Obedience and Repentance

God tried in every way in old testament times to bring his people back from the paths of disobedience to keeping his law so that he could bless them the way he wanted to. Sometimes he would bring a foreign nation against their cities to lay siege to them, trying to squeeze his people into crying out to him with their whole hearts, and thereby finding their way back to him in truth. But unfortunately, instead of being brought to repentance, Israel did whatever they had to do to try to survive in the siege; even going as far as eating their own children (II Kin. 6:26-29). In Jeremiah's day, the people of Jerusalem chose to starve and die grievous deaths rather than to repent at the word of God which was spoken by Jeremiah (Jer. 16:4). Nothing has changed. God still lays siege to his people, and his people by and large still prefer to live with despair, fear, confusion and turmoil; rather than to repent of "their own counsels" and turn to the Lord with all their hearts (Psm. 5:10; Hos. 11:6). God's people today are not in one geographic location as was the case with Israel, but rather the body of Christ is a spiritual nation now, consisting of all who have been baptized by the holy Ghost woldwide (Eph. 2:22; I Cor. 12:13; I Pet. 2:9).

And so God lays siege to individuals now, and does everything he can as gently as possible to deliver his souls from their own counsels as it were, and bring them back into the order of his Spirit and the leading thereof. He also has laid siege to the entire body of Christ in many ways, trying to bring all of his people back from following after the counsel of man, to following the voice of his Spirit (Isa. 2:22; Rev. 3:22). But even as it was in old testament times, so it is today: The body of Christ and the individuals thereof for the most part choose to live with the weakness and spiritual turbulence that goes along with "leaning on your own understanding," rather than to submit to the word of God that is spoken by his Spirit to those who will hear, and have him direct their paths in peace (Prov. 3:5,6). It brings to mind a line from an old folk song called "Where Have all the Flowers Gone?" ... "When will they ever learn? When will they eeever learn?" There is only one way to serve God acceptably and be saved, and that is with all the heart, and nothing withheld. If we are under siege my friend, it is only because he loves us that much. Amen.