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HERE'S THE DEAL!
The second paragraph of the United States Declaration
of Independence, dated July 4, 1776, reads:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
According to our Declaration of Independence we
have the right to pursue happiness. Those who have, and who hasn't, have
discovered that pursing happiness is very much like greyhound dogs pursuing what
they believe is a rabbit. It's elusive, and if caught they would find themselves
chewing on disappointment.
It is for this latter reason that many of the
familiar quotes on happiness are laced with a good deal of cynicism. Consider
the following:
"Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living
to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to
adults." Thomas Szasz
"Happiness is not something you experience, it's something you remember." Oscar
Levant
"The only really happy folk are married women and single men." H.
L. Mencken
"Few people can be happy unless they hate some other person, nation, or
creed." Bertrand Russell
"Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived." Jonathan
Swift
"Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is
happiness." George Orwell
Six different men and all have found the pursuit
of happiness a disappointing quest. So much so that all but one appears
to have become absolutely cynical. The exception being George Orwell. It
appears that while he gave up on the pursuit of happiness he believed it was
possible to be happy.
Long before George Orwell took a step in the right
direction the Bible took that same step and took it a step further. The
Bible has maintained since the beginning that we will not find happiness by pursing
our own idea of happiness. To reach this conclusion we simply need to review
the story of Adam and Eve! But the Bible, in the story of Cain, takes this
matter of being happy a step further and says that our pursuit of happiness will
only be successful when we stop running after it and allow happiness to pursue
us. In Genesis 4:6 - 7 God, in response to Cain's halfhearted offering,
corrected his thinking with these words:
"Why are you so angry?" the LORD asked
him. "Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you
respond in the right way. But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch
out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it."
At the crossroads of Cain's life God gently reasoned
with him. In essence he said, "If you live life based on my terms
you will find happiness. You'll be able to lift your head up high and others
will see a smile on your face and in your eyes. You will discover that
happiness pursues you. If not, misery will haunt your life and chasing
happiness will be like chasing a roadrunner. You will never catch it! It's
your choice."
That same choice was presented to the nation of
Israel in Leviticus 26. In essence, in the midst of forty-six (46) verses,
God said, "Here's the deal! You can obey my commands and let happiness
pursue you, or you can reject them and find your life haunted by misery in what
will be a disappointing pursuit of happiness. It's your choice." Speaking
to the nation, in vv. 1 - 17, we read:
"Do not make idols or set up carved images,
sacred pillars, or shaped stones to be worshiped in your land. I, the LORD, am
your God. 2 You must keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence for
my sanctuary. I am the LORD.
"If you keep my laws and are careful to obey
my commands, 4 I will send the seasonal rains. The land will then yield
its crops, and the trees will produce their fruit. 5 Your threshing season
will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will extend until
it is time to plant grain again. You will eat your fill and live securely in
your land.
"I will give you peace in the land, and you
will be able to sleep without fear. I will remove the wild animals from your
land and protect you from your enemies. 7 In fact, you will chase down
all your enemies and slaughter them with your swords. 8 Five of you will
chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies
will fall beneath the blows of your weapons.
"I will look favorably upon you and multiply
your people and fulfill my covenant with you. 10 You will have such a surplus
of crops that you will need to get rid of the leftovers from the previous year
to make room for each new harvest. 11 I will live among you, and I will
not despise you. 12 I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you
will be my people. 13 I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you from the
land of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I have lifted the yoke of slavery
from your neck so you can walk free with your heads held high.
"However, if you do not listen to me or obey
my commands, 15 and if you break my covenant by rejecting my laws and treating
my regulations with contempt, 16 I will punish you. You will suffer from
sudden terrors, with wasting diseases, and with burning fevers, causing your
eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because
your enemies will eat them. 17 I will turn against you, and you will be
defeated by all your enemies. They will rule over you, and you will run even
when no one is chasing you!
Obviously, the theme in the first part of the
chapter is the blessings of God. A blessing is some gift, some enrichment
of life, or some enablement for prosperity that comes from God. In our
daily walk it most often represents a physical benefit such as prosperity, children,
and the blessing of healthy relationships. But the blessing could also
be spiritual such as an inner peace and communion with God.
