Why Are We so Bad At Obeying God?

If someone described you as “obedient,” would you feel proud or offended? That single word can carry a lot of history, especially when you’ve seen obedience used as control or when independence feels like the highest good. Today we slow down in Nehemiah 8:13-18 and watch a community do something rare: they hear God’s Word, discover a long-neglected command, and respond right away, even though it is inconvenient and uncomfortable. And somehow, their obedience leads to great joy.

We walk through a simple four-question Bible study method you can use anytime you feel stuck when reading the Bible: what the passage says about God and people, what stands out or confuses you, what to obey or follow, and how to apply it right now. 

We also name the motives that often drive behavior: fear-based obedience, reward-based, duty-based, and the kind that transforms everything, love-based obedience. The goal is not rule-keeping for its own sake, but a life shaped by relationship with God, where remembering his faithfulness fuels gratitude, and gratitude makes obedience a chosen, joy-filled response. If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who wrestles with obedience, and leave a review. What area of your life is God nudging from disobedience to obedience?

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Transcript

The Obedient Question

Four Questions To Study Scripture

Reading Nehemiah 8:13-18

What This Shows About God

Curiosity About The Festival

Immediate Obedience Despite Discomfort

Four Motivations For Obedience

Love Based Obedience And Joy

Applying This Through Remembering

SPEAKER_00 0:08

If I were to ask someone to describe you, would they use the word obedient? And when you heard that, would you be glad or disappointed? Whatever the answer is. Because some of us pride ourselves on being obedient, and others pride themselves on being disobedient. In fact, honestly, as Americans, we don't like anyone telling us what to do. Even God. In today's passage, the people simply obey. What does that say about them? And is there something there that they can teach us? Let's find out together. Hi friends, I'm Betsy, and I want to welcome you to Moments to Ponder. If you're interested in learning more from the Bible, but sometimes struggle to know how it connects to you, you've come to the right place. I pray this time together will be encouraging for you. This is episode 171. As we move into our passage of Nehemiah for today, we're going to do something a little bit different. One of the reasons I do this podcast is to help you learn how to apply scripture to your life, to take a passage and see what it has for us. But I realize that there might be some of you who don't know how to engage with your Bible on your own. So today we're going to use a simple four-question process to help us study this passage as an example of what we can learn, but also what you can do on your own to engage with the Word of God. There are so many different questions we can ask. Who, why, where, and we've already asked a lot of those questions along the way. We need to ask them when we begin a book to know who's writing it, where they are in the world, and why they're writing it, and remind ourselves of those things as we continue. Yet when we're faced with a set of verses like today, over halfway through the book of Nehemiah, a section of a chapter, and we wonder what these verses have to say. I found there are four questions that give me a simple way to approach the passage. If you're new to the podcast, we're in the book of Nehemiah, which was written by Nehemiah. The walls of Jerusalem have been rebuilt after hundreds of years of being on the ground, and the people of Judah just spent the day hearing God's word read to everyone. Then they learned more about it in small groups and they shared a feast in response to what they heard. So with that in mind, we come to Nehemiah 8, verses 13 to 18. The first thing we need to do is read the passage. I am in the New Living Translation. On October 9, that's how we know it's the next day, the family leaders of all the people, together with the priests and Levites, met with Ezra the scribe to go over the law in greater detail. As they studied the law, they discovered that the Lord had commanded through Moses that the Israelites should live in shelters during the festival to be held that month. He had said a proclamation should be made throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, telling the people to go into the hills to get branches from olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees. They were to use these branches to make shelters in which they would live during the festival, as prescribed by the law. So the people went out and cut branches and used them to build shelters on the roofs of their houses, in their courtyards, in the courtyards of God's temple, and in the squares just inside the water gate and the Ephraim gate. So everyone who had returned from captivity lived in these shelters during the festival, and they were all filled with great joy. The Israelites had not celebrated like this since the days of Joshua, son of Nun. Ezra read from the book of the law of God on each of the seven days of the festival. Then on the eighth day they held a solemn assembly as was required by law. At first glance we see that the people learn of an ancient festival and then celebrate it. It seems pretty straightforward. What in the world can we learn from this? That's where the questions come in. So our first question is this What does this passage say about God or people? I think this passage has something to say about both. The family leaders come together with Ezra and other spiritual leaders to learn more from God's word, which shows us that they are open-minded and want to learn. And then they discover that there's a festival God commanded to be put in place, and that it hadn't been obeyed in like 800 years. They take these words of the Torah as truth that speak into their lives on that day. And they are obedient. That tells us something else about these people. They are taking the Word of God seriously, and they see this ancient book as something that is as real today as it was then. They trust it and want to follow it. What does this passage say about God? That he is a God that set festivals