122. Go Well with You
Deuteronomy 12:25, 28 Thou shalt not eat it (the blood); that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord. Observe and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go will with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight of the Lord thy God.
If you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord, then it will go well with you and your descendants. “Observe and hear the words I command you,” means keep the Commandments. The conditional promises of the Mosaic Covenant are simple and clear: Obey God and life will be good. Life will go well with you and also with your children after you. Those who learn to obey the Lord and who teach their children to obey the Lord will live a good life for successive generations.
In the Great Commission Jesus gives us He says, “teaching them to obey.” Learning obedience is not easy, but the Spirit makes it possible; teaching obedience is also hard for it involves patience, discipline, effort, and hard work. God wants us to know that learning and teaching obedience is worth the effort, so that we will welcome the discipline of the Lord and the working of the Spirit. The worthwhile results: it will go well with you.
The Lord knows that obedience is impossible for sinful humans, and He understands how hard it is. Therefore, He saves us, lives in us, and gives the indwelling Spirit to will and to do His good pleasure. The Spirit is our Teacher, teaching us not only to know and love the Word but also to do it. He helps us in our inability and infirmity. And He wants us to ask, so He gave us the Lord’s Prayer to ask Him to make us better people. He sanctifies us and makes us better in two ways: 1) He makes us more obedient and compliant through the Gospel, and 2) He makes things go well with us.
Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered [Hebrews 5:8].” Jesus didn’t have to “learn” anything, but He did have to experience the learning as a human does. We do have to learn how to trust and obey. Trust God to teach you. And believe that God is good, it will go well with you, and His mercy endures forever.