January 28

January 28, 2012    Exodus 19-24   The Law   

 In September of 2011, David Brooks of The New York Times wrote a column on the nearly complete lack of a moral vocabulary among most American young people.

 Here are few quotes from his article:

"When asked to describe a moral dilemma they had faced, two-thirds of the young people either couldn't answer the question or described problems that are not moral at all…"

"Moral thinking didn't enter the picture, even when considering things like drunken driving, cheating in school or cheating on a partner..."

"The default position, which most of them came back to again and again, is that moral choices are just a matter of individual taste ..."

"As one put it, 'l mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn't speak on behalf of anyone else as to what's right and wrong ...' "

"Morality was once revealed, inherited and shared, but now it's thought of as something that emerges in the privacy of your own heart."

 This study has just confirmed what I have seen over the past 30 years.  Moral standards have been replaced by feelings. Good and evil are now defined by the standards of "yummy" or "yucky."  They are simply a matter of personal preference.

 Today we see the antidote to the moral slide. The Law of God takes us above "yummy and yucky." The purpose of the Law is to provide and protect us by giving us a glimpse of the nature of God. We cannot know the heart of God unless he reveals it to us. We see his holiness, his character and his will. The Law showed the Israelites and it shows us what sin is and that we can never be holy enough to make it to heaven on our keeping of that Law. It teaches us that we need a Savior. It is like a medical thermometer; it shows us that we are sick and in need of a doctor. 

In addition, when we live by the principles of the law we find that life makes sense. Did you see the phrase,  "but showing love to a thousand generations to those who love me and keep my commandments?"  Living by the 10 commandments gives us the best possible life in a fallen world.

The law protects us from the dead ends of life. If you want to ship wreck your life, disobey the law of God. I can fill Boyle stadium in Stamford with people who have crashed their lives by disobeying the 10 Commandments but I have never, ever heard someone say, "I lived by the 10 Commandments and God has ruined my life."

An illustration from the Book The Country of the Pointed Firs.

Sara Jewett describes a woman writer on the pathway leading to the home of a retired sea captain named Elijah Tilley.  On the way, the woman notes a number of wooden stakes randomly scattered about the property, with no discernible order. Each is painted white and trimmed in yellow, like the captains house. Curious, she asks Captain Tilley what they mean. When he first plowed the ground, he says, his plow snagged on many large rocks just beneath the surface. So he set out the stakes where the rocks lay in order to avoid them in the future.  In a sense, this is what God has done with the 10 commandments. He said "These are the trouble spots in life. Avoid them and you won't snag your plow."