Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Kerry Muhlestein on Covenantal Obedience

  

Obedience

 

Christ Himself taught a key aspect of the relationship between loving God and fulfilling the covenantal obligation that is most oft repeated in scriptural teachings about the Abrahamic covenant. He told His disciples,” if ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Moses had also spoken of the connection between these two elements of the covenant when he said, “Thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and . . . turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 30:10). When our relationship with God is such that our burning, overarching, and overwhelming emotion, the yearning of our soul, is a love for Him, then we naturally seek to do His will. We call this keeping the commandments.

 

The idea of “keeping” the commandments is notable. The word we translated as “keep” in both Hebrew and Greek has an important range of meaning, all of which seems to be intended when it comes to what we do with the laws and charges God has given us. “Keep” (shamar in Hebrew, tereo in Greek) means to guard, watch over, observe, to execute carefully, to protect, or devote oneself to. “Keeping” isn’t just something we do, it is something we feel; it is part of the dos and don’ts, but because we desire with all our heart to please God and to want the same things He wants. Keeping covenant, or obedience, is a labor of love that happens naturally when our hearts are truly full of love for God, and we fully make Him our God.

 

Obedience, or keeping commandments/covenant, is the obligation that is most often the center of focus in scriptural texts about the covenant. Israel is told that they must keep the commandments (Exodus 19:5; Leviticus 18:5, 24-30; 25:18; 26:3; Deuteronomy 5:1, 33; 6:1-2, 17; 7:11; 28:1, 9, 14-15; 3-8, 10, 16, 20). This idea is sometimes stated in other ways. Abraham was told, “Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations” (Genesis 17:9). Covenant holders must be willing to seek and follow instructions from God (Abraham 1:2). Abraham was told that covenant promises were only efficacious for him and his descendants “when they hearken to [God’s] voice” (Abraham 2:6). The receiving of instructions and hearkening to God’s voice seems to reach beyond obeying the commandments as they are related in the scriptures, though it certainly includes that. This language seems to also include the need to follow personal revelation, an idea that President Nelson had tied into the covenant and the gathering of Israel (See Nelson, “Let God Prevail,” October 2020 general conference).

 

Covenantal blessings are clearly tied to both commandment keeping and loving God, the interrelationship of which we have just discussed. In a powerful and succinct summary of the covenant, Moses told Israel, “I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply; and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it” (Deuteronomy 30:16). (Kerry Muhlestein, God Will Prevail: Ancient Covenants, Modern Blessings, and the Gathering of Israel [American Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, 2021], 63-64)