The Law of the Jungle

Series: Into the Wild
August 10, 2008

People almost universally have this assumption that God is angry with humanity, and that the only way to get him not angry with us is to do certain things, behave in certain ways, believe certain things. And if we mess any of them up, it’s back to square one. It’s like we are constantly being examined by God, and constantly being found lacking.

Across the board in North America, 77% of all people surveyed believe in an authoritarian God who is angry with humanity, critical of who we are and what we’ve done. Many of these folks believe that God is going to enact a divine judgment on the world, and on humanity. A small portion sees God more coldly sitting off in the distance, quietly removed from all that happens on earth. But what amazes me about this, is that it leaves only 23% of people who believe God to be a loving and kind being.

Now what further amazes me is that people 30 years old and younger are the least like to hold this view. Less that 10% of people under 30 see God as a loving being. Less than 1 in 10 people under 30 believe that God is a caring, compassionate, loving being engaged with the lives of us humans.

Where did this idea come from? How have we forgotten the most basic point of the bible and the teaching of Jesus- God is love? If you were to ask the proverbial question, why should a holy God let you into his heaven, most folks, are going to start in with something about living a good life. If you ask them to define what a good life is all about, they will probably start to say some things that sound like the Ten Commandments. They might even say they try to obey the Ten Commandments.

Folks, you want to know the real law of the jungle, the real point of God’s law. It’s not- if you do this, then I’m going to love you and be your God. The whole point of the law was God saying I love you, I am your God, and I want you to be able to love as I have loved you. Or to put it another way, the whole point of the law, the reason he gave it to us, is not so that we can earn his love, but to confirm his love. He doesn’t give is the law to earn his love, but to confirm his love. The law isn’t a step by step process of earning God’s love- it is confirmation of his love for us. And as confirmation of his love for us, it invites into relationship with Him, to receive and give the love he offers.

You see, God knows this- earning people’s love isn’t a system that really works well. God was smart enough to understand, long before we ever figured it out, that the best way to build a relationship is not to require someone to earn your love, but simply to give your love to them. God just knew that. He knew the best way to have us love him, was to give us his love. He knew the best way to build a relationship was to start with love.

We don’t get this yet. We keep working the system backwards- if you do certain things for me, I might love you back. The whole conditional love program. Try that with your wife here this morning, tell her, I’m going to give you a list of rules, how about 10 in all. Come up with your own- if you do my laundry and cook my meals. Give up all your hobbies and take up mine. No more sweat pants, only mini skirts and heels…And if you follow these rules perfectly, I will then love you in return. I think that’s a really good system and how we should all approach our relationships. We’ll just all put out our list of ten rules, and then whenever anybody wants to loves us or be loved by us, it will be very simple- all they have to do is follow our list of rules, and we’ll love them!

It doesn’t work that way does it. Rules never proceed a relationship. Rules can only have meaning, can only have value, and can only work, when a relationship is already firmly in place. We hate rules without relationship. We rebel from rules without relationship. The United States was born because of rules without relationship- they called it taxation with representation. We don’t want to follow someone’s list of rules to get them to love us. We don’t want to live under this fear that if we mess up, they are going to withdraw their love. Why would we even want to give such a person our love? And why would we ever want to give such a God our love? You see, that's why it’s so important to get this. God knows that we don’t want to follow a list of rules to receive his love. But God knows that if he first loves us, we just might be open to some rules that will help us love him back. If he establishes his relationship with us, then his rules for us will suddenly, and profoundly, make sense!

And you know, you can tell a lot about a person, or by implication, God, by the rules they make. You can tell a lot about me by the rules we have in our house. And we have some rules. You can learn a lot about me by the rules of my home- rule number one after this week- Thou shalt never bring salmon into my home. No Atlantic salmon, no pacific salmon, no farm raised salmon, no cedar plank salmon. No salmon, not at all, if we invite you to dinner and you bring salmon to share you will eat in the garage.

You can tell a lot about God by the rules he has laid down, which will be come very important for us as you might imagine, but you can also tell a lot about a person, or God, by whom they give the rules to. You see, we don’t just give rules to anybody and everybody. So we are going to learn a lot about God by the rules he makes, and to whom he gives the rules. Now we can learn a lot about God by the rules he has laid down.

So what is the first rule that God lays down? What is the first law of the jungle? Moses and the people of Israel travel three months from the parting of the Red Sea and come to the foot of mount Sinai. Moses goes up the mountain. God came upon the mountain in fire and smoke, and the mountain shook violently. And God spoke these words: I am the Lord your God…

Hold on right there. The Lord your God? Yes, your God. Well, that’s kind of personal isn’t it God? That kind of implies a relationship doesn’t it God. It sure does. I am the Lord your God, this is the beginning of the first command, the assurance that our God is not a God, not just the God, he is your God, God who has entered into relationship with you, and without this relationship established, nothing else he is about to say or unfold will make any sense or hold any meaning. If he is not your God what unfolds is just rules without relationship which always leads to rebellion. But if he is the Lord YOUR God this world will blow you away.

So what does he then say to Moses, I am the lord YOUR God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Hold on now- that doesn’t sound much like a rule. No it doesn’t. It sound like a relationship. It sounds like a history lesson. You see, just to make the whole, "your God" thing a little stronger, he gives them their first history lesson. Never forget, my people, I brought you out of slavery. It really makes me want to ask, do you really think the folks are going to forget? They spent 400 years in captivity. They just saw you turn the Nile into blood. They saw the plagues- they saw frogs and flies and gnats and locust. They saw hail and darkness and death in the fields. They were there when God brought them out of Egypt. They were there when pharaoh came after them with his army. The saw the wind drive back the Red Sea. They passed through the sea on dry land and saw the are my vanquished. They saw God provide them water and manna and quail for food. They saw the giant pillar of cloud and fire guiding them through the desert. It wasn’t like God was visibly absent yet or that it was very confusing where they should go- Moses where we heading today? I think well just keep following that giant pillar of fire and cloud that stretches from the heavens to the earth and is taking us in the general direction of Mount Sinai- good call Moses.

