Stoned! Laws and Invitations

Good morning,

Well, there they are, in the original .... At this point, I sort of derailed this morning.  I went on a search to determine if The 10 were written in Hebrew or in Aramaic.  The answers I found were surprising.  I'm sure it's not a burning question, but I'll just remark on it briefly.  The 10 were not written in Hebrew (until the Old Testament was compiled), nor Aramaic (my second guess).  They were most likely written in either Egyptian or in a pre-Hebrew pictorial language called Ktav Ivri. Ok, enough about that!  If you want to research it further or to enlighten me, go ahead, lol!  I reserve the right to be wrong about this!

At any rate, Ann's Advent devotional for Dec. 10th centers around The Law, of which the 10 Commandments was the "cornerstone", if you will pardon the pun.  Jesus referred to Himself as the Chief Cornerstone ("the stone the builders rejected") in Matthew 21:42.  Paul referred to Him by this title in Acts 4:11, and both were quoting Psalm 118:22. 

There is an inescapable part of human nature that longs for God, because we are made in His image. There is also our "sin nature", which causes us to want to rebel against Him and seek our own ways. With rules, some find comfort in them, while others are repulsed by them.  I'm in the former category, and some of my loved ones are most definitely in the latter.  That's not a judgmental statement, just a statement of fact that we are all unique.  Some of us tend toward the former and others toward the latter.  One predisposition is not better than the other.  The pitfall for rule-followers is that we begin to trust in the rules, which leads to legalism and pride over our ability to adhere to a set of commands.  The pitfall for the renegades is that they, too, are puffed up with self-love, loving the ability to choose their own way.

We were and are a messed up, stony-hearted people!  As Elyse M. Fitzpatrick put it:

"I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe, more loved and welcomed than I ever dared hope."

Amen and amen!

It's funny, really.  God gave us 10 laws.  "Just 10 things...just attend to these 10 things!"  We couldn't even do that!  SMH...

What folks miss about the 10 and about the Law as a whole is that God gave them to us out of love for us.  Basically, the Mosaic Law is a set of governing principles which, if we follow them, will allow us to experience life here on earth with a minimum of disease, peril and harm to others.  But, more importantly, all of the last nine flow from the first commandment:  "You shall not worship anything or anyone other than Me.  You shall have no other gods before me."  The first commandment was about relationship, our relationship with the God who loves us, chases us, carries us, changes us.  If that relationship was/is right, all other 9 commandments and particulars of Mosaic law were/are not so burdensome.  

When we make ourselves god and pursue our own paths, we are violating the first commandment. Then, every bit of the rest "goes to pot".  This is the story of mankind, over and over and over.  The story of God's love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that the God who IS love pursues us over and over and over.  Precisely because we were unable to meet His perfect standard of holiness, precisely because we find ourselves dashed and broken against those stone tablets, our loving God kept His own law for us, in the Person of His Son, the Chief Stone.

Jesus is the Stone who breaks the stone tablets into pieces and while fulfilling every iota of that Law, gives us a new one, the Law of Love, a covenant TO love.  It was all about love anyway.  We just didn't see it.

"Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!"

Deut. 5:29

The anguished cry of Perfect Love, longing for His fallen creation.  He calls us still.  His heart ever longs for ours.

Surprisingly, our Lord's first invitation is to rest in Him, to find ourselves completed in Him.  Some of the most beautiful words in the Bible are these:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

Matthew 11:28-29

Hallelujah!  Because He has fulfilled God's "impossible" requirements, our souls can rest in what He has done for us.

Another time He said this:

"Abide in me, and I in you."

John 15:4

This is an invitation to walk through this life in the realm of God.  It is what the psalmist meant when he wrote:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High 

            Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 91:1

Jesus longs to be our heart's permanent home, our forever residence so He can show us that every longing of the human heart finds its fulfillment in Him.

Jesus's third invitation to us is "follow Him", to be His willing servant in the carrying of the gospel to the whole world.

"Follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people!"  

Mark 1:17

What an amazing life purpose, a mind-blowing opportunity - - to share Jesus's life-giving message of grace with this beaten-down, broken-hearted world!  There is no better life, than eternal life in Him.

Lord Jesus, you call me to be Your very own, and despite my frequent wandering, your love call persists.  You never give up on me, on us.  Your love is everlasting.  Praise be to the One who paid my debt and raised my life up from the dead: Jesus!  In Whose name I pray, amen.  

Sources:

Voskamp, Ann. The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas. December 10. Print.

http://www.antiquityart.com/the-ten-commandments-in-an-ancient-hebrew-script

http://billygraham.org/decision-magazine/may-2012/the-three-invitations-of-christ/