HAVE YOU BEEN PUNKED BY THE LAW? – Nov. 16th

“Keep silence and hear, O Israel: this day you have become the people of the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.”   Deut. 24:9-10  

I have had the chance to watch government function at the local level as part of my job. Governments are very good are making laws and ordinances to solve problems. I  have never really been “delighted” by legal code. I have known some lawmakers to be rather self-righteous in their conviction of the laws that they pass. Until, they’re affected by those laws. I have seen many a government official struggle with their own ordinances and standards when their adherence is expensive or inconvenient. It is a statement to a lawmakers lack of integrity when they exempt themselves from their own laws.

God is a lawmaker. God’s law can be very daunting until we consider that God does not exempt himself from his own law. God is not punking us with his law. He did not play some cosmic joke on us by giving us a law that we could never fulfill. God is revealing to us who he is by giving us a law that He will not break. The laws tells just as much about God as it does about ourselves. The law gives us a deposit that we can take to the bank about our incredible God: 

1. There will never be another god that comes along who is greater than he is. He is the only game in town. If that happens, then God breaks his own law.
2. God will never serve or worship anything other than himself. If anything is ever above God, then God breaks his own law.
3. God’s glory is a big deal. It is very important; he will never consider his own name as unimportant. If that happens, then God breaks his own law.
4. God is holy and will always maintain his holiness. If He allows the holy to become unholy, then God breaks his own law.
5. God is due all honor and will respond appropriately to maintian His honor. If he allows himself to be dishonored, then God breaks his own law.
6. God will never take an innocent live. The innocent have nothing to fear from him. If God unjustly takes a life, then God breaks his own law.
7. God will never break his covenant with his people. If he were to abandon us for another, then God breaks his own law.
8. God will never cheat us. He will never do an unfair deal with us. His scales will always be fair. When God offers us something, we should take it because it has to be a good deal. If it wasn’t a good deal, then God breaks his own law.
9. Everything that God says is true. We can trust what he tells us. If God tells us something untrue, then he breaks His own law.
10. God will never desire something that is not his. When God covets our love and obedience, it is because it is already his.  It is due him. If it wasn’t due Him, he would be breaking his own law.

 God’s law tells us what we can take to the bank about him. This is why we can delight in God’s law. It tells us what an incredible God we have.

PRAYER: Lord, you are incredible. Thank you for your law and what you have communicated to us through your law. Write it upon my heart. Make it a part of me as you change me more and more into your image.  Help me to delight in your law, as I delight in you.   Amen