Follow The Directions

My oldest son is a lawyer for a firm in D.C.
After finishing law school and passing the bar exam, he clerked for a year in federal court.
He moved into an apartment bringing many things with him from his apartment in law school.
It was a kitchen table that he needed.

The table he had during law school belonged to one of his roommates.
I knew so many places where he could find an old farm table.
However time was of the essence.
He needed a nice table with chairs and did not think much about finding something old.

He actually found a table with four chairs and purchased it online.
It was to be shipped to his apartment.
It is tricky to accept a large shipment when you work all day.
Trickier still when you don’t know anyone yet who could make sure it arrived safely.

It all worked out and he received the large box a few days after it was expected.
He knew that he would have to put it all together.
He had assembled things before and was looking forward to the satisfaction of a job well done.
He called me later that day.

They’ve mixed up the parts, he said a bit frustrated.
They sent me three right front legs and five left front legs for the chairs.
I called to tell them that I need a fourth right front leg for my chair.
They don’t keep spare parts on hand.

They are sending me an entirely new set.
I was instructed to take the part that I needed from the box.
Then I have to return everything else.
At least I can return the box to the store rather than send the whole thing back.

I thought of the cost to the company.
There had to be a better way to send him one right front chair leg.
However, this is the way the company wanted to handle it.
They would send an entirely new set to my son so he could get the one part that he needed.

He kept the box and all its pieces tucked away until the other set arrived.
Once it arrived, he found the part he needed.
Then he sealed the box and returned it to the store.
A credit was issued for the purchase.

It was a long drawn out process.
Finally, the table and chairs were ready to be used.
A whole new set was sent to him for just one part.
Unfortunately, things like this happen frequently.

If you ever look at directions as you put things together, they can be quite confusing.
Pieces are labeled and have a specific place and function.
You cannot change one iota of the instructions or else the assembly would be all wrong.
You cannot throw all the parts into the air and hope they assemble correctly when they land.

When my children were learning to cook, I always encouraged them with one fact.
If you can read directions, you can cook, I would tell them.
Making sure that things are ready at the same time takes practice.
I wanted them to understand that following directions is so important.

When you need to be precise, it is not a time to improvise.
Directions say what they mean and mean what they say; there is no wiggle room.
We trust the directions when we assemble something.
We trust our GPS; we trust the directions on a how-to video.

Why do we struggle with trusting God’s directions as spelled out in his Word?

When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, He called them, man. (Genesis 5:1,2)

God’s directions are found in God’s Word.
There is no wiggle room.
In our culture of political correctness, the general term, man, is seen as a problem for women.
Why are men singled out? The Bible is so anti-woman, they accuse.

That could not be further from the truth.
Jesus was extremely tender and compassionate towards women.
The women were the first to see the empty tomb on Resurrection morning.
God chose one word to represent all of mankind.

The term, man, is not a man thing or a woman thing.
It is an all-encompassing term for mankind.
God is declaring His own dominion over mankind.
Male and female are His creation.

Man is not his own maker, therefore he must not be his own master; but the Author of his being must be the director of his motions and the center of them…That God created them male and female for their mutual comfort as well as for the preservation and increase of their kind. (Matthew Henry)

God knows what He is doing.
God wrote the directions.
We must follow them.
There is no wiggle room.

We cannot improvise on God’s design.
We cannot make improvements on God’s perfect plan.
We cannot become the Creator when we are simply the creature.
We cannot be like God.

I never realized that a missing part of my son’s chair would come to mind as I read Genesis.
I heard God whisper in the term, man.
It cannot be clearer.
We are not to re-write Gods directions, we are to obey them.