God's Commands Don't Change (W.o.W. Rewind)

 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.'"

Exodus 8:20

This is the same command God has been giving to Pharaoh since chapter five. Over and over again God has sent Moses to Pharaoh and had him say essentially the same thing. “Let my people go so they may worship me.” This is the fourth time now that Pharaoh has been given this command, and he will receive it several more times still.

This tells us something about God. His commands don’t change because of our disobedience. Even when you disobey, God keeps commanding obedience. It doesn’t matter how long you have been disobeying Him either. You may have been living with your girlfriend or boyfriend for years, you may have been abusing alcohol for decades, you may be fully addicted to pornography. That won't change God's command. Over and over again, each day God confronts you with the very same commands He has always given you. Keep the marriage bed pure (Hebrews 13:4). Don’t be drunk with wine (Ephesians 5:18). Don’t look lustfully at someone you aren’t married to (that's a paraphrase of Matthew 5:28). 

In the same way that God confronts Pharaoh with a familiar command in this passage, God is confronting some of you in your heart right now with a command He has given you many times before. What command of God are you ignoring? Which of His commands haunt you and meet you every morning when you get out of bed? You’ve felt convicted about it for a long time but until now you haven’t obeyed. It’s time. Don't bargain with God or negotiate. Don't try to wriggle out of it. God's commands don't change. Do what Pharaoh never did. Humble yourself under God's command and offer full and whole-hearted obedience. If you don’t, trouble will follow you.

The Greatest Command

“The most important [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Mark 12:29–30

Did you know that God commands you to love Him? Yes, He commands you to obey Him. And He commands you to give to the poor. And He commands you to live a righteous life. But He also commands you to love Him.

In fact, Jesus says this is the greatest command. Think about that. The most important command in all of Scripture isn’t about what you do or don’t do. It’s about what you feel... about God. If God could only have you do one thing your entire life, it would be for you to love God. 

Why is that? Because it’s primary. When you were a kid, did you ever set dominoes up in a long line or maybe even a spiral to create a chain reaction? Do you remember doing that? If you were very careful to line them all up and if they were just the right distance apart and if you managed not to knock them over while you were setting them up, then once they were all set, all you had to do was knock over that first domino and it would create a chain reaction that caused all the other dominoes to fall into place as well.

That’s what loving God is like. It’s the first domino. If you love God, If you get your heart right, then everything else will fall into place. Proverbs 4:23 puts it this way. It says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Your heart is the wellspring of your whole life. Everything you do begins and ends there. Your life is directed by what you love and what you hate, what you set your heart on and what you take to heart.

That’s why this is the greatest commandment. It isn’t because God is desperate for love. It’s because He knows that you will follow what you love. If you love God, you will want to read your Bible. If you love God, you will want to pray. If you love God, you will want to obey all His other commands. He knows that if you can get this one thing right, then everything else will fall into place. If you can fall madly, passionately in love with God, then everything else in your spiritual life will eventually work itself out.

So, the question is this… Are you in love with God? God has no interest in being second place in your life. He commands you to love Him with all you’ve got. Return to your first love, today. Ask God to reveal Himself to you and to help you fall in love with Him all over again.

God's Commands Don't Change

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.'"

Exodus 8:20

This is the same command God has been giving to Pharaoh since chapter five. Over and over again God has sent Moses to Pharaoh and had him say essentially the same thing. “Let my people go so they may worship me.” This is the fourth time now that Pharaoh has been given this command, and he will receive it several more times still.

This tells us something about God. His commands don’t change because of our disobedience. Even when you disobey, God keeps commanding obedience. It doesn’t matter how long you have been disobeying Him either. You may have been living with your girlfriend or boyfriend for years, you may have been abusing alcohol for decades, you may be fully addicted to pornography. It doesn’t matter. Over and over again, each day God confronts you again with the very same command He has always given you. Keep the marriage bed pure (Heb. 13:4). Don’t be drunk with wine (Eph. 5:18). Don’t look lustfully at someone you aren’t married to (that's a paraphrase of Matt. 5:28). 

