Loving Instructions

Leviticus 19-27 (4 days in my http://www.bibleinayear.org/ reading plan). I am still more than 2 weeks behind. :-(

As I read through the chapters of Leviticus, what speaks to me most is love of a God who wants to dwell with us, and to teach us about the gravity of sin.

Last evening, R2 wanted to go to the playground (R1 was still having his dinner), so I went with him. The kids played catching and I chatted with a neighbour. Before I knew it, R2 has bounded after another boy and ran across the street. Thankfully it wasn't a busy street, but I was not amused. I had to take him home and discipline him - despite his protests that he was just following the other boys, we did not tell him not to run across THAT PARTICULAR street, and then claiming that he forgot, etc... (Just look at the innocent look on his face.) I didn't like doing it, but I had to do it, because I had to make sure that he fully understood the gravity of his misdeed. I had to be very strict with him despite his excuses because I wanted him to be consistent in how he acts going forword - i.e. never run across ANY street again.

In a way, this little incident sums up the book of Leviticus rather well. God loves us, wants to be with us, and wants the best for us (just like I love R2, want to bring him to the playground, and I want him to play safe and play nicely with the other kids). God knows that the land of Canaan is a dangerous place for the Israelites if they fall into the same detestable practices of the land - which included child sacrifice and prostitution. Hence He wants them to be set apart from the rest of the people and obey His instructions (just like me wanting R2 to obey my instructions not to run across the street, whether or not the other kids do so).

I now see the meticulous (and sometimes repetitive) instructions in the book of Leviticus as the painstaking effort that God made to explain and drill home the gravity of sin and how to avoid it, and when that fails, how to atone for it. I cannot love R2 and allow him to run across the street at this age, whatever others do, and God cannot love us without telling us, in His infinite wisdom, what is not good for us.

Praise God!