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Dripping Springs Weekly Bulletins
Making Up The Rules as We Go Along
Whatever game you play, the rules are the means by which it is made fair for all. All of us have known those who want to make up the rules as the game goes along.
A well-known country singer living in Central Texas owns his own golf course. When he plays golf with his buddies, he makes up his own rules. Even if you don’t play golf you know something is fishy there:
- RULE 1: The owner decides what par is on each hole.
- RULE 2: There shall be no such thing as a “lost ball.” It is somewhere on or near the course. No penalty.
- RULE 3: If a putt passes over the hole without going in, it is deemed to have gone in because the law of gravity supercedes the law of golf.
You see where that set of rules is going—just where the owner wants it to go, right or wrong! Maybe that’s all in fun. Yes, the rules of golf are subject to change by man because man made them in the first place, but if God is truly just—and He is—then His rules cannot be modified “as we go along.”
RULES GOVERNING AUTHORITY
Those rules of golf were “modified” because on his golf course he was the authority. But in man’s life, God possesses the ruling authority. He has declared that His rules cannot be amended by man, and that He is not going to arbitrarily change them Himself.
Our actions will always be responsible to God’s rules, whether we agree with them or not. When we violate them (God calls that sin) we will be held accountable for such violations.
We must be subject to those in positions of government “for the Lord’s sake,” 1 Peter 2:13. Our behavior before our neighbors and family must be in accord with our commitment to God. That is one of God’s “rules.”
RULES GOVERNING MARRIAGE
Marriage, as God ordained it, has taken a few big hits lately. If it is not the problem of divorce, it’s the problem of “gay” marriage. The courts of our land and others have made our secular laws, but God established marriage in the first place, and He is the ruling authority over marriage. That rule is simple:
ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN, FOR LIFE. ONE EXCEPTION: ADULTERY, MATT. 19:9
Man has “changed” that rule to say that, as one man states in his “enrichment” lectures, “Everyone has a right to one good marriage.” If his point is correct, God needs to modify His rule on marriage to allow every person at least one mistake, one divorce, and not be held accountable for it. But reading Jesus’ comments on this subject we find a very different principle:
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery,” Mark 10:11-12
Only God has a right to change this “rule,” and He doesn’t change the rules “as He goes along”.
RULES GOVERNING MORALITY
A wishy-washy, go-with-the-flow morality has always appealed to man. The last thing some want is a rigid standard of morality. We have several “new” moral codes, each with very “fluid” applications. That which was once quite forbidden is now very tolerated—even flaunted.
Today’s philosophies tend to seek ways by which “rules” can be altered, modified or eliminated altogether. Maybe Elvis should have been born in the 80’s instead of the 30’s. His gyrations would be mild compared to what “entertains” us today.
But again, Jesus anticipated these ‘modifications’, giving strict decrees against fornication, lust, immodesty, adultery, homosexuality and dishonesty. He doesn’t change His rules in the middle of the game.
RULES GOVERNING DOCTRINE
Following the thought of today’s ethicists, religious doctrine must also be adaptable. The cry of some of our own brethren is that our “world has changed; the church must be brought into the 21st century; change with the times.” If it works for marriage and morals, surely it must work for authority and doctrine. But, wait—2 Timothy 3:16-17 says:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
No room for “revising” the rules there. If you found such instruction in the rules of a ball game, you would know that the rules were made prior to the game, and that they must be respected. Doctrine, instruction, correction, completely equipped—does that not settle it?
Men’s rules are often made with built-in means of amending them. Our Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times, the last in 1992. And if our nation continues, there may be more. But God’s “rules” are not made to be amended, but to be respected, to be obeyed, and they are profitable:
“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” 1 John 5:3
God’s commandments reveal His love for us and are for our benefit. If we are wise, we will respect God and abide by His rules.
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“He was a son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him,”
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Leah, the Unloved
God has ever used women in His work of glory. It may not have always been in the prominent places of leadership, though there are many instances of that (Miriam, Deborah, Priscilla, Phoebe, etc.). Yet, God has caused quiet blessings to come upon nations and civilizations because of women. One of the more glorious of these is God’s use of Leah, the unloved.