In the same way that God confronts Pharaoh with a familiar command in this passage, God is confronting some of you in your heart right now with a command He has given you many times before. What command of God are you ignoring? Which of His commands haunt you and meet you every morning when you get out of bed? You’ve felt convicted about it for a long time but until now you haven’t obeyed. It’s time. Don't bargain with God or negotiate. Don't try to wriggle out of it. God's commands don't change. Do what Pharaoh never did. Humble yourself under God's command and offer full and whole-hearted obedience. If you don’t, trouble will follow you.

Better than Ezra?

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly. Then Shekaniah son of Jehiel, one of the descendants of Elam, said to Ezra, “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the peoples around us. But in spite of this, there is still hope for Israel. Now let us make a covenant before our God to send away all these women and their children, in accordance with the counsel of my lord and of those who fear the commands of our God. Let it be done according to the Law. Rise up; this matter is in your hands. We will support you, so take courage and do it.”

Ezra 10:1-4

It's hard for me to read about Ezra in the Bible without thinking of the band Better than Ezra. I am fairly certain that their name has nothing to do with the Ezra of the Bible but if it does that would be a real challenge. Ezra provides such a strong example for believers to live up to that it would be hard to do much better than he did. Ezra was a man who held God's Word in high regard and dedicated himself to it. Could that be said of you? Ezra 7:10 says, "For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel." He was passionate about keeping God's commands and teaching Israel to do the same. He was sent by the Persian King Artaxerxes to help rebuild the temple and ensure that God's laws and the king's laws were being kept. As soon as Ezra arrives back in Judah some of the leaders come to him to confess that the people have fallen into sin (9:1-4). They have started marrying foreign women from the surrounding nations. Ezra's response to their sin changed everything.

But before we turn to look at Ezra's response we must pause to consider the people's sin. It can be hard to understand from a New Testament perspective and it sounds offensive to post-modern ears to say that marrying foreign women is a sin. It's very important that we read Scripture carefully. The problem wasn't really that these Jewish men were marrying women with a different skin color or language. The Bible isn't against interracial marriage. The problem is that these women didn't worship God. At this time in history only Jews worshiped God. Thus, the Old Testament often uses the term "foreign" in way that is synonymous with idol-worshiper. Still not convinced? It is clear from Scripture that God has no qualm with marrying a foreigner who converts to Judaism. Ruth was a foreign woman as was Rahab. Yet both of them received the Jewish God as their God, both married Jewish men, and both are in the family line of Christ Jesus Himself. The problem wasn't that Jews were marrying Gentiles but that they were marrying idol worshipers. People who worshiped other gods were being brought into the people of Israel. This brought the whole company under the threat of God's judgment. It also brought significant risk that these women would entice their husbands away from worshiping the one true God to worshiping idols. (Even the wise King Solomon fell into this trap.) So then the issue at hand is not interracial marriage but being unequally yoked in marriage with an unbeliever, which the New Testament itself also speaks out against. (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

Ezra's response to their sin is truly instructive. He does not yell in anger. Nor does he call an assembly to quote the Bible to them. Ezra simply mourned over the sin of the people and went before God on their behalf. He mourned because he knew God's judgment could break out against all of Judah. But I believe he also mourned for God because his people were throwing His offer of forgiveness and grace back in His face. Ezra's righteous mourning opened their eyes to the seriousness of their sin. It had such an effect on his people that they not only freely confessed their sin and joined him in mourning over it but they also became willing to put their sin away. Do you mourn over the sin of those around you? Have you ever considered how much of an impact your response to sin can have on those around you? What if your lost friend at work based his opinion of Christianity on your response to sin in the office, would he become a Christian? If your child's future walk with the Lord depended on your response to the sin in music, TV, and the movies that you watch, would you expect her to be a strong believer twenty years from now? The righteous life and righteous response of a few can have a big impact on our society. Even when our world disagrees with us over sin, a righteous response to sin can give them reason to think, to reconsider their beliefs. So today I encourage you to mourn over sin. Mourn over your own sin and the sin of others. Mourn over how our culture celebrates it. Mourn for those who will face judgment apart from the grace available in Jesus. Mourn for our God who deserves all glory yet is all too often met with disrespect and contempt.

For further reading...

