I grew up with the idea that keeping God's law was about obedience, about discipline, about not sinning. But Moses says something different here: keep these commands so that you may live. So that you may long endure. So that it may go well with you.
The law isn't punishment or restriction. It's a path to flourishing. It's how you get to live well.
I think about the commands against adultery, against theft, against coveting. From one angle, they're restrictions. You can't have what you want. From another angle, they're protection. They protect marriage, they protect community trust, they protect you from the corrosive effect of constant wanting.
When I finally understood this, my relationship to the law changed. I still struggle with it. I still want to break it. But I see it differently. God isn't trying to make my life small. He's trying to make it full. Every command is basically saying: you'll flourish if you do this. You'll suffer if you don't.
I'm forty-six years old and I can see the trail of damage from not believing that. The relationships I destroyed, the trust I squandered, the way I suffered trying to work against the grain of the law. I wish I'd believed Moses earlier. The law is for life.
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