When we were growing up as children my parents used to device new rules per day, sometimes per minute or per second. As a parent today I wonder if I do that and I keep checking back on myself because – aiyee- it was totally frustrating!! You’re playing a game and have just crammed the rules when suddenly, up pops mathee or buddah with a new set of NO’s! But rules were rules and we had to follow them! The breaking of these ‘1-second’ set of laws (which we often did.. ) usually resulted in various forms of punishment, ranging from the severe to the mild – dependant on the magnitude of the broken rule. If you were raised in Africa or have Indian parents I know you know how severe a punishment could be from irate parents… whoa! Sometimes I couldn’t sit for days… lol! For those of you raised in the Developed World, pole sana… you’ve not reaped the benefits of sound discipline from your parents!
As humans we go through life consumed by, constrained and restricted to RULES. Rules at home, policies at school, regulations on the playground, rules of games, procedure at the workplace, systems in the army, laws from the government…. RULES RULES RULES!!! Aaaarrghh! And the penalty for continually breaking rules might lead to expulsion from school, being homeless as a child, being hounded out of a job, being thrown into prison or jail… different rules but basically the same outcome, you break a rule, you’re out of the GAME PLAN.
(No wonder we view rules from God with suspicion).
When we get older we celebrate the relaxing of rules.. like Friday is dress-down day, so we don’t have to follow the official dress code, public holidays means that we don’t have to work and kids in boarding school get a relaxing of school rules because they can wake up at 8am instead of 5am, retreats and vacations are encouraged as a break from the ‘rules of the Life War Games’.
No wonder we view rules from God with suspicion, because enough already! I had to cram my school rules, I had to study my work policies, and now here is a whole new book, a BIBLE – jam-packed with new laws and rules and don’ts and do’s.. 613 Jewish laws. 613 set rules. I feeeeel you people, so when Jesus says that He’s making me free, what is this freedom He’s talking about with 10 major laws and 613 minor ones?
Let’s backtrack a little bit…. Reverse gear….
Why did we have rules as kids back when we lived with our parents? So maybe my dad may have been extreme and my mom was Cruela De Ville, totally looney by adding new rules per day to our already ridiculously long list of rules, but they loved me. Or perhaps they were concerned about how much more it would cost in the way of hospital fees if I fell off the 20ft branch way up there on the trees I loved climbing.
“No more climbing trees!”
“Why not?”
“Because I said so!”
“But…!!!!”
“I SAID, no more climbing trees! And that’s a rule! And you know what happens around here when you break a rule!”
5 years later….
“Nyakio, you’re not allowed to see THAT boy anymore!”
“ Aw, MOM, why not?”
“Because I said so!”
“Oh, just because you said so, I can’t see THAT boy anymore?”
“Now you’re being rude, PLUS you’re argumentative. No more seeing that boy and a punishment for being rude!”
“Awwwww MOooooM!”
(Dude : ok, now you know why I didn’t rock up for that date 32 years ago, plus we had no cell phones in them days…)
If our Father in Heaven is anything like my mom (or your dad…) or if like we’re told, that our homes are Mini copies of Life in Heaven, then… (1) Rules are Rules, A Law is a Law, a Commandment is a Commandment and (2) Don’t argue. You’ll get a double punishment.
Before you suck in your breath and think of arguing - let me go off on another tangent here, bear with me…
Question: What is human behaviour? When I was writing this article and had the outline drawn up, I got stuck. So I put my article away for a couple of days to let it stew. That Sunday I attended service at The Ocean Church in Dar-es-Salaam. By some weird twist of fate, Charles (one of his rules is don’tcallmepastorcallmecharles) preached about – The 10 commandments. Exactly what I was writing about. But –he had navigated past my jammed-brain.. he asked this question:
What is human behaviour?
And it got me thinking…
When call a person humane, what exactly does that entail? If you describe yourself or your friend or Angelina Jolie as humane, it usually means a human being whose actions are deliberately kind, thoughtful, sincere, disciplined, selfless, caring, gentle, compassionate, charitable.
A Humanitarian.
So what is inhumane behaviour?
The exact opposite.
It is a person who is cruel, brutal, merciless, has atrocious behaviour – he or she is appalling, callous, sadistic, totally selfish and heartless.