• 1 Cor. 7:12-16- It should be noted that the New Testament doesn't advocate divorcing our unbelieving spouses. This is in part due to the possibility that some of us may have married prior to coming to Christ, but it is also because your marriage to a non-believer doesn't endanger the entire nation like it did for the Old Testament people of God. 
• 2 Cor. 6:14-18- Christians are specifically instructed, however, not to marry non-believers.
• Exodus 12:43-49- Part of the Old Testament law that makes provision for foreigners to become a part of the people of God. Circumcision was the sign of God's covenant with His people, so prior to Christ being circumcised was how one entered into that covenant with God and joined His people.

A Little at a Time

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Daniel 1:8

A dripping faucet may not seem like a major problem, but given enough time it will fill an entire bucket one little drop of water at a time. Think of the choices we make every day. Most of them seem as insignificant as these little drops of water. But they add up over time, especially as they relate to a believer's relationship with the Lord. 

Do you obey God in the little things? Or do you think He only cares about the big stuff? I guarantee you He does not. There is no small act of disobedience against the one and only God. When we're tricked into believing that the little things don't matter, when we chose to disobey God day after day, then we are moving away from the Lord a little at a time.

The Old Testament character Daniel understood this. He was taken captive by the Babylonians when he was only a youth and placed in the royal court of King Nebuchadnezzar. They tried to force him to assimilate to Babylonian culture. They changed his name and made him learn their language and literature. They even tried to make him eat the king's food. Daniel had very little choice in all of this, but he resolved not to cave to the great pressure being put on him.  He wasn't in control of his own destiny but He served the God who was and he decided to do his best to obey that God. Daniel knew that God had commanded the Israelites not to eat certain kinds of meat, and that any meat they were allowed to eat had to have its blood drained in a certain way (Leviticus 17:10-14). None of the food given to him by King Nebuchadnezzar would meet God's standards for His people so Daniel purposed in his heart not to eat the king's food. He endangered his life in order to obey God in what seems like an insignificant command to us. This small act of obedience meant much to the Lord and He blessed Daniel for his obedience. He became the wisest man in the kingdom. Over the next seventy years kings and empires came and went in Babylon but one thing stayed the same: Daniel was a servant in the royal court who was renowned and respected for his wisdom and his dedication to his God.

God still blesses obedience. Sometimes a small act of obedience is just the thing we need to get us back on the right track. Making the right choices in the small things can really add up over time. Don't cave to the tremendous pressure our world puts on you to rebel against God and disobey His commands. Make up your mind like Daniel to obey God even in the little things. Over time, little-by-little, your small acts of obedience can help you become more like Jesus.

In what small ways do you need to obey God today? Do you need to flee from sexual immorality? Do you need to stop foul language from coming out of your mouth? Maybe you need to stop watching TV shows and movies that are not in line with your Christian confession? Whatever the Lord lays on your heart, resolve in your heart not to defile yourself with disobedience today.

For further reading...

• I Peter 2:11- Did you know the New Testament asks us to live as exiles in this world?
• James 1:27- Somehow we always seem to forget the latter half of this verse.
• Romans 12:2- Be a non-conformist!

Glamorless

The next section was repaired by the men of Tekoa, but their nobles would not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

Nehemiah 3:5

Serving the Lord is not always glamorous. In fact, it rarely is. Don't let the TV preachers fool you. It's not about sequined jackets or puffy hairdos. The Bible talks about feeding widows, caring for orphans, healing lepers, protecting the foreigner and the stranger, and showing hospitality to those who need a place to stay. Jesus Himself walked the dusty roads of Palestine for three and a half years, healing and loving on the dregs of his society. He "put his shoulder to the work" of the cross, carrying it to the place of His crucifixion (John 19:17). He did not think it below Him to take your sin and your punishment upon Himself but "took on the nature of a servant" and "humbled himself" even to the point of  "death on a cross" (Philippians 2:7-8).

The Apostle Paul also gives us an example to follow. The great missionary financed his journeys at times by working as a tent maker during the day and preaching when he could (Acts 18:3-4, I Thess 2:9, II Thess 3:7-10). Paul never thought of himself as too good to do the Lord's work. Paul saw himself as he truly was...a vile sinner saved by grace. Redeemed out of slavery to sin, Paul had become a slave of God...a willing servant who "put his shoulder to the work" willingly with a grateful heart. He once wrote of the church as a great body in which the different members are asked to do different jobs. Just like the human body cannot be all mouth or all foot, the church cannot be all prophet or all teacher. Paul notes that "the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it" (I Cor 12:23-24).

