Beginning at the beginning…
Where does the greatest love come from?
OLD TESTAMENT
I’d like to take you back in time. Prior to creation, imagine this self-existing God full of love, with total and complete wisdom, absolute creative and sustaining power, whose very words command life and death, just imagine him sitting around on His Holy Mountain surrounded by stones of fire (Ezekiel 28). What new heavenly paintings, planets or creative manifestations would delight him, give him comfort, make him happy?
EXPECTATIONS
Enter Adam and Eve. Enter evil and self-will. They were the first “LOVE” test and failed epically. Ask yourself, What were God’s expectations?
A thousand years later, God had enough and instructed Noah to build an ark to destroy all mankind except Noah and his family. Did he do it? Yes, he did.
Set that aside.
Then let’s not forget Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham pleaded with God about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed them like an atomic bomb.
Set that action aside.
Then not much too further into Genesis, along comes Joseph. Through God’s divine hand, Joseph led the Israelites to Egypt to prevent them from intermarrying, for what actually turned out to be 430 years (remember Goshen?). They were separated from the Egyptians. Egyptians were clean-shaven, but Joseph’s family were shepherds and considered “dirty” by the Egyptians. (“Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.” Exodus 12:40) By the end of these 430 years, God’s children had become harshly oppressed and distanced from God. Just call it “Shepherd School”.
JOSEPH in some ways, reflected Jesus. Talk about being unjustly incarcerated for years, always serving with grace, even toward his jailer while he was in prison! Wow – Joseph had done nothing but obey his father and his God, but also the Pharaoh of Egypt. He always trusted God regardless of his circumstances. And his heart never gave up on God. (Genesis 39-41). Did you ever wonder what his conversations with God looked like on a daily basis? Did Joseph feel left out?
Just a quick side-note here. Have you ever felt, maybe like Joseph, that God has left you out of the conversation? You don’t know what’s going on, who’s in control, just bouncing from one fear to another? God just drug you along and gave you more struggles than you thought you should have? Did you ever think God didn’t answer your prayer for a reason? Could he be using you for another purpose? Or have you removed yourself, disconnected the conversation? Maybe you read a scripture, got lost in what God was saying, so you gave up? But maybe was God building words in your soul like a puzzle that would create a beautiful life in you?
Enter Moses. God needed to begin again from the beginning, but this time he wrote his covenant with details. These rules were going to be simple but still to the point. God gave Moses the 10 Commandments with specific warnings.
“When God finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Exodus 31:18. “The tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved upon the tables.” Exodus 32:16
(I just put that in there because I thought it was cool that he mentioned God has fingers.)
“The Lord told Moses, “Quick! Go down the mountain! Your people whom you brought from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned away from the way I commanded them to live! They have melted down gold and made a calf, and they have bowed down and sacrificed to it. They are saying, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.” Exodus 32:7-10.
I have to wonder if God was not only disappointed in his people’s faith in him – especially after responding to their prayers and bringing them out of slavery – but also if I had created a masterpiece by my own hand and my family tore it in shreds, I think my feelings would have been hurt. Clearly God’s were.
Then Moses talked God out of what he was going to do. “And the Lord repented on the evil which he thought to do to his people.” Exodus 32:14. Have you ever talked God out of anything? Do you have a relationship with God such that he would change his mind if you pleaded with him?
Set that action aside.
The Rules
“All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers.” Deuteronomy 8:1
“Beware that you DO NOT forget the Lord your God in keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you this day…” Deuteronomy 8:11
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good?” Deuteronomy 10:12
If you understand a good, loving father, rules make sense to you. Would you sit down with your tantrum-sobbing 1-year-old, and say ‘Hey listen, what you need right now is a long conversation about…’. No! What you say softly and calmly is, “Stop Crying!”
The 10 Commandments are the pre-school version of, “Stop Crying!”
Any good parent knows that if you’ll just follow a rule out, that rule always gives way to the heart. When my oldest son was still very little, he reached up to the stove top and I yelled, “Don’t touch that!” I didn’t want to scare him, and it wasn’t that I didn’t ever want him to touch a stove. I just didn’t want him to get burned. He needed to learn the danger of hot stoves, but he was too young to go into all the details. My point was, “You are my son and I love you and I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want you to have to experience that pain.” Listen to me! Obey me!
Fast Forward: to the crash of another generation similar to Noah’s and almost Moses’. God’s people were getting cranky. This is from Malachi; whose prophecy is the last book at the end of the Old Testament.
