Monday, January 31, 2011

Making Choices

There are parts of the Bible that are very hard to understand. We can read through certain passages in the Old and New Testaments and really struggle to make sense out of what we read. Some passages present us with a paradox, a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true.

In my previous Blog entries, I wrote about the richness of the Hebrew word shalom – how it encompasses interpersonal relationships, the health and well-being of people and animals, personal security, the welfare of society, and other aspects.

But the Bible also contains passages that bring a different perspective to the meaning of shalom, a perspective that we might be tempted to ignore. Here’s an example. In Leviticus 26, there is the conclusion to what scholars describe as the “Holiness Code” that covers chapters 17 through 26. The whole book of Leviticus, which most of us rarely read, records laws that the Lord gave to the Israelites to help them form a nation out of twelve nomadic tribes. Detailed regulations are given concerning religious worship and sacrifice, economic life, the administration of justice, political rule, and family structure.

Chapter 26 offers insights into why God so strongly and clearly states that if the people obeyed these commands, they would experience His blessings and His shalom. Specifically God promises to put “His dwelling place” among them – which basically means that God would be with them -- and He assures them that they would experience His shalom both spiritually and materially, including physical security, an abundant harvest, and the presence of God in their community. Their faithfulness would result in all of these blessings from God.

But God also makes it clear that disobedience would result in disaster – the cursed D’s: disease, destruction, desolation and death. So here’s the problem: There is a tension between our understanding that peace is a gift of God, not the result of human activity, but at the same time the promise that if we follow God’s commandments, we will create more peaceful conditions. If we don’t, our disobedience will result in the lack of shalom – the cursed D’s.

To put this another way, God is the primary source of shalom, yet men and women are given responsibility for the existence of shalom in their society or its absence. That’s a tough tension, not easy to resolve.

As I have reflected on this, it strikes me that this issue of the consequences of our actions, the consequences of the choices we make, deserves our attention. God has created us as free moral agents. Our freedom to make choices is an essential part of our humanity. This is in part what it means when the Bible says we were made in the image of God.

We have the freedom to make choices and that includes saying “No” to certain behaviors and actions. If we are really free – and we want to live a life according to Jesus’ commandments – then we are free to choose to avoid behavior that undermines God’s desire for shalom in our world.

So What?
  • We are not helpless victims. Victimization is a common attitude in our time and, even though we are sometimes are hurt by the actions of others, we can choose not to respond in kind.
  • Dealing with paradoxes in the Bible is not unlike dealing with them in our daily lives. Paradoxes are created when two opposing forces or ideas seem to be incompatible. But living with pressure or tension is not necessarily bad – it can also keep us sharp and alert. Can you think of some illustrations of this in your life?
  • Jesus, the Prince of Peace, commands his followers to keep His commandments. Jesus does not want our vague expressions of love and He never asks us to feel certain ways about Him. He asks for a love expressed in our lives by the choices we make, by acts of our will. This is how we demonstrate our love for Jesus.
  • There is another difficult question that is related to this discussion: Why do bad things happen to good people who are following Jesus’ commandments? I will reflect on this in subsequent entries.