Laying Down The Law

 God communicates His goal to change you (vs. 6)

As many of you know, Tammy’s dad is a professional photographer, so he has been to many weddings. In one wedding, the bride was unusually nervous. She just wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to make it through the wedding ceremony without passing out. The pastor who was to perform the ceremony gave her a piece of advice. He said, “Instead of concentrating on everything that you have to do, just concentrate on one piece at a time. When the ceremony begins, just concentrating on making it down the aisle. As you make your way down, focus on the altar. Once you get near the front, turn your focus toward your groom and focus all your attention on him.“ The bride thought that was good advice, so she did just that. Only she was the type that had to voice her thoughts especially since she was so nervous. As she made her way to the front, everyone in the church could hear her saying, “I’ll alter him; I’ll alter him”. Many husbands and wives have entered into the marriage relationship thinking that they will be able to change whatever it is that they do not like about their spouse. The groom thinks that he will be able to change his disorganized, sloppy bride into someone who runs the house well. The bride thinks that she will be able to change her selfish, run around with the boys, don’t expect me to spend two minutes in the kitchen groom into someone who can cook and clean and take all his free time to spend with her. For one, it almost never happens that way. And two, the desired change is not for the benefit of the person changing but for the benefit of the partner.

The change that God wanted to happen in the Israelites, and what He wants to happen in us is for our benefit, our growth. He wants us to be changed in such a way that we can be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. You know what a priest is? A priest is an ambassador between God and man. God wants us to His ambassadors, His representatives. That is an honor which we could never deserve but that God gives to us out of His love for us. God desires that we change because He knows that the direction we are headed right now is only going to create suffering and destruction in our lives.

The reason that God puts rules into our lives is because He knows that the things that fall outside those rules will damage us and will hurt our potential enjoyment of the relationship that He wants to have with us and the relationship that we can have with other men and women. “The Ten Commands may seem very narrow, but so does every runway on airports around the world. Yet no passenger wants his pilot to miss the narrow runway and land a few yards off the mark in some field or waterway or row of houses. The narrow ribbon of pavement is really the broad way that leads to a safe, comfortable landing. So the seemingly rigid laws guide to a happy, fulfilled living.” [Leslie Flynn, Now a word from our Creator]

2. The giving of the law established the fact that the relationship must be on God’s terms. (Exodus 19:10-14)