Verses about obedience

Samuel said, “Does YHWH have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in listening to the voice of YHWH? Look, to listen is better than sacrifice, to pay attention than the fat of rams. For rebellion is the sin of divination, and stubbornness is wickedness and teraphim. Because you have despised the word of YHWH, he has despised you from being king.”

Moses came and told the people all the words of YHWH and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, “All the words that YHWH has spoken we will do.” Moses wrote all the words of YHWH. He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve standing stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed bulls as sacrifices of peace to YHWH. Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that YHWH has spoken we will do, and we will listen.” Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “Look, the blood of the covenant that YHWH has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

YHWH heard the voice of your words when you spoke to me, and YHWH said to me, “I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They have done well in all that they have spoken. If only they had this heart of theirs to fear me and to keep all my commandments all the days, so that it might go well with them and with their children forever! Go, say to them, ‘Return to your tents.’ But you, stand here with me, and I will speak to you the whole commandment, the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, so that they may carry them out in the land that I am giving them to take possession of it.” Be careful to do as YHWH your Elohim has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. In all the way that YHWH your Elohim has commanded you you shall walk, so that you may live and it may go well with you, and you may prolong your days in the land that you will take possession of.

For I did not speak to your fathers or command them on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning matters of burnt offering and sacrifice. But this word I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your Elohim, and you will be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, so that it may go well with you.’ But they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and they went backward and not forward.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking closely at the face he was born with in a mirror; for he looked at himself and has gone away and at once forgot what kind of man he was. But the one who looks intently into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and remains in it, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be happy in his doing.

“So everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the winds blew and struck that house, and it fell, and its fall was great.”

And having brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest questioned them, saying, “We strictly ordered you not to teach in this name, and look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring upon us the blood of this man.” But Peter and the apostles answered and said, “We must obey God rather than people.

By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place that he was going to receive as an inheritance; and he went out not knowing where he was going.

And now, Israel, what is YHWH your Elohim asking of you but to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of YHWH and his statutes that I am commanding you today, for your good?

With what shall I come before YHWH, and bow myself before the Elohim on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will YHWH be pleased with thousands of rams, with myriads of torrents of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? He has announced to you, human being, what is good; and what does YHWH seek from you but to do justice, and to love loyal love, and to walk humbly with your Elohim?

For this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it far away. It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to the heavens and get it for us and make us hear it, so that we may do it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross over for us to the other side of the sea and get it for us and make us hear it, so that we may do it?” For the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may do it.

The end of the matter; all has been heard: fear Elohim and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of the human being. For every work Elohim will bring into judgment with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

The angel of YHWH called to Abraham a second time from the heavens and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares YHWH, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only one, that I will surely bless you and will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the shore of the sea; and your offspring will possess the gate of its enemies. And through your offspring all the nations of the earth will bless themselves, because you listened to my voice.”

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And by this we know that we have come to know him: if we keep his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God has been brought to completion. By this we know that we are in him: Whoever says he remains in him ought himself to walk just as he walked.

Happy are those blameless in their way, who walk in the instruction of YHWH. Happy are those who guard his testimonies, who with all their heart seek him. Indeed they do not practice injustice; in his ways they walk. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways were firm to keep your statutes! Then I will not be ashamed when I look to all your commandments. I will give you thanks with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous rules. Your statutes I will keep; do not abandon me utterly.

How I love your instruction! All the day it is my meditation. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for forever they are with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the elders, for your precepts I have guarded. From every evil path I have held back my feet, so that I may keep your word. From your rules I have not turned away, for you have instructed me. How sweet is your saying to my palate, more than honey to my mouth! From your precepts I gain understanding; therefore I hate every path of lying.

Although he was a Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin, but you obeyed from the heart the form of teaching to which you were handed over; and, having been set free from sin, you were made slaves to righteousness.

See, I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil, in that I am commanding you today to love YHWH your Elohim, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his rules, so that you will live and multiply, and YHWH your Elohim will bless you in the land that you are entering there to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and are drawn away and bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you will not prolong your days on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter there to possess it. I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, loving YHWH your Elohim, listening to his voice, and clinging to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, so that you may live on the land that YHWH swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but in the instruction of YHWH is his delight, and on his instruction he meditates by day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, that gives its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and all that he does prospers. Not so the wicked, but they are like the chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the community of the righteous. For YHWH knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

“Enter through the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and spacious the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it; for narrow is the gate and constricted the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

There is a way that is right before a man, but its end is the ways of death.

Trust in YHWH with all your heart, and on your own understanding do not lean. In all your ways know him, and he will make straight your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear YHWH and turn away from evil.

And now fear YHWH and serve him with integrity and with truth; and put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve YHWH. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve YHWH, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve, whether the gods that your fathers served that were beyond the River Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorite, in whose land you live. But I and my house will serve YHWH.”

Come now, and let us argue it out, says YHWH. If your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow; if they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. If you are willing and listen, you will eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of YHWH has spoken.

And why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood came, the river burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; the river burst against it, and at once it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”