Deuteronomy 4:1-2 Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and go in and take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

It strikes me strongly that it didn’t take the Israelites long to violate what Moses says here, because they added a great deal to what he said to them from the Lord. It was all couched as “interpretation,” but it effectively amounted to a mountain of regulations that, as Peter said much later, “neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.” (Acts 15:10) The purpose of God’s rules and regulations is always our good, to keep us from harm and guide us into the abundant blessings He intends for us. However, we have a strong tendency to think more is better, even when it comes to rules, so we embroider what God has actually said and codify it to the point that it becomes something else entirely. The same thing is certainly seen in human government. Laws simply increase, and outmoded laws are for the most part not removed. As has been amply evident in the US just recently, laws grow to the point that even the supposed “lawmakers” can hardly read them, much less understand all their ramifications, so they don’t even try. Most churches aren’t to that point yet, but some of them certainly seem headed that direction. The opposite of that is called antinomianism, which is a rejection of all laws. In the case of God’s laws, that is also a rejection of the blessing those laws were given to ensure. All of this brings us to the necessity of what God promised through Jeremiah and later realized by pouring out the Holy Spirit: “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33) As long as God’s laws are external to us they are no better than human laws.

This has been a factor for all of mankind ever since the Garden of Eden, and I have run afoul of it more times that I could possibly count. As a pastor, it is a constant issue in relating to those around me. I’ve got to be constantly and increasingly tuned to the Holy Spirit for the wisdom and insight needed, because there’s no other way to get it! I cannot be legalistic, but I must not overlook the valuable place rules have in God’s plan. I am to encourage God’s “hedge of protection” without letting it turn into prison walls. That’s a line I can only walk by the grace of God!

Father, thank You that it was just as I was writing this that a call came in from a parent tied in knots over their adult child. Thank You for Your anointing as I talked and prayed over the phone. I pray that Your plans for both parent and child would be fulfilled in every detail, for them both to grow in faith, trust, and maturity in every area, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!