Obedience To God’s Commandments In The Old Testament
This article covers Obedience To God’s Commandments In The Old Testament.
So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. (Deuteronomy, 5:32-33)
Oh, that their hearts would be in clined to fear Me and keep all My commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever! (Deuteronomy, 5:29)
Be sure to keep the commands of the Lord your God and the stipulations and decrees He has given you. Do what is right and good in the Lord’s sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the Lord promised on oath to your forefathers. (Deuteronomy, 6:17-18)
Ten Commandment monuments in Ohio.
The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case to day. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord our God, as He has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. (Deuteronomy, 6:24-25)
Remember how the Lord your God… test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commands. (Deuteronomy, 8:2)
You must obey My laws and be careful to follow My decrees. I am the Lord your God. Keep My decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord. (Leviticus, 18:4-5)
… Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel, 18:30-31)
… Your people whom You brought out of Egypt have be come corrupt. They have turned away quickly from what I commanded them and have made a cast idol for themselves. And the Lord said to me… They are a stiff-necked people indeed!… I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. (Deuteronomy, 9:12-14)
… But you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You did not trust Him or obey Him. You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you. (Deuteronomy, 9:23-24)
Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is… the great God, mighty and awesome… (Deuteronomy, 10:16-17)
… Lord your God, Who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery; he [wicked one] has tried to turn you from the way the Lord your God commanded you to follow. You must purge the evil from among you. (Deuteronomy, 13:5)
God
… He is to… learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law… (Deuteronomy, 17:19-20)
The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the Lord is your God and that you will walk in His ways, that you will keep His decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey Him… that you are to keep all His commands. (Deuteronomy, 26:16-18)
Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out. Then all the people shall say, “Amen!” (Deuteronomy, 27:26)
“You acted foolishly,” Samuel said. “You have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you… (1 Samuel, 13:13)
… To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams… Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has rejected you as king. (1 Samuel, 15:22-23)
A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed—with out remedy. (Proverbs, 29:1)
… For you are a stiff-necked people… you have been rebellious against the Lord. (Deuteronomy, 9:6-7)
They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles You performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But You are a for giving God, gracious and compassionate.. .and abounding in love. Therefore You did not desert them… (Nehemiah, 9:17)
However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come up on you and over take you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until He has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy, 28:15-21)
Luxembourg City Synagogue, Sefer Torah
If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God—the Lord will send fear ful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed. (Deuteronomy, 28:58-61)
I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die! (Deuteronomy, 31:27)
“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the Lord… heaping sin upon sin. (Isaiah, 30:1)
… Those who oppose You will be as nothing and perish. (Isaiah, 41:11)
They are all hardened rebels… They are bronze and iron; they all act corruptly. (Jeremiah, 6:28)
Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. (Jeremiah, 17:23)
This is what the Lord Almighty… says: “Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to My words.” (Jeremiah, 19:15)
… They and their fathers have been in revolt against Me to this very day. The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn. Say to them, “This is what the Sovereign Lord says.” And whether they listen or fail to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a Prophet has been among them. And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house. You must speak My words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. (Ezekiel, 2:3-7)
… “Do not be afraid of them or terrified by them, though they are a rebellious house.” And He said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart all the words I speak to you. Go now to your country men in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says,’ wheth er they listen or fail to listen.” (Ezekiel, 3:9-11)
… Those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. (1 Samuel, 2:10)
If you fear the Lord and serve and obey Him and do not rebel against His commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God-good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against His commands, His hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers. (1 Samuel, 12:14-15)
They… refused to live by His law. They forgot what He had done, the wonders He had shown them. But they… rebelled against the Most High; they did not keep His statutes. Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow. (Psalms, 78:10-11, 56-57)
For they had rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High… Some became fools through their rebellious ways and suffered affliction because of their iniquities. (Psalms, 107:11, 17)
You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were stead fast in obeying Your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all Your commands. I will praise You with an upright heart as I learn Your righteous laws. I will obey Your decrees; do not utterly forsake me. (Psalms, 119:4-8)
… I obey Your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your word. I have not departed from Your laws, for You yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from Your precepts; there fore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow Your righteous laws. (Psalms, 119:100-106)
The Lord detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished. (Proverbs, 16:5)
… I said, “Obey Me and do everything I command you… But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.” (Jeremiah, 11:4, 8)
Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed Him or followed His law or His decrees or His stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see.” (Jeremiah, 44:23)
Stairs to hell
And if you reject My decrees and abhor My laws and fail to carry out all My commands and so vi o late My covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring up on you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it. (Leviticus, 26:15-16)
“If you remain hostile toward Me and refuse to listen to Me, I will multiply your afflictions seven times over, as your sins deserve… If in spite of these things you do not accept My correction but continue to be hostile to ward Me, I my self will be hostile to ward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over… If in spite of this you still do not listen to Me but continue to be hostile to ward Me… I my self will punish you for your sins seven times over.” (Leviticus, 26:21-28)
Because he has despised the Lord’s word and broken His commands, that person must surely be cut off; his guilt remains on him. (Numbers, 15:31)
So I told you, but you would not listen. You rebelled against the Lord’s command and in your arrogance you marched up in to the hill country. (Deuteronomy, 1:43)
… She has rejected My laws and has not followed My decrees. Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed My decrees or kept My laws. You have not even conformed to the standards of the nations around you.” Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I Myself am against you… and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.” (Ezekiel, 5:6-8)
But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me; they did not get rid of the vile images they had set their eyes on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. (Ezekiel, 20:8)
But the children rebelled against Me: They did not follow My decrees, they were not careful to keep My laws—although the man who obeys them will live by them… I will purge you of those who revolt and rebel against Me. Although I will bring them out of the land where they are living… (Ezekiel, 20:21, 38)
I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses… (Ezekiel, 39:24)
Because you did not obey the Lord… the Lord has done this to you to day. (1 Samuel, 28:18)
But if you or your sons turn away from Me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off… the land I have given them… (1 Kings, 9:6-7)
… Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. (1 Chronicles, 28:8)
… He [Zechariah] stood before the people and said, “This is what God says: “Why do you disobey the Lord’s commands? You will not prosper. Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.” (2 Chronicles, 24:20)
Whoever does not obey the law of your God… must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment. (Ezra, 7:26)
… O our God, what can we say after this? For we have disregarded the commands You gave through Your servants the Prophets… (Ezra, 9:10-11)
We have acted very wickedly toward You. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws You gave Your servant Moses. “Remember the instruction You gave Your servant Moses, say ing, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to Me and obey My commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My Name’.” (Nehemiah, 1:7-9)
You warned them to return to Your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed Your commands. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on You, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. (Nehemiah, 9:29)
… [They] bind themselves with a curse and an oath to follow the Law of God given through Moses the servant of God and to obey carefully all the commands, regulations and decrees of the Lord our Lord. (Nehemiah, 10:29)
… We have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws He gave us through His servants the Prophets… has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey You. “Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You. You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster… Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to Your truth.” (Daniel, 9:10-13)
This is what the Lord says: “… I will not turn back [My wrath]. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed.” (Amos, 2:4)
