(Leviticus 18:1-5, NIV)
I am the Lord your God.
It is a recurring statement made by God while instructing the Israelites in how to live. He says it over and over. Laws on everything from clothes to hair to farming. In Leviticus 18, God is beginning a discussion on the laws of sex. (#Awkward.) More than an introduction to sexual parameters, God is clarifying why any of His laws exist. Because, I am the Lord your God.
This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.
His people should not follow the example they had been given. They saw the wrong way to do things in Egypt. They were often tempted to go back, but this was not what God wanted for them. Even when things are wrong, it is easy to fall into old habits because they are comfortable.
His people should not follow the example they would be taught. They were about to enter a land that would present new ways of doing things. They were likely to be enticed by ideas they had never considered before. When things are new, the novelty blinds us from seeing the risks.
God tells His people not to follow these examples. Instead they should follow God's way. He was God. He was their God. If God is my God, I too must decide to step out of my history. Neither can I be distracted by my future. I must live God's way because He has said me, "I am the Lord your God."
This post is a prompt from Five Minute Friday and was written in approximately five minutes. For more information, visit fiveminutefriday.com.
Visiting from Five Minute Friday. What a timely post filled with timeless, Biblical foundations! Enjoyed reading it very much!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great reminder that everything else flows out of knowing our identity in him - that he is our God.
ReplyDeleteGreat reminder! Visiting from FMF#23
ReplyDeleteHe is the Lord my God...but when He said, 'Thou shalt not kill', did He think about the bloody cartels turning up on my doorstep? Did He think about having to walk the dogs with an Armalite in hand?
ReplyDeleteWe're tooled up, and will rock on...and, I guess, face the music.
Your words, "step out of my history" and not "be distracted by my future" are beautifully said as we ponder God's way. Thank you, Amie!
ReplyDeleteShining God's light by living his way. God bless. - a fmf friend x
ReplyDelete"If God is my God, I too must decide to step out of my history" - powerful and beautifully written. Thank you for this fresh perspective!
ReplyDeleteIf I may be allowed a second comment, in the midst of what's become a dreadfully cancer'd weekend, it seems to me that there is something of a mirror-image implicitly presented in the passage from Leviticus.
ReplyDeleteWe are under God's authority, and are told to follow His rules, but at the same time here is a kind of reversal of the possessive quality of 'your'; He is OURS, if we choose Him, and this must be actioned by our hearts and hands.
Unlike the Egyptian Gods, who were to be constantly propitiated, 'The Lord Your God' seeks nothing more than a willingness to be led.
Coming back to the 'rough weekend' bit, I find that I am metaphorically ascending a narrowing path, on one side of which lies the abyss of despair, and on the other a sheer cliff I cannot hope to climb. I have to trust the Hand that made the path, that it will lead me to safety. There are no shortcuts, no alternate routes (you can't find salvation on your own!). There's just the road, and the faith.