Hello Readers and welcome-or welcome back-to Renaissance Woman!

I continue this week in my study on the Whole Armor of God with my particular focus on the Helmet of Salvation.  As I have begun my word study on the Helmet of Salvation, I have concentrated on the word “obedience”.  Why?  Because of two passages of scripture.  The 1^st is 2 Corinthians 1-:4-6; “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”  The second is Hebrews 5:8-9; “though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.  And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.”  There is a direct correlation between obedience, salvation, and spiritual warfare in these passages and it is something I want to understand.

I spent the week praying and meditating and a sentence I would have sworn was a portion of scripture kept coming to mind.  It was, “I desire obedience rather than sacrifice”.  However, when I went to the scriptures in order to find it, it wasn’t there.  I realized I was mashing together two passages of scripture.  The 1^st was Hosea 6:6; “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” and the 2^nd was 1 Samuel 15:22; “So Samuel said, ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 

There is a valuable lesson here which I was reminded of and which I am going to briefly share with all of you: Test Everything.  I was sure I was remembering a portion of scripture.  Perhaps I had heard someone quote it using those words or perhaps I was indeed simply mashing together two passages of scripture on my own but we Christians have it hard coded into us that the Bible is the final word on all subjects.  If I hadn’t checked but had trusted I was remembering correctly, what would “I desire obedience rather than sacrifice” led me to believe about the character of God?  Perhaps it wouldn’t have been negative but it would have been inaccurate.  I cannot stress it enough: do not unquestioningly believe anything anyone tells you about what the Bible says, especially if they are doing so in an attempt to direct your life in any way.  Test it.  Does the Bible really say it?

I find the Ancient Languages fascinating and am constantly adding to my library in order to increase my knowledge of them but I don’t believe we have to be Greek and/or Hebrew scholars in order to accurately fact check scripture.  Many people put down the Strong’s Concordance but I find it to be a useful tool.  Let’s take the word “obey” as an example: I pointed out last week there are six different Greek words translated as “obey”.  They can’t all mean the same thing and a Strong’s Concordance reveals that at a glance.  If you find you have an interest in delving deeper into the Ancient Languages then do so but, again, it isn’t necessary for fact checking what you hear.  I fact check every Bible teacher I listen to.  I fact check myself (which is a good thing because I don’t always remember correctly!).  I hope and pray all of you are doing the same.

There is a second part of this lesson I also want to share and that is, don’t be afraid of mistakes.  My remembering two passages as one and my searching them out has been an immensely valuable way to spend my time this week because I saw into the heart of our God.  I saw how much He wishes to be known.  And, I saw even more clearly that obedience doesn’t always mean doing what we’re told and/or keeping rules: it means listening to His voice.

I shared in last week’s post the Greek word hupakoe (G5218) which is translated as “obedience” in the New Testament.  The word means “attentive hearkening”.  As I trace it through its related words and compound parts there is also contained within the word the idea of taking action but the action taken comes as a result of hearing.  I was curious what Greek word would appear in place of “obeying” and “obey” in 1 Samuel 15:22.  In “obeying the voice of the Lord” and I found akon (G189) which means “hearing, listening”.  I didn’t find the exact grammatical word for the Greek used in “to obey is better than sacrifice” but I found forms of it in both the Strong’s and BDAG.  The word is epakouo (G1873) and it means “to hearken, to hear, to listen intently.”

One of my Bible Teachers says “you stand and fall by your definitions” and I wholeheartedly concur.  If we believe “obedience” is to do as we are told, to keep God’s law, to adhere to some list of rules put forth by our denomination, we have missed it.  The word means there is one in leadership over us, we listen attentively to all that one says, and we act accordingly.  That One is Jesus Himself for He is the One to whom all authority on heaven and earth has been given.  He is the rightful ruler and King and His is the only voice to which we ought to be listening.

I checked Hosea 6:6 in the Septuagint and didn’t find any of my Greek study words there.  I was struck as I read this passage in the various translations listed on Biblehub.com.  I liked those that used personal language.  The New Living Translations says, “I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices.  I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.”  The Contemporary English Version has it, “I’d rather for you to be faithful and to know me than to offer sacrifices.”  The GOD’S WORD Translation says, “I want your loyalty, not your sacrifices.  I want you to know me, not to give me burnt offerings” while the Good News Translation renders this passage as, “I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices.  I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.”  The Amplified uses the word “covenant” in its rendition: “For I desire and delight in [steadfast] loyalty [faithfulness in the covenant relationship], rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.”

There is no substitution for knowing God.  It is the desire of His heart.  What I find so terribly sad is that it is not the widely expressed desire of the heart of a great many believers.  Their singular hope is to get to heaven when they die.  What they’ll do when they get there is anyone’s guess: worship God for all eternity, dance on golden streets…it’s all a bit vague.  There is no such emphasis on heaven as a destination in the Bible.  Rather, the Eternal Life we are all aspiring too is clearly spelled out.  “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).  “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

This post is in danger of becoming rather long so I will bring it to a close and continue next week.  I want to close with a passage from Hebrews 8 in which the Writer quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34: “…’Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ In that He says, ‘A new covenant’ He has made the first obsolete.  Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Heb. 8:8-13).

We are in Christ and are partakers of this New Covenant.  The desire of our God in establishing this New Covenant is that we would know Him, each one of us, and hear His voice.  May that be our prayer in this upcoming week: Open my eyes to see You that I might know You and my ears to hear Your voice alone!

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

1 Samuel 15:22 Interlinear: And Samuel saith, ‘Hath Jehovah had delight in burnt-offerings and sacrifices as in hearkening to the voice of Jehovah? lo, hearkening than sacrifice is better; to give attention than fat of rams; (biblehub.com)   

Strong’s Greek: 189. ἀκοή (akoé) — hearing, the sense of hearing (biblehub.com)

Hosea 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (biblehub.com)

Danker, Frederick William, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG), Third Edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago Illinois, 1957, 1979, 2000

Lanier, Gregory & William Ross, Septuaginta: A Reader’s Edition, Volumes I & II, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody Massachusetts, 2018

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990