In Part 7 I looked at a sudden change in the approach God takes with the Israelites at Sinai under the leadership of Moses. I want to now discuss reasons why the Law was given. I believe we can draw out 6 points:
Regarding the nature of God and how He sees humanity
God wanted to spell out what righteousness looks like in day to day life. This remains true today under the New Testament, where 9 of the 10 commandments are endorsed. But remember we cannot keep them outside of the transforming truths and power available under the New Covenant. The New Birth, and life under the Covenant sealed in the Blood of Jesus, give us the inner motivation and ability to live in true love with God and each other. In this condition we will keep the commandments.
We can see from the Ten Commandments that God is certainly not someone who accepts any and every form of behaviour. He is a Holy God. He has precise ideas about how we should conduct our lives. This is an eternal truth, which did not change when Jesus came. This is obvious from a complete examination of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 make it clear that those who violate the ten commandments, as a matter of unrepentant habit, are not those who will inherit the Kingdom of God.
God wanted to foreshadow the sacrificial system of highest heaven. The Tabernacle, the Ark, and the Ceremonies of the Law all serve to prepare us for a full revelation of the ministry of Christ, who now constantly intercedes for us before the Father. Remember that in Christ we now have a completed and totally effective sacrifice so we need not be continually conscious of our sins. Our yoke to guilt, shame and condemnation has been supernaturally broken through faith in him alone!
God wants us to see the severity of sin and the high price which must be paid to deal with it. The Law shows us, again only in an illustrative way, the severity of sin and the non-trivial price for dealing with it. The many passages telling of the details of what was sinful, and of the demanding, exacting and elaborate sacrifices required to cover it, serve to show us that sin and atoning for it were very major issues in God's sight.
Regarding the attitude of the Israelites at that time
Moses was a human mediator, and therefore the approach God took with the Israelites was in part a response to his mediation. Now mediation is not surrender to one party. God accommodated Moses to a degree. Within this mediation, God had an inflexible agenda. He was seeking as always to show them Christ!
The Israelites did not seem to recognize, appreciate and rest in the grace being shown to them prior to Sinai. They did not see that the grace of God was and would always be enough. Basically, they displayed unbelief in the essence of the Gospel!
God had begun by making the Israelites aware of the nature of the Gospel. He did this by delivering them, in response to the signs of the Passover and the blood of sprinkling, before the Exodus. He then showed by miraculous signs like the Red Sea crossing and the Manna that He could be relied upon even where no other help was available or even possible. The Promised Land would be theirs for the taking. We tend to receive from God's grace, getting a supernatural provision or deliverance, and then assume this was a special case and now it is up to us; either to earn God's favor to get another miracle or to sort things out ourselves. This is how people often treat one another. We show goodwill but soon expect something back. But God is an infinite, eternal God. He has endless resources. He will always be there for us. Earthly parents will feel the need to hand off all responsibilities to their kids for their own lives, knowing they will not always be there. But the sort of dependency we have on God will be eternal, an eternal joining. (I think that if you do not accept and want this, you cannot enter the Kingdom.)
The Israelites did not trust God dependability and mercy enough to continue to believe that He would always be all they needed. They did not believe in His resourcefulness; that He would always find a way to provide for or deliver them when they needed it.
These issues boil down to trusting or not trusting in His love, mercy and power. Or else we want to preserve our independence.
If we are aware of the existence of God and we do not want to surrender fully to Him, we will attempt to barter with Him. All human religion smacks of this. Only a full dose of God's love will fix it. But we must be willing to die. Otherwise we have an attitude of doing certain things for God and in return He hopefully does certain things for us. The Israelites, I believe, wanted a negotiated settlement with God. They certainly believed in His existence. But they were saying, in effect, 'What are the rules?' They wanted a negotiated settlement. In a sense, the Gospel is a negotiated settlement, since it was agreed within the Godhead. But in a more profound sense, the Gospel is a merger of God and man. It is God who brings wholeness and sufficiency into that situation. We are to become one with God in Christ, just as God and Christ are One. We must surrender to God, not negotiate, if we are to enter into His rest fully.
The Israelites did not seem to recognize, appreciate and rest in the grace being shown to them prior to Sinai. They did not see that the grace of God was and would always be enough. Basically, they displayed unbelief in the essence of the Gospel!