Weka mkono juu if you’ve ever been called one of those names by your girlfriend or wife! Yeah and ladies, I know that at some point in your life you must have been described as cruel or heartless by your kids or hubby or BF! (lol) or raise your hand if you know somebody who is - and then read on – because infact, being inhuman is basically a continuous breaking of all the 10 commandments and then some (of the 613 Jewish Laws). Watch yourself!
I watch a lot of crime documentaries and NTV has some great investigative series of late which highlight criminal behaviour. Men and women both – serial killers, manipulative hard hearted conmen, thieves, murderers, child killers. They have broken all the rules that our caring father in Heaven gave us.
He didn’t give us those Commandments so that we enter Heaven, no, no, those rules are meant to safeguard our HUMANITY. Because without them, we’re inhuman, without them, we become beasts, brutish, bestial.
Look at them, glance at them. Today I am not going to go deeper into any single commandment but I have to tell you, if I didn’t have a Rule Book - I would have killed my Witch neighbour a long time ago! Taken a bazooka and BAMB! Blasted her whole compound plus gassed her with Anthrax… seriously.. I mean, she keeps me up at all hours of the night with her wailing, screeching and screaming and OMG, the constant noise of her clients driving in and out of her compound….jamaani! I just want a little sleep here.. just ONE NIGHT of blessed quiet sleep. But I won’t bazooka her compound or gas her. Why?
Because there’s a set of rules that appeal to my basic Humanity, which I cherish.
Because if I didn’t follow the rules I might as well go ‘Gorilla’ and live in trees in the Deep Congo (Kenya has no more trees…).
God is concerned.
Like my parents. Concerned. Trying to avoid those huge hospital bills that might have been incurred by me falling of a 20ft tree and probably shattering all my bones. And the hurt. And pain. God is concerned. He knows that without the major 10 commandments we humans on this planet will go ape on each other.
Next.
Punishment: Or a breaking of rules. Let’s review 10 laws from different countries:-
#1. Basically you go to Hell if you break one of God’s Commandments.
#2. In the US of A if you’re caught DUI you’re thrown in jail. Note: this doesn’t apply in Kenya..
#3. In Canada any debt higher than 25 cents cannot be paid in pennies.
In Toronto, it is illegal to ride a streetcar on a Sunday if you have been eating garlic.
#4. Finland - Considering its cheaper for air than a ticket, this may be a good thing, unless you are in a hurry. Finnish police do not issue tickets for illegal parking – they just let down the person’s tires. Maybe you can carry an air compressor in the trunk and park anywhere you like.
#5. France - It is illegal to call a pig Napoleon.
#6. Guinea - It is illegal to call a baby “Monica”.
#7. Israel - It is illegal to pick one’s nose on the Sabbath.
* I hope you can find matching socks in the dark - No person is allowed to dress or undress with the light switched on.
#8. Madagascar - Pregnant women may not wear hats.
#9. Malaysia – (at least the word “used” is not mentioned) It is illegal for restaurant owners to substitute a table napkin with toilet paper.
#10. Paraguay - A man who catches his wife with someone else in bed is legally permitted to kill his wife and her lover providing he acts immediately.
. . . . . . hang on…
#11. Russia - It is illegal to drive a dirty car…
#1. is Bibleish.
You don’t go to Hell if you break a commandment. In fact, in Jewish belief, there is no HELL as we perceive it today, so duh, you don’t go to hell if you break one of God’s Commandments. You don’t drop dead and ‘go to hell’ if you commit adultery (though your wife will probably take you through it), you don’t ‘go to hell’ if you keep lying, you don’t ‘go to hell’ if you keep stealing, you don’t ‘go to hell’ if you keep using God’s name together with a profanity, you don’t ‘go to hell’ if you don’t keep one day aside for God alone. What does happen is that if you keep breaking one or two or three or all of God’s 10 commandments, you become inhuman.
You become out-of-touch with Humanity. You become unreachable, mteja. (just like if you’re still trying to make calls with SafariCon) - You become colder, hard of heart, selfish, egotistical, manipulative, callous, cruel. You loose your basic humanity, you loose that precious, prized core which draws you to Christ, that beautiful, gorgeous, sweet, sweet spirit that God breathed into you at birth.
You draw further and further away from Christ, from a spiritual relationship with the same God that created the world, you draw away from all that is Holy, from the Life, the Energy, the Source of all that is beautiful and creative..
