Father Knows Best
Scripture: Leviticus 26:3, 9-12, 15-16, 23-24, 27-28, 40-44
3 “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands...I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear...I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. 10 You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest! 11 I will live among you, and I will not despise you. 12 I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people...However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16 I will punish you...And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins...23 And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me, 24 then I myself will be hostile toward you...27 If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, 28 then I will give full vent to my hostility...40 But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me...But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out...that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”
Observations:
After communicating His commands and regulations of His covenant with His people through Moses, God concludes with a glimpse of two possible futures completely conditioned upon their response to it. Option number one would be the obediece route, full of blessing, prosperity, protection, peace, God's favor, growth, health, and victory over their enemies. Option number two, however, would envoke God's discipline policy when He then proceeds to outline for them in hopes of changing their minds. The first offense of covenant breaking by disobeying God's commands resulted in punishment in the form of disease, defeat by their enemies, and economic loss (vs. 16-17). Continued disobedience after that would result in further punishment through added famine/economic depression and food shortage (vs. 18-20). If they still hadn't learned their lesson by then God would then allow armies to invade and begin destroying them and starve them to death (vs. 23-26). Finally, if that didn't get their attention God would allow His people to suffer severe punishment by removing them from the Promise Land completely and allowing them to be slaughtered but not completely destroyed. This passage makes me picture God much like a parent lovingly seeking to teach their children the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior and what it means to be a member of the family. You'd think that with such a clearly defined set of expectations that God's people would have just chosen the good and avoided the consequences of their sin altogether in the first place. But as any parent knows, children often times only think they know what's best for them and are by nature primarily concerned only about themselves.
Application:
At first glance it seems like God is being unnecessarily harsh and is not really the God of love the Bible portrays Him to be. But as any good parent knows, discipline usually isn't a very pleasant process. In fact, it's by nature unpleasant, but with good reason (Hebrews 12:11). But the reality is that every child needs discipline in order to curb self-centeredness and produce maturity. It's no different with God. Sometimes we think that because we're no longer children that we've outgrown the need of parental supervision; however, spiritually speaking the idea that we can manage our lives apart from God's commands really makes us no less ignorant and immature than our own children. God has promised us everything we will ever need and more than we could ever want if we will simply choose to do things His way instead of trusting in our own judgment. But God's Word also repeatedly reminds us that such presumption only reveals how foolish and immature we really are. "Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in [God's] wisdom is safe. (Proverbs 28:26). The more we continue to stubbornly insist on doing what want and getting our way instead of humbly accepting God's correction, the more difficult God promises it will be. It's because God loves us that He is committed to break us of self-willed resistance to His will for lives, even when it hurts. We must remember the "encouraging words God [has] spoke to [us] as his children... 'My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
Prayer:
Father, help us to lay aside our childish ignorance of Your ways and teach us to learn from the correction You provide us as Your children. Thank you for loving us enough to not leave us to our own devices. Help us to be those who learn from our past mistakes as Your Spirit guides us to grow to become more like You. Amen.
3 “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands...I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep with no cause for fear...I will look favorably upon you, making you fertile and multiplying your people. And I will fulfill my covenant with you. 10 You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to clear out the old grain to make room for the new harvest! 11 I will live among you, and I will not despise you. 12 I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people...However, if you do not listen to me or obey all these commands, 15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my decrees, treating my regulations with contempt, and refusing to obey my commands, 16 I will punish you...And if, in spite of all this, you still disobey me, I will punish you seven times over for your sins...23 And if you fail to learn the lesson and continue your hostility toward me, 24 then I myself will be hostile toward you...27 If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, 28 then I will give full vent to my hostility...40 But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me...But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out...that I might be their God. I am the Lord.”
Observations:
After communicating His commands and regulations of His covenant with His people through Moses, God concludes with a glimpse of two possible futures completely conditioned upon their response to it. Option number one would be the obediece route, full of blessing, prosperity, protection, peace, God's favor, growth, health, and victory over their enemies. Option number two, however, would envoke God's discipline policy when He then proceeds to outline for them in hopes of changing their minds. The first offense of covenant breaking by disobeying God's commands resulted in punishment in the form of disease, defeat by their enemies, and economic loss (vs. 16-17). Continued disobedience after that would result in further punishment through added famine/economic depression and food shortage (vs. 18-20). If they still hadn't learned their lesson by then God would then allow armies to invade and begin destroying them and starve them to death (vs. 23-26). Finally, if that didn't get their attention God would allow His people to suffer severe punishment by removing them from the Promise Land completely and allowing them to be slaughtered but not completely destroyed. This passage makes me picture God much like a parent lovingly seeking to teach their children the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior and what it means to be a member of the family. You'd think that with such a clearly defined set of expectations that God's people would have just chosen the good and avoided the consequences of their sin altogether in the first place. But as any parent knows, children often times only think they know what's best for them and are by nature primarily concerned only about themselves.
Application:
At first glance it seems like God is being unnecessarily harsh and is not really the God of love the Bible portrays Him to be. But as any good parent knows, discipline usually isn't a very pleasant process. In fact, it's by nature unpleasant, but with good reason (Hebrews 12:11). But the reality is that every child needs discipline in order to curb self-centeredness and produce maturity. It's no different with God. Sometimes we think that because we're no longer children that we've outgrown the need of parental supervision; however, spiritually speaking the idea that we can manage our lives apart from God's commands really makes us no less ignorant and immature than our own children. God has promised us everything we will ever need and more than we could ever want if we will simply choose to do things His way instead of trusting in our own judgment. But God's Word also repeatedly reminds us that such presumption only reveals how foolish and immature we really are. "Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in [God's] wisdom is safe. (Proverbs 28:26). The more we continue to stubbornly insist on doing what want and getting our way instead of humbly accepting God's correction, the more difficult God promises it will be. It's because God loves us that He is committed to break us of self-willed resistance to His will for lives, even when it hurts. We must remember the "encouraging words God [has] spoke to [us] as his children... 'My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”
Prayer:
Father, help us to lay aside our childish ignorance of Your ways and teach us to learn from the correction You provide us as Your children. Thank you for loving us enough to not leave us to our own devices. Help us to be those who learn from our past mistakes as Your Spirit guides us to grow to become more like You. Amen.
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