Jesus Himself said to His disciples, "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’” (Luke 17:10). So maybe God has been asking you to do something that you thought was below you or maybe it was just something you didn't want to do. Refusing to obey God is never a good idea. (See the story of Jonah for a refresher on how that works out!) So choose today to do whatever God has called you to do and whatever the Bible commands you to do with a cheerful heart as a thanks offering unto your Lord Himself. 

For further reading...

• I Cor 12:12-31- Which part of the body are you?
• Luke 17:7-10- A hard word on the true nature of servitude.
• Jonah- Trying to run from God's command?

Rules, Rules, Rules

One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and as his disciples walked along, they began to pick some heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need. In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

Mark 2:23-28

The Pharisees were supposed to be experts in the law. They were one of the prominent and powerful religious groups in Jerusalem during Jesus' lifetime on earth. They not only "clarified" the law but also added their own traditions to it as a hedge around it. In my estimation they had started to see God's law as both a tool to gain power for themselves and as a weapon to attack other people. Here they try to use the law against Christ*, but it backfires.  Unfortunately, sometime Christians do this to. That's not what we are called to do. All of this reminds me of something Jesus said to the scribes (a separate but related religious group), "Woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them" (Luke 11:46). 

Jesus points out in verse 28 that the Pharisees (the experts in the law) don't rightly understand the law at all. Jesus says in essence, "God didn't create humans so He would have somebody to keep all these rules that He loved. No! He created humans and loved them, so He gave them the law as a blessing to help them." The law isn't intended to be a burden, though sometimes the devil tricks us into seeing it that way. God's commands show us how to live a blessed life... how to pursue joy and peace while we are here on earth. So God's law isn't a burden, it's a blessing. 

Moreover, since Jesus is the Son of Man (the one representative man from all of humanity who is our Lord and our representative before God), He is also Lord over this gift that God has given mankind. He has the wisdom and the insight to rightly understand the law and even to add to or take away from it. The Pharisees did not have that right and neither do we.

In a lot of ways I am very much like the Pharisees. It is easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking about God's law like it's a burden. Many in our day think this way. We think God gave us all these rules to keep us from having fun and living a full life. And for that reason many of us try to live life our own way and we pay dearly for it. We plant seeds in our lives that we think will bring us happiness, pleasure, and success, but we end up reaping a harvest of pain and frustration. That isn't the worst of it though. So many of us keep planting the same seeds over and over again, living life our way, somehow thinking that we will get a different result. We just can't bring ourselves to believe that God's way of living could possibly be fulfilling. So we do the same things over and over again expecting a different outcome. Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Over time, little by little, I have become less insane. I now believe that living according to God's commands, living for Him and not for myself, is the blessed life. This is the kind of life that brings true joy both now and in eternity. If you are tired of getting the same results over and over again in life, maybe it's time to try something different. 

For further reading...

• Psalm 119- I know it's the longest chapter in the Bible, but it is a love poem written about how wonderful God's law is. The psalmist loved the law so much and took such delight in it that he created an acrostic poem to show his love for it. (It has a stanza for every letter in the Hebrew alphabet [sin and shin share a stanza.])
• Psalm 1:1-3- The righteous man delights in the law.
• Romans 7:21-25- I want to do good, but evil is right there with me.

*It is important to note that Jesus wasn't actually breaking God's law. He was breaking their man-made tradition. As the ESV study Bible points out "Deuteronomy 23:25 implies that, in the case of hunger, it was permissible to eat heads of grain from any field one might pass by. Work, however, was not permitted on the Sabbath (Ex. 34:21). Pharisaic interpretation sought to guard against work on the Sabbath by prohibiting even the minimal 'work' involved in thus satisfying one's hunger." (ESV Study Bible footnote on Mark 2:23-24). 

A Life Permanantly Marked by God

“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven...Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."

