in this message, Pastor Ben proclaims the two functions of obedience in the Old Covenant: 1. Obedience reveals our faith in the One True God 2. Obedience reveals God’s glory to the world

The Essential Role of Obedience: Faith and Glory

If you have been with us these past few weeks, the operative word has been obedience. We have been talking about it immensely because obedience is one of the grand themes of Deuteronomy.

Yet, obedience also seems to be the word in our Christian walk that bothers us the most. It can nag at us because it often feels like one of the most tiresome, exhausting, life-draining, and discouraging topics we could touch upon.

If you have been here a while, you might be thinking, “We get it, Pastor. Haven’t we heard enough about obedience? It can’t be that hard to obey God. And even if we don’t obey, what does it matter? God will forgive us anyway.”

It is very easy to excuse ourselves from our obligation to obey. On the flip side, it is just as easy to live in constant fear that we do not measure up to God’s standard.

Last week, we found refuge in the grace of God. We were reminded that salvation does not come by our works—salvation comes to the Christian solely through the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is by grace through faith, not of ourselves, but as a gift of God.

This week, however, we must tackle the other side of that coin: Why is obedience still essential to our faith as Christians?

Today, we will look at the two functions of obedience:

1. Obedience reveals our faith in the one true God.
2. Obedience reveals God’s glory to a watching world.

Before we go any further, let us ask God for His aid as we open His Word together.

Lord, we know we approach You as an awesome God—a God who is both righteous and just, yet full of compassion and grace. These attributes are not contradictory; they are complementary. Whatever burdens or whatever sense of pride we carry today, we ask that You confront us with Your Word as we study it together. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Understanding Covenant Blessing

Our passage today is all about blessing. Before we talk directly about obedience, we have to talk about what blessing actually means, because in the Old Testament, obedience and blessing are closely linked.

Deuteronomy 28 opens with a description of the blessings under the Old Covenant:

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.” — Deuteronomy 28:1–2

All of these covenant blessings are hinging on one condition: faithfully obeying the voice of the Lord. Notably, this list of blessings is much shorter than the list of curses that follows later in the chapter (which we will cover next week). Today, let us focus on the blessings.

What does “blessing” mean in this context?

1. Blessing Means Abundance

The things that receive blessing—cattle, donkeys, sheep, herds, flocks, baskets, and kneading bowls—are all abundant and fruitful. The clear sign of blessing here is multiplication and increase.

If you have an apple tree that produces only one apple a year, you wouldn’t call it a blessed tree. A blessed tree is one with branches bending and weighing down under the heavy harvest of full crops. Blessing means abundance, fruitfulness, and things flourishing as they were created to.

“And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground… The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands.” — Deuteronomy 28:11–12

2. Blessing Means Success and Victory

Blessing also means that different aspects of life function as they ought to under God’s protection:

“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.” — Deuteronomy 28:7

When God is the One fighting for you, victory is guaranteed. Think of the promise of the conquest: “I will be with you to drive out the Canaanites.” Everything works as it should according to the promise of God.

What Blessing Is Not

Before anyone assumes this sounds like the “prosperity gospel,” hear this: true blessing is never centered around glorifying man.

True blessing is not about enjoying abundance in pride and saying, “Look at what we have earned.” Instead, this blessing is the result of God’s people fixing their eyes on Him, being faithful to His Word, and acknowledging that He alone is the source of all good things.

They do not follow Him simply because He makes them rich or gives them military victory. Time and again in Deuteronomy, God declares: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt.” They follow Him because He redeemed them and made them His own.

Function 1: Obedience Reveals Our Faith in the One True God

If you count how many times “the Lord” is named in this text, it becomes clear who is doing the blessing: the Lord Himself. Not foreign gods, and not their own good behavior, but the Lord who responds to an obedient heart.

God is not stingy with His grace. Look at verse 2: “These blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.” They will overwhelm you and abound beyond what you can handle. God is immensely generous, desiring to bless His people with every good thing.

Verses 3 through 6 present a beautiful contrast: whether you live in the city or out in the fields, you are blessed. The fruit of your womb, your ground, and your livestock are all blessed. Whatever Israel did and wherever they went, God promised His presence.

However, there is an inseparable connection between faith and obedience.

To obey, the people had to actually believe God would keep His word. If I truly believe God will care for me when I keep His commandments, I will obey Him. Obedience shows that I trust in His power rather than my own strength or a false god.

The Public Nature of Worship

Israel lived in a culture where idolatry was everywhere and worship was deeply public. Today in North America, people often say, “Keep your religion to yourself. Believe what you want, just don’t bring it into the public square.” But in the ancient world, worship was entirely public—everyone knew who you worshiped.

Think of Gideon in the book of Judges. When God called Gideon, he went at night and tore down his family’s altar to Baal. When the men of the town woke up the next morning and saw what happened, they demanded of Gideon’s father:

“Bring out your son that he may die, for he has broken down the altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah beside it.” — Judges 6:30

The townspeople panicked because they believed Baal was their source of protection and blessing. They thought Gideon had brought ruin upon them. But Gideon’s act of bold obedience declared: “Baal is nothing. The Lord Almighty is my God, and He will save us.”

Where you believe goodness and blessing come from—that is effectively your god.

