What is Obedience to God?

by Ed Elliott

“If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 1:19–20).

For many years, I heard these verses quoted to suggest that my obedience would let me enjoy great success and have the best the land could offer. On the contrary, if I was disobedient it would cost me severely. Then one day, I happened to be reading through the book of Isaiah and noticed a revelatory verse — the one before verse 19. It seemed to explain what my obedience was actually based on. Then it all made perfect sense.

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

The obedience God was talking about was the fact that He fully planned to cleanse us from all of our sins. He would turn our sins as white as snow and wool.

Clearly, the obedience God is talking about is “believing” what He said He would do. Rebellion is quite the opposite. It is not believing what God said. It is rejecting His desire to cleanse us of all our sins. This passage is very prophetic. It tells what God would send His Son Jesus to accomplish for us in His death, burial, and…