Learning to Live God’s Way

by Ron Rose

    While they were camped around Sinai, God gave his people much more than Ten Commandments; he endowed them with laws to guide every part of life. God's own decrees of love and limits shaped the development of morality and personal character. He provided Israel with standards of right and wrong -- further defining good and evil. God set up civil laws and provided ready-made cultural mores. He set standards for community health, for legal judgments, for farming, for funerals, and marriage and family concerns. He thought of everything, including traditions, rituals, feasts, worship practices, and specific laws for how to treat the poor, the weak, and the strangers. God provided the best.

    God's promises are rock solid, but his people's promises proved much easier to make than to keep. The people were slow to learn and quick to devalue God's commands; in short order, they failed to keep their part of the agreement. They turned their backs on God's leadership and trusted their own abilities and plans. Each time they violated God's laws, or ignored his commands, they faced his discipline -- his corrective consequences.

    The thundering God on the mountain, the God who ordained laws, became the God of the wilderness, the God of training. God used every experience of life, even consequences, to help his new nation learn how to be the best they could be.

Reflection: God's national standards provided specifics for how to please and love the holy, almighty God. There never was a time, however, when people were able to keep all the rules, to do everything perfectly. Yet over and over Moses told the people to obey and to love the Lord. Either alone -- love or obedience -- was hollow. Together, even in their imperfection, God was pleased.

Posted: 03/14/2000
URL: http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200003/20000314_diary23.html

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