March 18, 2025 -Do as He Says Because He Says So

DEUTERONOMY 21:10-25:19

Chronological Bible Readings

Deuteronomy 21:15 “Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love. 16 When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son. 17 He must recognize the rights of his oldest son, the son of the wife he does not love, by giving him a double portion. He is the first son of his father’s virility, and the rights of the firstborn belong to him.

When I read this I thought of the times that the younger son did receive the firstborn rights over the older son. Think about Ishmael and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau. Here we have rules that are set down by God for us to follow but they are not rules that God must follow. It's like when our parents said, "Do as I say not as I do." They were protecting us because they knew that we were not ready to deal with certain things. Or they knew something we didn't about the situation. Maybe it was just instinct of protection. But it was based on love. And if you ask why the answer was "Because I said so." God knows more than we do. He understands things that we can't even comprehend. He already know the outcome of any choice that we make. And even if He tried to explain why it wouldn't make any sense to us. So, when He places the younger in a position over the older and gives the inheritance to the younger it is always for the best and we don't need to know why. But when we make decisions to act outside of God's rules we are usually acting on what we want or what we think should happen and those choices are clouded by our own desires and sin. God is really the only one who can say "Do as I say not as I do." and "Because I said so.". That should be good enough for us.