God, What Do You Want? TL;DR Version ~ Greg J

It took me a while to figure this out. 

We would be in a car on a long drive.  Someone would ask, “Does anyone want to stop for a break?” I and often others would reply, “No, thanks, I’m ok.” We kept driving.

Some of you know what I eventually learned.

The question, “Does anyone want to stop?” is not a sensitive solicitation of other people's state of comfort.

“Does anyone want to stop?” means, “Hey, I want to stop!”

Or, “Alert! Alert! Take the next exit! Bladder distress!”

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Of course, some people are always telling me clearly what they want. However, I notice that at some point, the more important or intimate the item wanted, the less clear the request.  Revealing my deepest wants reveals what controls me. 

Perhaps that is why when some people ask God , “What do you want?” they expect a mysterious, vague response.   At the other extreme, church meetings and studies often overwhelm me with detailed deductions of what God wants. I  prefer a practical Readers’ Digest condensation, a Cliff’s Notes version, a TL;DR summary.  

A third century rabbi named Simlai had the same wish, and found it had already been fulfilled.  He observed: 

• Including the Big Ten, Moses gave Israel 613 commandments.
  
• King David reduced the 613 to eleven.
• Prophets subsequently condensed the commandments further:  Isaiah to six, Micah to three. 
  
• Isaiah compressed them again, to two.
  
• Habakkuk identified one essential commandment, only three words long in the original Hebrew language.
  

Following are these short answers to the question, what does God want?


God, what do you want?

"O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?
He who walks blamelessly and does what is right,
and speaks truth in his heart;
who does not slander with his tongue
and does no evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
in whose eyes a vile person is despised,
but who honors those who fear the Lord;
who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
who does not put out his money at interest
and does not take a bribe against the innocent.
He who does these things shall never be moved."
- Psalm 15, A Psalm of David


God, what do you want?

"He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,
he will dwell on the heights;
his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks;
his bread will be given him; his water will be sure."
- Isaiah 33:15-16


God, what do you want?

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice,
and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
- Micah 6:8


God, what do you want?

"Thus says the Lord:
'Keep justice, and do righteousness,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my righteousness be revealed.'"
- Isaiah 56:1


God, what do you want?”

"... but the righteous shall live by his faith."
- Habakkuk 2:4


There are lots of directions in the Bible. These just specifically focus on what God says he wants.  I’ll pursue a few more of these in my next post, Lord willing.  Are the above things that God wants of people possible to pursue? Are they not widely-respected virtues?  Can I keep them in my mind?  Can I start where I am and hope to improve?

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