God's Commandments for Our Good

In Deuteronomy 10:12-13, Moses says something to the Israelites just before they are about to enter the promised land.  He says to them, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?”  This comes on the heels of God reminding them of the Ten Commandments and the covenant they must keep (chap. 5), of how they are to love God and keep his commandments (chap. 6), and of how God chose them not because of their righteousness but because of God’s faithfulness to his promises (chap. 7-9).  Surely the Israelites were beginning to feel the burden of all the laws they had been given that they must keep (see Exodus, Numbers, and Leviticus).  Thus, what is interesting in Deuteronomy 10, as God is about to give them more laws, is that he exhorts them “to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good?”  We sometimes forget that.  We sometimes forget that all the laws and commandments given to us in the Bible are for our good—even the ones we disagree with or simply don’t like.  The wife who is called to submit to her husband who is difficult to live with, let alone submit to (Eph 5:22-24), husbands who are commanded to “live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel” (1 Pet. 3:7), children who are commanded to “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right” (Eph. 6:1), though their parents seem cruel and arbitrary or church members who strongly disagree with the direction their church leaders are taking the church, and yet are commanded to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account” (Heb. 13:17).  We may not always understand or agree with or even like God’s commandments but he has given them to us for our good.  We have to trust God knows what he’s doing and that he knows what’s best for us.