Rules

Rules, rules were made for a reason. Have you ever heard that? Have you always liked hearing that? Maybe you have said it a time or two yourself. Have you ever broken those rules? Have you always agreed with the rule maker? When was the last time you complained about rules? Maybe when you were driving down the highway and wanting to get somewhere a little faster than the rules said you could get there? Maybe when someone changed the rules mid-stream and caught you off guard? Have you ever been accused of bending the rules? What exactly does that mean? Driving 66 in a 65 would that be bending the rules?

When was the first rule broken? If you said in Genesis, you are correct. Adam was instructed by God to not eat of the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9 and 16-17). The scripture goes on to say that God then decided to make a helper for Adam which He did and her name was Eve. Now I am sure that Adam must have instructed her not to even touch the tree as you see she is talking with the serpent who is tempting her in Genesis 3:3b “and you must not touch it, or you will die.” I figure that Adam had probably decided that he should tell her not to touch it because if she did touch it she would want to eat it. Back to children, have you ever told one not to even go near the cookie jar? Don’t touch it or you will be tempted to eat? Maybe you have told yourself that. Anyway, she touched and noting happened so she took it to Adam and served it to him and he, knowing what God had told him ate it anyway. Even in a perfect world, the Garden of Eden, there was a rule, and even in that setting, the one and only rule was broken and so mankind was broken.

Since the beginning of time there were rules. Rules help us maintain order, they are there for a reason and sometimes the reason is very good and other times the reasons are selfish and unrighteous but what does God say about the rulers placed before us. Looking in Nehemiah 9:37 - 38 we discover that God placed rulers over the Israelites and that these Kings gathered an abundant harvest due to the sins of the Israelites. In verse 34 it says “Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our fathers did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the warnings you gave them. Even while they were in their kingdom, enjoying your great goodness to them in the spacious and fertile land you gave them, they did not serve you or turn from their evil ways.” All of this while the Israelites are enslaved. Why do you think God blessed those who were against Him? It is rather simple but complex. Verse 37 says it was because of the sins of the Israelites. God wanted to draw them back to Himself but He first had do show them where they were wrong. It doesn’t seem fair that others are reaping the goodness of God when His chosen people are suffering but that is exactly what was happening. All of this in order to bring them back to Him and it did change their hearts. Their sin was revealed and they made an oath to follow the Laws of God (verse 29) which didn’t last as long as it should have. Have you made a promise to God that didn’t last long? They did have a leader though in Nehemiah who called them on their shortcomings, you can read about that in Nehemiah 13.

At this time our country is struggling. Everyone is blaming the other person, we all seem to think we have the right answer and know just what we need to do. God’s word tells us exactly what we should do, it can be found in II Chronicles 7:14 “if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” Although this was originally written for the Israelites we need to remember that we are His people now too. If you are called by His Name you are His. Our country is going rapidly downhill because we are not humbling ourselves, we are not seeking His face, we, not as a country but as followers of Christ. If we can’t even humble ourselves within our churches how do we expect that God will heal our land? If we don’t take the time to seek His face why do we expect Him to take care of our country? What are our sins that are causing our county to go in a spiral downhill? I trust you will seek Him and find Him and will humble yourselves and pray because He will forgive our sins and heal our land.


Seeking Him with all my heart,
Sheila