Obedience

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

General scriptures concerning

• Genesis 18:19 For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.”
• Exodus 19:5 Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations — for the whole earth is Mine.
• Exodus 20:6 but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
• Exodus 24:7 Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people, who replied, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.”
• Numbers 9:23 They camped at the LORD’s command, and they set out at the LORD’s command; they carried out the LORD’s charge according to His command through Moses.
• Numbers 14:24 But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.
• Deuteronomy 5:10 but showing loving devotion to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
• Joshua 14:6–14 Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land…
• Joshua 22:2 and told them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and you have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you.
• Joshua 24:24 So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.”

See BLESSINGS, CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE

Enjoined

• Genesis 17:9 God also said to Abraham, “You must keep My covenant— you and your descendants in the generations after you.
• Exodus 23:22 But if you will listen carefully to his voice and do everything I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
• Leviticus 19:19 You are to keep My statutes. You shall not crossbreed two different kinds of livestock; you shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear clothing made of two kinds of material.
• Leviticus 19:36–37 You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the LORD.”
• Leviticus 20:8 And you shall keep My statutes and practice them. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
• Leviticus 20:22 You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out.
• Leviticus 22:31 You are to keep My commandments and practice them. I am the LORD.
• Leviticus 26:3–13 If you follow My statutes and carefully keep My commandments, I will give you rains in their season, and the land will yield its produce, and the trees of the field will bear their fruit. Your threshing will continue until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will continue until sowing time; yo…
• Numbers 15:38–40 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that throughout the generations to come they are to make for themselves tassels for the corners of their garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the LORD, that…
• Deuteronomy 4:1–40 Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You must not add to or subtract from what I command you, so that you may keep the commandments of th…

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Exemplified

• Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.
• Numbers 9:23 They camped at the LORD’s command, and they set out at the LORD’s command; they carried out the LORD’s charge according to His command through Moses.
• Numbers 14:24 But because My servant Caleb has a different spirit and has followed Me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he has entered, and his descendants will inherit it.
• Joshua 14:6–14 Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land…
• 2 Kings 18:6 He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.
• 2 Kings 20:3 “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
• 2 Chronicles 24:16 And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.
• 2 Chronicles 31:20–21 So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God. He acted with all his heart in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.
• Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.
• Nehemiah 7:2 Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.

See BLESSINGS, CONTINGENT UPON OBEDIENCE

See Commandments

Filial

See Children

Instances of

Noah

• Genesis 6:9 This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God.
• Genesis 6:22 So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
• Genesis 7:5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
• Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in godly fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Abraham

• Genesis 12:1–4 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kindred, and your father’s household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those w…
• Genesis 17:23 On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or purchased with his money— every male among the members of Abraham’s household— and he circumcised them, just as God had told him.
• Genesis 21:4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God had commanded him.
• Genesis 22:12 “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him,” said the angel, “for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”
• Nehemiah 9:8 You found his heart faithful before You, and made a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites and Hittites, of the Amorites and Perizzites, of the Jebusites and Girgashites— to give it to his descendants. You have kept Your promise, because You are righteous.
• Acts 7:3–8 and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’ So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a f…
• Hebrews 11:8–17 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the promised land as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same pr…
• James 2:21 Was not our father Abraham justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

Bethuel and Laban

• Genesis 24:50 Laban and Bethuel answered, “This is from the LORD; we have no choice in the matter.

Jacob

• Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
• Genesis 35:7 There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother.

Moses

• Numbers 27:12–22 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go up this mountain of the Abarim range and see the land that I have given the Israelites. After you have seen it, you too will be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was; for when the congregation contended in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you rebelled aga…
• Hebrews 3:2–3 He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.

Moses and Aaron

• Exodus 7:6 So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded them.
• Exodus 40:16 Moses did everything just as the LORD had commanded him.
• Exodus 40:21 Then he brought the ark into the tabernacle, put up the veil for the screen, and shielded off the ark of the Testimony, just as the LORD had commanded him.
• Exodus 40:23 He arranged the bread on it before the LORD, just as the LORD had commanded him.
• Exodus 40:32 They washed whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

The Israelites

• Exodus 12:28 And the Israelites went and did just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron.
• Exodus 32:25–29 Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies. So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him. He told them, “This is what the LORD, the…
• Exodus 39:42–43 The Israelites had done all the work just as the LORD had commanded Moses. And Moses inspected all the work and saw that they had accomplished it just as the LORD had commanded. So Moses blessed them.
• Numbers 9:20–21 Sometimes the cloud remained over the tabernacle for only a few days, and they would camp at the LORD’s command and set out at the LORD’s command. Sometimes the cloud remained only from evening until morning, and when it lifted in the morning, they would set out. Whether it was by day or by night…
• Deuteronomy 33:9 He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not consider them.’ He disregarded his brothers and did not know his own sons, for he kept Your word and maintained Your covenant.
• Judges 2:7 And the people served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him, who had seen all the great works that the LORD had done for Israel.
• Psalm 99:7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept His decrees and the statutes He gave them.

Under the preaching of Haggai

• Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, as well as all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the LORD their God had sent him. So the people feared the LORD.

Caleb

• Deuteronomy 1:36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land on which he has set foot, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly.”

Joshua

• Joshua 10:40 So Joshua conquered the whole region— the hill country, the Negev, the foothills, and the slopes, together with all their kings— leaving no survivors. He devoted to destruction everything that breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded.
• Joshua 11:15 As the LORD had commanded His servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. That is what Joshua did, leaving nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.

