Obedience: the Indicative & the Imperative

Obedience: The Indicative & The Imperative

Language is a beautiful thing and the Bible has beautiful way of using language one of it is through the use of indicatives and imperatives. The indicative is a statement of what has been done, an already accomplished fact that directly affects the audience. The imperative is the command and direction that comes because of it. This train of thought at looking at the indicatives and imperatives is very common in the New Testament with words like “therefore” but it can very well be applied when studying the Old Testament as well. This is a concept that says we become what God wants us to be before we can do what God wants us to do.

In the Old Testament, the main overarching indicatives are in reference to Yahweh being God to his people, deliverance from Egypt and the covenant with Abraham. The main imperative would then be through the Ten Commandments and Mosaic Law. Knowing this is incredibly important to understanding why obedience and disobedience was so greatly rewarded or punished; the indicative is directly involved with God!

Beginning from creation, the story of the fall portrays Adam’s failure. This failure is in terms of leadership, failing to lead Eve, as the serpent was tempting her, failure in terms of faith by not trusting in God’s word that they will die if they eat it and instead believing the serpent, and of course, Adam was disobedient in terms of succumbing to eat the fruit as well. Moving onwards to Abraham, there cannot be much of a direct contrast but Abraham’s obedience is something that is lauded, but it is his faith that led to the obedience that made Abraham such a prominent figure. The indicative for Abraham is him knowing God is the creator, having faith in that led to the imperative of obedience. I will not go in detail about Cain and Esau because I feel that they cannot be contrasted as easily, Esau would have killed Jacob if given the chance, but Jacob fled and Esau had many years to...