Rebellion generally means an act of disobeying a king’s direction of ruling or his policy and plotting against him. In the spiritual world, rebellion is disobedience to the commandments of God—our King.

Those who keep God’s commandments stand on God’s side, and they never rebel against God. That’s why the Bible tells us that the people who stand on God’s side in spiritual warfare in the last days are the “rest of the woman’s offspring” and “those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 12:17).

Now, let’s take some time to understand the relationship between God’s commandments and rebellion correctly and to engrave the importance of God’s decrees, regulations, and laws deep in our hearts.

Josiah followed God with all his heart, soul, and strength

Josiah, king of Judah, is known as a person who followed God’s laws with all his heart, soul, and strength. Th rough his example, let’s fi nd out what we should do to be completely on God’s side.

2 Ki 23:21–25 The king gave this order to all the people: “Celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” Not since the days of the judges who led Israel, nor throughout the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the Lord in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Josiah got rid of the mediums and spiritists, the household gods, the idols and all the other detestable things seen in Judah and Jerusalem. This he did to fulfill the requirements of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest had discovered in the temple of the Lord. Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the Lord as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.

The Bible has no particular record saying that Josiah did more work or made greater achievements than all the other kings before him. One unique thing about him is that he celebrated the Passover wholeheartedly and graciously, according to God’s command.

The command to celebrate the Passover was specified in the Book of the Covenant—the Scriptures, which had been found in the temple of God. After reading the Scriptures, King Josiah came to realize that he had not celebrated the Passover for a long time and there were idols everywhere around him. He was indignant that he had lived against the first and second commandments of the Ten Commandments. Then he carried out a thorough religious reformation by destroying all the idols in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. This earned him praise from God; he was acknowledged as “a king who turned to God with all his heart, soul, and strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.”

The Passover, a covenant of God

The Passover is a commandment, a covenant, and a law given to us by God. When Josiah celebrated the Passover, God complimented him, saying he loved Him with all his heart, mind, and strength. Likewise, when we keep God’s commandments, we can fully love God and stand on God’s side.

God sees the end from the beginning. He knew the Passover—the truth of life—would be necessary for His people to be saved from disasters. That’s why He taught people about the Passover and commanded them to observe it.

Ex 12:11–14 “This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.”

According to the regulations God had established, the Israelites celebrated the Passover at the time of the Exodus and just before their entrance into the land of Canaan as well. Kings Hezekiah and Josiah celebrated the Passover, too. When Jesus came to this earth, He kept the Passover with His twelve disciples in Mark’s upper room and proclaimed it as the New Covenant (Mt 26:17–28; Lk 22:7–20). Afterwards, all the members of the early Church, including the apostles such as Peter, John, James, and Paul, observed the New Covenant Passover (1 Co 5:7–8; 11:23–26).

All these teachings of the Bible show that whoever respects God should keep the Passover. Today disasters are rampant everywhere, which make people tremble with fear and anxiety. God has definitely promised that He will not bring disasters upon us but let them pass over us if we keep the Passover. The blessings of the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, and salvation are all contained in the New Covenant Passover.

However, many churches in the world today disobey God’s command to keep the Passover. What would God think of them?

The Passover and all the other laws and regulations of the New Covenant, which Christ commanded us to keep and personally observed, are God’s commands to us. God loves us so much that He has given us the commands, such as the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the command to come to the Spirit and the Bride to take the water of life (Ge 2:17; Rev 22:17). Since God’s commands bring eternal life to our souls, it is very important to observe them. Refusing to keep the laws and regulations of God is considered rebellion against God in the spiritual world.

Rebellion against God

In the Old Testament times, the Israelites turned away from God’s commands and laws, refusing to listen to the prophets who continuously told them to keep God’s commandments and to return to God’s covenant. When Daniel the prophet realized that his people lost their homeland and were taken captive to Babylon as a result of forsaking the covenant, he offered an earnest prayer of repentance to God, confessing that they had committed the sin of rebellion against God.

Da 9:2–6 . . . So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed: “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”

Throughout all ages God has shown kindness to those who keep His commandments, and He has defined the act of refusing to obey His commandments as rebellion. He has also mentioned rebellion in many places of the Bible.

Pr 17:11 An evil man is bent only on rebellion; a merciless official will be sent against him.

