God's Terms - Ex 23-24 & Matt 20:1-16

One thing that I think is hard for our country and our generation of people to understand about faith in the God of the Bible is that God is in control. We don't get to barter and trade with god in order to work out a deal with Him. He sets the terms. Don't get me wrong, the terms He sets are more than fair, but He makes the terms, not us.

In Exodus 23-24 God calls Moses and the leaders up to the mountain so God can speak to them. He gives them rules, He even writes them on stone tablets, and He confirms His covenant with the people. And they accept His terms (for the time being anyway).

In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who hires people throughout the day, so that they all work for differing amounts of time, yet at the end of the day, the landowner pays them all the same. Those who had worked all day were aggravated that they didn't get paid more. But the landowner (who portrays God in the parable) tells them that He owns the field and He hired the people (who all agreed to work for what they were paid) and He will pay His servants as He pleases. Once again, it is God's terms, not ours.

We have a weird culture at hand in America. In some ways it's good, but when it comes to faith it's usually not. We're taught and shown (on TV/movies) that we just need to grab life by the horns and anything we can get our hands on we deserve. We're taught a sense of entitlement - we think we deserve life on a golden platter. We begin to doubt God when we have financial problems or health problems or relationship woes. But when God blesses us with food, shelter, freedom, love, grace, etc. we never question why we deserve those things do we?

Many Americans find it hard to swallow the fact that God sets out one way to have a relationship with Him (John 14:6). They don't like the fact that God gives us moral guidelines to live by. They don't like the fact that they're supposed to be active in a local church or that they should even give 10 percent of their money to the church as an offering of worship to God.

But we have to realize who we are and what we are in relation to God. He is the Creator, we are the created. He is perfect and holy, we are sinful. He is all-knowing, we are not. He is yesterday, today, and forever our lives are just dust in the wind. The fact that He even recognizes us, much less wants to have a relationship with us is amazing. The thought that He gives us everything we have and only demands 1/10th of it in return, allowing us to keep 9/10ths is awesome.

May we wise up and begin to be more thankful and submissive to our gracious and loving God.