“Now, people of Israel, listen to what the LORD your God demands of you: Worship the LORD and do all that he commands. Love him, serve him with all your heart, 13 and obey all his laws. I am giving them to you today for your benefit.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 GNB
We often think of laws as being restrictive. They hold us back in some way. The path to sin is many times paved with our belief that the laws don’t apply to us because we are above them. It is interesting to read that God gave the laws to the people for their benefit. Think about that for a moment. The laws were never given to exercise authority or control over humanity. They were given because God knows how sinful we are and He had our best interest in mind. We may not be able to clearly see that all the time, but it’s true.
God stressed several other points with the people. They were to fear God in a way that their hearts desperately wanted to honor Him. That fear would produce a love for the things God loves and a hatred for the things He hates.
He asked them to walk in His ways. This meant changing paths in order to follow Him. It meant acknowledging that His way of living life, though sometimes difficult, it always best.
God’s desire was for the people to love Him. This love would come from our own free will decision to follow after His heart – not a robotic or manipulative love.
God wanted the people to serve Him and obey Him. This meant conforming to His image on a daily basis and coming to Him with every decision that was made.
Now, when you put these all together, you get a consistent image that also translates well to the New Testament. We are to first fear God. Proverbs 9:10 tells us, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” That fear leads us to wisdom and knowledge. Through that wisdom, we gain insight into our lives. We realize that sin has separated us from God and we are on a different path than Him. This is where repentance takes place as we turn around and change the direction we were going in order to follow Him.
Through repentance, we hear the Good News of the Gospel. God’s sacrificial love fills us with love and gratitude for what He’s done. We choose to love God with our lives because of this fact. From there, it is a constant tug of war as we wrestle with the flesh to serve and obey God through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The beauty of all this is that the same God who spoke these words to His people thousands of years ago is the same God we serve today. God’s heart has not changed. He has been more than gracious in giving humanity exactly what we need to bear His image in this sin-stained life.