# 206 The Blessing of Obedience

The Book of Genesis

Day 206

Ge 22:15 Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time out of heaven,  16 and said: "By Myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son - 17 "blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  18 "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

 The “Angel of the Lord,” This is the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the Everlasting Son of God! This is one of several appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament, and theologians call these appearance “theophanies.” These events are always important and worthy of special note.

Think about this. The Son of God has just witnessed an earthly father willing to sacrifice the thing most dearest to him to God. In the same way, that His Father would one day offer up this “Angel of the Lord” as a propitiation (payment) for the sins of the world.

 1Jo 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jo 2:2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

You can catch how deeply this moved the Son of God as He pronounces a blessing on Abraham for the sake of this one time never to be repeated act of obedience on the part of Abraham.  God would never again call on anyone other than Himself, to sacrifice a child. And His sole purpose in sacrificing Jesus was to show the world how much He loves us! Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

As in Abraham’s case, God’s love and God’s blessings break out and are unleashed in our obedience to His Word. With that in mind, we should stop looking at the Ten Commandments  as  God’s way of spoiling our fun here on earth. They are meant to serve as a curb against unrighteousness in our world, but they are also meant to convince us of our sins and therefore show us our need for a Savior, and  they are also meant to show us how to love others and thereby prove our love for God.  

Jesus made this latter use of the Law evident when He spoke to the Pharisees in Mt 22:36-40, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  37 Jesus said to him," 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  38 "This is the first and great commandment.  39 "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  40 "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the  Prophets."

Do you want to demonstrate a love for God as Abraham did? Do you want Jesus to show up in your life as He did here with Abraham?  Then obey! First of all, obey the voice of the Gospel and receive Jesus as your Savior and then out of gratefulness, receive Him as your Lord.  As your Lord, you will seek to obey His voice! He is your Lord and He promises to show up in your life as you treasure (keep) His Word. This “treasuring” of His Word always shows up in obedience and He said in Joh 14:21,  "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

Pray: Father, let me never take Your love for me for granted. Let me relish You as my Savior, but then help me to live in such a way, that it is evident You are my Lord.