Adam—Seth—Noah—Shem—Abraham—Isaac—Jacob—Judah—Perez…Christ is Coming
The Law of Moses, Part One
Most people in the world have very little knowledge of the Bible, and even less of the ancient world. It was an incredibly brutal world. God very, very rarely spoke to humans—read the book of Genesis and you will see how rarely He did. There was no law from the Almighty, other than an innate sense of right and wrong that He gave to man which proved very easy to ignore (read Romans 1:18-31 for proof of that).
Even the people God DID talk to often weren’t of very high moral quality. A sampling:
--Abraham. Lied (or at best deceived) twice about his wife’s identity, and committed adultery with his wife’s maid. A son, Ishmael, was produced from that relationship. If Arabs/Muslims are correct, Ishmael is their “father.” I hate to blame the historical antagonisms between Jew and Arab on Abraham, but—if the Muslim history is accurate, which is debatable—he started it with an act of adultery. It is only fair to say, though, that Abraham was easily one of the greatest men who ever walked the face of this earth. But he wasn’t perfect.
--Jacob. Lied to his father to get a blessing that didn’t belong to him.
--Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife. Was, at best, a polytheist as she stole her father’s gods and hid them from him.
--Jacob’s children. His oldest son, Reuben, committed fornication with one of Jacob’s wives. Levi and Simeon murdered a whole town-full of men because one of them raped their sister. Judah hired a prostitute who turned out to be his own daughter-in-law. The sons of Jacob were so full of hatred that they planned to kill their brother Joseph (who seemed to be a snotty little braggadocios brat himself), but were finally convinced to just sell him into slavery. They then lied to their father about what had happened to Joseph. These men were the forefathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. We aren’t talking salt of the earth here, though they do appear to have matured a little bit over the decades.
Moses. Committed murder and had to flee Egypt for 40 years because of it. His arrogant taking credit for something God did cost him the opportunity to lead the people into the Promised Land.
Aaron. Moses’s brother. Was so weak he built a golden calf at the behest of a wicked people and then lied to Moses about how the idol came about.
And these were the BEST people the ancient world had to offer.
This is the world without a law from God. So, He gave them what became known as the “Law of Moses.” More about that law in my next article.