The Law of Moses, Part Two
City-states and countries in the ancient world did have laws, of course; they could not have functioned without such. We have some examples, the most famous perhaps being the Code of Hammurabi, which had some good things to say. But still, the ancient world, left to its own devices with no law from God, was a brutal, cruel, poor, and strife-torn world. Kind of like our world today, and we DO have a law from God. Just imagine how bad it was in ancient times with no law from God.
The Law of Moses is clearly far superior to any other ancient law. In many ways it doesn’t measure up to our current standards of “right and wrong” (more on that momentarily). But it did correct and regulate many of the abuses that were common in the ancient world (like child sacrifice). It provided some protections for women—again, not to our satisfaction but far advanced for the age—and had some welfare remedies for the poor. There was no “central government” in those days to provide “food stamps” and “welfare payments” to the poor. The Law of Moses’ system of allowing the poor some access to foodstuffs was helpful and compassionate—and they had to work a little bit to get what they needed. Modern condemnations of Israeli slavery show absolutely no understanding of ancient economies and needs. And even then, the Law of Moses regulated slavery’s worst abuses.
Ancient Israel was not a democracy, it was a theocracy—at least until the people rejected God and demanded a king (I Samuel 8). The Law of Moses was their “constitution,” but also provided moral guidance in a world that sorely needed such. Yet, it was only for the Jewish people, and it had a distinct purpose—keep the Messianic line together, pure, and united until the promised Messiah came. It is absolutely essential to understand that point, or a person will never understand the totality of the Bible.
No, many of its strictures do not measure up to ours (and some of ours are far worse than the Law of Moses’s. Child mutilation and transgenderism, anyone?). But it is also important to note that many of Moses’s laws did not measure up to Jesus’s standard, either! “You have heard that it has been said...but I say to you...” appears several times in Jesus’s sermon in Matthew 5. The Law of Moses was never intended to be perfect, it was never intended to be God’s final law. It was our “tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). It was law, not grace; the blood of bulls and goats, the shedding of blood, only anticipated the ultimate sacrifice of Christ (read Hebrews 9 and 10). No one (except Christ) ever obeyed the Law of Moses perfectly, demonstrating our need for a new, “perfect law of liberty” (James 1:25) based on grace and faith. The Law of Moses was intended to mitigate the worst abuses of a barbaric people who lived thousands of years ago, and keep them together as a people through whom God had promised to bring mankind’s Savior.
It was perfect for the reasons God gave it.
And “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son” (Galatians 4:4)—through the Jewish people, in fulfillment of the promise He had made all the way back in Genesis 3:15. Christ “takes away the first [the Law of Moses and the old covenant] that He may establish the second [His law and the new covenant]” (Hebrews 10:9).
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Paul said that to the Greeks in Athens. Those Greeks never had the Law of Moses as their law; it was only for Jews in order to bring the Messiah into the world. So, the rest of the world lived under a natural, moral law, often violating that law, which caused God, in many ways, because of their ignorance, “overlooked”. But these people were still responsible to obey the law they had (read Romans 1:18 through chapter 2 of that book).
To understand the Law of Moses we must understand the theme of the Old Testament (“Christ is coming”), the ultimate means of God’s salvation of mankind (grace, not law), and the barbarity of the ancient world. Only then will we truly appreciate the beauty of what God gave the children of Israel, a law which, sadly, they largely ignored in so many ways.
Few people ever want to live the holy lives God prescribes for them.