“If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land” -Isa 1:19
In the original Hebrew the word for “willing” in this verse means “to breathe after”. To breathe after something is to desire it with all your heart.
h0014. אָבָה ’âḇâ; a primitive root; to breathe after, i.e. (figuratively) to be acquiescent.
It means also, to be acquiescent… “ready to accept something without protest, or to do what someone else wants.”
It’s not mere obedience that God is looking for. He wants our deeply felt willing consent because we desire Him with all of our heart!
When the agony of the Cross was before Jesus He poured out everything that was in Him in prayer to His Father.
“And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.” -Luke 22:41
The more difficult it got, the harder Jesus prayed- even to the point where His sweat became as drops of blood falling to the ground.
Jesus wasn’t simply obedient, He was “breathing after” the Father’s will at all costs. He desired it above all things!
The only way obedience like this happens is if you’re in love with God. Jesus didn’t lay His life down in grit determination, He laid it down in love.
Moses was a man who breathed after God
“So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.” -Exodus 33:17
When a person breathes after God they want Him more than anything. Moses has found the favor of God but what He wants is God Himself. In the notes to the NET translation it explains that the Septuagint renders this passage as “Show me Yourself“. In other words, “You’re the one I’m interested in! It’s You I want!!”
It’s about intimacy.
“The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, the way a person speaks to a friend.” – Exodus 33:11
When you’re passionate about somebody you breathe after them! If you get a minute, you want an hour, if you get an hour you want a day, if you get a day you want a week!
Moses on the mountain, the people on the ground
“Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.” -Exodus 24:18
What were the people doing while Moses was up on the mountain talking to God? They were down below giving Aaron their jewelry, who was melting it to make a golden calf that they could worship!
Why were the people breathing the fumes of molten metal instead of breathing after God?
You don’t have to be up on a mountain to talk to God. God can talk to people on the ground too! The people at the base of the mountain could have talked to God just as easily as Moses was talking to God. Instead they were down there melting their jewelry to make an idol. Had they been breathing after the heart of God they wouldn’t have been down there fashioning a golden calf. They wouldn’t have been worshiping the work of their own hands.
Had they been willing and obedient they would have waited for Moses, and may I say, while they were waiting for Moses to come down the mountain they could have been offering up their own prayers to God while they waited.
The difference between the people and Moses was not just that they were on the ground and he was on a mountaintop. The difference comes down to posture of heart. Moses was breathing after God, and they weren’t!
For the Israelites waiting at the base of the mountain, any old god would do, even one that was made by their own hands!
Moses was of a completely different character.
I don’t believe for a minute if Aaron had been the one to go to the top of the mountain, and Moses had been the one who remained on the ground with the people, that Moses would have been taking people’s jewelry and melting it to make a golden calf!!!
“So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron. He accepted the gold from them, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” -Exodus 32:2
In the hands of Aaron was an engraving tool that he was using to make an idol. In the hands of Moses were the tablets of God!
How different was the heart posture of Moses compared to Aaron!!! Aaron was a people pleaser breathing after the will of the people. The only concern Moses had was pleasing God! His desire after God created zeal in his heart for the honor of the LORD.
“When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.”-Exodus 32:19
This is what breathing after God looks like! We see it also in Jesus when he drove out the money changers from the temple.
“He found in the temple courts those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting at tables. So he made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple courts, with the sheep and the oxen. He scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold the doves he said, “Take these things away from here! Do not make my Father’s house a marketplace!” His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” -John 2:14
Jesus had passionate love for His Father and because of this He had zeal for His Father’s house. Jesus was breathing after the heart of God.
Moses, likewise, was breathing after God. Whether he was on the top of a mountain or whether he was walking around on the ground Moses had passion for God. I don’t think the location of his feet changed the posture of his heart either way. Moses was breathing after God wherever he found himself and He had a willing and obedient heart because of it.
The reason many fail when it comes to obedience is because they are focused on obedience rather than having a heart that breathes after God.
You will never get far in the Christian Life until you learn to put “the horse of love” before “the cart of obedience”!
The power to walk in outward obedience is directly tied to the inward disposition of our heart. When we’re breathing after God it empowers our outward actions! Jesus directly tied obedience to love.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” -John 14:15
Obedience to God is the overflow that comes from loving Him.
Everything starts with love.