in place to remind his people of what he had done so they could remember what he can do, that he provides and protects and rescues his people because he chose them and he loves them. And it was still true in the time of Nehemiah, and it's actually still true today. So let's go on to the next question, which is what stands out or confuses me? These are places that push us to a bit of curiosity and also asking more questions. Now, in this passage, nothing really confuses me, but something did make me curious. As someone that likes to understand why, I want to know the history behind this festival of shelters and why godly kings like David and Hezekiah or Josiah didn't observe the command to celebrate it. So with a little research, I found that it's originally called the Feast of Tabernacles, or a festival of booths, or the festival of shelters. And it's found in Leviticus 23, verses 33 through 44. In these verses, we learn that this festival was to follow five days after the Day of Atonement, which we talked about in the last podcast. It was to start on the 15th day of the seventh month, which is actually the month that the people of Jerusalem were living in when they're reading this. It was a seven-day celebration started by building shelters to live in outdoors as a nod to the wilderness life of the Israelites as they came out of Egypt and their complete dependence on God and his provision for them. Now, for a group of people just coming out of their own captivity, this would have been a significant connection to the passage. And it also says that on the eighth day there was to be a solemn occasion, which we read they also observed. Now, Hezrah read from the book of the law of God every day. This festival was just not a seven-day camping break. It had purpose. So the why behind this festival was to help the people draw close to God, keeping God's word at the center and to remember what he had done. I tried to discover why the celebration stopped. There wasn't a definitive reason, but there were some clues. And in the end, I think it boils down to upheaval, kingdom division, and a lack of God-honoring leaders in their history. And over time, it was just forgotten. So that's what made me curious. What stood out to me was the immediate obedience of the leaders and the people. We get the impression that there was no pushback at all. They read it, saw God's command, and obeyed it. Now keep in mind, this wasn't a convenient thing to celebrate. It wasn't comfortable to live and sleep outside in the fall and to bring all of your family with you. They had to find the wood and build the spaces, but as they read this ancient command, they responded. They didn't push it off as outdated or too hard. They saw it as God's command for them. Which leads to the next question. Is there a command to obey, a promise to claim, or an example to follow in this passage? We can clearly see that God gave them a command to obey, a yearly festival to remember and give thanks for their salvation from Egypt. And it read, So the people went out and cut branches. And they did this because as they studied, they realized that it was almost the 15th of the month, and so they took action. They obeyed the command. This simple obedience, God said it, so we'll do it. That amazes me. Because even though traditionally this festival wasn't observed, they relied on God's word and reinstated it, which in turn gives us an example to follow. So let's dive a little deeper into this. What comes to your mind when I say a command to follow? Do your heckles rise just a bit? I feel like there's something attached to the idea of obedience in our current culture, and it makes it seem weak or a form of manipulation if you're an obedient person. Unless, of course, you're a child. I know many people have negative associations with obedience. It's restrictive or controlling or an abuse of authority. I mean, the word obey isn't even in most wedding ceremonies anymore. And I get it, obedience has been abused and misused in many spaces. I discovered through some research that there are different motivations behind obedience, giving it some clarification. There's fear-based obedience, which is motivated by fear, fear of punishment or danger. So, like go clean your room or you get no screen time, or run the drill correctly, or you're running laps. And then reward-based obedience, which is motivated by blessing or reward, right? So eat your veggies and you'll get some ice cream. I'll give you the money if you do the work I ask you to do on time. And then there's duty-based obedience, which is motivated by your position, your age, or your situation. It's your duty to obey. So take care of your sister, you're the oldest. Or you have to protect the kids. You're on recess duty. Now, as an adult, I can tend to push back on fear-based motivators, but I know that I live fully into the duty-based kind without even thinking about it. And as a parent, I've used all of the above. I mean, we want our kids to be obedient, right? I mean, how many of us have used the words because I said so? Yet as my kids grew older, the motivations changed. And through perspective and growth, the obedience eventually became because of the love we had for one another. Not during their teenage years, but in their young adult years. But when it comes to God, are you obedient? Why? Why not? Is it a fear of punishment? Or is it for blessings you want to receive? Maybe you're obedient because you feel like you have to, because you follow Jesus. When I asked if you were obedient and you said, no, not really, is it is it because you find yourself pushing back on some of the things God asks us to obey? Or maybe what he's asking you to obey feels out of date. So you think it doesn't matter? Or it doesn't align with your current understanding of your world or your situation or your status. Have you ever wondered if disobedience might be one of the key elements keeping you from enjoying God and his transformation in your life? And we know disobedience has a cost. Look at Adam and Eve. Yet when it comes to our own lives, whether it's pride or distrust or what others might think is intolerance, we often choose to go our own way rather than do what God has commanded us to do. As simple as honor your father and mother, or take a Sabbath. I mean, all obedience is a choice. Think about