T. E. BOWEN by T. E. Bowen

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1907

T. E. BOWEN

By T. E. Bowen

Obedience

T. E. BOWEN

ETERNAL consequences are wrapped up in simple obedience. God told Saul one day to go down and utterly slay the Amalekites. Nothing was to be spared. Saul killed the people, but saved alive Agag, their wicked king, and the best of the cattle. But God counted nothing he did that day as obedience, although Saul maintained that he had “obeyed the voice of the Lord.” And because he failed to perform his plain command, God removed him from being king.

Cain did the same thing. He counted that it as unimportant, and really an evidence of weakness, to do exactly as God said. He understood what the Lord meant, but wanted to have his own way, and so he set up his will against the Lord’s. “Cain came before God with murmuring and infidelity in his heart in regard to the promised Sacrifice and the necessity of the sacrificial offerings. His gift expressed no penitence for sin. He felt, as many now feel, that it would be an acknowledgment of weakness to follow the exact plan marked out by God.”—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 72.

This same wicked thing is very apt to get into the hearts of God’s people to-day. It may be one point with one, and something else with another. It makes no difference with the devil what the thing is, just so God is not obeyed. This done, the devil’s point is gained. But when we follow the plain directions of the Lord, how good it is! Prosperity follows. How carefully should all, especially those connected with God’s cause as workers, seek to know his will, and knowing it, obey. We shall see wonderful things take place as this “weakness” of having our own way is purged.

Takoma Park, D. C.