Disney World, the NBA, and the Promised Land

There’s good news among all the “so that’s” in God’s message to the Israelites, a long-awaited gift. Still, having just heard our text, I wonder how many of us could name that good news? I’ll bet it would be easier for us to name the stipulations God outlined. Why do you think that is? Why didn’t God just lead with the good news?

Let’s consider similar scenario. Say you have a bus load of elementary students and you’re about to tell them you’re taking them all to Disney World… but, there are some stipulations. You lost them all at Disney World, didn’t you? Those kids wouldn’t have heard a single stipulation, I don’t care how many of them might be typical first-child rule-followers. The good news was just too exciting.

The Israelites weren’t on their way to Disney World. Their good news was far more exciting and much longer anticipated. God had promised their parents and grandparents that they would be given their own land. They would be free and outright owners of a land of their own. They had been on a 40-year journey of “are we there yet?” and now they’re in the parking lot ready to go through the gates. God must have known these chosen children of his weren’t any more ready to run free in the Promised Land than your elementary students were ready to run free through the Wonderful World of Disney. There were too many possibilities for trouble in this new and unfamiliar place. Too many strangers, too many unfamiliar options.

The first 11 chapters of Deuteronomy are full of repeated reminders to the Israelites to remember God’s commandments. They would need to know them like the back of their hand once they entered the Promised Land, this exciting new and unfamiliar place where they would encounter so many strangers and so many new, unfamiliar options. But, didn’t God want them to run freely and enjoy this great, promised gift to his people? Would God suppress them in this new land like they had been in Egypt? How could they enjoy their new land of freedom if they had to be so focused on rules?

Now, let’s shift from elementary students to college students aspiring to play professional basketball. Any student eyeing a career in their sport will have played long enough to know the rules. The NCAA men’s basketball rulebook contains only eleven rules. But each rule has dozens of sections and each section has dozens of articles in a 144-page rule book. If players are focused on all the rules during the entire 40 minutes of a college game, how can they ever manage to play the game?

They can’t. The Israelites couldn’t. But they had to know the rules and observe them. Every rule, every section, every article. Every commandment, every statute, every ordinance. The rules didn’t interfere with their abilities to play freely and live freely, they equipped them, so that they could play freely and live freely. That good news God had for the Israelites? God wanted them to win. The Good News God has for us today? God wants us to win. But we all have to play by the rules so that we will be equipped to win. And we won’t appreciate the need for rules or take them seriously if we don’t believe that the One who created our rules loves us. We won’t observe rules that we believe are only created so that the game won’t be fun.

The Israelites would have been taught to understand God’s commandments differently than we think of Old Testament Law today. It’s easy for us to view them as things created to confine us. But, the word rule "comes from the Latin word regula, a word associated with a trellis, the woodwork a plant grows on." The Hebrew teachings would have described God’s Law as an open and sturdy trellis, designed so that a plant can grow freely while being provided the support it needs. Like a trellis supports a vine's growth, God's commands are given so that goodness will thrive.

Elementary students in Disney World are easily overwhelmed with the new things they’ve never seen, the options they’ve never experienced. Even though they’ve been taught the rules of the classroom. College athletes are staggered by the next level of play they’re suddenly immersed in with the NBA. Even though they’ve been taught the rules of the game. The Israelites were about to be astounded and stunned by the new customs and experiences and ways of life in this new and unfamiliar Promised Land. Even though they’ve been taught God’s rules.

What difference do these three scenarios make in how we live our lives today? We’re not elementary students going to Disney World. We’re not signing an NBA contract. And we’re not among the throngs of Israelites on the verge on entering Caanan. Why do they matter to us?

Because as Jesus followers, whether we realize it or not, the world around us is changing every day. Because the Kingdom of Heaven on earth continues to advance. Because as Jesus followers, we are the ones advancing it as we continue to answer God’s call on our lives. Because we are the hands and feet of Christ, so that God’s love can be shown to a hurting world. But we face each new day with overwhelming possibilities, just like the Israelites did.

The Israelites knew God’s commandments, still they were urged to observe them diligently. This new land they were entering, their Promised Land, was so different from anything they had experienced. Their way of living was about to look very different from anything they had experienced. Even though they knew the rules.

The laws we’re accustomed to are nothing like Kingdom rules, where the first is last, where those who want to lead must serve, where it takes the faith of a child instead of the wisdom of humanity. Kingdom rules turn our world upside down, and it’s those rules we’re urged to observe diligently, so that we can love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, with all our might, and love our neighbor as ourself.

Why aren’t we reminded of God’s love for us instead of being told to love God? We can only love God because God first loved us; that’s a given. We’re invited to love God, to know God’s love, and to understand these commands are given to us so that our days may be long, so that we will multiply greatly, and so that life may go well with us. Because God wants us to win, to play freely, and to love the game as we do.

Our challenge is that each day we remember the good news that we are breaking new ground in the Kingdom of Heaven. And each day may we remember and observe the rules in this unfamiliar territory, so that it may go well with us.

Let’s pray.

Liberating God, may we see the Good News you’ve given us in Jesus Christ and in the new covenant you made with us through the forgiveness of our sins, made possible by his blood, his death, and his resurrection that overcame the power of sin and death. Through these things, may we know your unfathomable love for us that draws us to you in love and invites us to know you and love you more.

May we know that the commands you give us are not given to confine us, but to set us free to live the abundant life that Christ came to give us – life to the full. May we remember that we are part of your chosen people, tasked with advancing your Kingdom here on earth. May we remember that we are breaking new ground in your Kingdom, and that your rules for us give us all that we need, so that it may go well with us and so that your name will be glorified. Amen.