God is concerned. For your soul. He wants to talk to you, chat with you, bonga with you every day. But if you’re inhuman and hard of heart and callous and selfish and don’t take time to meditate …… and you’re basically unreachable, how does He RELATE with you? How does He REACH you? Fact: When you feel God is far away from you, check where you are, because God doesn’t move. You do.
God is concerned. For your soul (I’m stressing the point..) For that part of you that remains you from birth til death, that doesn’t age, that is in your physical body, your soul, your spirit.
Say, have you ever broken a limb? An arm or a leg? Ouch, the pain, the anguish. Then.. the doctors, the surgery and worse still, the physiotherapy! I know a friend who quit his physio because of the pain. When we break a God’s Laws, we hurt our souls, we hurt ourselves and others – and healing our souls takes time, it’s painful, yes, we wear a cast for a time, we heal, and the Doctor, the Physiotherapist (Christ) is gentle and kind and patient, but sometimes we quit our physiotherapy because it’s painful and truth hurts and reality bites.
Tell me, why do we go about not really caring about God’s Laws and commandments in the first place?
Answer: Because half of us don’t know our Status.
Not our status in Facebook and not our HIV status.
Our status in God’s Kingdom.
I gave you a few examples of some really dumb laws from different countries. Fine, they’re dumb. But if you went there as a visitor, or as a tourist and broke those dumb laws, guess what…. You’d get fined or thrown in jail. Ignorance of the Law is not an excuse. And if you’re a citizen of your own country, you get to learn the laws or the Constitution early in life – in school. They are thrown into the educational system.
So, visitor or tourist or citizen…
….which one are you concerning God’s Kingdom?
Aha!
Either way there are repercussions of breaking the law. If you don’t want to be under God’s Law, change citizenship or leave this Kingdom - become a Buddhist or Hindu or Muslim or atheist. But don’t walk around as a Christian denying the reality of Kingdom Rules. Read them and memorize the 10 major laws. Once you understand why they are so important to you as a Human Being, once you begin to not take the commandments for granted, you will begin to appreciate Jesus Christ more fully. Christ came and simplified the 613 rules and laws: Jesus said, "The first in importance is, 'Listen ….. The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that ranks with these."
Mark 12:30-31 (The Message)
Look here, think about it, if someone truly loves God, they will nourish their Souls, their Spiritual selves, by setting aside the time to meditate, ponder, peruse and study the Word of God, they will commit time to Pray, to Worship and to Adore God – if you truly Love God, you will listen to Him and love those around you, you will see them through Christ’s Eyes -you will be uncomfortable if you lie, cheat, steal, sleep with your neighbours’ wife, kill, maim, murder - or even desire that new car, house, swimming pool, etc that the neighbour acquired. In short, you will observe the 10 major commandments…
There will always be though, the lawbreakers, those who study the laws of countries to see how much they can get away with, stealing and lying and pilfering for profit. I’ve seen them in God’s Kingdom as well, skirting the edges of Kingdom rules and if you study them, they are still within their rights as Children of God and citizens of God’s Kingdom. But that phrase, malipo ni hapa hapa, holds true not only for your physical country, but also for God’s Laws
Proverbs 22:16 TNIV Those who oppress the poor to increase their wealth and those who give gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.
As Kenyans we voted in a new Constitution. But before that we had a Draft Constitution which was circulated free to citizens of this country. What on earth for? Because our government wanted us to participate in the making of rules which govern our humanity and guard our rights, our rights as Women, Men, Children, Workers, Wives and Husbands. Laws that protect and safeguard the poor, the sick, the orphans and widows. Our government wanted us to vote YES or NO to these new rules and bylaws - and the only way we could do that was to read, to study, to have knowledge of this new draft constitution. That’s how we all ended up with those free copies which by the time August 27th 2010 rolled up, were tattered with constant use as we studied and argued and held small group meetings and discussed and perused the Draft Constitution.
You weren’t there when God held a Kitchen Cabinet with Moses, Aaron and Miriam and handed down the Laws and the 10 Commandments - but they still hold true for you, just as 500 years from now your great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren, the future citizens of Kenya, will still be safeguarded by our newly passed constitution.
If you’re a citizen of God’s Kingdom, grab a hold of a Bible, wear it out, let it be tattered by your leafing through it, learn the rules, laws, the constitution which was given to those who followed Yahweh - to safeguard us. Hold small group meetings, talk about, discuss, confer, peruse and examine the Word of God.
And Practice Humanity by following God’s Laws.
