To be God’s friend, and not His enemy, (see previous blogs) we need to obey Him. Obedience is not easy. It comes with a cost that affects us and often the people around us. It’s a serious decision, one with huge impacts and grave consequences. It’s a decision that we have to consciously make.

Jesus said to consider the cost to being His disciple.

It cost Noah a career change, at least temporarily. The Bible is not clear what Noah did before he built the ark, but it most likely wasn’t large-scale construction or wild animal care.

It cost Abraham his homeland. He had to leave his father and most people he knew to go where he knew not. I doubt any of them understood why Abraham was leaving them, especially if every question they asked was answered with, “I don’t know. God just said to go.”

It cost Moses his comfort zone to have to speak to the pharaoh, and the initial impact of his obedience resulted in harder living conditions for the Israelites.

It cost Esther her safety as she faced death for breaking the king’s law.

It cost David his lifestyle. He went from a quiet, peaceful life as a shepherd to a dangerous, stressful life as a king.

It cost Jeremiah his freedom. When leaders didn’t like his prophecies, they sometimes locked him up or threw him into a well.

It cost the wise men their time as they went in search of the Child. The Bible doesn’t say, but their families may have been left behind on a journey that may have taken at least four years. If so, I doubt their wives or children were very happy about it.

It cost Mary and Joseph stability in the early years of their marriage as they had to keep moving from one place to another in order to keep their new baby safe. I can imagine what their friends might have said: “You’re moving again, because of a dream?”

It cost Paul his pride. He gave up everything he was proud of – his zeal, training, knowledge, status – to become a servant of Christ.

It cost numerous Believers their family, friends, and even lives. Imagine the attitude of the unbelievers in their lives (both family and friends) as the Believers chose the new cultish belief over everything else.

Obedience requires knowing who to obey. These people in the Bible all obeyed God, which frequently put them at odds with societal and religious norms. We need to do the same. Jesus didn’t say to follow the church or church leaders. He didn’t say to follow society. He didn’t say to follow the government or other organizations. He said to follow Him. He sent us His Holy Spirit to ensure we could hear Him, and He gives us His grace to empower us to respond obediently.

We may not think God is calling us to do something but He is. He has a job for us, a mission to accomplish, a stand to take, or a light to shine. We may not like it. We may be in denial. We may question it. We may procrastinate. We may talk ourselves out of it. We may twist it to fit what we want to do or believe. But none of that excuses us from obeying Him. His mercy allows us time to grapple with what He wants us to do, but eventually we must decide to obey or disobey. There are no other choices.

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“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?… So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26-28, 33)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up the cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. (Genesis 9:20 ESV)  or Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. (Genesis 9:20 HCSB)

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from our country and from your kindred and your father’s house to the land I will show you. (Genesis 12:1)

“Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:10) Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘the LORD did not appear to you.’” (Ex 4:4) But Moses said to the LORD, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Ex 4:10)

Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.” Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.”But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your burdens.”And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens!” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their foremen, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them, you shall by no means reduce it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, ‘Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.’  Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words.” So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’” So the people were scattered throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent, saying, “Complete your work, your daily task each day, as when there was straw.” And the foremen of the people of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were asked, “Why have you not done all your task of making bricks today and yesterday, as in the past?” Then the foremen of the people of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, “Why do you treat your servants like this?  No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, ‘Make bricks!’ And behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.” But he said, “You are idle, you are idle; that is why you say, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.’ Go now and work. No straw will be given you, but you must still deliver the same number of bricks.”The foremen of the people of Israel saw that they were in trouble when they said, “You shall by no means reduce your number of bricks, your daily task each day.” They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; and they said to them, “The Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Then Moses turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me?  For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” (Exodus 5:1-23)

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. (Jeremiah 38:6)

“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:16)

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “’And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. (Matthew 2:1-7)

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and he took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. (Matthew 2:13-15a)

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. (Matthew 2:16)

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth… (Matthew 2:19-23a)

For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh – though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ  (Philippians 3:3-7)

For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. (Romans 14:8)