Consequences

by Steve Bastin

Did you ever wonder why God created a universe with laws and consequences?  Put your hand on a hot stove and you pay the consequences.  Jump off a cliff and you pay the consequences.  Look directly at the sun and pay the consequences.

Natural law is unforgiving.  It establishes what will happen and there is no “oops” clause.  Fire destroys.  Gravity pulls.  Cold freezes.  Two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time (translation:  do not drive your car into a tree).

Because we understand the consequences, we tend to be careful when dealing with matters of natural law.  We are careful of the risks we take (usually).  We point out, to our friends, the folly of the course that they are pursuing.  We issue warnings, “Be careful; don’t touch that.”

Yet consequences are not confined to matters of natural law.  There are consequences in other areas as will.  Consider the American economy.  Everyone seems to be convinced that we are in the midst of a crisis.

Government has come to the rescue of some companies.  The line grows as other companies cry out for a rescue.  State and local governments see the line growing, and faced with their own problems they begin lining up for their share of the “free” money.  After all, if private citizens can buy things they cannot afford, then why cannot governments buy things they cannot afford.

There are consequences to the actions of government.  Sometimes those consequences are predictable.  Often they are not.  But the consequences follow as naturally as night follows day.

When a scientist proposed the theory that for every action there is an equal an opposite reaction, he probably had no idea how far reaching that principle would be.  Even now, many of us seem slow to grasp the idea that for every action we take there will be a reaction, somewhere, sometime, by somebody, or something.

When we set up a health care insurance system that allows anyone to seek any medical procedure for any ailment, or perceived ailment, someone will have to pay the cost.  When we try to eliminate the economic consequences of such a system, the whole process is doomed to failure.  You cannot get out of a system more than you put in.  That is true for any closed system and the health care industry is a closed system.

When we had to pay for things ourselves, there were limits to the health care that we sought.  When it is perceived that there are no limits, then everyone seeks to take out of the system whatever they can get.  The alternative is to ration what people can get.  In other words, you may have a medical emergency, but there are now limits that mean you will have to wait and perhaps even die while waiting.

There are things that are more serious than the economic failure of a company or a government or getting a cure for the aches and pains, diseases and conditions by which you are beset.  All of these can make your life miserable in this world, in this life.  None will have any affect on you in the life that lies beyond the grave.

When God made the first people, He set boundaries for them.  He gave them rule over the rest of the creation, both the animal and plant world and the rest of what God had made.  God gave instructions for what they could eat and made them stewards of all that He had created.

When God had made a helper suitable for man, the woman that He made from Adam’s side, He told them to be fruitful and multiply.  Sexual relationships have consequences.

God then made a garden in which they could live.  They were to care for the garden and eat from its bounty.  One tree, standing in the midst of the garden, God said, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

They may not have understood the consequences of disobedience, but they knew that there were consequences.  God had set a limit.  He expected that the limit would be respected.  His power would insure that there would always be consequences for disobedience.

When God freed the people of Israel from Egyptian bondage, He led them to Mt. Sinai where He gave them laws to govern them as a nation.  Laws have consequences.

Life had grown considerably more complicated from the time when there were only two people.  With hundreds of thousands of people heading for the promised land, they would need laws to govern all aspects of their daily life, their relationships with one another and their relationship with God.  The legislation found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy was intended to satisfy those needs.

Over and over again, God made plain that there would be consequences for disobedience.  From their first foray into breaking God’s law when they made an idol to worship at Mt. Sinai, through hundreds of years living in Canaan, God punished them many times for breaking His laws.

The laws given to Israel were for a particular group of people living in a particular location at a particular period of time.  When God sent Jesus, He made a new covenant with people.  The new covenant was adapted to govern God’s people living in every part of the earth, living under every conceivable type of government and living in such diverse circumstances as the cold of the Arctic and the heat of the Tropics.

There were several notable differences from the covenant with Israel.  The people were no longer required to assemble in one place three times a year.  There was no established day of rest.  Imagine a modern society where no one could work on Saturday.  No policemen on duty.  No nurses in the hospital.  No one tending the electrical supply system.  Etc.

The moral laws remained about the same.  In fact, moral laws have remained the same from the beginning.  Murder has always been wrong.  Stealing, kidnapping and adultery (trying to take someone else’s wife or husband) have been wrong from the beginning.

Under the law of Moses, penalties were prescribed for all of these infractions.  Under the new covenant, immediate punishment was generally left to government officials.

Yet towering above all notice by government and individuals has always stood the judgment of God.  In the beginning, God determined the consequences.  In the end God will determine the consequences.  Jesus said, “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will warn you whom to fear; fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”