The Bible Course预览

Commandments, thunder, and lightning – God lays down the law

Reflect:

Apple’s screen-time limiter enables you to place a boundary around your ‘screen-time’ consumption. Deep down, we all know we need boundaries – good boundaries protect us and enable us to flourish.

What did the law mean for Israel?

The law was God’s way of saying, ‘I care about you.’

Notice the order here. God first delivered the Israelites from Egypt, and THEN gave them the law. The law was never a means of salvation but a way of being blessed within the covenant. You may think Christianity is all about trying to do enough or be good enough for God to love you. It doesn’t work like that. It never has. Salvation is by faith, not by works.

How do we apply the Old Testament laws today?

God's commands are not walls hemming us in; they’re more like scaffolding holding us up. They’re designed to build us up into the people God has made us to be.

There are three basic categories of laws:

First, civil laws. Some laws were given to help Israel function as a new nation. But God’s people are no longer a political state. So, these civil laws are no longer the law of the land for us. However, they still contain transferable wisdom.

For example, in Deuteronomy, there was a rule that houses had to have a low wall built around the edge of the roof, so children didn’t fall off – in other words, it’s basic health and safety of the kind we have today.

Second, ceremonial laws. These included food laws and rituals, including laws about cleansing from all sorts of skin diseases and bodily fluids. The key here is that in the Old Testament, holiness was expressed physically. So, washing rituals symbolised the importance of clean living. Today, what was external has become an internal reality. We don’t need to perform cleansing rituals because Jesus has made us clean on the inside.

Finally, moral laws. This category is summed up in the Ten Commandments. They transcend culture or race and give a universal guide to living God’s way. So, Jesus came not to abolish these laws but to enable us to fulfil them. In one of his sermons, he declared:

‘You have heard that it was said: “Do not commit adultery,” but I say, whoever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart’ (Matthew 5.27–28).

Jesus’ teaching goes beyond the letter of the law to fulfill the spirit of it.

So when reading Old Testament laws, it’s helpful to think: are these civil laws, ceremonial laws, or moral laws? And how might that affect the way they apply to us?

Respond:

Reflect on one of God’s laws and seek to apply its wisdom practically today.