All is fair in love....

I think we've all had our times of thinking "It's not fair!...." I know I have. And you can fill in the blanks there with anything you like. This past couple of days of reading through the bible has found me in Exodus as God is going over the laws that He wants the Israelites to follow. As I was reading through them, the thought that kept coming to mind is that as much as we sometimes want to accuse God of not being fair, He really, from the start, goes out of His way to make sure that there was plenty of 'fairness' to go around!

He very specifically lays out how the Israelites were to handle just about any dispute that could come up between them. You can tell that He really has a soft spot for widows and orphans and is severe in His judgement towards anyone who mistreats them. He sets up very detailed rules and consequences for everything from murder, to stealing, to accidental injury and even how to lend money.

Speaking of detail, I found this one interesting... "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the defender is not guilty of bloodshed, but if it happens after sunrise, he is guilty of bloodshed." (Ex 22:2) huh? I feel like I must be missing something in the importance of whether this happens in the night or in the light of day, but I don't know what it is... maybe someone out there who is smarter than me can shed some light on that for me. ;-)

Anyways, here's the point - God wants us to be fair with each other. I think that He has been MORE than fair with us! If you don't think so, (and sometimes I don't) then just HONESTLY ask yourself if you'd really like for God to give you what you think you deserve. Now there's a question! yikes...

The only person that it seems God hasn't been fair with is Himself. When all is said and done, He put Himself here on the earth in the form of Jesus, allowed himself to be mistreated, misunderstood, falsely accused, denied justice, and utilmately executed for crimes He did not commit. And all of that to save US from our inability to live under the laws of 'fairness' that He created in the first place!

So they say, "All is fair in love...." Well, all IS fair in God's love, not because of anything we have done, but because He has made it fair.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Praise God that His love for us drove Him to take on the 'unfairness' of the cross so that we might escape the 'fairness' of His judgement on our lives!