What Does God Want?

Dare we ask that question?  Let's put it another way. Dare we say we are a little more than anxious to know how to please Him? We have a never ending list of answers available to us. Only an insatiable person would continue to crave knowing more about what God wants even though they  are stuffed full already.  But that's me and this is where my hunger has led me.

God was Abraham’s friend. He changed Abraham, talked to Abraham, directed Abraham and blessed Abraham. His relationship with Abraham was the first intimate interaction God initiated after Eden’s lock down. He made a great Promise to Abraham-that through him all the people on the face of the earth would be blessed. What did Abraham do to warrant such generosity?

 Genesis 26:25 tells us God honored His promises to Abraham’s son, “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

All of the woe of religion is based in the misunderstanding of what God wants. This misunderstanding leads us to believe that God desires our obedience when what He desires is our attentiveness when He speaks.  This misunderstanding leads us to believe He wants us to know His law when what He desires is for us to know His Heart.

Abraham paid attention to “The Voice”. No, not the popular TV show, “The Voice”. The spoken out loud Voice of God. The same Voice that called out for Adam in The Garden. God’s Voice is what Abraham obeyed.

Abraham heard God, and God goes on to say Abraham kept His charge. That sounds noble doesn’t it?  It is, very noble indeed for God is King of the universe.  A knight is noble because of his King. His only honor lies in being honored by his King. When The King speaks, everyone hears, but not everyone listens. Abraham listened and remembered.

“Keep” has been translated obey in The Bible as many times as “hear” has been translated obey.  In this verse and throughout The Word of God, Obeying is “true hearing” and keeping is valuing what you have “heard”.

So Abraham heard what God said and he treasured what God said. What did Abraham hear and remember? God’s Royal Charge: commandments, statutes and laws. Do you imagine yourself walking through a scary spiritual Oz forest chanting, “Commandments, Statutes and Laws-oh my!” Relax, this is Good News remember?

Did you know that the “The Law” did not make its appearance on Mount Sinai? The Hebrew word “law” did not originate in Exodus.  The Hebrew word Torah, or Law, was first used in Genesis 26:25 describing the reason God blessed Isaac.

However, the commandments, statutes and laws of God, aren’t cold and inanimate chiseling on stone. They are the living breathing, intangible stuff of Divine relationship. They are God Himself, shared one on one with us.

No, our relationship with God is not a peer relationship. He is our Creator. We are His creation. He is our good and merciful King, Master, and Commander. However, He made us to love us, and we are His royal, estranged Beloved.

The entire Word of God is a written record of man’s revelation, by The Spirit, of God’s quest to win back His Beloved. He is a King on a Mission!

The word commandment is rooted in an action word meaning to ordain, or appoint. Think of an ordination ceremony. A person is appointed for a purpose or a responsibility by someone in a position of authority to so.  It is a positive word. When you are the person charged and ordained with a title or a responsibility, you are trusted and entrusted by someone to act with their authority and given the power to accomplish what they have commanded. 

What such a person is commanded and ordained to be and do is called the “commandment” of The King. We are to be God’s beloved by Royal decree, and are a representation of His Power and Authority. That is our ordination and God’s commandment!

The word statute is a boundary. A boundary is a safe place. A boundary creates a perimeter necessary for peace. Conflict is a result of crossed or misunderstood boundaries. God not only commands that we are Royalty and gives us His authority to act as such; He provides a boundary to keep us safe.  We are safe within the boundary, or the statute, that accompanies God’s ordination. Our Master does not just give us a position and responsibility; He shares with us what our responsibility is not and where our authority ends.

Law is an instruction. An instruction has the purpose of providing education or sharing information.  When we assemble our child’s bike on Christmas Eve, we can get in a mess if we do not read the instructions.  The instructions are the laws of putting the bicycle together. Oh, how this word for instruction has been misunderstood. 

God is The Great Teacher. The root of the Biblical word law is to reach out, to point. Far from instruction scratched on papyrus or burned in stone, God’s law is His one on one instruction; heart to heart discussions. Our Master does not just give us a position, responsibility, and safe perimeters, but He gives us gentle “hands on” how-to demonstrations. Picture imagine Bobby Jones standing on the course giving you pointers before a golf championship. First he tells you what to do to make the championship shot (a commandment). Then He tells you what not to do to make the championship shot (a statute).  Then he stands behind you, aligns your body with his, puts his hands over yours on the club and takes the shot with you.

How can the word law describe such loving training? God’s intentional instruction is so personal and satisfying; it can only be experienced through an encounter with God Himself. That is what Abraham and others in The Bible had that elicited such devotion. To describe God’s law any other way is to be tricked into thinking the word ‘peaches’ on our grocery list is sweet, juicy and delicious!

His arms are wrapped around us, His voice in our ear, and His hands over ours in life. He invites us to relax, shows us the Way, and as He aligns us with Him and moves and directs our motions, we become who we truly are and fulfill the responsibility He has given us.

What is the Good News?  What is Gospel about Genesis 26:25?

That Abraham, not Sinai was God’s first step in redemption. The Ten Commandments came centuries later, after man’s hearing was so dulled God needed to carve words in stone to be heard. God’s first choice has always been relationship. God spoke His magnificence to Abraham, a magnificence so seemingly impossible it was difficult to believe. Yet, Abraham believed it because he had encountered his King. That simple trust enabled God to do all the rest.

God has made us Royalty. He has always desired to see us reign. He has longed to be our Benefactor, our Teacher, and our Friend.  It was His first choice and it is His Only Choice.

The New Covenant was given because it was better than the old. In the New Covenant God has placed His Voice back inside us. The Holy Spirit speaks God’s ordination to our spirit, explains God’s boundaries to our minds and teaches our souls how to be God’s ordained beloved.

You see commandments, statutes and laws have never been a what.  They have always been a Who. And He wants us to love Him as He loves us.

Because of the power wielded, Kings can be scary and we fear them because we understand a failure in a Royal duty can have dire results. In the days of Royalty, when the royal Prince or Princess made an error, someone else was appointed to take the consequences. We have been ordained to be one with God, to love and be loved by Him before the foundation of the world, and He longs for us to believe that Jesus Christ has endured every possible consequence of human error, making it possible to run into the arms of Our Creator without fear.

As He did with Adam, Eve, Abraham and all His created ones, God wants us to believe His intention is to bless us. He wants us to listen as He speaks His hearts desires into us. He wants to guide us into overflowing life. He wants us to trust Him with accomplishing everything necessary for us to flourish as Royalty. He longs for us to know His love.

The Spirit of God wraps Himself around us, whispers our Royal destiny into our ear, and gently explains the boundaries that will keep us safe and at peace in this dangerous world. The Holy Spirit invites us to relax in His loving arms, allowing Him move us, and watch in delighted amazement as we soar with Him into The Kingdom of God.

As for the consequences of Royal failure-because of Jesus, God says to any who dares to ask, “Paid in full.”

Don’t be misled by Shakespearian English! The things you’ve read here may seem far removed from “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”, and they are; as far removed as the word ‘peaches’ on our shopping list is from its juicy, sweet, delicious presence in our mouths!