# 385 “Keep” As Opposed To “Obey”

Genesis

Day 385

Ge 41: 32 "And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

We  are taking a little break from the study in Genesis to pursue the importance of repetition in the Scriptures. In particular we are looking at the “verily, verilies” found in the Gospel of John. When God repeats things, He is merely underlining or highlighting them for us. He gives them an extra sense of urgency.

Today we will look at Joh 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

“Keep My saying?” Sounds like obeying a proverb doesn’t it? Well, let’s see if we can clear that up. The word “saying” here in the Greek simply means. “Word” If a man keeps My word, he shall never see death. Can you wrap your head around that promise? It’s like there is no delay between your last breath on earth and your first breath of heaven. That is mind-boggling!

Our part of this magnificent, almost  too good to be true deal,  is to keep God’s Word! How are you doing with that? If you make the mistake of confusing “obey” with “keep,” you likely aren’t doing well. The word “keep” in Scripture does not mean obey! Obedience is a fruit of keeping God’s Word but it is not the same as keeping.

To “keep” in the biblical sense is to value you something so much that you put a fence around it to protect it from harm or loss. It means to treasure something.

“If a man “treasures” My Word he shall never see death.” Quite a difference isn’t it?  This “treasuring” is the essence of faith!  Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness! Abraham treasured God’s Word! He believed it! We are children of Abraham if we have that same childlike treasuring of God’s Word!

Jesus tells us in  Joh 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

The Holy Spirit comes to us as believers and brings all of God’s treasured Word with Him, and it allows us to agree with Him when He says in  2Pe 1:21, “for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

And in  2Ti 3:16 ”All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,”

Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will never taste of death if you keep His Word.