Trust or Obey?

Almost every major religion shares one common theme. A god, his expectations for mankind, and punishment for failure. Whether you are a Muslim, Buddhist, chasing a comet or drinking the Kool-Aid this is true. Unfortunately for most Christians this is also true. Our concept of God is that He has certain standards and if you want Him to accept you, you must meet those standards. It seems logical right? I mean after all it seems God wants to control our behavior and if we were to disappoint Him why not bring punishment. A good question is, where did this come from? Many would say simply look at the Old Testament, and you will see the Law glaring at you. Some believe that the Law is the written standard that God gave to us so that we might be accepted by Him. Again most view the Law as God’s check list for our acceptability. Seems right but is it? After all many would point to Jesus and say, “He did away with the Law and now we are made right by God’s grace.” If that is true why did God who is all knowing radically change His plan in mid stream? Why if God is complete with knowledge, past, present, and future make such a blunder in His original arrangement? Maybe the truth is He never changed His plan. Paul let us in on this secret in his Ephesians letter:
“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.” (Eph 1:5 NLT) So by this we know that God’s plan has ALWAYS been to adopt us through Jesus. With that being said then how did we come to the conclusion that the Law is His standard instead of Jesus. It may very well be that we have misinterpreted God’s intentions for some time. Let’s take that lead and journey back to the origins of the Law and see the intent. We may well find that God gave it for very different reasons than we have believed.

The date is 1446 BC and God has called Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of their slavery of Egypt. I think it is important to mention that until this point God has been silent for almost 400 years. Then God breaks the silence. For many they begin their study of the Law at the time when Moses climbs Mount Sinai and gets the stone tablets. I know that for years I have watched Charlton Heston collect the tablets of stone only to descent the mountain and see the mess that Israel had made by worshiping the golden calf. But, that is not where God began to speak. It is very import that we begin where he begins…at the burning bush. The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. (Ex 3:7 NIV) Did you notice it? Did you? God said something very profound in this one simple verse. He said “my people”. Did you see it? Go back and read it again and make sure you see it. This statement is very important. Why? Because the commandments have not yet been given. At this point there is no Law to live out to be accepted or rejected. The Law wouldn’t exist until months later, but God is calling Israel “my people”, that means they were accepted before the law was given. Now let’s fast forward to another event that takes place BEFORE the Law…

The date is somewhere around 1450 BC and God has brought horrible plagues on the nation of Egypt to break the will of the Pharaoh so that the whole world might know that God is God. It is interesting to take note that Egypt believed in multiple Gods, they believed that the Nile was a god; they worshiped frogs, bugs, the sun, and almost everything in creation. When God chose to free Israel from Egypt He systematically dethroned every God that Egypt worshiped. God did that so Israel, who had been under the influence of Egypt, might know that the gods of Egypt were no match for the God of the Hebrews. That is the reason God turned the river Nile to blood, sent the plague of frogs, turned the sun black and all the other plagues. The final blow to the religion of the Egyptians was when the Pharaoh (who was seen as god himself) chose to chase after the Hebrews and would be swallowed up in the Red Sea so that all might know that there is no other God like the God of Israel. Today if you were to journey to Egypt you can travel to the Valley of the Kings and you can see the pyramids, tombs. Each of these elaborate burial chambers document the careful work of that community in their burying of their man kings. One pharaoh’s body is mysteriously missing. Missing because it was swallowed up in the deluge of water when he attempted to usurp the authority of the one true and living God. Scientists still wonder why.

Long before the Sinai experience, God spoke and gave His first commandment. It was during the final plague that God gave careful instruction that would result in freedom or death. On the night of the final plague, the plague of the death of the first born, God would send His death angel in to the nation and every first born would die. The exception would be for those who did what God commanded with His first commandment. God instructed that to escape this great judgment each family would have to slaughter a lamb, and paint its blood on their door post and header. They would then feast on that perfect lamb and eat a unique meal. You have to understand that slaughtering a lamb was not a big deal for the Hebrews, it would be like talking on a cell phone for us. But what got weird was when they had to take it’s blood and smear it on the door posts and header of their houses door. This was a stretch, after all what purpose would it serve? Interestingly enough the purpose of this exercise would be that it had no purpose at all and didn’t make since. Are you confused yet? See God designed a ritual that would not make sense, that served no purpose, to force the Hebrew people to TRUST HIM. God’s first commandment and requirement to escape His judgment was to trust Him. Long before the tablets of stone God made the lamb and the use of its blood the subject and first right of passage into a journey with Him. God made the issue of trust first and foremost in this special relationship with Him. In God’s economy, acceptance isn’t earned, it is believed. The Hebrews would have to make a decision if they were going any further, they would have to decide to trust God or not. The first commandment is the commandment to trust.

So why then the other commandments? If we are accepted by trusting God why give rules? That is a wonderful question. Rules are not conditions for acceptance, they are confirmation of acceptance. God gave rules to the Hebrews so they might know how to behave. They had been slaves for hundreds of years and had never known how to govern themselves; they needed to know how to live. Not killing each other is a great start for God’s community. Not stealing each others stuff is a wonderful start for people who belong to God. And the list goes on and on. God gave the commands because Israel belonged to Him not to make them His possession. In the same way in my house I have rules for MY KIDS often they remind me that other kids (I won’t name names) don’t have to do what I require. I remind them those other kids aren’t MY KIDS, and I can’t rule over them, but my kids are my kids and they have to live by my rules. The commands are proof that we are God’s kids, because God doesn’t give rules to kids that don’t belong to Him.

About 2000 years ago, God did something that made no sense, it seemed to have no purpose (as far as science is concerned) and was somewhat weird. God sent His Son into this world to die. Jesus Christ who is known as the Lamb of God, was born, suffered died, and was raised from the dead. God made a radical requirement that we believe that He (Jesus) died for us. In the same way the Hebrews had to believe in that little lamb and make a decision to use its’ blood we have to believe in God’s Lamb and believe that His blood is necessary for us to go any further with God. God’s requirement for us to miss His judgment and go any further with Him is that we TRUST HIM. You can simply pray to God and let Him know that you trust Him and the judgment that is coming on the world will miss you.