March 28, 2026 -Laws for Our Good
- brooks16055
- Mar 28
- 2 min read
Deuteronomy 21:15-17 NIV
[15] If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, [16] when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. [17] He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
I thought about Isaac and Ishmael. Sons of different mothers. God decided that Isaac would be the one that His people would come from. Then there is Jacob and Esau. Same mother. Twins in fact, but one is favored by mom and one by dad. Dad favored the older. But God decided that the younger would be the one to rule over the eldest. Then there was also Joseph who was way down on the list of seniority of brothers. He was favored by his father because he was the first-born son to the woman that Jacob loved. Granted all the sons of Jacob were given in inheritance by God. The 12 tribes of Israel.
Today's reading is a time after these examples. All that God did was for His plan and purpose. Not because of favoritism. Why would He need to give this law now? God knows that humans left to their own decisions will ultimately make bad emotional decisions. He knew we would fail. Here He is laying down a law so that there would be no decision to be made. He has already proven that if He needs something different to be the case then it will be. If we could look at God's law like that, nothing to debate about or decide for ourselves we would make better decision. I don't think we can do that unless we trust in God and His holy and sovereign nature to be able to override our action and or use them in some way to bring about His divine plan and purpose. Then again, as the story of Joseph teaches us, even when we fail to obey, and we make a decision on our own that goes against God's law, He can also use that for His plan and purpose.
God's law if for our good.
Comments