Matthew 10:32-33, 37-39

It wasn't that long ago that carnivals in America featured tattooed ladies in their so-called freak shows. While many people landed in carnival sideshows as a result of a birth defect or some physical abnormality or exception, this wasn't the case with tattooed ladies. They chose their physical abnormality and even endured pain to make their bodies permanently different. Now I am not trying to hold these women up as examples to live by, but if nothing else you have to respect their resolve. There were literally covered in tattoos in a culture that disapproved. They were permanently marked by their love of this lifestyle and they made no attempt to hide it.

In an odd sort of way, this reminds me of Christ. I know it is an unorthodox comparison, but stay with me. Like these ladies, Christ was permanently marked by His love. Even now as He sits at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, Christ still bears the scars in His body that prove His love for you. He made no attempt to hide this after His resurrection (John 20:24-29). On the contrary, His scars are trophies of His great victory over sin. These precious scars proclaim His glory to the whole world. In the same way a Christian's life ought to be permanently marked by his or her love for God. A person that is truly changed by the dumb-foundingly amazing love of God that he or she encounters in Christ should be irreparably changed. "Like a tattoo that can be seen at all times,"* Christians should be permanently marked by a changed life that is constantly visible. 

In the above passage of Scripture Christ is sending his twelve disciples out to minister. He has already told them that He is sending them out like "sheep among wolves" (Matthew 10:16) and that they will be beaten and arrested on His account (Matthew 10:17-19). He even says, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28). He isn't speaking of the Devil here, for only God has the power to cast into Hell. So Jesus makes clear that neither beating, nor threat of arrest, nor even death is a reason for a disciple of His to deny his commitment to Him. So imagine what He will say one day when you stand before Him and admit that you claimed to follow Him but were too scared to acknowledge Him publicly because you didn't want to be labeled a "freak" by your culture. What I wouldn't give for Christians today to have even half the backbone that these tattooed ladies had! Christ wasn't ashamed to be permanently marked by His love for you. How dare you be ashamed for your life to be publicly marked by your love for Him? Stop leading a double life. You should be as obviously Christian everyday of the week in every situation as you are on Sunday in church. 

But there is good news! Repentance is still available. Peter himself, the rock of the early church denied Christ, but was restored after repenting (John 18:15-26 & John 21). If today, the Lord has convicted you that you are leading a double life, examine your faith, repent, and proudly wear the marks of the Christian life. A public confession of Jesus is required for salvation (Romans 10:9 & Acts 2:38). If you are unwilling to claim Christ publicly, then He will not claim you as His own either.

For further reading...

• Matthew 10- Check out the entire passage. It is a challenging read.
• John 18:15-26 & John 21- Read Peter's story of redemption.

*The title of this post and some of the rough concepts in it were loosely inspired by a youth Bible study series that I received for free entitled Inked: Marked for Life. You can learn more about this study here.

Great Expectations

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

Mark 2:18-22

A thread runs through these first two chapters of Mark that I have yet to point out, and that is that Jesus was offensive to many in His day, especially those of the religious elite. Since verse twenty-one of chapter one, Mark has been piling up one on top of the other, almost without a break, all of the offensive things Jesus has been doing. Allow me to give a quick summary. In 1:21-31, Jesus casts out a demon on the Sabbath in the synagogue and then follows it up by healing Simon Peter's mother-in-law later that afternoon (healing on the Sabbath would soon become a serious point of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees, see Mark 3:1-6.) In 1:41 He touches a man with leprosy. Then in chapter two, He claims to have the power to forgive sins (2:10), calls a tax collector as one of His twelve disciples (2:14), is found to be consorting and eating with sinners and tax collectors (2:15), and now it is discovered that His disciples are not fasting as often as the other religious men are.

It seems that Jesus didn't live up to the expectations of those in His day. How can it be then that the church teaches that Jesus was perfect? Simple. Jesus always lived up to God's expectations. He didn't always live up to man's expectations. You see God only required the Israelites to fast one time a year on the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16:1-34), but the Pharisees had taken to fasting Monday and Thursday of every week.* This was a man made tradition. (Interestingly enough Lane posits that John's disciples may have been fasting as "an expression of repentance designed specifically to hasten the coming of the time of redemption" or the Messiah.) It is obvious then, that Jesus and His disciples had no reason to fast, especially if the fasts were designed to hasten the coming of the Messiah. That would be like fasting at a wedding feast, Jesus says. The Messiah has come! This should be a time of rejoicing, not of mourning.

