A little slice of wood that is twelve inches long is called a ruler. Interesting, that a piece of wood is called a 'ruler'. There are rulers and there are rulers and if you need to take a measurement, you can choose that twelve inch long piece of wood. That ruler rules. You can count on it to be exact. I have no idea why a ruler is called a 'foot', but, I can guess that some guy who used his own foot to walk off a measurement and it just happened to be twelve inches long, decided to use that as a rule.
You may think that your foot is nine inches long and you will use that as your ruler and you may build your life on your ruler. You may get away with breaking rules, but you can't get away with breaking the law. In fact, you really can't break the law. The law still stands and always will no matter what you do. You break yourself on the law. Something happens to your heart or conscience when you 'break' God's law. Your conscience becomes seared and hardened and the next time it becomes easier to use your own rules. You begin to rationalize and come up with good reasons to explain to yourself why.
The ruler of Egypt did not want to let the Israelites leave. They were his slaves and he wanted to continue using their labor. God gave him nine opportunities to change his mind which was set on having his own way. Each time he chose 'no' and each time his heart got a little harder. The ninth time God went ahead and finished his heart off by hardening it, Himself.
The words rendered in Romans 1:26 and 28, 'gave the over' is used for an Aramaic word that means, 'just let them go'. It is a phrase that pictures a car heading toward a cliff that has warnings along the road, yet, the driver ignores all signs and proceeds ahead to destruction. That is what God does to each of us. He gives warnings after warnings after warnings and finally, just lets us go our own way.
We must use God's Rule of Law as our standard instead of judging what is right or wrong by our puny rules.
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