January 21

Do not put God to the test

                Be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.  Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.  Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

Deuteronomy 6:12-16

             This is the type of passage that turns people off from Christianity.  At first glance, God comes across looking like an abusive spouse.  The Israelites are told to fear Him and obey or else He will get jealous and He will get angry and then He will wipe them out.  Nothing in there sounds like unconditional love or rest or joy or any of a thousand other positive things that we see throughout scripture.  The only reason I am reading this passage at the moment is because Jesus quoted it during his temptations in the wilderness and I wanted to see more of what he was referencing.

            The heart of this passage is actually not too difficult to understand, but the wording gets in the way because of the fallen world that we live in.  At its heart this is a word from a parent to their child.  Not their adult, fully-functioning child, this is spoken by a parent who knows the dangers of this life to a child who is wrapped up in their own little world.

·                     *Fear the Lord: There needs to be a healthy level of fear or respect that children have for their parents so that the kids will stay safe. One of the more challenging things about autism is that it muddles the stimulus centers of the brain so that the smell of the asphalt is as important as the shiny lights is as important as mom yelling “Get out of the street!”  Our son had to be taught how to prioritize the sound of our instructions over the other stimuli that caught his attention.  That is respecting or fearing God, prioritizing His voice over the other things that pull at our attention.

·                    * Do not follow other gods.  Parents know that there are lots of different people who will tell your kids what to do: teachers, friends, relatives, random adults on the bus.  If my kids decided to follow drunk guy from the bus instead of me, it would be disastrous.  God knows that there are lots of different gods that people could follow instead of Him.  They all lead right back to slavery and suffering.  Humanity’s big choice is who they will decide to submit themselves to.  God is the only option that does not lead to misery and death.

·                        *God is a jealous god.  He longs to love us and be loved by us.  He made us to be together.  When we are apart He aches and we suffer.  If my children decided that they wanted someone else to be their daddy, I would feel the same way until we were reunited.

·                         *His anger will burn and he will destroy you from the face of the land.  There is not a lot of subtlety here…and it is not quite as monstrous as we think.  The people would all die.  Yes.  But everyone dies.  This is not that God would murder thousands.  Rather, God would call them to account for their decisions sooner than expected.  Maybe they have 30 extra years in the afterlife. In the face of eternity.

This passage is not full of warm, fuzzy imagery.  The picture that it does present is of a parent that deeply loves His children and longs to be with them.  I resonate with that.

A moment to reflect:

How are you jealous for your children?

Refrigerator Art of the Day:

D Age 12