Called To Obedience Series

Colonel Wilbur Rogers was ordered to let loose an artillery barrage in a World War I battle. He

was right there on the battlefield, and he could see what the commander could not see. If he fired as

ordered he would shell 10,000 American infantry just ahead of him. He refused to obey an order

that would have killed his own soldiers, and the result was he was immediately removed from his

command and arrested. Charges were preferred against him, and he was reduced to a class B status,

which means he was deemed unfit to hold commission in active service. Colonel Rogers fought in

court for 14 years to prove that there are circumstances where disobedience to orders is a

manifestation of common sense. Finally in 1934 he was vindicated and President Roosevelt signed a

bill that reinstated him to class A status.

Blind obedience to orders that you know are based on ignorance of the circumstances is not a

virtue, especially when you do know the circumstances and can make a wiser decision. On the other

hand, when you are the one who is ignorant of the circumstances it is a virtue to give blind

obedience to those in authority over you. This is illustrated by the Eastern King who hired two men

to pull water out of a well and pour it into a basket. After awhile one of them said that it was

foolishness. The water runs through the sides of the basket and the labor was in vain. The other one

said that they were being paid good to do it and so it is the master's business. The first man was not

satisfied and just threw the basket down and quit. The other man went on doing the job, and when he

got to the bottom of the well he learned the purpose of his labor. There was a precious diamond ring

that had fallen into the well. Had it been brought up before they got to the bottom it would have been

found in the basket. It was not useless labor at all. The worker who remained faithful to the task was

greatly rewarded because he worked on when he did not understand the purpose of it.

The king had planned the whole thing, for he was looking for a reliable servant who would obey

him even when they did not understand his plan. This has been God's search all through history. He

has ever sought for servants who would obey him. Abraham was one of his best servants and we

read in Heb. 11:8, "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his

inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." In blind obedience

he did what God ordered, and became the number one example of a man of faith. He even obeyed

God when he was asked to sacrifice his own son Isaac. It made no sense, for God had promised him

a great host of descendants as vast as the sand of the seashore. But he had faith that God would keep

his promise, and so he was ready to do what made no sense to him. God, of course, did not let him

do it, and provided the substitute lamb for the sacrifice.

If you study all of the heroes of the faith, you discover that the virtue they all had in common was

the virtue of obedience. They were different in many ways, but they were all obedient to what they

knew was the will of God. Obedience was the key virtue in the Bible and still is today. The first sin

in the Garden of Eden was the sin of disobedience, and this is the essence of all sin. It is those who

obey who will have access again to the tree of life in the eternal kingdom.

Some may be thinking that love is the supreme virtue, and this is correct. But the Bible so links

love and obedience that they are married and become one. You cannot have one without the other.

Jesus said in John 14:21, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth

me." Then two verses later he says, "If a man love me, he will keep my words." We make a

distinction between a professing Christian and a possessing Christian because it is not words buy

obedience that makes a true believer. In Matt. 7:21 Jesus says, "Not every one that says to me, Lord,

Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

It is in obedience to God that we demonstrate faith and manifest love. Without obedience all the

lovely language and professions are mere stubble that will quickly perish in the fires of judgment.