Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Protecting people from themselves

Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me (Psalm 40:11).

In July of 2001, a dead whale became a tourist attraction at Cape Jarvis, Australia. Boats ferried people out to the carcass where great white sharks were busily feeding. Some tourists went so far as to stand on the whale’s dead body and even pet the heads of the sharks! A local official was outraged at this behavior and immediately sought legislation to, in his words: "protect people that were too stupid to protect themselves."

I am often amazed at the rules and warning labels that are necessary to keep people from doing things stupidly dangerous. A woman successfully sued a restaurant for selling coffee that burned her because she spilled it in her lap. It has taken the passage of laws to force motorcycle riders to wear helmets and passengers in cars to wear seatbelts. Any number of electrical appliances carry warnings not to use them in the bath tub or shower. How can it be that people act so carelessly that they constantly need to be told what not to do?

We make foolish choices that put us in danger because of sin. Each of us has sin thriving within us, and sin puts blinders on our judgment. Sin urges us to make quick decisions instead of thinking things out carefully or getting another person’s opinion. Sin focuses our attention so narrowly on what we want that we develop tunnel vision, hindering our ability to see any risks or consider other, better options.

People have always been blind-sided by their inner sin. That’s why God gave us the Ten Commandments. God wrote those laws to "protect people that were too stupid to protect themselves." Think about it: does quality of life result from committing murder or stealing or cheating on your spouse (Exodus 20:13-15)? How much peace and inner joy do you get from insulting people in authority, or telling lies about others, or constantly pining for things that you don’t have (Exodus 20:12, 16-17)? Can a person who is dying face the end of life with calm assurance if he has no idea what awaits him beyond the grave, because he rejected having a relationship with the God who forgives sins and raises the dead to eternal life (Exodus 20:3-11)? God’s rules are intended to protect us from the foolish, bad decisions that sin wants us to make; God wants us to listen to Him because only He fully realizes the danger our sins constantly put us in.

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