that. All of your obedience is a choice. As you grew into adulthood and you grew up and became more independent from your parents, you probably started to question authority, push back on some rules, and you decided which ones you were gonna obey and which ones you wouldn't. It's a part of the growing process, learning how to make choices and when you're going to use that choice to obey. Some choose to go into the military. And because of that, they choose to obey what's required of them in the military. And what's amazing is that this obedience fosters discipline and self-control. It builds character and perseverance, alignment and strength, all things we want in our military personnel. Now, in our spiritual lives, we can see all of these things too. Obedience to God builds character and perseverance and fosters discipline and self-control. It also brings guidance and protection. But no one thinks obedience in the military is easy. And it's not easy in our spiritual lives either. In fact, it's hard. It can be uncomfortable. We might not feel like we can fit in. In fact, we might feel like we stand out because it forces us to live differently than those around us. But this leads into a fourth kind of obedience that's not fear-based or reward-based or duty-based. It's love-based. It's motivated by love and loyalty. It obeys because of respect and relationship. C.S. Lewis said, obedience is the key that opens every door. And that key of obedience is love. Jesus said in John 14, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And just as Jesus' love for the Father was expressed in his obedience, so our love for Jesus is expressed in our obedience. When love-based obedience is given, it is such a gift. If you've ever received that, you know it. It's not forced, but a voluntary act of trust and responsiveness because of that relationship that has respect and love and connection. The people in Jerusalem with Nehemiah are choosing to obey this festival command out of love for God. And with the understanding that he set this festival in place for them. In fact, we read that their obedience and observing the festival brought them great joy. So, with all of that said, what do we do with it? Which comes to the last question. How can I apply this today? While we still have things we celebrate annually in our churches, communion is a reminder of Jesus' obedience, his sacrifice, and love for us. Jesus knew that his church, just like the Israelites, would need a constant reminder of what he did for them so that they would remember his love and grace. I mean, he even said, do this in remembrance of me. And it's in the reminder of his provision, grace, mercy, and sacrifice that we feel gratitude. And through that gratitude, love grows, it brings obedience and joy. For me, the application of this passage has to do with obedience. I feel like God has been really working on me in that area right now. When I retired, it was an act of obedience. And lately I've stepped into some other areas that I feel God is asking me to do, and I've done it out of obedience. I mean, I want to be like the leaders who read the command and obeyed without question. But I gotta be honest. I ask myself, am I willing to do uncomfortable, inconvenient things, things that cost me something like money or time or effort? Am I willing to do that in order to be obedient? And although I always want the answer to be, of course, I'm still working on it. And I do want to be more like Jesus, and maybe you're in that boat as well. We struggle with what other people think, and I mean, who wants to be uncomfortable and inconvenienced? But when I look back on the spiritual markers in my life and remember what God has done, I'm reminded of who He is, and that gives me hope and builds my trust and it fills me with gratitude. And when my heart is grateful, it is so much easier to be obedient. Even obedience filled with joy and excitement to see what God will do with what he has asked me to do. I choose to obey God based on my love for him, not out of fear or for the rewards, or even because it's my duty. I choose to obey God because I love him. Dear one, is there an area of your life that God is calling you from disobedience to obedience? I know it's hard to always understand what God is calling us to, but we know in our gut if we're being obedient or disobedient in certain things when it comes to the Lord. And when we know them, we need to adjust and allow Him to transform that area of our lives in order to be obedient. When I first took Sabbath day as a command, it required me to adjust a lot of my life, to really take a day without the guilt of feeling like I had to be doing something in order to rest and then also not just rest but focus on the Lord and do the things that I delight in because he delights in me. It was transforming to obey that command. But it wasn't easy and it wasn't always convenient, but that's the reality. When we follow Jesus, there are things he calls us to. When you first follow Jesus, there may have been some fear-based or reward-based motives behind your obedience to him. And I think that's reality for a lot of people. But as we grow and we remember his work in our lives and what he's done for us, we're building our trust and we're building that relationship, which is our proof. When we see who he is and what he can do, it's proof that he's worthy of our obedience. Remember, he loves us. So do you want to grow in your obedience to God? Then I have a simple challenge for you. The next time you're doing something ordinary that doesn't require a lot of thought, like the same drive to work every day, or folding laundry, or chopping veggies for dinner, resist the urge to turn something on and fill the silence with noise. Instead, let that quiet become a moment of remembering. Where has God provided for you? Where has he led you? Where has he been faithful when you needed him most? And let that remembering fuel you forward. Because when we remember what God has done, our gratitude grows. And in our gratitude, our obedience becomes a chosen, joy-filled response of love. Because we love him and want to keep his commands. Dear one, it's part of our growth process. And as he brings things to mind that need to come into alignment with him, I pray you have the courage to obey. Thank you for joining me today. Amen.