Rule #4 and it’s application

Where was Jesus when God was giving the the 10 commandments to Moses?

We read in John 1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.”

Jesus was with God as God gave Moses the law.

Matthew 12 shows us the spiritual leaders of the day explaining the law to the author of it.

“12 At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”’

I have a personal law or rule that I try to follow.

Do not put your hand in a toilet bowl.

It’s a good rule. Toilet bowls are nasty. I’ve seen what I deposit in there and can only imagine what others have done.

I broke my own rule the other night. Sometimes you just have to. A family member had a toilet that was plugged and the plunger wasn’t getting it done. I used a snake. It was cold and unpleasant but I got it un-stopped.

My rule is to keep me safe from germs. I broke it for a higher reason. To help.

Jesus, the author of the rules, the Lord of the sabbath, reminds us that the sabbath wasn’t invented so that we could have a rule to follow. It was put in the set of rules to give us a day of stop. An entire day of stop. Stop and rest.

I Think of my daily drive and of the one place that I have to stop that doesn’t make any sense. In the beginning there was no stop sign there. But then one day, maybe several days, two cars collided and someone was hurt. The wise leadership decided to put a stop sign there to keep people safe. Keep collisions from happening.

In my own heart I want to rebel against that stop sign but it’s intent is to keep me safe. My heart is cesspool of either rebellion or rule enforcement. I want to blow through the stop sign but pity the fool who does blow through it on my watch. I want to break the rule myself but I want it enforced on everyone else.

Sometimes we use the rules around us to control or condemn others. That’s not what they are there for. Gods rules are there to guide us, bless us and keep us safe.

Here’s a rule to follow: Jesus said

Love one another as I have loved you. How has he loved us? Sacrificially.

Are we there yet?

I bounced around a lot so to sum up:

Jesus wrote the rules.

Keep our hands out of the toilet bowl unless it would help others more than it will hurt us to get our hands dirty.

Stop signs are there to bless us.

Stop days are there to bless us.

Jesus loves us. Jesus is merciful.

Be like Jesus. Learn mercy.