GOD’S BLUEPRINT FOR LIFE
Deuteronomy 5
“Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”
It is true, as Paul noted, that the promise is attached specifically to the command to honour our parents. However, I think that it is fair to take the perspective given in this specific command as representative of all the commands, meaning that God’s commands are not only about doing what he wants us to do, but that in doing so we will learn to live well.
The earlier warning is also important to shape our view of God’s commands: “ … for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments” is important for us to note. God’s commands are not for us to take from the perspective that God is love; rather, we should know that God is a jealous God, uncompromisingly harsh yet generous and true. God does not take himself lightly and neither should we.
Jesus’ (and more generally the New Testament) take on the commands helps us to understand that we should not be too preoccupied with the specifics but to view the commands in terms of the concerns and the perspectives they convey. You can be a person who fastidiously looks at every penny to ensure that you do not steal but are you a person who is happy to share what you have earned? Would you overlook the thievery of someone who needs to beg or steal in order to feed themselves and be generous to share what you have?
When you begin to view the commands in this way, then you will have some sense of what kind of person God wants you to become and how to ensure that he is at your corner, rather than be focused on specific actions although they can be a good place to begin your journey. At the end of the day, life is to have God on your side and his commands teach us how to make that happen.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-27)