Read Exodus 7

Just As The Lord Commanded

How important is precision when it comes to obedience? When a child is asked to do the laundry, will mom be happy if he washes his clothes but does not dry them and put them away? Partial obedience is not true obedience, is it?

Three times in Exodus 7, we read that Moses and Aaron fully obeyed what God commanded, doing things “just as the Lord commanded” (7:6, 10, 20). What if their obedience had not been full?

Think back to Noah in Genesis 6. What if he had used materials other than the gopherwood the Lord commanded? What if the ark had measured three cubits too long or two cubits too short? What if Noah had not obeyed “just as the Lord commanded”?

People get in trouble when they only partially obey God. What happened to Lot’s wife? God told Lot and his family to leave their home, saying, “Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain” (Genesis 19:17). Lot and his family fled, but his wife did not obey “just as the Lord commanded.” Genesis 19:26, “But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”

In the Lord’s parable of the sower, Jesus tells of some “who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13). Partial obedience. Convenient obedience. Not precise obedience. Precise obedience is shown in “those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15).

It is not always easy to obey the Lord fully and precisely, but that is exactly what He desires of us. We must seek His authority in all that we say and do! Read the inspired words of Paul very carefully: “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17).

Are you seeking the Lord’s will in “whatever you do”? Are you faithfully obeying His commands with precision, “just as the Lord commanded”?