J. Douglas Dortch, Jr., Ph.D.
First Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL
“Obey Anyway”
From the Series "The Paradoxical Commandments"
Scripture: Exodus 14:10-14
September 30, 2007
One of the greatest challenges we face as human beings is that of standing by our convictions, even when the tide of popular opinion turns against us. Because we are social creatures and have this innate need to be accepted, we often find ourselves in situations where we are tempted to shelve our beliefs in order to fit in.
I remember an experiment we did in a high school psychology class. Our teacher sent several students out of the room on a random chore, and while they were gone enlisted the rest of us in something of a conspiracy against them. Specifically, he instructed us to intentionally answer a simple and self-evident question incorrectly in order to see how the others would respond. You can imagine how excited we students got, given how adolescents always enjoy pulling pranks on one another. So, when the students returned and we resumed class, the teacher asked the agreed upon question, which was something along the lines of, “How many of you believe that our government faked the moon landing?” Immediately, twenty-seven of about thirty students shot their hands up in the air, confidently and simultaneously. And in the corner of our eyes, we could see the students who had been out of the room look at one another confused and perplexed, before sure enough, they one by one began to lift their hands, though not as confidently and not as convincingly.
The power our peers hold over us is an amazing thing. Rare is the person who can stand against the crowd, especially when the crowd can’t understand your position.
Another of the paradoxical commandments has it that if you obey, people will not always understand your obedience, and consequently, they will not always agree with your obedience. But as a person of faith, you must resolve to obey anyway.
That’s one of the lessons we glean from this story of Moses and the criticism he received from the people whom God called him to lead out of Egypt and into the Land of Promise. At this point in the story the people have just been dismissed from Egypt, as Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has felt the full sting of the ten plagues that God had sent upon the land. But as people in high places often do when temporarily humbled, Pharaoh regains his swellheadedness and comes after the Israelites to return them to their slavery.
Up to now, the children of Israel have been on a spiritual high because of their liberation from the land. They have observed the first Passover. They have set apart their firstborn. They have carried with them the bones of Joseph, who had told them this day had come, and to top it all off, God is guiding them with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. How much better can things get? The Promised Land is surely right around the corner.
But so is Pharaoh. And when the people realize that a fuming Pharaoh is on their heels, they turn on Moses and question his leadership. “Why did you bring us out into this desert to die? Was it because there weren’t enough cemeteries in Egypt? Didn’t we tell you to leave us alone when you tried to get us to leave?”
They didn’t understand Moses’ decision, at least not when things took a turn for the worse, with Pharaoh behind them and the Red Sea before them. And even worse, they didn’t understand God, and how when God calls us to a course, God also sustains us along the way.
Do you understand? Do you comprehend how when God calls us to a way of life, God promises to be with us and to provide for us? Do you hold such a conviction about God’s purpose in your life that you are able to trust in it even when everyone around you considers you to be crazy?
I love the way the playwright Albert Guinon once described this type of conviction. He said, “When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong – or that you are absolutely right.”
Moses believed not so much that he was absolutely right; it’s more the case that he believed that it was God who was absolutely right. Notice how he answers the people: “Don’t be afraid! Stand firm and you will see the deliverance that the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians that you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.” In other words, Moses believed that the battle was not between Egypt and Israel; the battle was between Egypt and God, and with that being the case, there was no way that God was going to lose.
You see, what we believe about God is the determining factor in how faithfully we live for Him. If we believe that God is the Ground and Center of our existence – if we believe that God is the Lord of the universe and that He is working all things in accordance with His Sovereign purpose – then we align our wills with His; we “hitch” our little lives to His; we turn a deaf ear to every voice but His. And if we don’t, then we listen to our peers; we “hitch” our little lives to the latest trends; we bend our ear to the conventional wisdom of the day.
Theologian Dallas Willard tells the story of a man who once lost his composure and cursed in the presence of his pastor. After an embarrassed silence, he looked sheepishly at the pastor and said, “Oh, it’s all right, pastor. I cuss a little and you pray a little, but neither of us really means anything by it.”
“Neither of us really means anything by it.”
The challenge of our faith is to mean something by what we believe and to allow our belief – not the beliefs of those around us – to direct our behavior.
In that respect I think of Jesus and the faith that sustained him in pursuing the path to which God had called him. It was a path that led to the cross. And if you think that there weren’t people along that path who tried to steer Jesus from it, think again.
I think of the adulation that greeted Jesus on that Sunday when he entered into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The people were praising him, and understandably so. They saw in Jesus a person who might deliver them from the bondage of Rome. He was to them in many ways a “new Moses.”
But how things changed when as the week wore on, it became apparent that he wasn’t going to do what they expected him to do. He wasn’t going to take up arms against Caesar. He wasn’t going to lead the rebellion against Rome. He was going to be still and trust God.
By Friday, the same people who had been cheering on Sunday were now jeering five days later. And when given the chance to release Jesus or condemn Jesus, they chose the latter.
“When everyone is against you, it means that you are absolutely wrong – or that you are absolutely right.”
Moses trusted God even when everyone around him said it was a mistake to do so. But Moses was not afraid. Moses was not discouraged. And God opened the sea, allowing the Israelites to pass through, so that when the Egyptians came after him, the sea came back upon them, covering them all.
Jesus trusted God even when everyone around him said it was a mistake to do so. But Jesus was not afraid. Jesus was not discouraged. And though they pierced his flesh and put nails into his hands, God opened the gates of death so that all who believe might pass through.
The question becomes, “Will you trust God?” Even when everyone around you says it is a mistake to do so – will you believe God and do what He calls you to do?
Earlier in the year, The Indianapolis Star ran a story about a fourteen year-old boy from Bloomington who had decided to skip a preliminary contest to the National Spelling Bee. What makes the story interesting is that in 2006, this young man went all the way to the finals in Washington, DC, where he finished 45th out of 250 contestants.
When the local press interviewed him as to why he decided to drop out of this year’s competition, he answered that the Bloomington championship was scheduled for a Sunday and because, in his words, “I always try to glorify God with what I do in the spelling bee…I’m not going to spell and try to give glory to God in that” (Robert King, “Sunday Contest Spells the End for Student,” The Indianapolis Star, 2/22/07).
As you would expect, people took him to task for that decision. What was the big deal? Why was he being so rigid? As the young man explained, “I’ve just accepted that God knows what’s best, and I’m just going to do what God tells me to do.”
You may not agree with the logic, but you have to respect the conclusion. And if you are a person of faith, you have to embrace it in your own life.
For if you obey, people will not always understand your obedience, and consequently, they will not always agree with your obedience. But as a person of faith, you must resolve to obey anyway.
Because God is always right, you must resolve to obey anyway.