It seems almost crazy that God should even have to say this, but he must for he must first establish the relationship before he can give the rules, and he must remind us of how the relationship came this far- I saved you! Before anything else, before you did anything for me, before I asked anything of you, always remember, never forget, I saved you.

It’s so easy to forget. It’s like one of the most fundamental human problems- we keep forgetting to most basic, the most simple, the most important stuff. I’d ask you how many important things you’ve forgotten in your life, but you don’t know, because you’ve forgotten! We experience something, or learn something, and we say, I could never forget this, I’ll always have this memory- but we don’t! And God knew, he know that the most fundamental rule he had to establish, if you can even call it a rule, would be to remind them- I am the Lord Your God, and you are to be my people, for I am the God who saved you.

And if we could understand this, and remember this, then every rule would make perfect sense to us. God doesn’t give us rules to earn his love, his gives us rules to confirm his love. The law doesn’t earn us God’s love, it just confirms his love. And if we could remember this, the rules that are about to follow are really secondary. If we would enter into the relationship with God, and if we embraced his as our savior, then any rule he would give would be like icing on the cake. We’d be like, God, thank you, thank you for helping me to go deeper into this relationship with you. Than you for showing me a way to please you. Thank your for giving me life and showing me how to live!

You know, didn’t really understand that the rules aren’t set up to earn God’s love, by that they simple confirm God love until I had children.

In our first home in NC we had a great big back yard that backed up to a wooded hill and was fenced in. When we moved in Eden was just over 2 years old. The day we moved in we took Eden around the whole back yard- we showed her the playhouse, the trampoline to former owners left behind, we showed her where we were going to plant a garden. And we showed her the fence. We said now sweety, this fence here is for your own good. You have almost complete freedom within this fence. Run play, go wild, but sweety pie, do not go outside the fence.

We went to the kitchen and watched her from the bay window. She walked around a bit, she went to her toys. She grabbed the handle of her wagon. And she took it to the fence, and she proceeded to start trying to climb over.

Anyone here not believe in the doctrine of original sin- have kids. I've never had to teach my kids how to fight with each other, or lie to their mother and I, or to be selfish, or hurtful, or so many things that seem to come very naturally to them. And yet I’m constantly trying to remind them to love God, and honor Robin and I, and be kind to each other…

Now let me offer you a series of hypothetical questions. What did Robin and I have first, the fence, or Eden? We had Eden first, then the fence. What did God do first? Did he establish a relationship, or did he build a fence? First he established the relationship, the relationship always proceeds the rules, always proceeds the fence.

Now why did we have the fence in the first place? Because we didn’t like our child, because we wanted her to be miserable, because we thought it would be great to treat her like a caged animal? We established the fence because Eden belonged to us and we had this relationship with her and we loved her deeply. Why do you think that God would build us a fence? Because he’s angry and mad and malicious and wants us miserable and wants us to pay and hates that he had to save us and hates that he had to build this stupid fence in the first place…

Now the real kicker. What would have happened if Eden would have gotten over the fence? It’s obvious right- she wouldn’t be our kid anymore. Robin, you know how we had that girl named Eden? Yeah, well, not anymore. What do you mean honey? Well I just saw her leave the fence. And you know what, she left the fence, she not our kid anymore. Well that makes sense to me honey. What a shame, I did like that girl.

If Eden got outside the fence, and once she did, does that mean she’s no longer my kid- not in my fence, not my kid. That’s crazy! If my neighbor called up, hey George, your kid's in my yard, come get her. Well if she’s not in my yard she must not be my kid. And if she’s in your yard, she must be you kid! You keep her.

It doesn’t work that way. The fence doesn’t make my kids my kids. The relationship is already there! In fact, I only have the fence because my kids already belong to me and because they belong to me and because I love them with all my heart mind soul and strength, I am simply going to do what is best for them. And if they go outside of the fence then don’t stop being my kids, and if they go into your yard, they are not your kids, and if your kids come into my yard, they are not suddenly my kids, although I constantly seem to have my neighbors kids in my yard and in my house.

God’s rules are not set up so we can earn God’s love, they confirm that God already loves us. That God is in a relationship with us. That we are his, and he is our God. He is the God that made us, he is the God that saved us. God’s rules are set up not to establish a relationship, the are set up to live out the relationship. God’s love doesn’t cease when we break the rules, and, and this is what might be the hardest thing for some of you to believe, God doesn’t love us more when we get the rules right. God doesn’t love us any more because he can’t love us anymore than he already has.

Jesus said I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. Does that mean he came to live the law perfectly so he could show off and make us feel bad because he got it right, and we mess it up? No, when Jesus said he fulfilled the law, it means he perfectly fulfilled the whole point of the law- he loved us completely. He confirmed God’s love for us once again. Do you get that? IF the point of the law is to confirm God’s relationship with us and love for us, Jesus fulfilling the law fulfills and confirms God’s love for us.

And if Jesus fulfilled the law perfectly, what the best way for us to live out the law- to live in the one who fulfilled it. To quite trying to earn God’s love, and simply let God confirm his love for us in Jesus.

Take that first command, that law, and make it your pledge your prayer. As Jesus says, I am the lord your God, say Jesus, you are the lord my God. The God who brought you out of slavery. Jesus bring me out of my slavery to sin, my slavery to myself. My slavery to doing things my way… You shall have no other Gods before me. Jesus, I put nothing before you. You are my God.