I am reading through the Old Testament and that sometimes can be a good thing or a bad thing. Good because whenever I read through the Old Testament I am ever so reminded of the Holiness of God. And bad because I tend to forget that I could never live up to the perfect system of laws that God created for the purpose of my protection.
During my high school years I like most teenagers worked at McDonald’s the burger joint. And what I learned while working at McDonald’s, is that as far as restaurants go, they have developed a system, where they expect every order that goes out their doors, to be perfect. They have monitors on the front line, where orders are placed and can be seen by front line workers. They have monitors in the back, where cooks can see the orders, whenever they are rung-up in the register. A printer prints out a copy of the order for the front line person. Every order is numbered, with a special number, so that the front line person can match the ticket up, with the bag and she or he is able to verify what’s in the bag, with the ticket number, before it’s given to the customer. There is really no way that a person should ever get what they didn’t order. But as you probably have experienced yourself, the wrong order often gets in the hands of the wrong person. And the reason this happens is because McDonald’s restaurant has imperfect people working for them. Nothing is wrong with their system, because the system that McDonald’s have created is a fail proof system. The problem is you guessed it. It’s the imperfect people who are supposed to be following the system to perfection.
This is exactly what I am learning as I was reading through the book of Jeremiah this morning in my study. Check out these verses in Jeremiah7:8-12 “Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit 9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; 10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered and ye still do all these abominations? 11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen [it], saith the LORD.”Jeremiah lamented to the Jewish people because they were following the ways of the world and he warned them that God was going to judge them harshly if they continued to ignore his legal perfect law system. Then while reading I had a thought Jesus Christ brought in a whole new system that does not do away with the old system but proves even more that the old system was necessary to show us our need for the new system, the system of Grace.
Let me explain this using my experience with McDonald’s. You realize if your McDonald’s order is ever wrong, The McDonald’s manager is trained to replace it no questions asked. However, what usually happens is the manager will ask you for a copy of your ticket or receipt. After the manager gets a copy of your ticket they then go back to their fail proof system and they can almost always pin point where the mistake was made. The mistake usually is that the customer did not order what they thought they did or the cashier took in the wrong information. Even though McDonald’s can pinpoint where the mistake was made, McDonald’s managers are still trained to give to each of their customer’s a new fresh order. Sounds a lot like the gift of Grace doesn’t it?
Is that not like Jesus Christ, his law is perfect. God’s Ten Commandments reveal to each one of us an area where we have violated his perfect law. Yet he says to anyone who wants his gift of Grace Ref: Rom8:32“I will give it freely.” God’s law is never wrong it is always perfect. In fact the perfect law of God reveals even more to me of my need for his Saving Law of Grace.
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