Because I said so
If you’re like me, then you’ve heard your parents issue this ‘definition’ of why something was to be done. AND if you’re like me then you’ve also uttered these same words to your kids yourself. Many people feel that saying that to your children is bad parenting. But God does the same thing.
The Torah (the first five books of the bible) was given to Israel. Torah does not necessarily mean law as we see it, but to a Jewish person it was more ‘instruction.’ The root word means to point, as in pointing the right way.
But the Torah is made up of many different types of instruction, mitzvah, mishpat, edut. All with each having it’s own type of instruction. But one of those types is the ‘because I said so’ type.
It’s called in Hebrew-chok or chuqqah. The root word means to engrave (as in a stone) or to carve a fixed boundary. This rule was a rule we follow without the ‘why.’
We often do this with our children. We smack their hands because they’re sticking a fork in a light socket….because we love them, and they do not comprehend the ramifications. Chok laws are like that. We don’t know why they are laws, but God wanted Israel to trust him anyway. Dietary laws were an example of these. Eat this way, just trust me. Looking back on the dietary laws of God, we know that many of the unclean animals are unhealthy for your body and cause disease and death. But when the Israelites got the law, they didn’t know that…they were expected to trust and obey. God’s dietary CHOK was for their own benefit.
Sometimes we do not understand originally, but we find out later. I found out one chok yesterday, with it’s accompanying ‘why.’
This law I will share will mean little to you except for the fact that God wants us to obey even when we do not understand. Psalms 111:10 The fear of YHWH is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever.
If you read that closely you will see that understanding comes AFTER obedience. This is the way of God. This is a faith walk. Obey me and you will understand in a latter day. God instructing us, just like Torah.
One of those seemingly odd laws was this Leviticus 11:32-33 “And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be, wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even (evening); so it shall be cleansed. And every earthen vessel, whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean; and ye shall break it.
See! Oh wait, let me explain. This is something we may see as weird. But what God is saying when anything dead, or diseased touches something it is unclean. He then guides them into what to do with them. But a weird thing is that clay pots had to be broken…they are never to be used again, but wooden pots if something dead or diseased got into them could be washed and let dry then you could re-use them. And I always wondered why. It seems to me that wood with all that porous surface area would require the item to be destroyed.
That was until yesterday, when I read a scientific test that showed when ebola, or other infectious disease was put on a wooden surface, that when it dried, the pores in the surface actually dried out the disease and killed it. Germs couldn’t live in the wood. The pores acted as a cleaner. The chok now makes sense. God knows best.
I know that may not be anything to some people, but it causes me to just say, okay God, I don’t understand, but I know you know better than myself. I will trust you. Do what he asks, trust him, and all will be well. But, we Americans think we should have the why. My father didn’t always give me the why, sometimes I just had to do it because he said so.
YHWH is good.