• What app, person, habit, or substance do you run to when you want satisfaction?
• What do you rely on to relieve your stress or scratch an itch?

If we run to sin for affirmation, pleasure, or relief, we are denying God and placing our trust in created things. Only by faith in the Lord—a faith that works itself out in real obedience—do we walk in true blessing.

New Testament Application

As New Testament believers, God has not promised that our crops will never fail or that our bank accounts will always be full. We are not under the Old Covenant mosaic law. You cannot read Deuteronomy 28 as a guarantee that your car will never break down, your roof will never leak, or you will always get a hot deal on a mortgage.

God has not promised us unfailing physical luxury. Instead, He has promised us something far greater: every spiritual blessing in Christ.

“This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” — John 6:29

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” — John 14:15

Faith and obedience walk hand-in-hand. You may face financial hardships or physical trials, but God has promised that in Christ, you have everything you need for life and godliness through His precious promises.

As Paul wrote to the Philippians:

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” — Philippians 2:12–13

We work out our faith because God is actively at work within us. Obedience is the visible expression of who we truly trust as King.

Function 2: Obedience Reveals God’s Glory to a Watching World

There is a country song about a dad driving with his four-year-old son. The dad has to slam on the brakes at a red light, and his little boy utters a swear word from the backseat. Surprised, the dad asks, “Son, where’d you learn to talk like that?” The boy answers, “I’m watching you, Dad. Ain’t that cool?”

The truth is, people are watching us.

When God brought Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, He wanted them to reflect His character to the surrounding nations. Evangelism has always been near to God’s heart; He desired people in Moab, Ammon, Phoenicia, Edom, Egypt, and Babylon to see His glory and come to worship Him.

Look back at what Moses said in Deuteronomy 4:

“Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” — Deuteronomy 4:6–7

Israel’s obedience was designed to showcase the greatness of their God:

• His Nearness: A God who dwells among them and answers when they call.
• His Protection: A mighty Savior who defends them against their enemies.
• His Righteousness: A holy God who forbids child sacrifice, commands marital fidelity, and demands justice for the neighbor.

When surrounding nations looked at Israel, they were meant to say, “What kind of God is this? I want to worship Him.”

Look at verse 10 of our text today:

“And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.” — Deuteronomy 28:10

God took a small, insignificant group of former slaves wandering in the wilderness and said, “I am going to make you a light to the nations—not because you are great in yourselves, but because you will reflect My greatness.”

Stepping Out of the Spotlight

By nature, we are proud people. We love to stand in the spotlight and say, “Look at me! Look at what I have accomplished!”

True obedience forces us to step out of the spotlight and humble ourselves. Obedience rarely earns us worldly applause. Look at Jesus: when He hung upon the cross, He looked to the world like a defeated criminal. The very crowds that shouted “Hosanna!” assumed He was cursed by God. He received no earthly glory for the single greatest act of love and obedience in human history. Yet, as believers, we see the supreme glory of God in the face of our crucified and risen Savior.

When we share the gospel, choose integrity when it costs us, or forgive someone who hurt us, God gets the glory. Our obedience shows the world that God’s ways are infinitely better than human wisdom.

The Foolishness of the Cross

To a secular world, a life dedicated to following God looks completely foolish. The blessings of the New Kingdom do not always look like material wealth.

Consider the Beatitudes:

• Blessed are the poor in spirit.
• Blessed are those who mourn.
• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
• Blessed are you when people persecute you for My sake.

These blessings carry eternal value: a character refined by fire, the fruit of the Spirit, deep repentance, and the abiding comfort of God in suffering.

A suffering Christian who still declares, “I will put my hope in God,” points to Jesus in a way prosperity never can. The greatness of our God is displayed most clearly when we trust Him through the darkest valleys.

Practical Application

Obedience reveals our faith in the living God, and it reveals His glory to a watching world. As we consider this passage, ask yourself two searching questions:

1. Do you find satisfaction in pleasing God, or in pleasing yourself?

It is easy to please ourselves; we are selfish by nature. Sometimes, self-pleasing even hides behind “pious” religious activity.

During the Reformation, Martin Luther fought against the church adding man-made rules that looked spiritual but ignored what God actually commanded. Luther pointed out that sometimes, “religious” tasks are just distractions from genuine obedience.

• Sometimes, pleasing God isn’t attending another meeting; it’s going to forgive your neighbor.
• Sometimes, it isn’t adding another item to your church to-do list; it’s stopping gossip and letting God confront a bitter heart.

Sin promises quick satisfaction, but it is fleeting. If your heart is alive in Christ, unconfessed sin will leave you hollow. Real peace and abiding joy come from learning what pleases the Lord and doing it from the heart.

2. Do you delight in making God great to those around you?

People see the reality of God when we lay down our lives for others, choose the hard path over the easy road, and display an unshakable trust in Him.

You can make a pair of shoes to the glory of God. You can bake a cake, care for a neighbor, or endure harsh words with grace—all to the glory of God.

Christ saved us so that we might reflect His greatness to a world that is starving for truth, chasing after things that can never satisfy.

Take your faith in the living God seriously. Let it shape your decisions, your attitude, and your workplace. Bring both your hidden sins and your daily struggles to the Lord, trusting that as you walk by faith, He will give you the grace to obey Him.

Amen.