The Nature of Instruction (part 3)
Introduction. When an employer will be out of the office for the day, but has some tasks he wants to assign, he uses written instructions. But he knows if they are not worded appropriately, the day will be wasted. So what does he do? He first takes into account the wisdom and experience of his employees and then considers the difficulty of the task.
Simple tasks requiring little intelligence or experience can be worded in a very general way. “Clean the floor” is so simple that nothing more needs be said. He only needs to express the results he wants and then leaves all the details to their discretion. If there are two brooms, a dust mop and a vacuum cleaner, he can leave it to them to choose. That is the role of the general command. It only expresses the result or action and leaves everything else to them.
Things become more difficult if the task is complex. The instructions then become more and more specific. The more precise and complex, the less can be left to the discretion of the employee, because it becomes much more likely they will make a mistake and fail to accomplish what must be done. “Overhaul the transmission” is much more complex than “clean the floor” and will need more specific instructions to accomplish it.
We all understand this. When buying shoelaces, we don’t expect instructions, but we do when we purchase a garage door or water heater and intend to install it ourselves. The more difficult the task is, the more pages of instructions the manufacturer will send along with the product. They will list the tools needed, the parts included and those that will need to be purchased, and then give specific and step-by-step instructions. We become very frustrated when the commands are not specific and we can’t figure out how to do it right.
Thus the concept of general commands for simple things and specific instructions for complicated things is universal. A student, mechanic, doctor, nurse, electrician, or chemist is all bound by these principles.
Is this suspended when we come to Scripture? Is everything so simple and easy in the spiritual realm that God only needs to give general instructions? Since it is “not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23), that is clearly not true. God gives general instructions to his children about things that are simple and easily accomplished. But God loves us too much to leave difficult tasks to our discretion. He often gives specific or step-by-step instructions for things that must be done exactly right or they will bring failure or death. If an employer relies on this distinction, isn’t it obvious that God would do exactly the same thing?
God began with a general command when giving a task to Noah. “Make yourself an ark” (Gen. 6:14) is very similar to “clean the floor.” The tools and methods of building the ark were given in a general command. God left the how to Noah’s discretion.
But since only God knew the forces the flood would create, the number of animals needing to be housed, and the food that needed to be stored, he could not leave the materials or dimensions to Noah’s discretion. He gave step-by-step specific instructions. He specified the kind of wood, door, window, length, height, width, and number of stories. God did not leave these things to Noah because Noah did not have the wisdom and understanding God did. When the chapter closed with “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” (Gen. 6:22) it meant that Noah took the blueprints and instructions God had given him and trusted God enough to do exactly what God told him.
In all realms of material and spiritual life, we always know whether it is a general instruction leaving the details to us or specific step-by-step instructions by the manner in which it is worded. When our employer or God speaks in specifics, we must do it in specifics. When God or an employer speaks in general terms, we can fulfill it any way we choose.
When God asked Moses and Israel to build a tabernacle where they would worship and seek forgiveness, it was too complex for them to know how to build it. This tabernacle was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” How could they know what to do? So “Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Heb. 8:5). The materials, dimensions, and embellishments were not only described, but God had shown Moses a specific pattern that must be precisely followed. No deviation was possible and no human wisdom was sought.
Is this any different than the designs Intel creates for the silicon chip that will power a computer? Is there just any way to make it and still have it work? They give a specific pattern just as God did because they know it is too complicated to leave any of it to others. Some things have to be done in a specific way and any deviation will lead to failure.
When God told the priests how to offer incense he gave them specific instructions about ingredients (Ex. 30:34-38), the altar upon which it was to be burned (Ex. 30:1-6), when it was to be burned (Ex. 30:7-9), and the type of fire used to burn it (Lev. 16:12-13). Worded in this specific manner, there was no room for discretion or personal preference.
