Boundaries

How many of us liked our parents’ rules growing up? I will admit, I had a love hate relationship with them. I’m a law and order kind of person, so I liked them; however, there were times that I thought they were just trying to restrict my fun. How many people have a similar attitude towards the Bible? My guess is, that is pretty high number. But what if God’s Law and prohibitions were about something greater, not about restricting our fun? This is what we will see in our post for today in Blogging Through The Bible in 2020. Leviticus 26:46 says, “These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai; by the hand of Moses.”

God has laid out His expectations for Israel in this chapter. You can essentially break Leviticus 26 down into two sections. The first section is God giving promises to Israel as they obeyed Him. The second section was God promising the consequences for disobedience. While many people see the Bible as restricting man’s freedom, it is actually the exact opposite. By God giving us boundaries for living in a right relationship with Him, He is doing the most loving thing possible. In God giving us His expectations of His children, God is revealing His grace, mercy, patience, and even His willingness to forgive as we confess and turn from our sin. Just as our parents were showing their love and care for us when they set boundaries for us, God is doing the same for His children. Because God has given us His word that contains His Law, He is revealing His love for us and defining the freedom that we have in Him.

One way that I tend to think about it and envision it is in terms of a football game, specifically for an offense. The rules of football are universal, they are the same for everyone. The field dimensions are the same. The objective for both offense and defense is the same. The rulebook says that an offense has four tries to move the ball at least 10 yards in order to keep the ball. It doesn’t say that they must run the ball a certain amount of times, nor does it say that they must pass the ball a certain number of times. This gives an offense tremendous freedom to accomplish its objective. The football rule book doesn’t define everything you must do, rather it defines the minimum of what you must do. The Bible is the same. God in His grace has given us boundaries. Boundaries such as don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder, commit adultery, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. While it does give examples of how you can carry these things out, it doesn’t say that those are the only ways you can carry the commands out. This is because God and His word never changes, even though our culture does change. God’s character and expectations of His children are always the same, but how you and I biblically carry them out will change over time because of shifts in culture.

Therefore, let’s look at God’s word for what it truly is, a grand revelation of the person and work of God, and His desires for each of those He has created in His own image. The most loving thing God could do for His children is to express and preserve what it means to live in a right relationship with Him. The Bible is one way that God seeks to protect us from our own worst enemy–ourselves. Therefore, let’s be intentional about reading it, meditating on what we have read throughout the day, and memorizing it, because the Bible can keep us from sin (Psa. 119:11), and it can give us wisdom to guide us in the way we should live to glorify God (Psa. 119:105). Let’s thank God for His expressions of love of sending Jesus to die in our place, and giving us His word so that we would know who He is, and how we can live for His glory!

By His grace and for His glory,

Pastor Justin