Obey

Jerimiah 42:1-16

When I was in the military, the single most important thing I learned was to obey orders and the second to it was to know when to disobey. When you choose to go against orders you must be aware that the consequences are going to fall on you, good or bad ad you had better be ready to man up. No battle can be successful without en that follow orders right into the very jaws of death. At the same time it takes a very wise man to disobey and be successful afterwards. Twice I saw disobedience in combat where it was the right thing to do and all the other days of those thirty months demanded single minded obedience. In the second instance the pilot told S3 that he was having a problem with his radio but that if they could hear him to send us all the air support they could because we were picking those 42 men we had just inserted up. S3 (the reason the radios on all six of our helicopters failed) told us those men were expendable and our choppers weren´t. Those 42 young men were inserted into the middle of 6.000 enemy soldiers.

My pilot told S3 their radio began to read broken and garbled and every gunner, crewchief and pilot backed him up by lying also. The other time Tiger 27 lifted off at the same time my ship did. We were Immediate Flare, lighting up the battle on Feb. 22, 1969 and two seven was First Guns. He disobey a stupid but lawful order and killed a rocket launcher crew that was pouring 120 mm rockets on us from the village. The Camp Commander was busted from Full Bird Colonel down to a permanent rank of a Buck Sergeant. Because the order was legal though wrong the pilot of two seven received a career ending Article 15.

In the Jeremiah passage the Israelites commissioned Jeremiah for the purpose of seeking God´s instructions for how to proceed after the murder of the Babylonian appointed ¨president of their captured land. Ten days latter God, our Father, sent Jeremiah back to them with orders to remain in their home land and because to do so was to obey Him, He would protect them and cause the to prosper. They, however, wanted to be the World´s first Peace-nics and disobeyed their LORD!

If you ever find yourself confronted with doubt of the foreknowledge of God, reread this passage again, slowly, and carefully analyze the contextual flow. God already knew they had decided to go to Egypt (chapt. 41) and just wanted Him to Rubber Stamp their decision. But the key is that God knows better than any other entity, what is best for us and He, being God, does not deal. The Father is not a cleverly carved knick-knack made from a cheap bowl of ground and melted Gold that we can make up clever stories about and believe what-ever makes us feel good, He is the Living God!

All through the Bible we learn of folks that chose to follow God and they prospered and are now in Heaven with Him, forever. Then there are the Judas Iscariots and the Lucifers and the death and eternal doom and death plus separation they suffer. The remnant was disobedient and they died harsh deaths in Egypt, eating Leeks, Garlic and Onions for their disobedience. Jeremiah, when he died the first death, went to Paradise to await Jesus and we are not given any hint to the station of the rest but, God being a Just God, we can rest assured they never attained any level in Eternity close to Jeremiah.

Obedience can be frightening when people are shooting .50 Cal. Machine Guns, B-40 Rockets ad SAMs at you but it is always the mark of a Good, Godly Man.

May God pour out His bountiful blessing on you and yours as you live to follow Him.