Not a participation trophy, but the reward of obedience.

Deuteronomy 11-12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Rewards of Obedience

11 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. ² Know this day that I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm, ³ and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land; ⁴ and what He did to Egypt’s army, to its horses and its chariots, when He made the water of the Red Sea to engulf them while they were pursuing you, and the Lord completely destroyed them; ⁵ and what He did to you in the wilderness until you came to this place; ⁶ and what He did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, among all Israel— ⁷ but your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.

⁸ “You shall therefore keep every commandment which I am commanding you today, so that you may be strong and go in and possess the land into which you are about to cross to possess it; ⁹ so that you may prolong your days on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. ¹⁰ For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, ¹² a land for which the Lord your God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.

¹³ “It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul, ¹⁴ that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your oil. ¹⁵ He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ Or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

¹⁸ “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. ¹⁹ You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up. ²⁰ You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, ²¹ so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth. ²² For if you are careful to keep all this commandment which I am commanding you to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and hold fast to Him, ²³ then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. ²⁴ Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours; your border will be from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, as far as the western sea. ²⁵ No man will be able to stand before you; the Lord your God will lay the dread of you and the fear of you on all the land on which you set foot, as He has spoken to you.

²⁶ “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

²⁹ “It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, ³² and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today.

I have to admit that I realized something today when I read and meditated on this text from Deuteronomy 11. I have never been a fan or a believer in the concept of rewarding behavior that is expected. But isn’t that what God does for us?  The heading of today’s text is:  Rewards of Obedience.  Here’s the thing, this is not to be confused with participation trophies. It is not that everyone gets the reward. It is those who obey.  God says: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:  the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.”   So with our own children then, we too should focus on the blessings of obedience. It should be clear that the curse is not punishment, but rather the consequence of disobedience. Obedience should be preferable over disobedience.

In Deuteronomy 30:15-20, God says again:   “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.”   God’s desire is not to punish, but to bless. He says: Choose life.   We too should focus on offering our children the rewards of obedience, making it clear that the choice is theirs.

It is necessary, if people are to choose obedience, that they know what it is that they are to obey. In today’s text it says: “I am not speaking with your sons who have not known and who have not seen the discipline of the Lord your God—His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm,  and His signs and His works… your own eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord which He did.”  We today, may not have seen first hand the things which are recounted in today’s text, and so it says:  “You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road and when you lie down and when you rise up.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,  so that your days and the days of your sons may be multiplied on the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens remain above the earth.”  We as parents, both natural parents of our children and spiritual parents of those who do not know God are to impress the commandments of God on our own hearts and teach and talk about them to others. They should be evident and integral in and to our lives.

Still there is no one who has an excuse for disobedience, no one who should claim ignorance of the qualification for the reward of obedience. Romans 1:18-25 says:  The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth ^[l]in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.   Even if we fail, creation itself testifies of God. The rest of creation is obedient to God and so, as the highest creation, should we be obedient to Him.  

God says:   “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:  the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today;  and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.”   God wants to bless us. He wants to reward us, simply for doing what is right. Hebrews 11:6 says:  Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Thank You Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit, that all You ask, for all that You have done and provided, is obedience to Your word. I believe. I choose life and obedience. As I participate in Your will and plans for my life, You are the trophy I desire and my greatest reward.    Amen.