Her sister Rachel was Jacob’s choice, being beautiful and well-favored (Gen. 29:17). Leah was one who had “tender eyes.” Does this mean Leah was ugly? Is all that can be said about her in a good way was that she had “tender eyes”?
No, the tender eyes did not mean ugly. The same word (RAK) described Solomon who was “young and tender (RAK)” when he came to the throne (1 Chron. 29:1). A “soft (RAK) answer” turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), and a “soft (RAK) tongue breaketh the bones” (Proverbs 25:15). Thus, “tender eyes” does not mean ugliness.
Jacob fulfilled the marriage agreement, living in Leah’s tent for one week, though she was “loved less,” or “hated,” in comparison to Jacob’s wild passion for Rachel (Gen. 29:30-31). When God saw Jacob’s reactions to Laban’s deceit in giving Leah first, He looked upon her “affliction” (isn’t God always looking upon us and helping us too?), and she brought forth a firstborn son for Jacob, Reuben (Gen. 29:32). She had a second son, Simeon, for God had “heard” her cries (Gen. 29:33). And every prayer by the Jews since that time has been begun with a similar plea of the name Simeon, “SHEMA,” or “Hear, O Lord!”.
A third son followed, Levi (“joined”), with her hope that such bearing of children would join Jacob to her all the more (Gen. 29:34). Her glory burst forth in his birth as every lamb, goat, and turtle dove offered for over 1,400 years was by a son of Leah! Every Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles feast was officiated by a son of Leah! And think of it: every Hebrew delivered from Egyptian bondage owed a debt to Leah as the mother of Levi through whom Moses was born. And every Hebrew who was blessed with the fellowship and worship of God at the tabernacle, and later the temple, rejoiced in Leah, the mother of Levi and his sons, Moses and Aaron!
Next, to Leah was born Judah (“praise”) and it was Jacob’s own statement that “all thy brethren shall praise thee” (Gen. 49:8). Oh, how they did praise Judah, for the “scepter” did not “depart from Judah until Shiloh come” (Gen. 49:10). Yes, Leah gave us the Christ! She is in Matthew’s genealogy along with five other women who are specified. Did you miss her? She is right there: “..and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren” (Matt. 1:2), though her name is not given.
Think of it, though loved less by Jacob, the honors of eternity are hers in ways that only Mary, the mother of Jesus, could begin to compare. One must remember that even Mary, the mother of our Lord, was a blood-descendant too of Leah, the unloved! (Matt. 1).
She was still not favored, though, when Jacob met Esau for she and her children were put ahead of Rachel and her children (Gen. 33:2). In case of a battle, the slave wives and children would die first (Bilhah and Zilpah), then next would be Leah and her children, while last would be Rachel and her family. Jacob still showed pitiful favoritism.
However, Leah may have won in death what she could not win in life. She was buried alongside Jacob in the cave of Machpelah (Gen. 49:30-31), and in the august company of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah. Rachel had died at the birth of Benjamin on their journey back from Laban’s house and was buried at Ephrath, or Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19-20). So Leah was buried among the great ones in Hebrew history. One wonders why Jacob was not buried with Rachel.
Crowning all her achievements were the 16 kings of whom she was “mother,” yes, those 15 kings who sat on David’s throne in Palestine were all the children of Judah, all sons of Leah, the unloved.
The 16th king? Oh, he was to come many years later, riding on the colt of the ass (John 12:14-15) and was raised from the dead (Luke 24:6) to prove he was the Son of God and rightful heir to the throne of David (Romans 1:4).
Thus, Peter proclaimed to the mountaintops that he was David’s Lord, fulfilling all the promises of a “Messiah” for the world, and the One who ascended to take His seat on the throne of David at the right hand of God (Acts 2:29-36).
He is truly “Lord and Christ,” the “blessed and only Potentate, King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15), this son of Leah, “the unloved”.
Thus, in the glory land, for all eternity, Leah’s son will reign in glory over all creation, forever and ever and ever.
HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!
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