lamb, God acted, and as a result, Pharaoh released Israel,” the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course explains. “When we accept Christ’s blood, God acts, and the devil must release us” (Lesson 30; emphasis added).
There is a stunning truth there. Did you catch it?
Satan the devil obeys God.
It’s True
Have you ever thought about this? God is more powerful than the devil. And when God commands, Satan complies. When God draws a line, that old serpent cannot cross it.
You can see this truth affirmed throughout Scripture. Read the early chapters in the book of Job. Here Satan appears before God to accuse this righteous man (Job 1:6-8). “Doth Job fear God for nought?” he snarls. “Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?” (verses 9-10). God is protecting Job—and Satan knows it! The devil wants more than anything to bring Job down, but he simply cannot. God set the boundary, and Satan has to respect it.
This is also the reality in your life and mine: God decides how far Satan can go. The devil is “as a roaring lion, [walking] about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8)—but he is on a leash. God determines whether he may strike his prey, or whether he may not.
In Job’s case, God tells Satan, Okay, here’s the boundary. Do what you will, but don’t harm Job himself (Job 1:12). In order to test Job and to develop his character, God removes that protection—to a definite point. He establishes exactly where Satan must stop. Satan madly charges right up to that boundary—having all of Job’s cattle and camels stolen, his sheep burned, his servants slaughtered, his children crushed in a freakish accident—but doesn’t cross it.
Job bears these agonizing trials without sin. So Satan presses God, hungry to attack even harder. God responds, “Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life” (Job 2:6). Again: This far and no farther. Satan gleefully strikes the poor man with excruciating boils from foot to crown (verse 7)—but obeys.
Satan has zero mercy. Full of hate, eager to unleash misery, he is devoid of self-restraint. The only thing that restrains him is God. He is unable to defy his Maker.
In Matthew 4:10-11, Jesus Christ commands, “Be gone, Satan,” and the devil does as he is told.
In Revelation 12:9-12, God casts Satan and his demons out of heaven. He confines them to Earth, and they comply.
Think on what this means. The devil obeys God—and his heart is at complete enmity with God!
That tells you: Obedience to God is not enough.
What About Your Obedience?
From His sons, God wants more than mere obedience. If you obey God, examine the quality of your obedience. Surely it is better than Satan’s—but is it on the level God desires? Don’t be too quick to answer.
Think for a moment about your obedience to your boss: children to your parents (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20); wives to your husbands, even if unconverted (Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1); employees to your employers, even the jerks (Titus 2:9; 1 Peter 2:18); Church members to your ministers (Hebrews 13:17; Philippians 2:12).
Do you obey, really? Do you act one way when he’s watching, and another when he’s away? If you obey, is it begrudgingly, because you feel compelled to simply because you might get thumped if you don’t?
Here’s another question. Think about a law of God you struggle with—a sin you tend to commit time and time again. What would you do if someone told you that you didn’t actually have to keep that law? If you could go ahead and do that thing and still attain salvation? Would you embrace that sin?
It’s an interesting scenario: Remember that after Herbert W. Armstrong died, as Worldwide Church of God leaders began relaxing the requirements of God’s law, members embraced the change. They began working on the Sabbath and ignoring the holy days. Apparently they had observed them out of compulsion. And the moment the church announced that tithing was voluntary, its income dove 90 percent. Many evidently supported the Work financially only out of obligation.
This is roughly equivalent to what happens in cities at times when law and order break down. Once the notion takes hold that criminal acts will have no consequences, some people act with impunity. In certain cases, lawlessness engulfs the city. Free of outside restraint, many who wouldn’t have otherwise been so inclined suddenly begin to plunder, vandalize and assault without shame.
Sadly, compulsory obedience is not uncommon. Many people would commit crimes if they knew they wouldn’t get caught.
From His children, God wants an altogether different kind of obedience!
Progressing Toward Godly Obedience
Yes, at times God does get people’s attention by instilling fear or dread. At times He even uses it to compel submission, as He did with Pharaoh.
In a somewhat similar sense, God commands parents to impart proper fear of punishment in children as means of establishing habits of obedience (e.g. Proverbs 22:15; 29:15, 17). That is vital; however, it is only a starting point for the right kind of obedience to God. If that foundation is properly established, parents can begin to build on it.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments [or obey ] …” (Psalm 111:10). This is talking about more than just fear of punishment for breaking a law: It is respect and reverence for the Lawmaker. Having that proper fear leads to greater maturity and wisdom. Obedience to righteous laws produces greater understanding, which tends to reinforce the respect for the Lawgiver. This is true both of children toward parents and of sons within God’s Family.
The more you obey God’s law, the more you understand it. And the more you understand God’s law, the more you come to love it. That love inspires the kind of obedience God is looking for.
What’s Happening in Your Heart?
In Ephesians 6:5-6, the Apostle Paul enjoins us as employees to obey our bosses. But not in just any old way. He specifically says, “Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” Obey your boss as if he were Christ Himself—sincerely, wholeheartedly.
That is the obedience God wants. Paul praised Church members because “ye have obeyed from the heart” (Romans 6:17). God wants us to practice such obedience toward the authorities in our lives—as a means of developing such obedience toward Him.
Mere obedience doesn’t necessarily make you any better than the devil! The question is, what is happening in your heart? Only there can you truly keep the law in spirit.
Children and teens, do you obey your parents out of obligation, or out of love? Examine your motives, and train your heart to want to obey—to please your parents and grow into the person they are trying to raise.
Parents, realize that having obedient children isn’t the goal of itself. You must discern and work with their attitudes. You must strive, over a period of years, to inspire your children to obey from the heart—because that heart is turned to you (Malachi 4:5). That’s a big job. But ultimately, God wants their hearts turned to you—because He wants their hearts turned to Him!
“And now, Israel, what doth the Lordthy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways [or obey ], and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12). Note the progression here: Godly fear leads to obedience, which leads to love—which forges a commitment to a life of eternal service as a law-abiding member of the God Family.
God wants a love relationship with His sons. He wants us to love His way of life—His law of love—just as He does. He yearns for us ultimately to hunger and thirst for that way—not because we fear punishment, or even because we are trying to get some reward for obeying—but because we wholeheartedly, earnestly love God and desire to be like Him.
“O how love I thy law!” wrote the psalmist (Psalm 119:97). If you agree, you thank God for the Sabbath, the holy days, tithing, and even the laws you struggle to keep—because you know they reflect God’s thinking, which you love and want to emulate. “You don’t have to keep the Sabbath anymore” sounds as ludicrous as “You don’t have to enjoy time with family and friends anymore” or “You don’t have to enjoy your favorite foods anymore.” Offered the choice, you would never give up the Sabbath, because it is something you love!
That love is what motivated Jesus Christ to obey, even to the point of torture and death.
As we allow Christ to live in us, we will overcome the carnal man that hates God’s law (Romans 8:7) and come to truly love it as He does! We will earnestly contend to keep it—not out of compulsion, but because in our hearts we come to hate sin and the harm it causes, and to love the way of the Lawgiver. We will long for the opportunity to join the ranks in the supreme God Family so that we may work together and teach the world to abide by this beautiful God Family law.