The passage, however, undoubtedly raised two questions
in the minds of the Israelites. The first, which the passage actually
responded to, dealt with God's ability to keep his promises. It's one thing
to make a promise, it's quite another thing to fulfill it. Hence, lurking
in the background was this question - Does God have the ability to fulfill his
promises?
In what one writer has called Buffett's Bucks,
Mr. Warren Buffet promised to contribute $1.5 billion/year to the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation. Would it make any difference to the world if I
said I was going to contribute $1.5 billion/year to the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation? Sure, the latter would simply prompt the world to chuckle
and it would become known as Merrill's Lie. But no one laughed at
Mr. Buffett's offer because they figured he had the financial muscle to keep
his promise.
In a similar manner no one started laughing when
this deal was presented to the nation. And in case someone forgot who was
making the promises v. 13 reads as follows:
I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt so you
would no longer be slaves. I have lifted the yoke of slavery from your neck so
you can walk free with your heads held high.
In essence God said, "I'm the one who went
10-rounds with the gods of Egypt until they cried 'uncle.' I'm quite capable
of mustering all of nature, as well as all the nations, to fulfull my promises."
The second question on everyone's mind at the
time wasn't answered directly. This question had to do not with God's power,
but with his mercy. If happiness was to pursue the Israelites, how many
people had to live obediently? I mean they must have looked around and
noticed that what's-his-name was in their camp and this guy, along with quite
a few others, had little or no regard for spiritual matters. Furthermore,
everyone transgresses the law from time to time. So how much obedience
is expected of us?
Well, first of all God had already provided for
day-in and day-out repentance through the reparation (guilt) offering and the
purification offering. He provided for those who wanted to live a life
pleasing to God and yet lost his or her share of battles in their struggle with
the flesh, the world, and Satan. Furthermore, the Burnt Offering covered
those sins that had not yet surfaced in the life of an individual.
In regards to this question of degree we need
to note two things. First, in Genesis 18, we have a picture of God's attitude
toward corporate sin in relation to Sodom and Gomorrah . In his mercy he
was willing to spare the cities for the sake of ten righteous men.1
Second we need to go back and read vv. 14 - 16a. In
the NIV they read:
"But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, 15
and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands
and so violate my covenant, 16 then I will do this to you . . ."
The sins judged in this passage were serious violations
of the law. The nation would be disciplined not for minor offenses, nor
for major offenses that had been dealt with through the sacrificial system. They
would be disciplined because the nation in general "rejected" and "abhorred" God's
law. The words "reject" and "abhor" refer to a nation
that has not only turned its back on God but has done so in such a way as to
show contempt for his laws. It's a nation that has read the book of Leviticus,
slammed it closed, and has then spat on it.
If Israel chose to live outside the law they would
experience God's hand of discipline. Discipline, as used biblically, means
a narrowing of the path prompting people to make the right choices. While
it may involve punishment, it is not to be equated with punishment. In
this case, should Israel choose to live outside the law they would soon learn
that life outside of God's law was no fun at all.
A careful reading of the latter part of Leviticus
26 will reveal five stages of discipline. Since God desires to administer
the least amount of discipline needed so as to teach them to make wise decisions
each successive stage is worse than the previous one. They are:
-
prolonged illness and fever (vv. 16 - 17)
-
drought followed by a poor harvest (vv. 18 - 20)
-
Plagues, blows (vv. 21 - 22)
-
War (vv. 23 - 26)
-
Captivity (vv. 27 - 39)
You'll note the "But if" in v. 40 tells
us that God always holds out the hope of restoration. All Israel had to
do was confess their iniquity and turn back toward God. And God will act
on the basis of what is always remembered - the covenant!
1 Of course,
we don't know the total population of the twin cities but the number ten
suggest that as long as a remnant had a righteous influence judgment would
not fall.LEVITICUS - GOD'S GUIDEBOOK TO WORSHIP 7/02/06 1
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