When God said “He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar” “and he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah” (Lev. 16:12-13), he was very specific. Later Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, ignored these instructions when they “offered strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them” (Lev. 10:1). They ignored God’s specific instructions, treating them as a general command that gave them such discretion. When “they died before Jehovah”, it was no different than an electrician told to flip the second circuit breaker on the right and flipping a “strange” breaker which he was not commanded was electrocuted!
Moses was not surprised in the least. He knew just as we know today that when one in authority gives specific instructions, we risk failure and death if we do not follow them. God wanted to be trusted, treated as special (holy) and revered (glorified). It was a grievous sin not to do so. “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified” (Lev. 10:1-3).
Over and over again in the Scriptures God gives general commands when he knows it is safe to use our own wisdom and specific commands when it is dangerous or impossible for us to know how it is to be done. God sees it as “rebellion and stubbornness” when we ignore them.
When God told Saul to “utterly destroy Amelek,” only God knew the level of vengeance that needed to be used. When God specified, “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” it was because that was the only means to accomplish it. By wording it in this way, God made certain it would be done exactly right.
With those instructions it was a perfect and fail proof mission. But Saul interpreted the specific command in a general way and “spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good.” Any parent or teacher would understand God’s lament: “I greatly regret I have set up Saul as king for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments” (1Sam. 15:1-23). King Saul refused to see this distinction. “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me.”
Saul believed that a specific command could be interpreted and fulfilled in a general way. Samuel spoke the truth when he revealed that by ignoring a specific command, Saul “rejected the word of the Lord,” and for that “God “also has rejected you from being king.” To God such “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”
Conclusion. In exactly the same way we have been charged to serve the Lord Jesus and keep all commands he has given. Some are specific and some are general. The things Jesus asked us to do that are easy to understand and do are given in general instructions. Those that are more complicated or not of this creation must be worded specifically and can have none of our own ideas or additions.
Interpreting such instructions is not complicated. Just as when we tell our children to be home by midnight we leave no room for their wisdom, desires or discretion. No matter what rationalizations they use, the specific command is measured by the time they are home. If they listen, they are home by midnight. If they are stubborn or rebellious they come in after midnight. This is not “rocket science” - just simple trust and submission.
Simple tasks requiring little intelligence or experience can be worded in a very general way. “Clean the floor” is so simple that nothing more needs be said. He only needs to express the results he wants and then leaves all the details to their discretion. If there are two brooms, a dust mop and a vacuum cleaner, he can leave it to them to choose. That is the role of the general command. It only expresses the result or action and leaves everything else to them.
Things become more difficult if the task is complex. The instructions then become more and more specific. The more precise and complex, the less can be left to the discretion of the employee, because it becomes much more likely they will make a mistake and fail to accomplish what must be done. “Overhaul the transmission” is much more complex than “clean the floor” and will need more specific instructions to accomplish it.
We all understand this. When buying shoelaces, we don’t expect instructions, but we do when we purchase a garage door or water heater and intend to install it ourselves. The more difficult the task is, the more pages of instructions the manufacturer will send along with the product. They will list the tools needed, the parts included and those that will need to be purchased, and then give specific and step-by-step instructions. We become very frustrated when the commands are not specific and we can’t figure out how to do it right.
Thus the concept of general commands for simple things and specific instructions for complicated things is universal. A student, mechanic, doctor, nurse, electrician, or chemist is all bound by these principles.
Is this suspended when we come to Scripture? Is everything so simple and easy in the spiritual realm that God only needs to give general instructions? Since it is “not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23), that is clearly not true. God gives general instructions to his children about things that are simple and easily accomplished. But God loves us too much to leave difficult tasks to our discretion. He often gives specific or step-by-step instructions for things that must be done exactly right or they will bring failure or death. If an employer relies on this distinction, isn’t it obvious that God would do exactly the same thing?
God began with a general command when giving a task to Noah. “Make yourself an ark” (Gen. 6:14) is very similar to “clean the floor.” The tools and methods of building the ark were given in a general command. God left the how to Noah’s discretion.
