Priorities

Take a deep breath. Now let it out. Take another. Pause. Let your displeasure at being told what you can’t do slip away. Okay, now let’s think about what God is saying.

Do you have cultural push-backs over being ‘forced’ to do what some authority says? Can you pause long enough to think about which of these verses offends you the most? Our societies tend to be about liberty and freedom to do what we want without restraint but which of these isn’t positive? While we tend to emphasize the negative words in these precepts, they really aren’t that negative. These are precepts for Life in agreement with what is best for us in relationship with God and our fellow beings.

How many gods do we think we can be in agree with?
How divided can we live?
Do we want an intimate relationship with a god we talk down about, that we misspeak rather than represent?
Do we want to diminish God’s distinctiveness by saying we don’t want the time of rest that He took for Himself?
How about denying the social order that He implemented from the beginning—do we have a higher way?
Will we be satisfied with what He provides or do we desire to claim all the gusto for ourselves on our terms?

In the following chapters of Exodus and through the rest of the Bible we see precept after precept for enriching our lives in relationship with God, being in harmony with Him and those around us.

Do we really want to deny His wisdom and replace it with ours? Likely not. What really is most important for fulfilling Life?