A Chance

11 “If they listen and obey God,
they will be blessed with prosperity throughout their lives.
All their years will be pleasant.
12 But if they refuse to listen to him,
they will be killed by the sword
and die from lack of understanding.
13 For the godless are full of resentment.
Even when he punishes them,
they refuse to cry out to him for help.
14 They die when they are young,
after wasting their lives in immoral living.
15 But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer.
For he gets their attention through adversity.
- Job 36 

Listening to GOD and obeying His commands brings us many blessings with prosperity all throughout our lives. Is this our primary motivation for being close to GOD? Being religious following all His commands? But loving GOD is the most satisfying and fulfilling anyone could ever experience in their lives. It is not enough for GOD that you follow and obey Him out of obligation or fear. If that was so, He would not have to send His only Son Yeshua to die for our sakes. For it is not enough for GOD to have our obedience because we are after His blessings. He is such a wonderful being because He is after our love.

But even after what GOD has done and people still refuse to listen to Him, they will be judged by the sword of His word and die because of ignorance, lack of knowledge of the truth, no sense of wisdom and understanding. There's only two kinds of people in this world,  the godless, those that reject GOD and the faithful, those that belong to GOD because they chose to follow and obey Him with their whole hearts. There are also people who are religious but they do not belong to GOD because they say they fear GOD but in their hearts are resentment, rebellion and pride. But GOD's mercy is so great, He will try His hardest to get the godless out of their rebellion by punishing them with suffering so that when He gets their attention through hardship, they can have chance to change their evil ways and live their lives for GOD. This is how faithful and just GOD is to every one, HE always gives a chance.

His Unimaginable Ways

9 “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.”11 Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman. 12 But while it’s true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am. 13 Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, very well. Let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself! Now lie down here until morning.”

- Ruth 3

Ruth received instructions from her Mother in law to come to Boaz in a manner that was inappropriate at that time. But she came not with her own ideas and simply obeyed what her mother in law told her to do. Any woman doing what she did at that time might have been labeled as desperate at that time because Ruth was a widow and here she was, asking a relative of her husband to redeem her. But it wasn't as appropriate as it seemed to be when she asked this from Boaz because Naomi had already analyzed the matter and realized that Boaz liked her, he was just not bold enough to ask her to marry him.

And in the course of Ruth obeying her Mother in law, Boaz was given the courage to do whatever that needs to be done and did not waste time for Boaz to take Ruth as his wife. If Ruth had not obeyed her mother in law, she would never have been redeemed as a widow and enjoyed a new family with Boaz bearing to him a son. When the LORD prompts us to do something, no matter how weird, we will reap great rewards whenever we chose to follow HIS bidding and simply obey instead of question or doubt the greatness and perfectness of GOD. GOD's ways are higher than ours, and HIS dreams for us are far more than what our minds could ever imagine or dare to dream. (Ephesians 3:20) So shall we do it our way or seek to follow His unimaginable ways? 

Blessings for Obedience

11 “The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops. 12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. 13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. 14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

Deuteronomy 28:11-14

GOD has set many commandments for us to follow. Among these commandments are to not set up idols of any form or image, not to offend or hurt our neighbors, not to deny justice to those who are poor, powerless and needy, not to commit any sexual offense against one another and etc... Is it so hard to do? Yes! Basically human beings are not capable of not doing these things because we are a product of a fallen nature. The first man Adam has sinned and therefore all of us are prone to sin because we are cursed to be this way. It is difficult to obey GOD because of our sinful nature. We have to overcome our sinful nature. How so? By depending on the grace and salvation of the LORD JESUS who died and was raised to life to give us the power to overcome. And when we are able to overcome our sinful nature and obey GOD, we will enjoy such great blessings that HE has promised in the verses in Deuteronomy.

If we obey GOD, GOD will prosper us wherever we are. HE will bless us with many offspring, and bring provision for everything we need. Everything our hands will put into will be blessed, will multiply will profit. We may lend to many people but we will never have to borrow! How amazing is that! If we continue to follow GOD's commands and path for our lives, HE will never fail to bless us just as long as we will not turn away from anything HE ever said we should do and avoid everything HE said we should not do. But we can never do this on our own. Understand the reason why GOD the Father sent HIS son JESUS to die on the cross for us is to save us from our sinful selves. When we trust in the LORD JESUS by following HIM, daily walking in the Spirit of GOD, abiding in His word, then we are able to overcome our weakness and we are then able to fulfill all the commandments of GOD's laws. But we have to do our part. GOD has already done His part by sending His only Son, all the suffering that HE had to go through just for us to have a way to be able to receive the blessings HE wants so ever to lavish on us. GOD has done HIS part, GOD has not lacked to reach out to us, are we doing our part to obtain all the blessings for obedience?