From the beginning of Mark, Jesus' message has been that "The time has come; the kingdom of God has come near." This new situation in the world calls for a new ordering of our lives. The old traditions cannot contain this new and amazing thing that God is doing in Christ. Jesus likens it to putting a patch made of new cloth on a garment made of old cloth. The old cloth has already shrunk, but the cloth in the patch, being new, has not. Therefore, when the garment is laundered the patch will shrink and create a worse tear in the garment than was there originally. Similarly, Jesus says that you don't put new wine in old wineskins. As the grape juice in wine ferments it expands. New wineskins are elastic enough to expand with the wine, but old skins have already expanded once and are no longer elastic. If you put new wine in an old skin, the wine will expand beyond the ability of the skin and burst it. So too, Jesus is telling His contemporaries that their old ways of thinking about God and His kingdom are not big enough to contain all that God is doing now. They need a new paradigm...a new way of thinking about God's work in the world and His redemption of fallen man.

This passage is a good reminder that sometimes (only sometimes) when we don't live up to the expectations of the people around us, that says more about their expectations than it does about us. It is also a good warning against placing a higher priority on our traditions than on the Word of God? What personal preferences do you place a higher priority on than what the Bible actually says? Do you need to ask God to change your way of thinking so that you can better understand all that He is doing in our world now? Lord, make us new that we might be able to expand with Your work in this world as it ever expands to the ends of the earth and the coming of the age!

For further reading...

• John 12:42-43- Some of the saddest words in all the Bible! Whose expectations are you trying to meet?
• Matthew 15:1-9- Jesus points out a tradition of men that they were placing above the Bible. I have often wondered in what ways we do the same in our own day. 

*Lane, William L., The Gospel of Mark. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: Grand Rapids, MI. 1974. 

God's Way

This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains; their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.”

Isaiah 48:17-19

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.

Psalm 119:11-16

Did you know that the longest chapter in the Bible is essentially a love song written about God's commandments and decrees? In Psalm 119 the psalmist goes on and on about how perfect God's commands are. How he loves to study them and meditate on them and how they bring him life. The Bible regularly extols the virtues of God's commands. It speaks of them as a precious treasure given to Israel to show them how to live the blessed life. We don't speak about God's commands like this anymore. It's easy for us to look back at the Old Testament commands and think they are outdated, out of step with today. 

This is made easier by the fact that not all of these commands apply to the New Testament church. We are allowed to trim the edges of our beards (Leviticus 19:27) and wear clothes made of a mixture of cloth types (Leviticus 19:19). In the Old Testament, God was creating an earthly kingdom. He was setting aside a nation as His own, and this physical people required absolute holiness from the rest of the world. God dwelt among His people literally. His literal presence rested on the tabernacle. So sin had to be dwelt with swiftly and severely, lest His holy presence strike out at the whole people or worse, lest His presence be removed from the people altogether. In the New Testament God begins a new work with Jesus. No longer is He creating an earthly kingdom, instead, He begins creating a spiritual kingdom. It can be hard to determine which laws in the Old Testament are specifically related to the program of nation building, which God is no longer doing and thus no longer apply to us. The New Testament helps us out by repeating a bunch of the most important laws that do still apply. plus, God makes clear shifts in His dealing with man to help us understand as well. In the New Testament God deals with sin not with stoning after stoning but with a single crucifixion. All of this can lead us to think that the Old Testament law, and even rules in general, aren't important. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So the type of behavior that pleased Him in the Old Testament, pleases Him still today. God has set our world up a certain way. Sin brings death, obedience brings life and peace. God's commands are the path of life. When we choose to ignore them, we do so at our own peril. While it is most certainly true that being good won't earn God's favor or your way into heaven, it is equally true that God has told us that those who keep His commands bring peace and blessing into their lives. Obeying Him is "what is best for you" and "the way you should go." So how do you look at God's commands? Are they a worrisome chore or a precious treasure intended to bring blessing and life to you?

For further reading...

• Read all of Psalm 119. It's an acrostic poem with a stanza for each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.