Reubenites

• Joshua 22:2–3 and told them, “You have done all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and you have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you. All this time you have not deserted your brothers, up to this very day, but have kept the charge given you by the LORD your God.

Gideon

• Judges 6:25–28 On that very night the LORD said to Gideon, “Take your father’s young bull and a second bull seven years old, tear down your father’s altar to Baal, and cut down the Asherah pole beside it. Then build a proper altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold. And with the wood of the Ashera…

David

• 1 Samuel 18:14 and he continued to prosper in all his ways, because the LORD was with him.
• 1 Samuel 25:28 Please forgive your servant’s offense, for the LORD will surely make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because he fights the LORD’s battles. May no evil be found in you as long as you live.
• 1 Kings 11:6 So Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD; unlike his father David, he did not follow the LORD completely.
• 1 Kings 11:34 Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon’s hand, because I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David My servant, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and statutes.
• 1 Kings 15:5 For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not turned aside from anything the LORD commanded all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
• 2 Chronicles 29:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father David had done.
• Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’

Elisha

• 1 Kings 19:19–21 So Elijah departed and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve teams of oxen, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah passed by him and threw his cloak around him. So Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will…

Hezekiah

• 2 Kings 18:6 He remained faithful to the LORD and did not turn from following Him; he kept the commandments that the LORD had given Moses.
• 2 Chronicles 31:20–21 So this is what Hezekiah did throughout Judah. He did what was good and upright and true before the LORD his God. He acted with all his heart in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and the commandments, in order to seek his God. And so he prospered.
• Isaiah 38:3 saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Josiah

• 2 Kings 22:2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and walked in all the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right or to the left.
• 2 Kings 23:24–25 Furthermore, Josiah removed the mediums and spiritists, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had found in the house of the LORD. Neither…

Asa

• 2 Chronicles 14:2 And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.

Jehoshaphat

• 2 Chronicles 17:3–6 Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David. He did not seek the Baals, but he sought the God of his father and walked by His commandments rather than the practices of Israel. So the LORD established the kingdom in his hand, and all Judah brought him…
• 2 Chronicles 20:32 And Jehoshaphat walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn away from it; he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
• 2 Chronicles 22:9 Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah, and Jehu’s soldiers captured him while he was hiding in Samaria. So Ahaziah was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” So no one was left from the house of Ahaziah w…

Jehoiada

• 2 Chronicles 24:16 And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.

Uzziah

• 2 Chronicles 26:4–5 And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. He sought God throughout the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he sought the LORD, God gave him success.

Jotham

• 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of h…

Levites

• 2 Chronicles 29:34 However, since there were not enough priests to skin all the burnt offerings, their Levite brothers helped them until the work was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves. For the Levites had been more diligent in consecrating themselves than the priests had been.

Cyrus

• 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of h…
• Ezra 1:1–4 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send a proclamation throughout his kingdom and to put it in writing as follows: “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: ‘The LORD, the God of h…

Ezra

• Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, to practice it, and to teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Hanani

• Nehemiah 7:2 Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah the commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.

Job

• Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.”

Daniel

• Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego

• Daniel 3 King Nebuchadnezzar made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, and he set it up on the plain of Dura in the province of Babylon. Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to assemble the satraps, prefects, governors, advisers, treasurers, judges, magistrates, and all the other officials o… (whole chapter)

Jonah

• Jonah 3:3 This time Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, in accordance with the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, requiring a three-day journey.

Ninevites

• Jonah 3:5–10 And the Ninevites believed God. They proclaimed a fast and dressed in sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least. When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he issued a proclamation in Nine…

Zacharias

• Luke 1:6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and decrees of the Lord.

Simeon

• Luke 2:25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.

Joseph

• Matthew 1:24 When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and embraced Mary as his wife.
• Matthew 2:14 So he got up, took the Child and His mother by night, and withdrew to Egypt,

Mary

• Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel left her.

Jesus

• Matthew 3:15 “Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him.
• Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, He fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.”
• Matthew 26:42 A second time He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cup cannot pass unless I drink it, may Your will be done.”
• Luke 22:42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
• John 4:32 But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
• John 4:34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
• John 5:30 I can do nothing by Myself; I judge only as I hear. And My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
• John 12:49–50 I have not spoken on My own, but the Father who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to say it. And I know that His command leads to eternal life. So I speak exactly what the Father has told Me to say.”
• John 14:31 But I do exactly what the Father has commanded Me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Get up! Let us go on from here.’’
• John 17:4 I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do.

John the Baptist

• Matthew 3:15 “Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.” Then John permitted Him.

John and James

• Mark 1:19–20 Going on a little farther, He saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat, mending their nets. Immediately Jesus called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed Him.

Matthew

• Matthew 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Matthew got up and followed Him.

Simon and Andrew

• Mark 1:16–18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” And at once they left their nets and followed Him.

Levi

• Mark 2:14 As He was walking along, He saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth. “Follow Me,” He told him, and Levi got up and followed Him.

Nathanael

• John 1:47 When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”

The rich young man

• Matthew 19:20 “All these I have kept,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”
• Mark 10:19–20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”
• Luke 18:21 “All these I have kept from my youth,” he said.

The disciples

• John 17:6 I have revealed Your name to those You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours; You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.

Cornelius

• Acts 10:2 He and all his household were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to the people and prayed to God regularly.

Paul

• Acts 23:1 Paul looked directly at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have conducted myself before God in all good conscience to this day.”
• Acts 26:4–5 Surely all the Jews know how I have lived from my earliest childhood among my own people, and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, adhering to the strictest sect of our religion.
• 2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers.

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