The Rule of Law: Government of the Mind (6)

“If you come across a bird’s nest in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs and the mother sitting on the young or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young. You shall let the mother go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may go well with you, and that you may live long.” Deuteronomy 22.6, 7

The Apostle Paul said that God left a witness to Himself in the agricultural work of pagan peoples (Acts 14.17). God loves His world, and in His Law He taught His people to love it as well. This statute and Deuteronomy 20.19, 20 speak to the people’s responsibility to use the creation wisely. They must not exploit the creation but care for it, so that it may continue to flourish and serve their needs.

Undoubtedly this statute about mothers and chicks would have been applied in other contexts as well – hunting, perhaps, or using different types of trees, or even the uses to which running water might be put. As God’s people study His Law they begin to understand the creation as He does. And as they use the creation in the ways God intends, they are reminded by the creation that God’s Law is good.

Thus, besides the examples we saw yesterday of everyday reminders, the whole creation could serve the people of God as a reminder of the goodness and wisdom of God’s Law.

For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the life of faith, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.