Rules--Good or Bad??

About 2 weeks ago my father started working on repairing our front porch from the damage the termites had done to it. One of the first things he did was to stretch bright yellow “caution” tape across our porch.

Soon after Dad found me and said, “You can go on the concrete portion, but don’t go on the wood part.” “OK!” While, to me, the wood part of the porch still looked the same to me as the concrete, I know my parents always have my best interests in mind and so I obeyed them and didn’t go on the wood part of the porch.

Later I was thinking about this experience and realized how close it relates to our spiritual experience. We may not know the reasons behind the rules God gives us. For me, most everything on the porch looked the same. Same red wood. Same green plants! But I knew that my father had a reason behind his rule. It wasn’t in cruelty, to limit where I went. It was for my safety. Even more than our earthly parents, we can rest assured that our Father in Heaven has our safety and best interests in mind. God’s rules aren’t to limit, they are designed to keep us safe.

Adam and Eve choose to not trust and obey God’s rules. They found out the hard way that God’s rules are always best and always for our utmost good.

In fact, God gave the Israelites, and us, 10 rules, or commandments to obey. By obeying them we are happy. The first 4 are how man is to relate to God:

Exodus 20: 3-11, ASV:

1. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

2. "Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them, for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing lovingkindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments."

3. "Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain."

4. "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

And the last 6 are how man is to relate to his fellow men:

Exodus 20:12-17, ASV:

5. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee."

6. "Thou shalt not kill."

7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery. "

8. "Thou shalt not steal."

9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."

10. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."

Always remember that God’s rules are for our safety and our best interests.