I was in a discussion with someone a few weeks back who became frustrated with the conversation and blurted out, \u201cAll I ever hear is the \u2018Thou shalt not<\/em>\u2019 parts of the Bible! It\u2019s like God is just sitting back and waiting to smack us around!\u201d I had to admit; it doesn\u2019t always look like God has a plan for us. But that\u2019s where faith in God\u2019s Will kicks in.<\/p>\n Where\u2019d All the Rules Come From?<\/strong><\/p>\n Imagine for a minute that you\u2019re in a beautiful garden. You\u2019re the only one there and have the run of the entire thing. You can do, say, and act in any way you want. The only<\/em> rule given is, \u201cDon\u2019t eat the fruit on that tree over there.\u201d Now, there are over a billion trees in the garden, all dripping with beautiful, ripe fruit. So why would you grab a handful of \u201cdon\u2019t do<\/em> that\u201d from the one tree you\u2019ve been told not to? Yup, humans are born idiots.<\/p>\n We\u2019re all born with a thing called \u201cfree will.\u201d It\u2019s sort of a game of Truth or Consequences<\/em>, only in this game, it\u2019s do the right thing or pay the consequences. If we choose to do the right thing, we grow closer to God and His Will or plan he has mapped out for us. What is His Will? It\u2019s that thing He knows we will be the best<\/em> at and what will make us the happiest in our lives. But if we choose to do the wrong thing, we\u2019re putting our own desires above what God wants for us. That\u2019s called being selfish.<\/p>\n There Used to Be One Rule: Where\u2019d the Rest Come From?<\/strong><\/p>\n God allowed humans the opportunity to come back to Him and His Will on their own, but humans became more and more selfish. So, He destroyed the world with a flood and allowed Noah to start all over again. Unfortunately, going rogue had become a part of human life. God decided to take one people and train them up to do the things that would eventually bring them back to Him and His desire for us\u2014to be reunited with Him and His Will for us. Unfortunately, those people\u2014the Israelites\u2014 continued down the wrong road and ended up as slaves in Egypt.<\/p>\n Eventually, God decided they were ready to take on a few rules that would bring them back to Him. He sent a man who was a part of them but raised as an Egyptian\u2014Moses. When Moses brought them out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai, they had picked up even worse habits from the Egyptians. Giving them another chance, God wrote a list of only ten things that he wanted humans not to do in hopes that they would come back to Him. The list of ten were:<\/p>\n So, what did the people do? Well, Moses hadn\u2019t even come down the mountain yet, and the people had already broken over half of the few rules God made! Moses was so upset that he threw the two stone tablets of the rules to the ground and smashed them. In short, God was fed up. He had given humans the opportunity to come back to Him and gave them only ten rules! They couldn\u2019t even follow those!<\/p>\n What Did God Do?<\/strong><\/p>\n God put His foot down. He basically grounded the Israelites for the next 1400 years in hopes that by giving humans a play-by-play \u201cdo and don\u2019t\u201d list of 613 rules, they would finally learn exactly what they needed to do to reunite with Him. \u00a0God was hoping that by doing the external<\/em> things, they would begin to internalize<\/em> what they needed to do to come back to God. Things like \u201cThou shalt not eat pork or even touch swine.\u201d Now, I don\u2019t know about you, but eating a pork chop or well-barbequed ribs is a highlight of my week! What does God have against pigs?<\/p>\n It\u2019s not the pig God has issues with; it\u2019s what they symbolize and what man had turned them into. First, swine were typically what ate the trash of any community or town. They were the first step in recycling. Second, if the pork is not fully cooked or eaten raw, you run a high risk of contracting trichinosis, which makes you deathly ill. Another issue was swine were the largest group of animals sacrificed to the pagan gods. So, in essence, God was saying, \u201cDon\u2019t have anything to do with the animal that can bring you bodily or spiritual ruin.\u201d<\/p>\n What Changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n In a Word, Jesus. After about 1400 years of living the external laws<\/em>, Jesus came into the world and lived the laws perfectly, showing what it looked like to internalize<\/em> them. Yes, He was both divine and human, but\u2026 that\u2019s for another discussion. He proved that the laws could<\/em> be lived. And He did the most amazing thing. He flipped the external laws\u2014some say \u201cThou shalt not<\/em>\u201d laws into the \u201cThou shalt<\/em>\u201d laws! He took all 613 rules and broke them down into two that you must abide by:<\/p>\n Matthew 22: 37-40<\/p>\n That\u2019s it! Jesus took all the individual rules, the \u201cThou can\u2019ts<\/em>\u201d and turn them into two \u201cThou musts<\/em>!\u201d He took, lived, and broke down all 613 laws into two categories: Give back to God what He deserves (which is your total love and admiration), and treat every person as you want to be treated\u2014no<\/em> exceptions. Dorthy Day had a great quote for this. She said, \u201cI really only love God as much as I love the person I love the least.\u201d So, the next time you feel like there are way too many rules, remember, there are really only two that break down to \u201cDo the right thing. All else is not good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was in a discussion with someone a few weeks back who became frustrated with the conversation and blurted out, \u201cAll I ever hear is the \u2018Thou shalt not\u2019 parts of the Bible! It\u2019s like God is just sitting back and waiting to smack us around!\u201d I had to admit; it doesn’t always look like God has a plan for us. But that\u2019s where faith in God\u2019s Will kicks in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[479,470,417,476,473],"class_list":["post-635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational","category-uncategorized","tag-613-mosaic-laws","tag-comandments","tag-covenants","tag-thou-shalt","tag-thou-shalt-mot"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Public](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/2144\/2024\/03\/stone-tablets.jpg\")
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