"Why Have You Done This?"

Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said, 'I will never break My covenant with you.  And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall tear down their altars.'  But you have not obeyed My voice.  Why have you done this?"  (Judges 2:1, 2)

"I will never break My Covenant with you."  Nothing about this ever changes.  "Never," means, well, "NEVER."  People who do not read the Old Testament miss out on much of what we can know about the Living Triune God.  If people refuse to read the whole Bible, they will miss the "whole picture."  For example, the Old Testament and the New Testament put forth the same principle: Our Lord does not take well to people who disobey His Statutes.

Why is this?  Simply stated in the Pentateuch, "They are your life."  Of course, a reading of Psalm 119 will greatly reinforce this, "Blessed are those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart" (v.2).  Now you do want to be, "Blessed," do you not?  Well, "The Word of God," teaches us that blessing is not an emotional, goose pimple experience.  Bible theology, not just one verse, teaches humanity that the phrase of the old hymn, "Blessings all mine, and ten thousand beside," come to, "....those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart."  If we have any "blessings" outside of this reality, they are "fools' gold." 

People who do not like statutes-talk have never realized that Jesus did not give options; Jesus only gives commands, viz., "statutes."  Our Lord Jesus told the young ruler, "But if you want to enter into life keep the commandments."  Now most evangelicals have belittled these words because most evangelicals- charismatics have an anti-works obsession.  "O," they say, "Jesus was showing the "rich young ruler" that the commandments are not necessary to be, 'born again.'"  Of course not, but if one is, "born again," he/she will keep the commandments.  The New Birth brings us into the Kingdom, into, "the Household of Faith," i.e., the Church.  The, "statutes," are the "how-tos" for daily living in the Church, the Kingdom.

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that You have never left me with "how to" live, be, or do anything in Your purposes.  Amen.    

When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"

Hebrews 12:2