But since only God knew the forces the flood would create, the number of animals needing to be housed, and the food that needed to be stored, he could not leave the materials or dimensions to Noah’s discretion. He gave step-by-step specific instructions. He specified the kind of wood, door, window, length, height, width, and number of stories. God did not leave these things to Noah because Noah did not have the wisdom and understanding God did. When the chapter closed with “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.” (Gen. 6:22) it meant that Noah took the blueprints and instructions God had given him and trusted God enough to do exactly what God told him.
In all realms of material and spiritual life, we always know whether it is a general instruction leaving the details to us or specific step-by-step instructions by the manner in which it is worded. When our employer or God speaks in specifics, we must do it in specifics. When God or an employer speaks in general terms, we can fulfill it any way we choose.
When God asked Moses and Israel to build a tabernacle where they would worship and seek forgiveness, it was too complex for them to know how to build it. This tabernacle was “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” How could they know what to do? So “Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain” (Heb. 8:5). The materials, dimensions, and embellishments were not only described, but God had shown Moses a specific pattern that must be precisely followed. No deviation was possible and no human wisdom was sought.
Is this any different than the designs Intel creates for the silicon chip that will power a computer? Is there just any way to make it and still have it work? They give a specific pattern just as God did because they know it is too complicated to leave any of it to others. Some things have to be done in a specific way and any deviation will lead to failure.
When God told the priests how to offer incense he gave them specific instructions about ingredients (Ex. 30:34-38), the altar upon which it was to be burned (Ex. 30:1-6), when it was to be burned (Ex. 30:7-9), and the type of fire used to burn it (Lev. 16:12-13). Worded in this specific manner, there was no room for discretion or personal preference.
When God said “He shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar” “and he shall put the incense upon the fire before Jehovah” (Lev. 16:12-13), he was very specific. Later Aaron’s two sons, Nadab and Abihu, ignored these instructions when they “offered strange fire before Jehovah, which he had not commanded them” (Lev. 10:1). They ignored God’s specific instructions, treating them as a general command that gave them such discretion. When “they died before Jehovah”, it was no different than an electrician told to flip the second circuit breaker on the right and flipping a “strange” breaker which he was not commanded was electrocuted!
Moses was not surprised in the least. He knew just as we know today that when one in authority gives specific instructions, we risk failure and death if we do not follow them. God wanted to be trusted, treated as special (holy) and revered (glorified). It was a grievous sin not to do so. “By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified” (Lev. 10:1-3).
Over and over again in the Scriptures God gives general commands when he knows it is safe to use our own wisdom and specific commands when it is dangerous or impossible for us to know how it is to be done. God sees it as “rebellion and stubbornness” when we ignore them.
When God told Saul to “utterly destroy Amelek,” only God knew the level of vengeance that needed to be used. When God specified, “slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey,” it was because that was the only means to accomplish it. By wording it in this way, God made certain it would be done exactly right.
With those instructions it was a perfect and fail proof mission. But Saul interpreted the specific command in a general way and “spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good.” Any parent or teacher would understand God’s lament: “I greatly regret I have set up Saul as king for he has turned back from following Me, and has not performed My commandments” (1Sam. 15:1-23). King Saul refused to see this distinction. “But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me.”
Saul believed that a specific command could be interpreted and fulfilled in a general way. Samuel spoke the truth when he revealed that by ignoring a specific command, Saul “rejected the word of the Lord,” and for that “God “also has rejected you from being king.” To God such “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”
Conclusion. In exactly the same way we have been charged to serve the Lord Jesus and keep all commands he has given. Some are specific and some are general. The things Jesus asked us to do that are easy to understand and do are given in general instructions. Those that are more complicated or not of this creation must be worded specifically and can have none of our own ideas or additions.
Interpreting such instructions is not complicated. Just as when we tell our children to be home by midnight we leave no room for their wisdom, desires or discretion. No matter what rationalizations they use, the specific command is measured by the time they are home. If they listen, they are home by midnight. If they are stubborn or rebellious they come in after midnight. This is not “rocket science” - just simple trust and submission.