I am the head and not the tail. Deuteronomy 28:13 The LORD will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. This is a weird one to me. But I think it has to do with being on top, being the winner, the leader, etc., and not being the loser, the inglorious part, the embarrassed one, etc. I’m not the one that gets sat upon or dragged around behind. So in a sense I’m ahead and above. The head is also where the thinking happens and where the seeing and hearing and speaking happens. It’s pretty important! You definitely wouldn’t want to lose your head (although many of us could stand to lose a little off our tails…). Interesting. Another note: this is one of those if/then statements. I have to do my part – pay attention to God’s commands, carefully following them.
Question: what “rules” from the Old Testament do we keep? For example, we say that getting tattoos is bad because the Bible says not to pierce or mark our bodies (but we pierce our ears with no compulsions…), but just a few verses earlier it says not to wear clothes made from two different fibers (polyester anyone?), which we regularly seem to do. So, are we picking and choosing the laws to enforce? Why do we enforce or defend the ones we do – is it simply because we are uncomfortable with them – like the tattoo issues (Do people with tattoos make you uncomfortable? There are some amazing people at my church with incredible tattoos and I have a hard time believing God considers them to be breaking His law – especially as they have such a wonderful ministry with others). Anyhow, I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts. If we keep one but throw out another, is it arbitrary? Or in not keeping them all are we violating God’s will – or is that part of grace? But then, what about the 10 Commandments (don’t murder… that certainly still stands)? Any thoughts on that one?