Just How Much Change In His Word Will God Tolerate?
Posted: Thursday, October 27, 2011
by Joel Hendon
http://hebronics.org/index.html
Man is desirous of change, little things, big things…they all seem to need to be changed. but often change can be bad. Here, the apostle Paul makes a good statement concerning some:
And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) (Acts 17:19-21 KJV)
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (Genesis 3:2-3 KJV)
When he told them then that they would not surely die, but that God knew that they would become wise as gods, knowing good and evil. So they decided to follow his advice and changed God’s word. For this, God expelled them from the garden where every need was furnished and sentenced them to a life of hard work to furnish their own livelihood.
Then further on, mankind in general determined to ignore his words almost completely and do their own thing. God destroyed the earth with a universal flood, leaving only eight people alive to replenish the earth.
And still later, after God had chosen the Israelites as his people to furnish the lineage to the birth of Jesus, he gave them the written law through Moses. He laid out every detail of the law and of the methods used to worship Him and to sacrifice offerings to him. He had Moses to appoint the tribe of Levi to take care of the tabernacle and the physical work required to carry on the mode of worship outlined for them. He also appointed from those Levites, Aaron and his sons to be the Priests, serving as a go between for the people with God. They had to carry out the ceremonial duties of the worship, including offering the various sacrifices. Two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu whose responsibilities included the of burning incense unto God changed his word slightly. Not read carefully this.
And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. (Leviticus 10:1-2 KJV)
There are really no details given here, but it is easily deduced that they took their fire from some source other than where God had told them. You can also tell by the writing that He had NOT told them Not to use the fire they did. It explains very clearly that they took fire which was not the fire he had instructed them to use. That should seem a quite drastic response to many people. A change as small as that to cause the punishment to be death.
But this is not the only such instance and the lesson is clear. God requires obedience…strict obedience. There are many things which God requests us to do, yet leaves out the details so we are afforded a wide range of methods to accomplish His requirement. But when he specifies in detail, we cannot simply decide we like it better another way.
A good example is that known as the “great commission”.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:15-16 KJV)
Our command is that to GO and do these things. It doesn’t say just how we should go. At that time, they went, and mostly on foot, or chariot, or beast of burden. But they did sometimes use a boat (ship) to get to Rome and other places. We have gained all manner of technical methods, autos, buses, trains, planes and now, God has furnished us with the world wide web where we can carry the message to all points of the globe right from our desk chair. And we are not restricted to a method.
But anywhere it is specifically stated that we must do something, and how we are to do it, it must be done according to His word.
God had Moses to instruct the Levites to build an “ark of the covenant”. It was a container to hold the ten commandments written by God. No one other than the Levites were allowed to be around it and even they were not allowed to touch it. It had rings on both sides where a pole could be inserted through them and the Levites could do so without touching it. They then would carry it on their shoulders by use of the poles. They could also sit it upon an oxcart and transport it that way. Now read the following:
And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah: and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drave the new cart. And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab which was at Gibeah, accompanying the ark of God: and Ahio went before the ark. And David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals. And when they came to Nachon's threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:3-7 KJV)
This passage shows the dire importance of following God’s command, regardless of how we think, or feel about it. There are numerous other examples such as Moses not being allowed to enter the promised land after all they had been through for 40 years, because he usurped the glory when he struck the rock in the wilderness of Zin rather than speak to it as God had instructed in order to secure water for the Israel camp. (Numbers 20)
Obedience to God is the duty of man. To try and half way obey is foolish. One may as well make no effort.
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