This post is part of my ongoing series of writing down my thoughts on the Bible passages I read each day. Some days I hope to have great insight that the Lord gives me, and many days, I will likely struggle through the text and not know what to write down based on what I read. My hope and prayer is that as I make this a habit, just as I did daily writing for so long, that I will improve on my ability to read and understand the passages I’m reading. Please keep in mind that many of these posts may be published late at night or with little time studying and simply be my first thoughts after reading. This is in no way a commentary that one should use to discern the Bible, but my own personal thoughts.
As I read these chapters, something clicked for me today that I think has been building in my mind for awhile.
It started on Wednesday as I was driving back from a wedding with two of my friends and we were talking about C.S. Lewis’ book “The Great Divorce.” I had never read it, but we were talking about Heaven in general and my friend brought the book up. I have never read it before, but as he explained it, the idea was that C.S. Lewis’ portrayal of Hell in the book was not the normal fire and brimstone look that we may see more often (and is Biblically supported) but was instead the idea that it was just regular people who were allowed to do what they wanted, and because of this, the communities were driven further and further apart because of their own selfishness and growing hatred for others. They started in a community, but as they stayed longer, they couldn’t stand to be around the other people so they moved further and further away.
Although this book by C.S. Lewis is fictional, it did make me think a bit more as I’m reading through these old testament books that have rules and statues from the Lord. What I was realizing, as I read through these chapters that talk about blessings for following God and curses if they don’t follow God, was that this was the natural path for both of these people.
When people follow God and his commands, the life of everyone around them is better because they are living according to the way their creator deems them to live the best. Why would this not be the best way to live? However, when they don’t obey God, those same rules and commands that protected them before are now gone and the world around them falls into chaos and ruin.
There is a direct correlation between people going against God’s will and the punishment that follows. In these passages, God obviously says that he will curse the people and bring all sorts of terrible things upon them if they don’t follow His commands, but what if that’s less of an action and more of a natural progression of events due to the nature of not following what God desires. When you do what God says, he leads you to a fulfilled life of blessing (this with the caveat that what you think a blessed and fulfilled life is not always what it actually is). When you don’t do what God says, it’s like walking on the edge of a cliff with no light. You don’t know how to live and so you do many stupid things with no guidance and end up falling into pitfalls all around you.
It seems the evil in the world is less about God cursing people and actively making it happen, but more a representation of the heart of man in the world.
And what else do we have to combat that but the truth of God’s word and the good news of the gospel? Yet another reason to share this good news. Not to make someone’s life miserable and restricted, but to free them from the bondage of what this world calls “freedom.”