Rules

What is a rule? According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, one of the definitions is:“That which is established as a principle, standard or directory; that by which anything is to beadjusted or regulated, or to which it is to be conformed; that which is settled by authority orcustom for guidance and direction. Thus a statute or law is a rule of civil conduct; a cannon is a ruleof ecclesiastical government; the precept or command of a father is a rule of action or obedience tochildren; precedents in law are rules of decision to judges; maxims and customs furnish rules forregulating our social opinions and manners. The laws of God are rules for directing us in life,paramount to all others.From infancy on, our life is guided by rules, divine and human, guiding and developing us. We haverules to follow from our parents. Some are common sense ones. Don’t touch the stove, or you mightget burned. Don’t walk into the street without looking both ways. Some are more serious,promoting the development of our character. Cleaning your room helps develop your sense oforderliness and teaches us to take care of the things we have. Obeying our parents teachesrespect for authority of any kind. Disobedience has consequences, when we fail to follow the rulesour parents set. There are all kinds of rules at school. Some make sense, some don’t. When I wasgrowing up, the rule was that girls always wore skirts or dresses, even in the winter. We wereallowed to wear pants underneath them, but they must be worn. We definitely took advantage ofthat rule in the winter! Boys needed to wear button shirts and nice pants ... no jeans. Those werethe rules. We had rules of walking in a single line out for recess or to the lunch room. There wererules guiding our behavior in class. There was no talking unless you raised your hand, and theteacher called on you. There were rules about what was allowed and accepted on the playground.From our churches, there are rules guiding our behavior. In the church I grew up in, there were aTON of rules. Some rules I still don’t get why they ever were in place. These rules were to directus in our spiritual side. We were not allowed to set eyes on the communion host. We confessed tosomeone first, said some prayers, before we completed the process for forgiveness. We hadspecific prayers for specific days, had to attend specific days, had to study certain thingsregarding the church, mind you, not His Word, but other books. And, one of the biggest rules was,don’t ask questions about why we do these things. We do them because that’s what was done.Now, that’s all man stuff. They’re man made rules. Some, certainly are good ones. Some certainlyare bad. When I started really studying His Word, we came to the whole business of the laws andcommandments of God. Boy, talk about a learning time! When we look at God’s laws and commands,people are SO quick to dismiss them. “Those are in the Old Testament, Jesus is in the New, and weonly need to follow the New.” “We’re covered by Grace, we don’t need to worry about themanymore.” “Those rules are so hard to follow, and I don’t think God meant them for our time.”When we learned the rules of our household, or the rules guiding our spiritual development,sometimes we were given the reason for the rules, and sometimes we weren’t. When we were little, just because mom or dad said ‘no’, was enough of a reason to follow the rule. As we grow, ourparents might provide more reasoning behind the rules. School rules changed as we matured, andoften gave us more freedom, because there was a basic understanding of how we were expected tobehave. As we matured, we gained more understanding to the reasons behind the rules.

Sometimes rules are there to assist us in us obtaining deeper meaning and understanding in ourwalk. When my kids were little, we had the rule “No Bible, no breakfast”. We still have that rule.But, at first when they were little, they didn’t understand the whole meaning behind it. Settingthat rule was to get them in the habit of reading His Word daily. As they grew up, they realizedthat it was to get them to put God first in their day. We sometimes slip a bit with that rule, butwhen we get off track, we can see how just the act of reading His Word before we eat, does getHim first in our day. We respond to each other differently-better than if we do not read it first.There’s a much deeper understanding and appreciation why that rule is in place. Now, on thesurface, it looks like all we’re doing is making our kids read their bible before they eat. Themeaning behind it, is deeper, and they do gain that deeper understanding as they mature in Him.So, when we mention to people we’re studying God’s laws, we get all kinds of reactions. Why? Jesusfulfilled the laws, we don’t have to follow them, etc. Again, why the reactions? First, they don’teven know what the laws are, and if they truly studied them, they’d see that as believers, they arealready following a great deal of them. The ones they aren’t, either don’t apply to them, or theydon’t understand how they still apply to our lives today.I also get the response of God commanding that certain people be killed for disobeying His laws.Let’s take a look at that shall we, for they are correct in saying that God does command the deathfor certain offenses. I will admit that when I started this study, I couldn’t figure out where Godwas going with this. He led me to starting without knowing where He was taking it. In studying it, Ifound a chart in my husband’s study bible, which just about leaped out at me. It’s amazing howmuch people assume about what His laws involve, and how many really require the death penalty forsuch offenses.

Premeditated Murder.

Genesis 9:6

“Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man. “ Exodus 21:12-14 "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee. If, however, a man acts presumptuously toward his neighbor, so as to kill him craftily, you are to take him even from My altar, that he may die. Exodus 21:22-23 “If men struggle with each other and strike a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet there is no injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman's husband may demand of him, and he shall pay as the judges decide. But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life,”

Now, is there anything that is really out of line here? I mean, His justice is just. It’s not tingedwith emotions. It’s not done on a whim. It’s not general. It’s not based on someone’s interpretation.It’s clear, concise, and specific. It’s not something that should catch anyone by surprise. It’sunderstandable. Respect life, it’s given by God. If you don’t respect life, yours gets taken. Prettysimple actually.

Kidnapping

Exodus 21:16

"He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death.”

Deut. 24:7 “If a man is caught kidnapping any of his countrymen of the sons of Israel, and he dealswith him violently or sells him, then that thief shall die; so you shall purge the evil from among you.”Looks pretty clear. Those who kidnap another, has no regard or respect for the life of that person.It’s again, respecting the life that God has given another. It’s respecting God, and what He’screated.

Striking or Cursing Parents

Exodus 21:15

“He who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”

Leviticus 20:9 “

If there is anyone who curses his father or his mother, he shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother, his bloodguiltiness is upon him.”

Proverbs 20:20

“He who curses his father or his mother, His lamp will go out in time of darkness.”

Matthew 15:4-9

“And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.' But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God, he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'"

Why would God have this command? When you look at it, for one, it rejects the authority of God.He commanded that parents be obeyed. He set parents above their children. By changing Hiscommand, changes what God intended. God intends parents to have the authority over theirchildren, so that they can train up that child in the way they should go, and also that by respectingthe God-given authority, a child learns to respect the authority of God, and will work under Hisauthority by learning to be under his parents authority. If we don’t have that, if we have parentalauthority continually questioned, continually disrespected, continually downgraded from what Godintended, what do we have? A society that rejects Him, that rejects His precepts, that does notrespect life. Oh wait, that kind of sounds like the world of today. Don’t spank your children, that’sabuse. Your child’s self esteem is far more important than his soul. School seminars teachingteachers how to pull kids away from parental authority, teachings, and standards. We have a worldthat rejects life, rejects God, and rejects any authority, except their own. Everything is accepted,except that which is of God. Is there an issue with the authority God has in this world? Oh yes, you see it everywhere.Long ago, when we’d been home schooling for several years, I went out to lunch with my brother, anunbeliever. After sharing how the kids were doing, we somehow got on the topic of rebellion. Mybrother stated that ‘all kids need to rebel against their parents’. My first question was, Why? Whatgood is rebellion? He stated that by rebelling, they actually make the values of the parents theirown. To me, that doesn’t even make sense. He stated then, “Just give me a weekend with yourkids...I’ll get them to rebel.” Well, we didn’t let that happen. I know he meant it mostly joking, butI also knew he would plant some seeds we certainly didn’t need to take root in the kids. Rebelling