“A Special Kind of Revelation”

Many years ago, I would drive my elderly father around town so that he could pay some bills.  It was his monthly routine.  Sometimes, if he did not feel well enough to get out of the car and do it himself, I would take his money into the place of business and pay his bill for him.  One day when I had done that and returned to the car, I could tell by his demeanor something had happened to him, and he was excited to tell me about it.

“The Lord just spoke to me,” he said.  “He told me, ‘I never tell you to do something that I wouldn’t do.’”  I had never had such a thought before, and neither had my father.  I don’t remember much about the conversation we had after that, except that he said something to this effect: “If God commanded us to do something He would be unwilling to do, that would make Him a hypocrite.”  My father was no doubt thinking of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who put heavy theological burdens on people’s backs, and wouldn't extend so much as a finger to help them (Mt. 23:4; Lk. 11:46).

Whenever God gives a commandment, He is revealing something about Himself.  He is saying, “This is the way I am, and it is the way I want you to be.”  For one example, God is never mischievously cruel, and so He commanded Israel never to be mischievously cruel: “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. You shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling-block before the blind, but shall fear your God.  I am the Lord (Lev. 19:2, 14).

Every commandment that has ever come from heaven is a special kind of revelation of the nature of the God who created us. Then, let us rejoice for being given His commandments, and let us show our gratitude for them by walking in the light they give!