Your Will Be Done
September 19, 2021Today's message was the second in a 6-part series about the Lord's Prayer. Today's section of the Lord's Prayer was "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." The message is here (starting about 28:30).
Our small group will not meet this week. I've posted these thoughts in my usual essay form for you to consider as if we did meet. Also, please feel free to send questions/comments to me (see email address at right). I'll add your thoughts to the bottom of this essay for the benefit of others (unless you ask otherwise).
Patrick's first point was to "invite His reign into your life." The Torah mind would probably go straight to God the Creator. Embrace the fact that God created the world and therefor rules over it. Get on Board!
But what would "get on Board mean"? That gets at Patrick's second point, "Embrace His Plan," or as the prayer says, "Your will be done." But how do you know God's will? One way to answer that is to ask a related question like "what is Nikon's desires as to how you use one of their cameras?" Reading the Nikon D7000 instruction manual would tell you that. In many ways, the Torah could be considered the manufacturer's instruction manual for the human being. You want to know God's will for you and your fellow man? Read the Torah. If all the world did was follow even half the Ten Commandments, the last 5 dealing with man-to-man issues, the world would feel like heaven on earth. You could argue that just obeying Thou Shalt Not Steal would do it all. Don't steal a life (don't murder), don't steal the truth (don't lie), don't steal another's wife (don't be an adulterer), and don't steal another's fruits (don't covet other's property). God has already revealed what you need to know. And whether you're Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Evanglical, Mormon, etc. - it all is founded upon the Torah.
Here's another way the Torah describes doing God's will: walk with God. Both Enoch and Noah "walked with God" (Gen. 5.24, 6.9). God told Abraham, "Walk before Me and be blameless" (Gen, 17.1).
"Serve the Lord" clearly suggests doing God's will. Abraham had many servants, the oldest of whom he sent to find a bride for his son Isaac (Gen. 24.1-6, 34). This is an incredible story of a very clever servant getting to the root of the matter, doing the research, sort of speak. The servant is very smart about observing and asking the right questions in order to discover the best wife for Isaac. It's worth reading the story.
I think it's safe to say that God's will is to love your neighbor as yourself. Did you know that this verse is in the Old Testament?! It's Leviticus 19:18, dead center in the Torah. And did you know that the complete verse has a phrase on the end, "I am God." That makes it extremely clear that this is not only God's will but very important as well.
The Torah is replete with information about God's will. Care for the widows and orphans. Do good. Hate evil. Love the stranger. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8, technically outside the Torah).
From Deuteronomy 10:12-14: "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, {13} and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? {14} Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it."
Deuteronomy 30:19-20: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; {20} "that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."
The Great Commission of the New Testament is based on Torah teaching: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matt. 22:37-38). "Love Him": Moses pointed out the importance of loving God. "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" (Deut. 6:4-5).