"As He Hath Commanded Us."
By E. R. Jones
"And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us." Deut. 6: 25. God requires of men perfect obedience. He says in his commandments just what he means. Nothing less will be accepted; nothing more is required. Any change in his precept or deviation from his commandment in acts of service is counted by him as disobedience and sinful. His positive word is, "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it." Deut. 12: 32. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Human ingenuity has ever been active in devising ways of serving him, a little more congenial to the unregenerate heart than doing "as he hath commanded us." His word is altered a little; they do a little differently from what he has commanded, and then say, "This will do just as well; the Lord is not particular." But the Lord is particular. His word fully attests this fact, and it should not be ignored by any who have respect to his service. The sons of Aaron knew what the Lord had said about the hallowed fire that must be used in burning incense before him. They took other fire to make an offering to the Lord, and miserably perished. When Saul was king of Israel, God sent him against Amalek to "utterly destroy" that nation and all their flocks and herds. He did so; only he deviated just a little, and brought Agag the king along as a prisoner; and some of the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings he brought for a burnt offering to the Lord. No doubt he reasoned with himself that the Lord would certainly be pleased with such a fine offering, although he knew it was not strictly in harmony with the instructions given him. When he met the prophet Samuel, he exclaimed, "I have performed the commandment of the Lord." "And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?" He answered that they had "spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord." "And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." He was told that this apparently slight departure from the word of the Lord was no less than rebellion and stubbornness; the one is as the sin of witchcraft and the other as idolatry. These cases clearly show that the Lord is particular and accepts of nothing in his service that is knowingly offered contrary to his commandment, or is not in perfect obedience thereto. To depart in the least from his positive precept is rebellion against him; and if it is in pretended service, it is idolatry, and not the true worship of God at all; for it sets aside his authority for that of another, and is little less than insulting him to his face. In one of his commandments, the God of Heaven has said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work; . . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." This precept is plain. Its requirements are easily understood; and yet nearly all of those who claim to be the children of God, in professed obedience to this commandment are keeping another day, one which it does not enjoin, and that, too, to the utter disregard of the seventh day, which it says we are to remember and keep holy. With his holy law before their eyes, can he receive such service from intelligent beings? Is it observing to do as he hath commanded us? Is he honored by such service? By no means. He is greatly dishonored. It is rebellion against him, and stubbornness. The cases of the sons of Aaron, and of Saul, are a solemn warning to all who wish to serve God in their own way, and thus set at naught his authority. Righteousness is right doing, and it is only doing right when doing exactly as God says, and no other way. And it shall be our righteousness if we do all his commandments "as he hath commanded us." E. R. JONES.