Leviticus 26: 13
I am the Lord your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect, so you should not be their slaves.
God goes to every length to do everything He can (and only He can) to put His people into the most favorable position to choose to worship Him. That's how much He loves us.
His people Israel saw His great and wonderful power against all the gods that were worshiped in Egypt, then saw Him destroy the entire army in the Red Sea. They will never need to worry that Pharaoh will ever come after them again.
And He told them to demolish all the altars and shrines in this new land they will be going into, that God was giving them, and to be aware of their enticements, so they wouldn't be trapped by them. God doesn't want any of His people to be enslaved by anything, but to be free to do right and make the choices that will benefit them, to be for their own good. That's why God gave them all his rules, so that they would know what the best choices would be.
And when we pay attention to the bigger picture of how all this works out in our lives, then we can understand that God wants to bless us, to give us all the good things He has provided in this life, and to be with Him forever.
He likes us. He loves us. He wants to spend time with us. And He wants us to spend eternity with Him. Relationship is the center of His program for us, that's why all His Law is based on Love.
He is God, there is no other. And He is in relationship with Himself: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. He is Love (I John 4:16).
To know how to love Him, and to know how to love one another, we need to get to know Him, and get to know one another. You get to know someone by spending time with them, communicating with them, and being vulnerable to being known by them. That's how you form a connection.
People do this all the time, because we are made to be social beings. People have Best Friends, they fall in love and get married.
And God loves us already; He knows us intimately, and is in love with us passionately, as a newlywed husband is enamored with his new bride.
He called Israel His wife. And the Church today is the Bride of Christ. These terms were not thrown out there carelessly, but describe the precise relationship He wants us to want to have with Him.
That's why He's so adamant about any other altar, or shrine, or idea of anything being more important to us than Himself. Anything that comes between us and God is an idol, a false god that will trap us. And it is like adultery against our Husband. He is the only One Who is worthy of our attention and devotion. He alone is God.
And that's why I love to study His love-letter to me. No matter how deeply I delve into its mysteries, I feel that I've only barely scraped the surface.
God delivered me from the yoke of slavery to relationships when He showed me that His relationship with me was what I was really looking for. He is my espoused Husband, and I need no other.
Then God gave me my husband for 30 years, then He took him away. If He brings me another husband before Jesus returns, that would be a wonderful blessing to me.
But I refuse to be trapped into any kind of romantic relationship with anyone who may not be my Father's choice for me, so I have put a guard on my heart. I love to meet new people, and if God's choice for me comes across my path, then I will depend on my Father to make it known to me that this would be the one for me.
Meanwhile, I will continue to do what lies before me to accomplish, always looking to see what wonder my Father has in store for me "today." And looking for the return of my forever Husband, my Lord and my King.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
