God’s Parking Laws

Reality TV has produced several shows aimed at showing different folks in their normal patterns of life. These programs highlight different personalities and eccentric views. The entertainment value comes from viewing people who act weirdly in normal life. There is one program that has caught my attention. It is called “Parking Wars.” This program features parking authorities giving out parking tickets, towing illegally parked cars, taking them to impound lots, and citizens being forced to pay their parking tickets and recover their cars. The drama is down on the street, with excuses galore and people arguing with public officials.

The setting for the program episodes includes the inner cities of Philadelphia, Detroit, and other urban, high-density East Coast cities. Each of these areas have narrow streets, one-way streets, working and non-working parking meters, handicapped parking, bus stops, no-stopping zones, loading zones, crosswalks, and sidewalks.

The rules and the signs are posted everywhere, but the program features citizens who are choosing to violate the local ordinances and posted signs in every imaginable way. The list of excuses and explanations is what makes for the drama in the program, captivating the attention of the audience.

There are the older people promoting that they need to park where they want for their mobility and health. There are workers complaining about trying to make a living and that the city is stealing from them when they are ticketed for their violation. There are the habitual offenders stating that they have parked in that place for six months and never received a ticket (meaning they presume they can park there since they have not received a ticket before). There are the people who say that the law does not apply to them, who then tear up the ticket and litter the street. There are the sweet citizens who shmooze the parking enforcer, hoping they will take the ticket back.

Let me elaborate a bit more when it comes to specific issues.

When it comes to parking meters where you insert some coins and are allowed to park for a period, one of the excuses for an expired meter includes: “I put my money in the meter, and it did not give me any time.” You then watch the meter maid put in a coin and the meter works perfectly. It was a miracle! The meter maid must have fixed the meter! Since the ticket was already issued, they don’t get the benefit of the time.

There are the excuses of:

“I was only here for two minutes.”

“I was just getting a drink and a sandwich.”

“I am picking up a prescription for my mother.”

“I was forced to park here because there was no other place.”

“I own the business here.”

Then there are the excuses for “No Parking” signs or the “Parking at certain times”:

“I didn’t see any sign.”

“I have been parking here for all my life. They must have put that old, rusted No Parking sign up yesterday.”

“That sign is not for this spot.” This one is for those signs that are at each end saying, “No Parking Any Time,” with arrows pointing at the other sign.

“I’m not bothering anyone parked in this construction zone.”

When it comes to parking on sidewalks or pedestrian crossings at the corners, they offer these explanations:

“The sidewalk is huge, and there is no one walking here.”

“The bus can get around me, and I have seen buses load and unload people in the middle of the street here.” (Yes, because someone parked where the bus was supposed to go.)

“People can walk around with no problem.”

When it comes to the arguments made, they include these gems:

“The city is just stealing my money by giving me these parking tickets.”

“This is no way to treat good citizens here. I work hard and I pay my taxes.”

“The people giving out tickets are on a quota system, and they get a commission from these tickets.”

...and my favorite obnoxious remark:

“Just give me the @#*^ing ticket and go [blank] yourself.”

This is not the best part of the program. Wait until you see the tow truck show up to remove the illegally-parked vehicle in a “tow-away zone.” Apparently, it works this way. If you get to your car before the tow truck hooks you up, you can just drive away. If, however, you arrive at your car with the tow truck loaded and ready to roll out, then you can pay an immediate drop fee, and the tow truck will release your vehicle and you drive away. However, if you decide to stop the tow truck from leaving by standing in the way, arguing, or getting in your car and refusing to leave, then the supervisor of the tow truck company shows up with the police. When that is done, the moderate drop fee is paid, or the car is towed to an impound lot with a much larger fee.

I love the scene where the tow driver is raising the car and securing it to his truck.

Suddenly, from across the street, some man or woman comes out running and screaming that it is their car or truck and they “can’t take it.”

The program also has a segment where people who had their cars towed for unpaid tickets or parking in “tow-away zones” come to the impound lot. This is what is required to get your vehicle out of the impound lot: all tickets must be paid, the tow company must be paid, and you must present the registration for the car with a matching license plate, your proof of insurance, and a valid driver’s license. With all those requirements, you can imagine the conflicts and time that is required to comply.

“This is my friend’s car that I borrowed, and he doesn’t know I borrowed it.”

“I got insurance on the car a couple of years ago. It should still be good.”

“That tag was on my other car. I took it and put it on this car now. It’s my tag.”

“What do you mean my license was suspended? How am I going to get to work?”

“This is not your registration. This is a receipt from McDonalds for a Big Mac and a McRib.”

“I left my driver’s license at home, but here is my insurance card for my motorcycle and it is the same company I use for the car.”

“What do you mean I have to pay all of my past parking tickets before I can get my car back?”

The program is really a study in human behavior in a modern, complicated, busy world. The emotional fatigue is on full display, with hilarious rationalism taken to new heights. You are left wondering how these people live from day to day and why they think they are above the rules and laws of the city.

All of us live with rules and laws every day. It is not only parking ordinances and traffic laws. There are city, state, and federal laws that we are subject to. Do not forget that there are also laws of nature. Gravity is a law. You cannot breathe underwater. You live with sunlight and darkness, etc.

When a guy slips and falls from his roof, he is not going to get anywhere by arguing that he does not agree with the law of gravity, and he is going to take God to court for injuring him. Likewise, arguing mitigating excuses is not going to nullify the fact that you were 15 mph over the posted speed limit.

