"i'm just gonna warn you, this thought has the potential to be very long....
so, because i'm shoulder-deep in hebrew and i went to a shabbat service this past saturday, and spent some time in deuteronomy this week, i've been thinking. i've been thinking about the law, the OT, what it meant to God and what it was to the people who followed it. this is by no means a scientific or even exegetical analysis. just more of a question.
many times, especially using Paul's letters in the NT, the law gets this horrible repuation. it's rules to follow, ways of earning salvation, meaningless... but i think that's kind of a conceited way of looking at it. while christians don't want to be constrained to follow OT law, they make their own up... don't drink, smoke, dance, play cards, wear hats indoors, run in the sanctuary, watch R rated movies, or forget a coster when drinking a cold drink on a wooden surface. it doesn't matter what it is, as humans we make rules as ways of governing the way we should live.
so i was thinking about why God was so direct in his "rules" for living in the promised land. and here's what i came up with: it was his way of saying, "this is what life should look like". now, you say, "what???" let me explain as if God and the israilites were having a conversation.
God: i love you
Israel: we love you!
God: i'm going to make a covenant with you. because i love you, and not because you earned it, i'm going to promise you you'll be a great nation, a blessing to everyone. and i'll protect you, and i'll give a land filled with good things.
Israel: wow! thanks God! that's amazing! (however, in the back of their minds, they're wondering how this will really happen).
God: now, this place is such a good place, and i want to live with you, so i need you to to live a life that is holy.
Isreal: holy. ok. got it. what is entailed in "living holy"?
God: well, really, it comes down to loving me with everything you have and are. and as part of loving me, you love your neighbors.
Israel: right... love. got it.
God: really, it's like because I'm a part of your life, i'm going to reset your default settings. instead of being greedy and selfish, you'll want to live in love with everyone.
Israel: right. love. no selfish, no greedy..... uh, God.... this is new. since the creation of the world we really don't have a lot of examples of what that looks like. so, when you say "love me with everything you are and have", what does that look like exactly? what does it mean to love your neighbor?
God: well, for instance, when you harvest your fields & vines, don't go over it twice. i know that yes, you were the one to pay for the seeds, plant and care for your crops, but if you didn't get it the first time you harvested your field, leave it there, because there are people that need it more than you. that's how you become less selfish and love your neighbor.
Israel: oh, ok.
God: and if someone owes you something, and you have to remind them by taking their coat as a "pledge", that's okay, unless they're poor and that's all they have. if that's the case, you need to give them their coat back at night because they'll be cold. they need it more than you.
Israel: oh, ok.
God: and if you really love your father, you won't sleep with any of his wives. and if you love your uncles, you won't sleep with any of the their wives.
Israel: oh, ok. say, God. can we make a list? maybe write this down? so we don't forget?
God: well, you can, but it's going to be a long one. if you want to write down these many ways of loving me and your neighbor, you're going to have to have a big stone (because i have not created one of you with the way to make paper yet).
so, what if to God, it wasn't about a list, but about showing us what it means to live in love? what if it was we humans that keep wanting to quantify it, put it to a list. i was on wikipedia again (God bless that site) and saw the Jewish Mizvot (613 rules they keep).... it's a lot. some of it might seem crazy, but maybe it was all they knew how to do to try and live the way God wants.
and maybe that's what we do all the time. we try to make a list so we can make sure that we act the way God wants us to as He lives among us....
so another question... is who we are a result of what we do, or is what we do a result of who we are? because wow, if we could work on having the character of a loving person, who sought to live in a way that God was trying to describe in the Law, then we wouldn't have to worry about memorizing the right and wrong. if we walked in the Spirit, then that would lead us in the way of life that God desires.
just a thought."
Great insights and thoughts. So, the OT and the Ten Commandments are really out of love rather than spoiling fun. There you go!
1 comment:
What? God is about fun, not about ruling over every detail of a life? Not about making a list and checking it twice?
Maybe Jesus wasn't joking when he said that he wanted us to have a more abundant life?
One of my roommates in college once told me that every law of the Old Testament had one of two purposes. It was either there to help improve relations between God's people, or it was there to protect the health of God's people (hence the clean and unclean animals in the absence of today's technology and medical advances, for example).
I don't believe God ever wants to micro manage our lives. I do believe he wants us to have life, have life abundantly, and have such a joy that any without that joy would be full of desire for that joy.
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