“The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. ‘I have loved you’, said the Lord. ‘Yet you get smart and say, Really? How have you loved us?’”
“God said, Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. And then Edom said, we are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places. Then said the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down… And your eyes shall see, and you shall say, The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.” Malachi 1:1-5
“Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord listened and he heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And these shall be mine, said the Lord of Hosts, on the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child.” Malachi 3:16-17.
The first 4 of the 10 Commandments are rules for us, his children, directing our attention to LOVE God first and always, demanding acknowledgement of who God is, with expected obedience to his rules. “I’m your Dad; you will honor and obey me. And I will take care of you.” (IF… Then… rules: Deuteronomy 11).
NEW TESTAMENT
The last 6 Commandments demand that as God’s child, we will behave when we’re with other people; he expects us to reflect his image. We represent his family. His inheritance. These rules teach us how to respect and hold regard for other people. Not amazingly, it’s the same humility, grace, mercy, truth, and forgiveness God gives to us when our hearts are aligned with his commandments (and maybe more times when we’re a little wonky). God wants us to connect with one another: “Lord, help me see others the way you see them. Lord, please help me love them the way you love me. Lord, please treat them the way you treat me.” If you’ll lean into the rule, you’ll find his heart. His heart is what we’re after. The core of his heart is all the things we all long for based on the most amazing true love.
The commandments of the Old Testament teach us obedience, intimate relationships with God, and a command to treat our friends and neighbors with respect as we try to reflect the pure and holy image of God. It took 10 rules when we were younger, but he summed them all up into 2 as we’ve grown in his image. We need discipline, borders. We need truth and spirit. We need time and conversation with him.
Jesus said,“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest of the Laws. The second is like it, You must love your neighbor as you love yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
These aren’t new rules. They’re just updated from the original 10 in a Cliff’s Notes way.
But Then Jesus Left.
But before he left, he said, “IF you love me keep my commandments and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate, (another one like me) to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” John 14:15-16 (13-17)
“And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30
As Jesus was leaving, he promised to send more help from the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. God had close relationships to his family in the Old Testament. Jesus had close relationships to his followers until his death on the cross, at which time he promised yet another one “like him” would comfort and lead us on the path God has charted in each of our lives. Apparently friendship with the Holy Spirit seals us through to the day of redemption.
Ask, Seek, Knock.
Luke 11:9-10
We need a good Father. And, we need a good relationship with him. Take him with you wherever you go. He’s always available. Did Jesus tell his disciples to get in the boat and go have a great time? NO! He stayed with them. He taught them. He led them. He healed them. He protected them. He fought their battles.
God wants us to get in the boat with him. He’s just waiting for us to ask, seek and knock so we will receive, find, and the door will always be open. He wants to give us more good things than you can think possible.
When you love your children and they ask, “Dad, Mom, can we go on vacation? You answer, “YES, as long as you take me with you because I want to be with you.”
But… WHAT IF:
What if you were you told all you had to do was say you want Jesus as your Savior, even though you don’t know much about him? You thought somehow “knowing him” didn’t mean being like him, reflecting his image? Even the devils in hell “knew” him. (Mark 1:34, Luke 4:41) Were you only signing up for the “free” ticket to heaven because you didn’t want to choose hell?
“On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’” Matthew 7:22-23
To many on that final day, God will lean in and say,” Did you think I wanted a list? I wanted a relationship with you. Get away from me. I never knew you.
God doesn’t want us to keep a list of all the “good” things we’ve done or all the people we’ve helped, or all the money we’ve given. In fact, a list just draws us into arrogance and builds walls in relationships. Honestly that’s a terrible way to live. God just patiently and continually invites us into an intimate relationship with him. Real LOVE.
Make time every morning to chat with your Father, ask him for directions, check to see if you’re on the right path. Ask questions. Seek his wisdom. Invite him to stay awhile. When you show up selflessly, you get to taste the kind of love you were actually made for. Then you actually start to understand what real love is.
REAL LOVE. If you know him, you will look like him. It comes in an actual relationship with him and it’s powerful! Don’t settle for fake. Receive real life, real peace, and real love. It’s on the table, but you have to start the conversation.
If you haven’t heard from God lately, grab a cup of coffee, go to a quiet place and just go ahead and start the conversation. He’ll show up!
CONCLUSION
“Am I your God, or am I your Father?”
“Call on me and I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know.”
Jeremiah 33:3