As we prepare to invite people back into the sanctuary for worship, we have developed many rules in order to maintain the healthiest environment possible. You’ll see them in e-mails and posted on signs around the church; you’ll hear them in announcements and mentioned during worship. Many rules.
And it’s okay to say it out loud: rules are annoying. You have to adjust what you naturally want to do, and you might even be inconvenienced. That’s why most kids can’t stand rules that stop them from doing what they feel like doing, even if what they feel like doing is bad for them (staying up too late, eating junk food all day, jumping off things that are too high, etc.). They will probably push back and complain when you stop them, but that’s okay. They don’t like the restrictions, and they’re disappointed. Just let them be upset and get their anger out, but still maintain firm rules with a kind spirit. Eventually, when they mature a little more, they’ll realize you weren’t telling them what to do because you’re a jerk who enjoys making annoying rules; you were doing it for their own benefit out of love.
Moses and God did the same thing with the children of Israel. (Emphasis on “children.”) When they fled Egypt in the exodus, God wanted to help them get started as a strong, holy people. So God gave them lots of rules, even carving the top 10 onto stone tablets. (Others are included in Leviticus and the end of Exodus.) But as children often do, the children of Israel grumbled at the new rules and their situation. A lot. After 40 years of “are we there yet” wandering in the desert, they were finally allowed into the Promised Land. Before they entered, Moses reiterated how important it was to follow God’s rules.
Much of Deuteronomy is Moses explaining again the rules God wants the Israelites to follow. Over and over, he says things like, “The instructions I am giving you today are so that you will be strong and live long in the land the Lord is giving you.” That was Moses’ reminder that if the Israelites followed God’s instructions, things would be better for them. It’s not like God is a jerk who enjoys making annoying rules; God wants the best for them.
When the Israelites didn’t follow God’s will, they suffered consequences. The biggest consequence was the Exile. It was terrible and lasted longer than any of them wanted. But the prophets regularly reminded them that even though they had brought it on themselves through selfish behavior, God was still with them.
There are many parallels between that time and today. I wonder how much trouble we could have saved ourselves if we had just followed God and Jesus’ instructions for how to treat people. We could have gotten a decent handle on the coronavirus by now, but rules are annoying, so lots of folks don’t feel like wearing masks or social distancing. And the protests over racial mistreatment continue to intensify, but if we had spent decades working for equality, or at least weeks not provoking with more brutality, then there would be more peace and healing now.
When we push back against rules that are good for us because we don’t like them, things get worse. When my sons were young we saw that all the time. What was meant to be a brief 2-minute timeout punishment was prolonged with wailing and gnashing of teeth into a full hour where no one was happy. How much heartache could’ve been saved early on just by doing what they needed to do?
While the Israelites were in exile, God through Jeremiah told them to build houses, plant gardens, get married, and have children (Jer. 29). Yes the exile was a bad consequence of their unfortunate selfishness, but you can still make the best of a bad situation. And that’s what God wanted for them, even in exile.
Maybe we are living in a time of exile now. We are enduring bad consequences of our past bad choices. And we are in a prolonged state of timeout that could’ve been over by now. Fortunately, even when we act like children, God is still with us and trying to help us make the most of it. That’s what God does: takes what is broken and makes the best out of it.