Today's Scripture Reading (January 5, 2022): Deuteronomy 4
I grew up in a denomination that had the dubious
honor of possessing one of the largest rulebooks of any denomination in
existence. But that statement
could also be a little misleading. Much of the rulebook contained guidelines about the
running of the organization and had nothing to do with spiritual living. And
yet, just the existence of these policies raised a temptation to raise these
rules to the level of God's Laws. During one assembly, as the denomination gathered, a conversation was started about the duties of the
pastor in the church. One older delegate rose at this assembly and stated that
he felt that the pastor needed to fulfill his responsibilities as listed in the rulebook. I was so thankful on that
day for the wisdom of a denominational leader who gently smiled and then stated
that we would have to put extra hours in the day and additional days in the week if we expected a pastor, especially a solo pastor, to be able to fulfill everything that was in the
book. This
leader admitted that much of the rulebook was a guide, and it was never intended to be a law around which we
crafted our lives.
It is so easy to take what should be guidelines and
make them hard and fast rules of God. We have done it repeatedly in the history of the church. We have made dressing
in a certain way or speaking in a certain way part of the unbending word of
God. We have made cigarettes and alcohol sins that are placed on the same level
as the commands of God found in the Bible. And it is not that some of these
rules aren't good. I know that I live in a society where the abuse of drugs and alcohol
lies at the root of many of society's ills. We are learning more about the dangers of
cigarettes and even vaping than we knew a few decades ago. But they are still not
biblical sins, regardless of how much we might wish that they were.
Moses is clear. These are the laws that you are to
follow. But then
he admonishes Israel; don't add to them and don't make the path that God asks you to follow be harder
than they have to be. These things are enough. Do this and follow through on
your commitment to God, and things will go well for you in the land.
But don't go too far the other way either. Don't treat these laws loosely, as if they are just
guidelines that you can keep when they are convenient and discard when they
aren't. God has chosen you as his people, and as a result, he has raised the expectations for you. You are
different from the other nations, and you are to set the example for them, not
follow the example they might set for you.
The unfortunate truth is that Israel failed on both
counts. Sometimes they heightened the expectations of the law, turning the law
into something that
could only be kept in its entirety by the privileged few, like the Pharisees. And, at other times, they used the law loosely and followed the example
of the nations that lived around them. Either way, they failed this simple
instruction left to them by Moses
The tragedy is that the Christian Church has often
done the very same thing. We treat what should be guidelines as if they were
the most important decrees that God has handed to us. And we treat God's instructions, laws that should be taken seriously, as if they were merely and recommendations. In the process, we violate Moses's instructions not to add or subtract from the demands of our God.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 5
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