WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
God wants all people to happily serve Him, so He made laws. These laws are also in the Bible.
It is plain to see that we men and women have happier lives if we are all subject to laws – that is if they are good laws and they apply to everyone equally.
The Bible says that the laws contained in its pages were given by God; and that by keeping them we shall not only be happier as a society, but we shall be pleasing to God.
If we want to be part of His family, then pleasing God is what we want to do.
The first law was to individuals, and it was very simple.
We shall see next time how that first law was broken, and what the consequences were.
Then, as the human population grew, it is clear that more laws were added with the intention of limiting evil and keeping society under control.
But only six chapters into the Bible, we read this - “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).
Already, the division between those who wanted to please God and those who refused was very obvious.
When we reach the lifetime of Abraham we find that God`s law had developed further, although we are not told all the details.
In Genesis 26:5, Isaac is told that his father Abraham `obeyed God`s voice, and kept His charge, commandments, statutes and laws`.
God was making a fresh start, as it were, with Abraham`s family; and a few hundred years later the family had grown into a nation, as had been promised to Abraham in Gen 12:2.
God wanted this nation to be an example to all others, so, with more people to control, a fuller system of law was necessary.
This brings us to `The Law of Moses`, described in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
The Apostle Paul in the New Testament explains that “the Law was added because of transgressions until the Offspring (Jesus Christ) should come to whom the promise had been made” (Galatians 3:19).
In other words, the Law of Moses was so detailed because a whole nation could not be trusted to apply the great principles of loving God wholeheartedly, and one`s neighbour as oneself.
Lots of do`s and don’t`s had to be spelled out, with penalties enforced for disobedience. In each generation though, there were people like Abraham who wanted to do as God asked because they loved Him.
When Jesus came, the Law of Moses was getting near to its end. Jesus said he did not come to destroy it but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), and this is what he did.
He obeyed it perfectly, showing everyone exactly how it should be kept.
But then, because he exposed the hypocrisy of the Jewish leaders, they executed him.
That was the worst act of rebellion committed by the Jewish nation, and a few years later the Romans destroyed their city and temple.
With the temple destroyed it was not possible to keep the Law of Moses properly, so it was finished.
In a more fundamental way, however, in the marvelous wisdom of God, the death of Jesus was also the final sacrifice for sins.
That is a subject for a later paper, but his sacrifice superceded the details of the Law of Moses - fulfilled them and did away with the need for them.
The basic principles of God`s laws – loving God and our fellow-humans – remain, of course.
With the Jewish nation scattered by the Romans, God concentrated once more on individuals, both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews).
In these days, people are called out by the Gospel to become His children, and to follow Jesus, wherever they live.
God`s laws for us in these days are contained in the Teaching of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels. Matthew chapters 5 to 7 are a good summary, for instance.
However, Jesus will return and fill the earth with God`s glory as promised.
Then a Law will be enforced world-wide in such a way as to bring all mankind under God`s control.
“Many peoples shall say `Let us go up . . . to the House of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths`
for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3).
What a time to get ready for !
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What The Bible Says
