God and the Law

This morning I was reading the story of Daniel being thrown into the lions den. (Daniel 6)  And I was thinking that God respected the unjust law that the King was tricked into making. God didn't try to break the law. He didn't try to avoid the law. He obeyed the law to the letter. And then He used His power to overcome the law.

The law said, "Anyone found making a petition to any man or God rather than the King for 30 days must be thrown into the lions den." (Daniel 6:7)

Daniel is honoured as someone who disobeyed the king's law in order to obey the higher law of God. He went home and he continued his practice of praying to God at his open window towards Jerusalem three times a day just like he always had.

And, God does NOT save him from the consequences of breaking the king's law. Daniel is arrested, he is taken before the King, and he is thrown into the lions den. Just like the king's law demands.

God respected the king's authority and allowed the law to be preserved, even though it was unjust. But the moment that law was fulfilled God acted. He closed the lions mouths. Daniel spent the night in a pile of lions and in the morning he was released from the lions den. The law had been fulfilled. There was no reason to keep him there any longer.

God respected the king's law and then over came it.

Then I started thinking of other times in the Bible when God did the same thing.

Moses. In this story God is not mentioned, but we can see His fingerprints all over the events.

The events surrounding the birth of Moses are recorded in Exodus chapters 1 and 2. Long story short, the Pharaoh made a law that said that any Israelite baby boy that was born must be thrown into the Nile river. When Moses is born his mother hides him for three months. But eventually she has to act because she will be discovered. So she obeys the law. She puts Moses in the Nile, just like the law demands. But, she is clever, she obeys the letter of the law, and circumvents the spirit of the unjust law by placing Moses in a basket before she puts him in the water.

Then God acts. At exactly the right time the daughter of the Pharaoh shows up, rescues the baby and adopts him as her own son, and then hires the baby's own mother to be his nanny. God could have acted on any day of those three months before Moses' mother obeyed the law, but he didn't. He waited until after the law was obeyed and then he acted to save the baby.

Another example, in Daniel chapter 3 we read the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. King  Nebuchadnezzar has made a giant golden statue and has decreed that when the music plays everyone must bow to it or else they will be thrown into the fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refuse to bow. And God allows the King to carry out his law. The three young men are thrown into the furnace. And, Jesus joins them there. Their bindings burn off but nothing else burns or is even singed. God allowed the unjust law to be carried out and then displayed His power to save the three men from the consequences of the law.

There are others, Jesus and the temple tax, (Matthew 17:24-27) Jesus paid the tax even though He did not have to because He was the Son of the God the temple was built to worship. However the rulers in Israel refused to recognise Jesus' authority. So Jesus paid the tax because He didn't want to offend them, but not from His own money, God performed a miracle for Him and provided the money by way of a fish.

Jesus, Jesus himself was victim of an unjust application of the law of man. And God did not save Him. God allowed Him to die. And then three days later He resurrected Him, and as a result we are also saved from the consequences of God's law.

I can't think of any examples where God disregarded a law that was unjust or inconvenient to Him. Always He respects the laws of man, even when they are plain wrong. He keeps the law and then uses His power to overcome the consequences of the law.

If God does this with our laws, then it is only logical that He will keep his own laws. He won't be breaking or disregarding or changing His own laws. But for those who ask, He uses His power to save us from the consequences of those laws. Maybe those consequences mean death. But death is not the end, because after death comes the resurrection.

Walls

I’ve been thinking about walls. I think walls are good. They keep us safe from others - and others safe from me. And more importantly walls have doors in them. 

When I think of walls and people I imagine cities and castles. 

Like I am the princess who lives in the top of the tower in the centre of the city. There’s a whole series of walls between me and the outside world. 

People I don’t know walk around outside the city. 

Acquaintances come through the first set of doors into the city. 

Friends come through the second into the castle. 

Good friends get into the courtyard around the tower. 

And, Best friends get into the tower. They are heart friends. 

The best thing about doors, and the worst thing about doors, is that I’m the gate keeper. I get to say who comes in, and who leaves. Actually it’s more like a negotiation. People knock on the door and indicate they are interested in coming in - knowing me more, I get to decide if that’s going to happen. Or sometimes I’ll invite people to come further in. They get to decide if they want to come. 

Sometimes a person comes in looks around and says this is not my kind of city and leaves again. That is sad, but allowable. 

Sometimes I make mistakes. I let a person into the castle or further who should never have been that far in and they cause damage because they don’t respect the privilege. 

Or sometimes I push a person out who I should have let stay and I hurt them. I always regret that when I realise I’ve done it. 

Sometimes I close all the doors and go hide for a while. I think this keeps me safe from monsters, but in actuality the monsters in my imagination are far worse than the monsters outside of the city. 

And sometimes I just need alone time to heal. 

My thought is that I open and close doors in response to fear or to love. 

If my door opening and closing is fear induced then their will be problems either way. Although I suspect with fear the doors stay closed most of the time - either to keep people out, or to try and hold them when they don’t want to stay. 

But if I open and close the doors in response to love then it is a joyous thing, and I expect those doors mostly stay open. 

My thought is that most of the damage that occurs in relationships - from simple friendships to the closest of heart ties - occurs when we try to protect ourselves. We start to fight the monsters we fear, to protect our city from damage, but the city is damaged anyway, and so is the person I’m fighting, the one I have mistaken for a monster. 

I think that as people learn to trust love they become less defensive and they are willing to accept that there is something of a monster in all of us. In me and in you and in everyone we know. 

When we trust love we stop fighting to hide the monster inside, we start to trust that maybe the monster can be loved in spite of it’s scaley skin and bad breath. 

Love allows us to accept the monster inside ourselves and inside everyone else. It allows us to stop fighting. To say “Yes, I am this terrible thing, but I am still loved.” “Yes, you are this terrible thing, but you are still loved.”

And over time as we hold onto this love, to live in this love, and to trust this love more fully, the monster we see inside others starts to shrink and finally to disappear. And we take the doors off of our city walls because it’s safe to allow people to come and go as they wish. That kind of freedom makes more people visit the city and so the city rejoices. 

It takes a special kind of love to bring this kind of change. It takes the love of someone who doesn’t have a monster inside. It takes the love of God. It is as we look into His love, as we accept His non defensive goodness, as we dwell in His presence that we learn to trust His love. And then that love changes us. It turns the monster into a princess. (Or a prince.)