Why should you listen to authority?
because bad things happen to those who don’t…
'While they were camped near the Jordan River on the plains of Moab opposite Jericho, the Lord said to Moses, “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, you must drive out all the people living there. You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines.
But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”' Numbers 33:50-52,55-56
imagine you get pulled over by the police. he/she walks up and asks you questions and gives you instructions. you really have only 2 options - a) comply or, b) disregard what they say. with free will, the choice is yours, and along with that you’ll have vastly different outcomes based on your decision.
for those who choose to listen and obey, in the majority cases, you will be inconvenienced for a little while and eventually given the opportunity to go on your way. on the flipside, you will be detained for an extended period, depending how disruptive you are may possibly get handcuffed and even taken to jail. if that happens, your situation just gets worse and you lose time and freedom (while you are not a prisoner, you are not free).
the sane, prudent individual willfully complies with instructions or commands given because it is the smart thing to do. may not always be pleasant because you feel you have the right to not say or do what they ask. just ask yourself, is it really worth the fight with someone in power?
the idiot on the other hand will argue, raise their voice, get animated, say the dumbest things to make a point, and more. if they legitimately broke the law, they have no ground to stand on and becoming combative just makes matters worse for oneself.
in this passage, God gives a command to moses for the israelites to drive out the canaanites entirely and destroy all their so-called images of ‘gods’ and shrines. if they do so, the land and all that’s in it was theirs to take to settle in and was to be split amongst the clans. if they didn’t, then God would do the exact thing against the israelites through the canaanites.
while the choice seems obvious, unfortunately there are quite a few boneheads that won’t listen and would rather suffer the consequences of their poor decision. i for one want to prosper in the land that God said we could have and prefer not to be driven out to wander in the desert.
in the New Testament, Jesus emphasized that if we loved Him/God we would do what He commanded us: john 14:15,21; 1 john 5:2-3. doing so we become God’s children.
dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the instructions you provide. may i learn to hear you and follow what you ask. please don’t let me stubbornness and pride get in the way. to love you is to do what you ask and that is what i want for my family and i. continue to show me and those i love how. in your mighty and glorious name i pray Lord, amen!