God had begun by making the Israelites aware of the nature of the Gospel. He did this by delivering them, in response to the signs of the Passover and the blood of sprinkling, before the Exodus. He then showed by miraculous signs like the Red Sea crossing and the Manna that He could be relied upon even where no other help was available or even possible. The Promised Land would be theirs for the taking. We tend to receive from God's grace, getting a supernatural provision or deliverance, and then assume this was a special case and now it is up to us; either to earn God's favor to get another miracle or to sort things out ourselves. This is how people often treat one another. We show goodwill but soon expect something back. But God is an infinite, eternal God. He has endless resources. He will always be there for us. Earthly parents will feel the need to hand off all responsibilities to their kids for their own lives, knowing they will not always be there. But the sort of dependency we have on God will be eternal, an eternal joining. (I think that if you do not accept and want this, you cannot enter the Kingdom.)
The Israelites did not trust God dependability and mercy enough to continue to believe that He would always be all they needed. They did not believe in His resourcefulness; that He would always find a way to provide for or deliver them when they needed it.
These issues boil down to trusting or not trusting in His love, mercy and power. Or else we want to preserve our independence.
If we are aware of the existence of God and we do not want to surrender fully to Him, we will attempt to barter with Him. All human religion smacks of this. Only a full dose of God's love will fix it. But we must be willing to die. Otherwise we have an attitude of doing certain things for God and in return He hopefully does certain things for us. The Israelites, I believe, wanted a negotiated settlement with God. They certainly believed in His existence. But they were saying, in effect, 'What are the rules?' They wanted a negotiated settlement. In a sense, the Gospel is a negotiated settlement, since it was agreed within the Godhead. But in a more profound sense, the Gospel is a merger of God and man. It is God who brings wholeness and sufficiency into that situation. We are to become one with God in Christ, just as God and Christ are One. We must surrender to God, not negotiate, if we are to enter into His rest fully.
The Israelites did not seem to want to extend their blessed status to others but to become special and elite. Why do I say this? Look at Exodus Ch19v5. This verse may be a response to an unstated aspiration of the Israelites. But we know from 1 Timothy 2v4 and elsewhere in the New Testament that God wants all men to be saved. God had said to their forefather Abraham that all men would be blessed through him and presumably Abraham approved of that. It seems the Israelites at this time did not. (It is true that at this point in history there were evil races who presumably God knew to be beyond repentance and therefore He wanted them to be destroyed. Indeed He commissioned the Israelites to do this. However God’s heart has always been to include whoever will come to Him in faith with a humble heart).
The Israelites were trying to establish their own righteousness.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them*, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:2-3 (KJV)
The Israelites were trying to establish their own righteousness.
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them*, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:2-3 (KJV)
*the Israelites led out of Egypt by Moses, see Heb 3:16
They assumed that they had been chosen for their own virtues and righteousness. They displayed an arrogant and unrealistic moral self- belief. The Israelites failed to realize that the only acceptable and appropriate heart response to the presence of God is contrition and grateful surrender to His mercy. This is not some phony display you conjure up but an inward posture of humility. Instead of this they were full of self-righteousness (Romans 10v3, Deuteronomy 9v4-6). God had to show them that they were not the morally superior people they thought they were and they needed a savior (Galatians 3v24-25).
God is in reality acting consistently throughout. He has no arbitrary favourites. He always opposes the self-righteous, those with pride and self-belief in who they are without Him. Even in the case of Adam and Eve, He was opposed to who they thought they could become without Him. That is why they were not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. it would take them into independence. He is always looking for humility before Him and faith in Him. He is not looking for inherent virtue within us. He knows there isn’t any which meets His requirements. Jesus taught as such:
Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:10-14 KJV)
To summarize: It seems God responded to the persistent self-righteousness and unbelief of the Israelites, moderating it with the mediation and intercession of Moses. This resulted in the Old Covenant; a system designed to steer them to Christ. It was a harsh system designed to make them desire a 'divorce' from it and to yearn for a merciful and compassionate savior instead.
Positively, the Law as a whole contained illustrative shadowings of the full realities of sin and righteousness, and of heavenly priesthood and sufficient sacrifice. However the focused fulfillment of these things is revealed in Christ. This is the main theme of the New Testament book of Hebrews.
Positively, the Law as a whole contained illustrative shadowings of the full realities of sin and righteousness, and of heavenly priesthood and sufficient sacrifice. However the focused fulfillment of these things is revealed in Christ. This is the main theme of the New Testament book of Hebrews.
God still desires Israel to be saved and will still fulfill His promises to them. However He will do so through the Gospel and not through the Law of Moses. The sufficient sacrifice of Christ is the only one offered by God for all humanity.
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