People have tried to do God’s will their way for a long time. This doesn’t end well. Moses, before he was the Moses we all know and love and rightly celebrate, tried doing God’s will his way. The story begins in Exodus 2:11. 

It took forty years in the middle of nowhere for Moses to get to the place where he was ready to do God’s will God’s way. Even then, he employed a delaying tactic in hopes God would send someone else. Forty years of self-imposed exile and resolute refusal to return where he came from should have been enough to convince God he had made up his mind for good. There was no going back. You can read this part of the story in Exodus 3 and 4. 

Three ways to rebel against God’s clear directions are to 1) Do God’s will your way, 2) Delay doing God’s will, 3) Refuse to do God’s will. We probably do not need any examples of this one. This kind of rebellion doesn’t take much seeking to find.

Consider Joseph’s responses to what God said. In Matthew 1:24, we read, “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.”

In Matthew 2:14, we read, “When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.”

Easy lesson: Wake up and do what God tells you.

What if Joseph had done God’s will his own way, the way he had originally planned? What if he had dawdled when God told him about Herod’s plans? What if he had chosen to disobey God? After all, this was a major disruption. It would require last-minute travel, leaving all of his projects in various states of incompletion, and leaving all of their relationships behind for an unfamiliar, often unfriendly place where they had no home, no job, no nothing. 

Preachers like me like to say, “Delayed obedience is disobedience.” This is true in most cases. In Joseph’s case, it would have been deadly. 

Which of the three obedience issues is your biggest struggle? 

Do you think you are smarter than God and thereby choose to do his will your way?

Do you find yourself frequently delaying what you know to be the hard right thing?

Do you choose outright defiance and disobedience?

Hearing and obeying God, we noticed yesterday, “removes unnecessary burdens and unforced errors from our lives. Sometimes it literally saves our lives.”

A more blessed life begins when we choose to hear and obey God. A most blessed life begins when we help others do the same. 

Moses lived far too long in self-imposed exile because of his sin. You do not have to join him there. Burning bushes that are unconsumed and vibrate with the voice of God are cool and all, but reading God’s instructions day by day in the pages of the Bible and doing what he says is even cooler. For one reason, you are not God’s adversary in an argument you will most definitely lose. Also, you get to be his instrument for providing salt and light, hope and healing. 

We never get a word out of Joseph in these Christmas stories. Instead, we get an example of a life well lived and the blessings that come as a result. People see the Savior. Every life is changed. Evil is overcome. The whole world benefits forever. 

How silently, how silently Joseph did God’s will God’s way in God’s timing. 

—

I will hear and obey God like Joseph.

—

Our Father, give me ears to hear what you are saying to me today. I choose to do your will your way in your timing. Make me a blessing to someone today. Amen.