Now let us elevate our discussion to a spiritual level.

God, as our Creator, has declared certain rules and laws for mankind to be able to live on His earth. It is obvious that we are subject to His physical laws as they apply to gravity, electromagnetism, physics, mathematics, the small and large nuclear forces, and, of course, quantum mechanics.

God has also given us laws and ordinances concerning how we will behave with Him and with other people. The Ten Commandments lay out the framework for every person to follow. The rest of Torah gives us specific commandments for how He is to be worshipped, and how conflicts are to be resolved when the commandments are violated. Ultimately, it leads to the rules He uses for redemption, salvation, and atonement.

Along the way, just like in our natural life, there are officers, and courts with evidence and judgments rendered.

This is what intrigues me about the Parking Wars program. The excuses and calamities displayed in the program are very similar to those offered by people denying God’s rules and laws.

The most common excuse given by a Christian today is that God’s Laws do not apply to them. They think that when Jesus came, He taught that you can park anywhere now. Then there is the excuse that those laws only apply to the Jews, and that Jesus said if your car is American-made, then the traffic laws are only for foreign-made cars.

Does this sound ridiculous to you? It is just like the parking violation excuses; Christians are just as ridiculous as they are.

Christians are taught to ignore and violate God’s Laws and, at the same time, to obey the Lord. This is true with very few exceptions. The average Christian never hears the Scriptures speaking the commandments. (If they do, it comes from the Torah.) They spiritualize the commandments with mitigating excuses and rationalizations that come from the left-field bleachers, just like the excuses for parking violations.

God does hold us accountable for every violation (transgression) of His commandments. You will get a ticket every time. God has the complete record on every one of us. But many Christians have been fed the idea that the rules only apply to others and not to them, because they have God’s grace. “I know the Mayor and I can park anywhere I want.”

The Lord says there is a day of reckoning coming for every one of us. We will all have to give an account of every word and deed. We will face the Judge and be forced to resolve every issue. The Day of Atonement is the Day of Reconciliation.

Getting your car out of the impound lot is just like getting your life back from your sins. A payment for your sins must be made. You must repent and turn away from your sinful behavior. You must seek out the King of the Universe and commit to be one of His good citizens. You must have faith in Him and allow Him to pay your debt.

Yeshua and the Apostles spoke directly to the idea of parking your life in a proper parking space and resolving your unpaid tickets in the Creator’s world. Simply said, your faith in Messiah is to be matched by obeying His Commandments.

Parking where you want, denying the ordinances of God, and flaunting your own personal definition of grace will not win the day. You are going to get the ticket and you will pay after your life has been impounded. Your Pastor will not pay the ticket, and he will not help you when you must give an account to God. If he teaches you to annul any of God’s Commandments or tells you that you do not have to obey His Commandments, both of you will suffer the consequences.

Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:19

Has your teacher told you to keep the Sabbath holy? Has he told you not to eat “unclean animals” for food? Has he instructed you to keep the Passover and teach your children? Has he observed the Day of Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks? Has he instructed you to hear the sound of the shofar on Trumpets, or fast on the Day of Atonement? Has he built a sukkah and tabernacled with the Lord for the eight days during Tabernacles? Has he explained how the Messiah did the signs of Moses, and the other signs proving He is the Lamb of God? Has he prepared you for the Messiah's return? Has he taught you how to keep God’s Commandments and love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and might? Is he a good tree bearing good fruit, or is he just pretending to be a believer and hoping for the best?

Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.”

Matthew 7:15–23

Lawlessness is not obeying God’s commandments and ordinances. Ignorance of the Law is no defense. It does not work in any court of men, nor does it work with God.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

1 John 2:1–6

Yeshua is your defense attorney and the One who has paid all your fines and tickets, as judged by His Father. From this point, we are to build a relationship with Him by obeying God’s Laws. That includes the laws of purity.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

1 John 3:3

It is also in the commandments to believe in God, the Creator, the God of Israel, the King of Israel, the Messiah. It is in the commandments to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Yeshua the Messiah, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

1 John 3:23–24

The Scriptures define sin as being lawless and disobedient. Those Scriptures are in the Torah, not the New Testament. When Yeshua said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments,” He was quoting from the Ten Commandments!

… to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Exodus 20:6

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

1 John 3:4–10

When a believer claims to believe in the Messiah and yet refuses to obey God’s commandments, he is a sinner still and is proving that he never was born again of God. He is a liar to himself and to God.

He is just like those people parking their cars illegally. They are lawbreakers and are proving they are not good citizens of the community.

Whoever believes that Yeshua is the Messiah is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:1–3

And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.

2 John 1:6

For those Christians who think that the Apostle Paul somehow taught that we are not to keep God’s Law and His Commandments, let me remind you of what Peter said about Paul’s teachings.

Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness,

2 Peter 3:14–17

My friends, I would recommend that when you go about your life, you pay attention to God’s Laws and Commandments. Do not think you can violate His ordinances and justify parking your life whenever and wherever you decide. Do not think that the Law does not apply to you, and you can just ignore it. You are only deceiving yourself. Your ignorance of what God has commanded and your arrogance of doing what you have always done will not keep you from getting a ticket, getting towed, and having to go to the impound lot.

Do not speed, keep it between the lines, and park it correctly. Trust Him and be safe by obeying His Law. ■

Have a nice day…

Article written by Monte Judah

* Scripture references from the NASB95