Pr 24:21–23 Fear the Lord and the king, my son, and do not join with the rebellious, for those two will send sudden destruction upon them, and who knows what calamities they can bring? . . .

Evil people seek only rebellion against God’s laws. The Bible warns us not to join with the rebellious people, whose end is disaster and destruction.

Jer 11:6–10 The Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’ ” Then the Lord said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers.”

God described the act of forsaking and breaking the covenant as rebellion. Jesus also said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven . . . Away from me, you evildoers” (Mt 7:21–23). This shows that those who do not follow God’s will have nothing to do with God and He considers them as rebellious ones, although they apparently believe in God, prophesying and performing miracles in Jesus’ name.

The end of those who have broken the covenant

There are two groups of people—those who do not understand God’s words and those who accept God’s teachings and keep all His covenants, though they read the same words of God. It is Elohim who opens our eyes, ears, and minds so that we can fully observe God’s commandments. That’s why the Bible says, “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear” (Mt 13:16–17).

Those who ignore God’s decrees and refuse to keep God’s commandments cannot be acknowledged as God’s people. In the second year after the Exodus, too, God commanded the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, sternly saying that they would be cut off from His people if they did not keep the Passover.

Nu 9:1–5, 10–13 The Lord spoke to Moses in the Desert of Sinai in the first month of the second year after they came out of Egypt. He said, “Have the Israelites celebrate the Passover at the appointed time. Celebrate it at the appointed time, at twilight on the fourteenth day of this month, in accordance with all its rules and regulations.” So Moses told the Israelites to celebrate the Passover, and they did so in the Desert of Sinai at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites did everything just as the Lord commanded Moses . . . “Tell the Israelites: ‘When any of you or your descendants are unclean because of a dead body or are away on a journey, they may still celebrate the Lord’s Passover. They are to celebrate it on the fourteenth day of the second month at twilight. They are to eat the lamb, together with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They must not leave any of it till morning or break any of its bones. When they celebrate the Passover, they must follow all the regulations. But if a man who is ceremonially clean and not on a journey fails to celebrate the Passover, that person must be cut off from his people because he did not present the Lord’s offering at the appointed time. That man will bear the consequences of his sin.’ ”

God has never acknowledged those who do not keep the Passover, one of His commandments, as His people. In ancient times, those who rebelled against the king of a country were sentenced to death or deported to another country, so they could no longer live in their country. Likewise, those who have broken God’s covenant are the ones who have rebelled against God, so they cannot become the holy people of God’s kingdom. God has established the New Covenant—the law of salvation—through His great atoning sacrifice to save mortal sinners, who have been cast down to the earth as a result of their rebellion in Heaven. Nevertheless, if they reject the New Covenant, they will end up accumulating more sins.

The way back to God

God has given the people, who have rebelled against Him, the opportunity to repent. In other words, He has allowed them to follow His covenants, commandments, decrees, and laws. The Passover, one of God’s covenants, is the way of life that God has opened for His people to repent of their rebellion against Him and to return to Him.

2 Ch 30:1–6 Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, inviting them to come to the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem and celebrate the Passover to the Lord, the God of Israel . . . At the king’s command, couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and from his officials, which read: “People of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel . . .”

In order to return to God, we must keep God’s commandments, including the Passover. God’s commandments are the truths that are necessary for the children of heaven to return to God. Observing them is putting into action our commitment to repent of all the sins we committed in Heaven and to return to God.

As we are living in the age of the Holy Spirit, we must return to God by keeping the New Covenant Passover. Through the truth of the New Covenant, we can correctly understand what path leads us back to God and what a rebellious act against God is.

There are still many people around us who say that they love God but reject the truth, which Jesus eagerly desired to keep. Let us help them realize that it is a rebellious act against Jesus, who came to this earth and established the New Covenant to save us, and lead them to observe God’s commandments so they can stand on God’s side from now on.

Today, we have received the truth of God and keep it by the grace of Heavenly Father and Mother. As the people of Zion, let us keep in step with God’s holy covenants and commandments for the rest of our lives on earth, giving thanks to Heavenly Father and Mother for granting us the opportunity to return to our heavenly home. I earnestly ask you to preach the gospel diligently to Samaria and even to the ends of the earth, letting many people around you know the way to achieve true repentance, the way to glorify the Spirit and the Bride—our Saviors in this age, so they can go back to the eternal heavenly kingdom together.