Have you ever heard anyone say, ‘The Bible is full of rules and don’ts!’ Often I react to this with an argument that there are just as many do’s as don’ts: Love your neighbour as yourself; Love the Lord your God; Rejoice always; Always give thanks. Sounds like a positive thinking, optimistic outlook self-help book. And then, something happened to make me realize that the DON’TS are actually just as important and show the LOVE of God.
Love? In a list of rules? Absolutely.
Firstly, look at how these ‘don’ts’ benefits the family:
Do not commit adultery. Obey that and save the heartache, the financial woes, the broken hearts and upheaval on the kids.
Do not lie. Obey this and trust is built. Confidence is gained as you delegate or ask and with assurance embrace the answer.
Do not marry foreigners. Of course, that one has nothing to do with race; culturally it would be better translated as ‘As a believer, do not marry someone of another faith.’ My girlfriend is a believer and married a very sweet, kind Buddhist gentleman. He is certainly one of the best husbands and fathers and is totally committed to his family. However, she worries about the salvation of her kids because as a Christian, she knows that Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father but through me.”
The ‘do nots’ are not there to squelch our zeal and zest for life, but for our good. My wake-up call to take a more serious look at the don’ts in the Bible, and their benefit not as a list of rules but to protect my life and heart, came this week. One of our daughters is making bad choices and her argument is, “I get to live my own life. I’m an adult now so I can make whatever decisions I choose.” Yes, she can. She has that right. And I’m sure she’ll make some good ones along with the bad ones that she is making. But the bottom line is the rules drive us back to the source.
When you don’t have the money to live on your own, you have to obey the rules of the house whether you like/agree with them or not.
When you turn your back on God, it is a heart issue and if you think the Hound of Heaven will not pursue you and make you miserable UNTIL you return to Him, you are only fooling yourself. Look at Jonah.
The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai. ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ BUT JONAH RAN AWAY from the Lord…
Now there is a storm, Jonah finally gets thrown overboard and gets swallowed by the whale.
Now the LORD provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 3 days and 3 nights. From inside the fish…Jonah prayed to the LORD his God.
Ahhh. Things get too tough to figure out and he comes back to the source. But that is in action, not heart.
[The second time] Jonah obeyed the word of the LORD and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took 3 days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
…When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened. But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Here we see the heart of Jonah. He knew from the beginning the character of God and it really was about his heart attitude and not obedience. God sends him into the desert and provides a plant to give shade. The plant then withers when eaten by a worm, and this is what God says to Jonah:
You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals.?
God lets us go our own way. He lets us make bad choices and He continues to orchestrate our circumstances not until we OBEY but until our hearts are in the right place with Him. That is the LOVE in the DO NOTS. God cares about each one so deeply that He will, in love, let us sit in the muck and mire until we align our hearts with Him; in love and respect for other people.
Love in unusual places. In the don’ts and rules of the Bible we find not obedience, but love.
Our song for today is No Greater Love by Matt Maher.