When I was about 4 years old, my mother told me not to touch the burner on our electric stove. The problem was, I could tell the burner was hot when it was red, but if it wasn’t red, I didn’t think it was hot, and I didn’t believe my mother when she told me it was hot. So I took my right hand and plopped it right down on the burner.

Guess what? It was hot enough to burn four rings into the palm of my hand. When I looked at my hand I had four reminders that a burner can be hot even if it’s not red, and that my mom did know what she was talking about! I failed to recognize my mother’s authority over me, and I paid the price.

It seems like human beings have been struggling with authority and submission since the beginning of our existence. I like to say we’ve always been “two-by-four” people. That is, most of the time, we have to get hit in the head with a two-by-four to recognize authority. If not hit by a two-by-four, then burned by a hot burner! We have a real struggle with hearing, listening, and recognizing that God, and other people, have our best interests at heart and want to provide for and protect us by exercising authority over us.

It all started in the Garden of Eden. God created the Garden and everything in it, including Adam and Eve. He basically presented it to them as a gift. “It’s all yours: live in it, take care of it, and love each other; but (there’s that word) don’t do this one thing. That’s right you can do many other things in the Garden, but just don’t do this one thing.”

 It sounds familiar.

“Tom, you have the whole house to play in; you have a yard to run around in and a sidewalk to ride your bike on, but don’t touch the stove burner!”

God told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree in the center of the Garden, the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil . . . for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17*).

Maybe it was pride, maybe it was defiance, but Adam and Eve didn’t recognize God’s authority. They thought they might be missing something fantastic. In their minds, God wasn’t trying to protect them and provide for them, he was keeping something terrific from them. So instead of trusting God and accepting his authority over them, they followed their own leading and the leading of Satan.

Since Adam and Eve failed to recognize God’s authority, we’ve all struggled.

I Want More!
Looking at today’s text, we see a continuation of the event in the Garden of Eden. Pharaoh has the world by the tail! Life is great! He’s probably the wealthiest, most powerful person in the world. But that’s not enough. He’s married. He has a family. He’s healthy. He can have just about anything and everything he wants. But that’s not enough.

He feels he must have more. So he refuses to make one concession. He refuses to be kind and decent just one time. He refuses to accept that someone is more powerful than he is. He refuses God’s authority over him. As a result, God uses a two-by-four to open Pharaoh’s eyes.

Pharaoh’s country suffers multiple plagues and the wealth, power, and prestige that was Egypt is brought to its knees. Pharaoh’s oldest child dies, Pharaoh loses his entire army, and he probably dies himself. Why? Because he would not believe God had his best interest at heart. He could have kept everything he had—the greatest empire of that time, his family and health, wealth, power, and prestige beyond one’s wildest dreams—if  only he would have recognized God’s authority over him.

Refusing His Authority
How many times have the scenarios of the Garden of Eden, Pharaoh and the Israelites, and Tom and the stove burner been repeated in our world in the last 10,000 years? The number would be as large as the national debt (not quite!).

Throughout the Old Testament, the Jewish people refused to recognize and surrender to God’s authority, and they paid the price. For example, they wandered in the desert for 40 years instead of going directly into the promised land. They decided God wasn’t a good enough leader for them; they wanted a king. So God gave them a king. Out of hundreds of kings, Israel had only a handful of good ones. The kings led the people to idol worship, wars, and a divided kingdom. They lost battles, suffered famines, blights, and pestilence. They suffered through the Babylonian captivity, and Roman rule. Why? Because the Israelites refused to recognize God’s authority over them.

God sent prophet after prophet to try to convince the Israelites to surrender to his authority, but the people refused. In fact, they abused, tortured, and murdered the prophets.

Struggling with God
Even after God decided to stop sending prophets and come in person to live among us, we refused to accept his authority.

In Hebrews 13:17, the New Testament again addresses the issue of authority. “Obey your leaders, and submit to them.” From the letters of Paul and other New Testament writers, clear up to present-day observation, we realize the “two-by-four” dilemma continues.

People in the early church did not want to submit to the leaders in the church, nor do people today. People frequently don’t believe that the elders (including the preaching elder or pastor) have their best interests at heart. They want to do what they want to do, when they want to do it, regardless of the consequences. And it can create havoc in the church.

We are all “two-by-four” human beings to one degree or another. We all struggle to recognize God’s complete authority over our lives. Human relationships can bring us the greatest joy and/or sorrow this life can offer. One’s ability to recognize and submit to God’s authority when it involves human relationships is the key to happiness and contentment. When we choose to recognize God’s authority in our lives, we can love our spouses like Jesus did. We can love our children like Jesus did. We can love our parents, our bosses, our employees, and the list never stops, like Jesus did.

The Example—and Accomplishment—of Jesus
You see, when Jesus recognized God’s authority over his life, he gave us a new mandate to live by. John 13:34 says, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” Up to that point in human history, people were told to love others as they loved themselves. But Jesus loved us more than he loved himself. He surrendered his life for ours. He was willing to give up his dreams, desires, and ambitions, so we could have ours. He recognized God’s authority over his life and chose to go to the cross in our place. He took our sins in his body on the tree, so we could be forgiven and go to Heaven. And all of it happened because Jesus chose to observe God’s authority over his life.

The two-by-four that Jesus used to get our attention was made of wood, but it was shaped in the form of a cross. He did not hit us with it. Instead, he hung on it. Surrender is the key to happiness in this life, and Jesus modeled it for us. When he hung on the cross and rose again, he not only showed us how to live; but he overcame the power of sin, death, and the curse of Adam and Eve.

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*All Scriptures are from the New International Version of the Bible, unless otherwise indicated.