The Vantage Point of Time

When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, He included this one: “Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12 NLT).

God tells children to honor their parents, even when they say those four words that no child likes to hear: “Because I said so.” This statement is usually followed up with something along these lines: “You’ll understand one day.”

Sometimes God says the same to us. We might say, “Lord, I don’t really get all these things You say in Your Word, and I don’t like all those commandments You’ve written down. Why are they even there? Why do I have to follow them?”

And God replies, “Because I said so.”

One day we’ll get it. One day we’ll understand. And we don’t even have to wait until we’re in Heaven. After we’ve lived a few years, we see how human lives unfold. We see what happens when people obey God’s Word, and we see what happens when they disobey it.

As the children of Israel prepared to enter the Promised Land, Moses stood before them and made this statement: “Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster. For I command you this day to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways” (Deuteronomy 30:15–16 NLT).

Then he added, “If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy” (verse 16 NLT).

God was saying to them, “Follow My commands and your life will be blessed.” If we will read God’s Word and do what it says, then we will ultimately discover how much better life goes.

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