Click here to read the Old Paths Journal.
You Don't Have to Know God's Why
John 12:16
"These things understood not his disciples at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things unto him."
Often when you read the Scriptures you will see that people did things when they had no clue about the greatness of their actions. For instance, many of the men whom God used to pen the Scriptures on paper wrote about things that had not yet happened. However, they obeyed what God told them to write and would often understand what they wrote later when the Scripture was fulfilled.
The story from the verse above is about the triumphal entry of Christ coming into Jerusalem. The Scriptures say that as Jesus entered Jerusalem that the people pulled down branches of palm trees and strawed them along the way as they cried, "Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord." When these people were obeying the leading of God, they did not know that they were fulfilling Scripture. In fact, the verse above teaches that it wasn't until later that the disciples realized that what they did was prophesied earlier in Scripture.
One of the reasons that you should do right all the time is because you never know what your obedience will bring. There are hundreds of stories of people who obeyed what God told them to do, though they didn't understand why God told them to do it. Yet, because they obeyed, God blessed their obedience to accomplish something great through them.
One illustration of this would be Philip. Philip was preaching a revival meeting when God told him to leave the revival and go out into the desert. Though Philip did not understand why God wanted him to leave this great revival meeting, he obeyed and met the Ethiopian eunuch. When Philip saw the eunuch reading the Scriptures in his chariot, he stepped inside the chariot and led him to Christ. Many believe that the eunuch went back to his homeland and led many to Christ which resulted in a great revival. It wasn't until after Philip obeyed that he understood why God wanted him to do this.
You don't have to understand why God wants you to do something in order to obey. You must realize that if God tells you to obey that the command is what you are to follow. Understanding always comes after obedience. Too many people miss being used greatly by God because they wait for understanding before they obey, when if they would just obey they would eventually understand. Understanding never comes before obedience. If you wait until you understand, then you will end up disobeying God and miss His will.
Christian, decide right now that you are going to start obeying Christ whether or not you understand why He tells you to do something. Yes, it takes faith to obey Christ, but living by faith always pleases God. When you step out by faith and obey what God tells you to do, then you will find understanding after you obeyed.