To Represent God’s Truth – The Kingdom Curriculum IX (3)

To Represent God’s Truth

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.” Deuteronomy 16:18

The Standard of Judgment

Parents, in leading their families and raising their children, must seek out the wisdom of God in His Word. They will only know what love requires of them as they pore over the pages of Scripture, reading, meditating, and studying the Word of God in order to gain insights into such parental matters as training children for righteousness, helping them to learn respect for others, encouraging growth in soul and body, gaining a vision for the Kingdom of God, and living according to the holy, righteous, and good standards of God’s Law. Children are not expected to obey their parents simply because they are parents; rather, parents understand that they must represent the truth of God to their children, who honor Him by showing proper respect for their moms and dads.

The same was meant to be true in the civic arena of ancient Israel. The officers and judges set up to govern the local communities of Israel were not to consider themselves representatives of the people. Yes, the people put them in office; however, they did not serve the interests of the people, at least, not in the first instance. Their concern was to be with the maintenance of righteousness in the community. They were, thus, representatives of God for the people, that the righteous rule of God, according to His Law, might be established and maintained, so that it would go well with all the people.

This put a tremendous onus of responsibility on those judges and officers. They had to be students of God’s Law, familiar with its every jot and tittle, so that they could interpret it rightly into the various situations they could expect to encounter year in and year out. The Law of God as Moses received it was not complete in itself in that it did not pretend to speak to every matter that might come before the judges. Rather, it provided a firm foundation and solid ground for ruling the people of God, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, so that His righteousness and blessings could prevail. American law was founded on the basis of Biblical Law, as many scholars have demonstrated. It may be too much to expect our lawmakers to spend as much time in the Law of God as you or I; however, we can certainly demand that they steep themselves in the precepts and precedents of the American legal tradition (at the same time, of course, prudentially instructing them further in the precepts of God by our example and our words). And we must insist that our public officials stand for the law of the land and that they resist the temptation to give people what they want simply to keep their place of office.

Daily meditation in God’s Law is the mark of a righteous person (Ps. 1). Order your copy of The Law of God today, and begin to discover the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s Law for yourself. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.