14 March 2012

14 March 2012


Imagine our observance of the law making us the envy of our neighbors.


"'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'"


If we follow his ways we will not only "live, and ... enter in and take possession of the land" but we will have something different about us which makes other people also want to draw near to the LORD.  I think I'm not the only one who doesn't usually relate to the law in this way.  I am not often counting my knowledge of the law as a blessing at all.  But it is.


"He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them."


And the reason I discount such a great gift is that I allow my relationship with the LORD to become impersonal.  This is what Moses warns against:

"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children's children."

If we remember that God is not distant and that he cares about and intervenes in the specifics of our lives we will be able to trust his laws are a blessing.  We will remember that they have been for us in the past.  We will know that they aren't just abstract but are designed to bring joy to the specific circumstances in our lives.  The LORD uses the law to make room for himself in us.

"Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place."

We think that nothing which is so generally applicable as the law could apply to us personally but it does.  The same is true of God's word.  Without Jesus all of this can be obscured.  Without the human face of God's love made manifest it is a little easier to doubt that the law is personal.  Without gazing into the eyes of the eternal made flesh it seems burdensome and abstract.  Without the grace Jesus brings to "fulfill the law" being manifest in us we remain trapped in sin.  The law definitely seems still more burdensome then when we can't fulfill it.  But even then it is not truly a burden.  It is personal and teaches us of our need for him and prepares us for his grace.

Since we have the law and Jesus who fulfills it let us not complain or be sluggish in obedience.  Instead let us rejoice!

"Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you."