Rules for the Road
Rules for the Road
March 25, 2024
People interpret Bible scriptures often from the wrong viewpoint, stopping at the wrong Overlook Parking to reconnoiter, to discover where they actually are in relation to destinations. Unfortunately, the view is hemmed in by fog. You see, sin is not just disobeying a set of archaic rules. Those rules have been given to be sound advice to protect us as to how we can live successfully in the world God created. It is not unlike the restrictions of loving parents whose rules adolescents often rebel against… Teenagers rebel, because they have no foresight, experience, or insight… Why we adults rebel is profoundly confusing.
The Ten Commandments, for example, teach people how to live together in a civilized society. They are Rules for the Road on the Highway of Life. They were given to prevent accidents in our travels so we get to our Family Reunions safely, avoiding injury and even death.
The causes of rebelliousness seems to lie somewhere in between the principles of intent and egotistical pride. Willful disobedience is the worst and often has the most tragic consequences… It’s like the adolescent attitudes of many drivers on the roads today: “It’s my road, and you’re on it. So, get out of my way!” This is parallel to the roadblock which forces us to detour, “It’s my life and I’ll live it how I want to! So, don’t try to control me.”
This makes for a long way around and often gets us more lost than ever.
The underlying justification and workability of the Biblical rules are anchored in the choices between living with a consciousness of the living God or the perceived freedom in the rejection of any such transcendent authority… as in theism versus atheism… The first has a readable map while the second is a box of watercolors and a ream of plain paper.
The latter individuals are left without any kind of reliable Roadmap. On cloudy days, storms might even make it impossible to determine North from South and East from West.
On the other hand, the Atlas of Bible stories clearly shows the difference in the paths taken by the lives of real people who live out their real lives in either the one way or the other, in listening to obedience or closing their eyes to the Bible’s practicality in obedience, and so our road trips end in destinations with good consequences or bad. We can arrive safely or find ourselves lost, in a ditch, or something worse.
I used to never look at that Bible map, never really knew it existed, and so, aimlessly wandering about, I found no rest, choosing no particular destination, and so on… Already feeling lost, I even left my car and wandered about on foot, leaving my fate to somehow get me to someplace, somewhere, somehow, in time for whatever…
It isn’t that complicated, but there have been times where I have gotten even more lost, or in a ditch, or some places worse. At first, yes, I never knew there was a map, but later, after finding the map, sometimes I simply forgot to use it. Maybe I thought I had it memorized…
People who take the long view fill up their gas tanks and are well supplied with all the food and other necessities for long trips. People who hurriedly prepare usually leave something out and suffer later for the omission.
Finally, there are many jokes about men who refuse to ask for help and get more and more lost… women are often the same way… Stubbornly embracing false pride results in a lot of wrong turns, reversals, wasted time, costly gas, and peace of mind.
Proverbs 12:15 — “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.”
