It is the same to the Lord as this would be to us:
You hide a really great present for your child under the pillow of your own unmade bed. You ask your child to go make your bed. (You could make it yourself easily, but that isn't the point.) For the sole purpose of delighting your child with both this great present and a sense of accomplishment, as well as an opportunity of favor in obedience, not to some law, but to you. You are delighted to have provided your child with this little wonderment.
Your child decides that you don't really mean that you want your bed made. What this child convinces him/ herself of is that you'd be much happier with a picture they thought up, drew, and colored him/ herself.
The drawing is made, the child brings it to you, with a flourish of, "Look what I did for you, Daddy/ Mommy!!!"
And from love, you cannot or just won't scold your young, small child for their enthusiasm. You even praise what they've done, because in their world, you are love. But you repeat the request, when you deem it's time, about the bed-making again. But the child repeats bringing what they want to offer, rather than what you've asked. In fact, this child is so focused on knowing the drawing thing is the thing, because they met with your approval the once, that the kid filters out and won't hear about the bed. It gets old. It becomes the way of Cain.
You make the bed yourself, and put the present away in the closet, for another time when the child has matured. You may eventually scold. You ask an older child to make the bed, leaving the present for them. It truly was only cute the first time. Every time is disobedience.
Jude, a book written for certain to those who are called, points out what the truth is when a believer follows the way that seems right to them, rather than the bed-making, "surely he didn't mean that" way in which the Lord has laid out as what he wants.
Starting in about v 5, Jude begins with a reminder that the same Jesus who led his people out of Egypt, later destroyed those that didn't believe. (Yes, that was old covenant. Jude knew this; he was building to a point.) He speaks of fallen angels, Sodom, Gomorrah, and surrounding cities, all of which forsook what God intended for them for that which they wanted. Remember, this is written to "those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ".
Jude then goes on through a list of things done outside God's order of things, by those who don't get his established order for whatever reason.
Jude states:
But these people blaspheme all they do not understand,
and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning
animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they
walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves
for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perished in Korah's
rebellion.
(Jude vv 10- 11, ESV)
It gets hard here. A simple "The Lord rebuke you", isn't as dramatic as we'd like, and it puts zero emphasis on the speaker, throwing all upon the Lord. It prevents us taunting and, in the Lord's own words, blaspheming the Devil, our enemy. But the language is plain. I will tell you from experience; you don't want to rebuke a principality -- that's not smart. "The Lord rebuke you" works perfect, every time. And, like the child's colored picture rather than the made bed, bringing him what I want, for the results I want, is nothing more than the way of Cain.
(James, a book also to believers, states that not receiving things asked for in prayer is a result of asking amiss and spending what we get for our passions. Not wickedness, not iniquity, but whatever we're passionate about that's out of step, even for that moment, with his passion; self-promotion, a little glory, seeing even Godly-seeming things, but our way and out of his time, come about. The list goes on... We might have been somewhere to see what God is up to, and seen a well being dug. We come home, and here he has dug us a well (fountain) himself, and he is trying to lay a foundation. But our passion is to dig a well, because we saw it elsewhere. Do you see?)
And Balaam's error? Prophesying what we wish, to manipulate an outcome. The outcome we think best. And Korah's rebellion? The simple, just-as-witchcraft pride-spirit that causes us to say, "Why that person? I'm just as qualified. I'm just as annointed, no, more, and I won't follow or submit totally to that jerk. I know more. I'll talk, work, or push my way into service and leadership!" And there was division, discord... and the Lord showed who was his... he killed all in Korah's rebellion. A split. Division. (Num.16)
I'd be happy if, because God's heart is love itself, every word was sweetness and light. In reality, every word is. When your child is two seconds away from putting their hand into the live flame of a lit burner, do you choose not to yell, "STOP right there!!" because it may be seen as mean? No, you don't. I never did. Every word of Daddy is meant for the welfare, blessing, and happiness of every child. Even when they make us cry. The Greek word we translate "repent" is metanoeo. It means "change your mind" and "reverse the way you think", both at the same time.
